1.

CASE STUDY

Mr. Raja Ram Rathod, the Chairman of Sparkril Ltd., is thinking about expanding his
business into North Africa. He intends to appoint temporary CEO for the North Africa
Division and after the stabilization of the business in North Africa; the CEO will be made
Tenure based. He gave ads in Indian News Papers and North African Newspapers; He
received 32 applications from both the regions. After careful filtering the HR Department has
Shortlisted one applicant from India and one from North Africa. While the Indian candidate
has experience in the same industry for about 28 years, the North African applicant has 10
years’ experience in seven MNC in Europe and 6 years’ experience in different countries in
North Africa. His experience in the Sparkril line business is limited to 4 years.

1) Who should be made the CEO of the new division and Why?
2) What are the leadership Implications?

2. CASE STUDY:

James Emery is the father of four children. He was raised in a hardworking immigrant family.
His needs for achievement and power were developed while he was growing up. Now he
finds himself in a low paying, dead-end assembly line job with a large manufacturing firm. It
is all he can do to get through the day, so he has started daydreaming on the job. On payday
he often goes to the tavern across the street and generally spends a lot of money. The next
day he is not only hung over but also very depressed because he knows that his wife cannot
make ends meet and his children often go without the essentials.
Now he cannot take it any longer. At first he thought of going to his boss for some help and
advice, but he really does not understand himself well enough, and he certainly does not
know or trust his boss enough to discuss his problems openly with him. Instead, he went to
his union steward and told him about his financial problems and how much he hated his job.
The steward told James exactly what he wanted to hear.
"This darn company is the source of all your problems. The working conditions are not suited
for a slave, let along us. The pay also stinks. We are all going to have to stick together when
our present contract runs out and get what we deserve-better working conditions and more
money."
Questions
(a) Cite a specific example of role conflict in this case.
(b) What type of conflict resolution strategy is the union steward suggesting? Do you think
the real problems facing James are working conditions and pay? Why or why not?
(c) What, if anything, can be done to help the James Emery’s of the world?

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3. CASE STUDY:

Palmer Machinery Company has encountered hard times, not only because of economic
recession but also because of competition from products imported from Japan. In the past,
labor relations have been rather poor. The unions usually asked for big pay increases for the
workers and got them. But things have changed during the last few months, and labor and
management have realized that they are in for some bad times ahead. The company, maintain
it is in a precarious condition, has asked labor for concessions and givebacks. The union has
called a membership meeting to discuss the situation. While Ann Stewart, an assembler,
thinks that she is overpaid and argues for a wage reduction, the majorities of these present
disagree and do not want to make any concessions. In fact, there is a great mistrust of
management’s intentions and the workers feel that giving concessions will encourage the
company to ask for additional ones. After a long discussion some workers are more agreeable
to concessions if management makes similar sacrifices. But management does not make any
commitments. During the next few weeks the situation gets worse, faced with a layoff, the
union agrees to some cutbacks with the understanding that employees will share in some way
in the profits of the company when things get better. One month later, a national-magazine
survey of executives’ salaries at major companies show that the executives at Palmer
received a substantial increase in compensation. One worker remarks, “You just can’t trust
top management. I wish our situation was like the one in Japan, where in hard times the
dividends were cut first, then the salary of the top management is reduced, and later middle-
level managers get a pay out, the workers’ pay is affected last”.

Questions.

(a). Do you think the workers should have made concessions and agreed to givebacks?
(b). If you were the president of the company, how would you have handled the situation?
(c). what do you think of the Japanese approach to dealing with economic problems?

