Case Solutions for Introducing Organizational Behaviour and Management 4th Edition by David Knights,

Case Solutions For Introducing Organizational Behaviour and Management 4th Edition by David Knights, Hugh Willmott Chapter 113

Chapter 1: Introduction CASE STUDY: The National Health Service Organizations can vary hugely in terms of purpose, values, size, history and resources. One of the most important and recognizable organizations which exists in the UK is in the National Health Service.

The NHS was created in 1948 and is a publicly funded healthcare system covering the whole of the UK. The NHS is the single biggest employer in the UK, with a workforce of around 1.2 million, and an annual budget of around £135 billion. The NHS is frequently reported as the single most important issue for voters in the UK, and the vital importance of the NHS has been illustrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Media coverage of the pandemic reported on the work NHS frontline staff were doing to care for patients, and the UK public showed their support with Clapping for Carers each Thursday throughout the 2020 lockdowns.

The NHS does, however, experience many of the problems which organizations face. The NHS is frequently criticized for the amount of taxpayer money it requires to remain functional, and also for the amount of inefficiency and waste which exists within the organization. There are also issues relating to the workforce: staff often work long hours in pressurized environments, and in the last ten years there have been multiple public sector pay freezes impacting them.

The role of patients is also important: in recent decades, attempts have been made to give greater voice to patients with regards to their treatment, although this could be seen as problematic as some of the biggest illnesses the NHS treats are lifestyle-related and include alcohol consumption, smoking, unbalanced diets and lack of exercise.

The NHS is also a complex web of interconnected organizations, ‘NHS’ being used as an umbrella term for NHS Foundation Trusts, GP Surgeries, Dentists, Hospices, and a range of other support organizations, including administrative and research bodies.

Finally, there is the issue of who is in charge of the NHS? The NHS is formally the responsibility of the Department of Health, but there are many other important actors: senior hospital managers, representatives of employee groups, patient groups, and also the influence of private sector actors, to list but a few.

The NHS is a paradigmatic example of how important organizations are to the functioning of our society, and also why we need to study them in order to understand how they operate and can be improved.

Problem-solving activity 1. Where is the best place to begin an analysis of a large, complex organization like the NHS?

2. Where might the main areas of contestation be in the study of an organization such as the NHS?

3. How can the key ideas of knowledge, freedom, insecurity, identity, inequality and power be used to try and understand the NHS as an organization?

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Chapter 2: Motivation and the Self CASE STUDY: Cosy Corner Café Cosy Corner Café is a small café located on a quiet side street off the main shopping street in a busy city centre. Over the years it has built up a loyal customer base, comprising mostly local shoppers and businesspeople. The café is open six days a week (Monday–Saturday) and has seven staff members: Dominique has managed the café for five years on behalf of the owners, who no longer actively work in the business due to other commitments. However, they pay her relatively well for size of the business, and she is generally happy to work in a busy and friendly environment, with a small team of staff that she has come to know and trust.

Mary, a single mother, works Monday to Friday. Although she lives on a fairly limited income, she does not want to work weekends because she wants to spend time with her ten-year-old son.

Sita is also a mother, she is married with two children. She does not like to work on weekends either but has done so on rare occasions when Dominique needed the help. Sita enjoys the financial independence that working in the café provides her.

Jack works from Tuesday to Saturday and has Mondays off in order to study towards a qualification in hospitality management. Dominique regards Jack as an unofficial assistant manager and puts him in charge when she is away. However, she fears that he will move on when his course ends.

Vincent is a widower in his mid-sixties, and is semi-retired, having taken early retirement from a high-pressure management job some years ago. He originally came to the café as a customer, but now helps out over the busy lunchtime period and is employed from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. every day. He works at the café because he likes the social interaction, and generally does not respond well to being ‘bossed around’ by Jack when he is in charge.

Davina and Marco are students who normally only work on Saturdays, although they do get offered weekday shifts during university breaks in order to help cover for staff holidays and absences. They both appear to work hard and welcome the opportunity to earn extra money when work is available. Jack once accused Marco of stealing from the café, although this accusation was never proven.