4. CASE STUDY:
Anand is a long –term employee of the National Corporation, and for the last several years he
has been a supervisor in the financial section of the firm. He is very loyal to national and
works hard to follow the company policies and procedures and the orders of the managers
above him. In fact, upper-level management think very highly of him; He is valued and I well
liked by all the top managers. His employees in the financial section have the opposite
opinion of Anand. They feel that he is too concerned with pleasing the upper-level brass and
not nearly concerned enough with the needs and concerns of the employees in his
department. For example, they feel that Anand never really pushes hard enough for a more
substantial slice of the budget. Relative to other departments in the company, they feel they
are underpaid and overworked. Also, whenever one of them goes to Anand with a new idea
or suggestion for improvement, he always seems to have five reasons why it can’t be done.
There is considerable dissatisfaction in the department, and everyone thinks that Anand is just
a puppet for management. Performance has begun to suffer because of his style of leadership.
Upper level management seems to be oblivious to the situation in the finance section.
Questions:
a) What advice would you give Anand to improve his leadership style?
b) How would you like Anand’s leadership style in terms of one or more of the theories
discussed?
c) Could a leadership training program be set up to help Anand? What would it consist of?

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5. CASE STUDY : NEW BOSS AND HIS LEADERSHIP STYLE

For Several months employees of ABC Corporation have been very dissatisfied with the new
division head. Before the arrival of the new division head, the department had functioned as a
cohesive, effective unit, combining hard work with equal amount of leisure. The new division
head has very strong idea about the types of environment his employees should have. As one
supervisor puts it, it resembles a full scale military operation. No longer are occasional
informal gatherings during office hours. The bottom line has become productivity first, with
the employees’ feelings being considered as an afterthought. Grass-root employees as well as
supervisory personnel are very upset about the changes in structure, and their dissatisfaction
is beginning to show up in their performances. Because of the decreased productivity levels,
the Supervisors have been informed that if they don’t shape up their subordinates, “the axe
will fall on several heads”. The frustration and anger is now beginning to come to a full boil
and the supervisors have decided to meet to discuss the situation.
Questions
a. Identify the leadership style of the division head from the angle of Managerial Grid.
b. From the view point of theories of management, what assumption did the new head make
about the way in which people work most effectively?

6. CASE STUDY:

The managing director of ABC airlines, seeing that costs were getting out of control, as the
company grow, brought in as an assistant a brilliant young man who was a certified charted
accountant. The assistant was told about the company’s problem of rising costs and was
asked for his help in solving the problem. The new assistant gathered a staff of high-quality
industrial engineers, financial analysts and recent top graduates from one of the best known
graduate schools of business administration. After laying out the company’s problem, he
assigned them to investigate cost problems and management methods in the airline’s
operations, maintenance, engineering and sales departments. After a number of studies, the
M.Ds assistant found many sources of inefficiency in the various departments and initiated a
Number of changes in operating practices. In addition, he made many reports to the M.D.
Outlining in detail in efficiencies his staff had found and the measures being taken to correct
them. These reports also showed, with ample supporting detail, the Crores of rupees, which
his actions were saving the company.
Just as these cost savings programmes were being implemented, the managers in charge of
operations, maintenance, engineering and sales descended on the M.D and insisted that the
assistant be discharged.

Questions:

a) Why should the assistant who was doing so well be so much resented by the Managers?
What went wrong?
b) Assuming that the findings of the assistant and his staff were accurate, what should have
been done by the M.D., the assistant, the managers and others to make these findings useful?

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7. CASESTUDY:

“I expect all the managers in my department to act completely rationally in every decision
they make,” declared Shanti Rangarajan, vice-president of marketing for the Olympic Toy
Company. “Every one of us, no matter what his or her position, is hired to be a professional
rationalist, and I expect all of us not only to know what they are doing and why but to be
right in their decisions. I know that someone has said that a good manager needs only to be
right in more than half of his or her decisions. But that is not good enough for me. I would
agree that you may be excused for occasionally making a mistake, especially if it is a matter
beyond your control, but I can never excuse you for not acting rationally’ “I agree with your
idea, Madam,” said Manjeeth Singh, her advertising manager, “and I always try to be rational
and logical in my decisions. But would you mind helping me and be sure of this by
explaining just what ‘what acting rationally’ is?

Questions:

a) Explain how the vice-president of marketing might describe what is involved in making
rational decisions.
b) If Manjeeth Singh then declares that there is no way show one can be completely rational,
what would you suggest a reply?