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Problem-solving activity Working in small groups, consider the following questions, and be prepared to contribute to a seminar discussion: 1. How might you explain differences in the perceptions of each employee?

2. In terms of these perceptions, suggest what motivates each employee with reference to theories of motivation that you have studied. Try to apply a different theory of motivation to each employee.

3. Do the theories of motivation in the chapter explain the full range of actions of each employee? What else may motivate them?

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Chapter 3: Individual Differences, Personality and Self Case Study: Arriving at Atkins & Crabtree Associates Julia Shah felt uneasy. The first day in her new job was not going as expected. She recalled her first day at university, her first day at school and remembered the feeling of terror, of not knowing anyone, where to go, or what to do.

Julia arrived at 9 a.m. as instructed, neatly dressed and excited about her first day of paid employment since graduating from business school. It had all seemed very friendly during the interview, and the offer of employment as ‘Trainee Consultant’ had come a few days later. The welcome had been warm enough, with a Senior Partner there to show her to her desk, but that was just the first two minutes. Now, two hours later, she sat there in despair.

All attempts to communicate with her new colleagues were to no avail. ‘We’ve got a deadline to meet today’, one said, whilst another had retorted frostily ‘you’ll have to find your own way around, we are too busy to show you’. Her observation was that they all looked busy and stressed. Now sitting at an empty desk in the corner of an open-plan office, she pondered her future with the company and wondered if it was always going to be like this.

Norman Creswell, the office manager, was feeling particularly irritated that morning. He had been telling the partners for weeks how short-staffed they were, but then another project had come in with an impossible deadline to meet. He wanted experienced supporting staff but instead had to work with a new recruit, straight out of business school.

Mary Dennis was quietly furious. After twenty years with the company, they were assigning her yet another graduate to train. She had seen it before: they came in from university, full of ideas but knowing nothing of the company or the work; Mary was then expected to train them, and after a couple of years they would be offered a higher position in the company whilst she would be left behind. What was so special about a degree, she thought?

Gary Gomez had a secret. Just that morning he got the news that he had obtained a position at a rival company, and they were going to pay him quite a bit more. He hadn’t told anyone yet, but he would be putting in his notice as soon as his starting date was confirmed. In the meantime, he had no intention of putting in any effort for Atkins & Crabtree, who he considered a very poor employer with regards to pay, and he certainly wasn’t going to contribute to training anyone new.

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Problem-solving activity 1. Work through the case study and identify the main motivation(s) of each individual.

2. How do different theories of perception help to explain the attitudes of Julia, Norman, Mary, & Gary?

3. What could the company have done differently to improve Julia’s first morning?

4. What are the risks to organizations if they do not pay attention to, and dedicate resources

to issues of worker perceptions, motivation and morale?

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Chapter 3: Individual Differences, Personality and Self CASE STUDY: WaRP mAsters and Experienced Records You might be sitting around with a group of friends at the Dog and Duck pub on a Friday evening when you hear Funkadelica Dice, a new record by the Manchester-based turntablists WaRP mAsters, who are mixing their latest blend of pastiche Latin breaks with modulated Detroit-style sound loops. Your conversation has momentarily stopped. Some people have started dancing. It’s a truly great tune that was heard for the first time at Glastonbury last year. But you might be wondering: how do they make records like that?

Contracted to Experienced Records for an undisclosed fee, WaRP mAsters are two years into a five-album deal, and each piece of music they have released to date has redefined crossover trance-dance music. From underground cult to global phenomena, they are a new sensation and seem to have been on the front cover of every music magazine over the past six months. What a great industry to work in, you might be thinking.

‘You need a strong, vibrant personality for this job… Our success has been built upon people who are able to project themselves, to infuse and enthuse customers and colleagues alike. If you’re not into meeting people, talking, networking, persuading, cajoling, able to go from speaking to some 19-year-old fashion model to a corporate exec. at Sony Records... Yes, and having a laugh, you know, actually enjoying yourself, turning up in the evening for socials, photoshoots, going the extra mile, then you can forget working for Experienced Records.’