8. CASE STUDY:

Kavery Limited publishes fortnightly magazine titled Kavery. The magazine is published in
four regional languages. The company has its own printing press with M.S.Subramaniam as
press manager. He is responsible for the overall working of the press. The press runs on two-
shift basis for six days per week perform all activities related to magazine printing that is,
starting from typesetting stage to binding stage. For making magazine successful, its timely
publication is one of the crucial factors. The press manager has total employee strength of
nearly 300 with six persons at the senior management level who work in the day shift and 25
supervisors and operators for each of two shifts. Each supervisor has 4 to 10 operators
directly reporting to him. The number of operators reporting directly to a supervisor varies
according to nature of work involved in different sections. One day, the press manager
attended a seminar on management by objectives organized by the local management
association and addressed by a consultant on management by objectives. He was highly
inspired by the theme of management by objectives and intended to install this system in the
press. He was very much sure that he would make performance evaluation of the employees
easier and improve their productivity.
Subramaniam worked several days on what the output objective of the press would be. After
finishing this work, he called a meeting of his senior staff. He gave a written statement
containing the objectives of each functional area of the press to senior staff members and
requested each member to review the objectives, ask questions for clarification, and then
prepare specific operational plans and quotas for his respective departments, supervisors, and
operators.

Questions:

a) Is this a workable MBO system? Explain your stand.

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c) As the press manager, how will you proceed to define press’s objectives?

9. CASE : WAL-MART

Primary emphasis is placed on how Wal-Mart’s culture developed and how it has been
maintained. The roots of Wal-Mart’s culture date back to Sam Walton, who instilled the now
famous “Saturday Morning Meeting” at his Five & Dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas.
During these meetings, Walton encouraged his employees to offer suggestions for
improvement and empowered them to follow through on those suggestions that he thought
were worth pursuing. The Saturday Morning Meeting has continued at Wal-Mart despite its
growth into one of the largest corporations in the world. Discussion could focus on how Wal-
Mart’s culture has been maintained over the years, with special emphasis on the importance
of the Saturday Morning Meeting. In addition to the Saturday Morning serving as a company
ritual, discussion could also focus on how the company chant serves as a cultural
maintenance tool.
A discussion of the strength of Wal-Mart’s culture relates to the notion of core values, which
have been instrumental in sustaining its culture over the years. Perhaps as a partial result of
this sharing of core values, Wal-Mart is able to respond quickly to changes in the market
place, as evidenced by the anecdote about the poker sets. In addition, the attraction-selection-
attrition model could be applied to Wal-Mart, as it may explain some of the similarities
among Wal-Mart’s managers thus leading to a tight-knit culture. Finally, although Wal-
Mart’s culture undoubtedly has been strength, discussion could also focus on how it could be
a weakness. The original practices and ideas of Sam Walton may not fit in today’s business
environment, so maintaining Wal-Mart’s culture may be detrimental to its growth. Moreover,
increased public scrutiny may be pressuring Wal-Mart to change its old practices.

Question for Discussion

(i) According to the primary characteristics of an organization’s culture, how would you
describe Wal-Mart’s culture?
(ii) How would you characterize Wal-Mart’s culture as strong or weak? Why?
(iii) As an upper manager of Wal-Mart, what steps could you take to either maintain or
enhance the culture of Wal-Mart?

CASE STUDY – 10

Two companies X and Y producing 40 count cotton yarn with similar levels of investment,
size, and labor force have been competing with each other. All their costs, such as raw
materials, power, wages, administrative, sales, interest, and depreciation expenses, have been
the same. Company X has been earning around 1.2 times of the net profit level when
compared to the net profit earned by company Y. The management of company Y appointed
a taskforce to find out the reasons for the same. On detailed analysis carried over by the task
force, it was found that the motivation level of employees of company X was relatively far
higher than that of company Y. it was mainly on account of certain facilities provided to
company X such as environment on the shop floor in terms of space for movement, lighting
arrangements, canteen facilities, pickup and drop facility from home to company and back
and a free membership of a local club. It was also found that emphasis of company X had
free access to top management and every month employees achievements used to be

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recognized by giving them token prizes; handed over to them by the top management in
person in a function organized by the company

Questions:
i) Elaborate the benefits provided by company X as per the Hertzberg’s Two factor theory.
ii) Discuss the impact of the provisions provided by company X on the performance of
employees and more returns for company X

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