So says David Marsh, the Human Resources Director at the UK-based Experienced Records head office, a multinational recorder, manufacturer and distributor of popular and classical music. It’s April 2022 and their biggest recent success has been the signing of the Manchester underground cult band WaRP mAsters. In the next six weeks, David is looking to recruit 12 university graduates into his UK sales and marketing teams. As part of their recruitment and selection exercise they run a psychometric test that it is claimed cuts through the presentation of self, those illusions and images projected by individuals, and even the deluded beliefs people often have about themselves. Only certain personalities have proven to be a success working in the music industry. The psychometric test used by Experienced Records is based on the latest scientific research and findings. It gets right to the heart of your personality so that David Marsh and his colleagues can base their selection decision on the type of person you actually are and not the kind of person you might like to think you are.

You may have heard, on the other hand, that it is all about who you know and not what you know that secures employment. Indeed, it is well researched and reported (Jackall, 1988; Grey, 1994; Watson, 1994; Casey, 1995) that what is probably more important in career advancement is a political and organizational ability to carry favours and develop the right network of connections among the powerful, the cliques and cabals who actually ‘run the show’. Here, it is more about ‘fitting in’, being adaptable and chameleon-like, cultivating, developing and presenting the right attributes – that it is, in essence, all about image and manipulation. Not only have ‘personalities’ been constructed and developed for the lead For use with Introducing Organizational Behaviour and Management 4e, David Knights and Hugh Willmott © 2022 Cengage EMEA

singers of many popular bands, but for those working ‘behind the scenes’ in management and organization who are likewise careful with the image they present to the world, continually self-monitoring their behaviour and ‘impression management’ (Goffman, 1959) for personal and political goals. Many people will go further and claim that they will leave their personality at home when they go to work – that their ‘true self’ is something far different from the kind of image they project and use to advance their careers.

Problem-solving activity 1. What does the case study reveal about the idea of cultivating a particular ‘self’ in order to achieve success within organizations?

2. What tensions exist between this development of a public-facing ‘self’ and moral ideas about being true to oneself?

3. What organizational forces are illustrated in the case study (e.g. power and influence)?

How important are these for the success or failure of an individual in comparison to development of a particular persona?

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Chapter 4: Groups and Teams at Work CASE STUDY: Baxter’s Bakery Alex Baxter is worried. Having headed a successful and growing bakery business throughout all of its twenty-five-year history, and priding herself on their reputation for quality, there now seems to be an alarming increase in customer complaints. Baxter’s Bakery have made their name supplying high-quality bread and cakes both to their own shops, and other retail outlets within a forty-mile radius, and production is now running twenty-four hours a day.

Following a consultant’s reports five years ago, the bakery’s production workers have been organized into teams of four or five and specialize in various product lines. Each team has a hands-on Team Leader, and each shift has a hands-off Shift Supervisor, to whom they report.

They use a three-shift system and employ around fifty staff in the bakery itself, plus office, shop and delivery staff, together with a small senior management team.

Senior management at Baxter’s consists of a Finance Manager who is also responsible for the office staff, an Operations Manager who is responsible for the three Shift Supervisors and a Marketing Manager who is also directly responsible for the shop staff. The three senior managers report directly to Alex, and she normally handles personnel matters herself, although the latter has been proving quite a strain lately.

Team Leaders report daily to their Shift Leaders, and they attend a weekly production meeting with the Operations Manager. Shift Leaders in turn hold a weekly shift meeting with the Team Leaders, who are supposed to hold a weekly team briefing with their teams, but these often get cancelled in the face of desperate attempts to meet production targets. Team leaders were not given any specific training in meeting skills, and the Operations Manager has a suspicion that ‘any excuse is good enough to avoid holding a team briefing’.

Recent complaints from customers, received both through their own shops and from other retail outlets that they supply, have included variable quality of products and unreliable delivery times. At this week’s Production Meeting, Shift Supervisors have blamed these problems on the difference in performance between work groups. A common complaint was that they resent having anyone else imposed upon them when they are short-staffed through holiday, sickness or other absence.

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Problem-solving activity Working in small groups, and with reference to the theoretical material that we have studied, consider the following questions.

1. How might you account for differences in performance between groups in the bakery?

2. Which theories relating to group and teams might be useful in explaining these differences?

3. What changes would you recommend to Alex Baxter which might be expected to improve the effectiveness of work groups?

4. Are there any other aspects of organizational behaviour which you think may be applicable in this case, or any other strategies or outlooks which Alex Baxter could consider?

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Chapter 5: Managing People: Contexts of HRM, Diversity and Social Inequality CASE STUDY: Leven Services Leven Services Ltd is a small, UK-based communications company selling communications solutions to other businesses. Leven has been operating for 40 years. The company employs around 75 staff in product development, sales, marketing, and customer service. It also has a small team of senior managers including a CEO, an Operations Manager, a Head of Finance and a HR team.

Leven in based in the Greater London area. Until recently, its workforce had been fairly homogeneous in that most of the staff were white, ranging in age from 35–65, and with a 70:30 split of male and female workers.

In the last ten years the composition of the workforce has altered – the company now has hired more employees from underrepresented ethnic groups, more workers under the age of 35, and has reached a 50:50 split of male and female workers. This change in the composition of the workforce has been caused by staff retiring and being replaced by new staff, but also it has been driven by the desire of the Head of Finance and HR to recruit a more diverse workforce.

Initially, changes to the composition of the workforce were unproblematic. However, recently several underrepresented ethnic workers have raised issues with the senior management, highlighting how there appear to be limited opportunities for promotion, limits to how staff can collectively express their ‘voice’, and also a concern that they are being treated in a tokenistic way; one employee noted that they were always asked to be in company photos and represent the company at events, but were never listened to when they pitched project ideas to management.

A related problem was that several older, white employees had recently expressed negative opinions about what they called the ‘diversity agenda’ in society – these employees were at pains to say they were not racist, but they raised the issue that focusing primarily on race and ethnicity downplayed other issues such as socioeconomic status. One older employee often talked about how they’d been discriminated against all their life for having a ‘working-class’ accent, but never got any special treatment or diversity awards because of it.

These issues have now led to open arguments occurring in the office almost every week in a manner which is starting to severely impact morale as well as company performance. The senior management have decided something needs to be done, the only problem is that they are unsure what.

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Problem-solving activity 1. Put yourself in the position of the senior management team – what would you do to solve the problem currently facing Leven Services?

2. Who is at fault in the case study, if anyone? In answering this question, think about the tensions that exist between ‘individual problems’ and ‘structural problems’.

3. What does the case study tell us about how wider social issues of equality, diversity and inclusion manifest in the workplace?

4. Could Leven Services take a different approach to running its organization which might resolve some – if not all – of these HR issues? What could they be?

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Chapter 6: Organization, Structure and Design CASE STUDY: Fuzzy Feet Jess was having a problem and was unsure what to do about it. She had set up her dog-walking company, Fuzzy Feet, in a big city five years ago and it had been really successful. So successful, in fact, that she had decided to expand the business into some of the nearby towns and villages. Lots of high-income dog-owners had moved out of the city to live in these places and paid well to hire a reliable dog walker when at work.

Jess had done some market research and had decided to begin the expansion of Fuzzy Feet by focusing on one village, Levington, to begin with. She had advertised for staff and, after a couple of weeks, had decided to hire four people.

This is when her problems began. The staff didn’t seem to understand what the job of a dog walker was! When Jess hired dog walkers in the city, all of her staff knew that being a dog walker meant being active, playing with the dogs, respecting the dog’s owner, and most importantly, making sure the dog wasn’t hurt during the walk.

But the staff in Levington didn’t seem to understand this, no matter what she told them. Staff were disciplined for letting dogs run off the leash in the village, for spending all day in a pub with one of the dogs, and even for taking one of the dogs onto a working farm where it nearly got into some machinery.

Jess tried to hire other staff members, but they seemed to have the exact same attitude as the staff she already had. It seemed that her staff in the smaller villages held a different perception compared to her staff in the city. It didn’t help that some of the older local inhabitants thought that professional dog walking was ‘a silly idea’, and that dogs should just roam freely.

Jess had to make a decision, should she stick at trying to make her dog walking business work in Levington, or should she go back to the big city, where people knew how to treat dogs?

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Problem-solving activity 1. Based on the material in the chapter, what are some of the main theoretical and conceptual issues which are illustrated in this case study?

2. Who is ‘right’ in this issue? Jess, her staff, the locals, or none of the above? How does this issue of culture present challenges to organizations?

3. What would you do if you were Jess? How, if at all, would you seek to exercise power to achieve greater control, in order to keep your business operating?

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Chapter 7: Management and Leadership CASE STUDY: Colin Kelshaw’s Coaches Colin Kelshaw was made redundant from a UK Telecommunication company in 2000, where he had been an engineering supervisor. He decided to put himself through a passenger vehicle driving school and bought an old, dilapidated coach. He founded Kelshaw’s Coaches in 2002, which has since become a successful transport company with a modern fleet of forty coaches, a brand-new depot with its own maintenance facilities and office accommodation, and almost fifty drivers, most of whom are employed on a full-time basis.

The business has built a name for itself and is known by its customers for reliability and generally low costs.

As owner of Kelshaw’s Coaches, Colin has been known for his direct and often abrasive manner. He’s a frank talker who wants to get things done, usually gets his own way with people, and always expects to. He tends to manage the business from moment to moment, and in recent years he has developed a habit of calling any of his staff at any time of the day or night in order to give them an order or, increasingly, to reprimand them.

Recently there have been some worrying trends.

Firstly, his staff turnover rate has been increasing and he is having difficulties in getting replacement drivers, despite paying the best rates in the area. This problem has worsened since Brexit. He has also heard from another local operator that drivers who work at Kelshaw’s Coaches say that ‘Colin is impossible to work for’ – apparently the drivers don’t complain about pay, but about how little respect he gives his staff.

Secondly, there has been an increase in sickness and other absences from a part of his workforce whom he has always considered as loyal.

Thirdly, there has been an increase in customer complaints, with several drivers being accused of either rudeness or being uncooperative.

Colin decided to talk things over with his daughter Fiona, who was home over the Christmas break following her first term at university, where she is studying for a business degree. He reasoned that, the expense of paying for his daughter’s chosen course means he should be entitled to some return. However, the meeting did not go well, as Colin lost his temper and stormed out when his daughter suggested that it might be his approach in leading the company that is the main problem. Fiona has now decided to draft a letter to him, outlining some positive proposals.

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Problem-solving activity 1. How would you describe Colin’s management style in terms of the various theories that you have studied?

2. Do you think that Colin’s management style is common in organizations? How could Colin learn to develop new ways of behaving that might improve the performance of Kelshaw’s Coaches?

3. Is Colin’s management style an acceptable way to manage a contemporary organization? How do you think Colin would respond to issues of equality, diversity and inclusion?

4. If you were Fiona, what would you suggest he does to change his management style, and how would you make him listen?

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Chapter 8: Politics and Decision-Making in Organizations CASE STUDY: Cellel Sarah had been working in her new job for about two months now and was starting to think that there was something strange about it.

Sarah worked as a researcher for a cutting-edge private sector technology company called Cellel, which specialized in biotechnology. The company was often in the news for its innovative research and products, and the CEO of the company was almost a celebrity figure in the industry and the media, not dissimilar from Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. The company paid well and was doing work which had a clear positive social purpose.

The problem for Sarah was that Cellel felt a bit less like a workplace, and more like a cult.

Sarah had formerly worked for a university, which was very bureaucratic and not very wellpaid, but was very transparent in most areas. Sarah was used to having autonomy while receiving some direction from a line manager. She was also used to there being a clear workplace hierarchy and set of workplaces rules which were generally followed and based on consent between the workforce and management.

More importantly, Sarah was used to staff complaining if they didn’t like an aspect of their job, and there being an outlet to express grievances. Sarah had been in a trade union in her last job and had gone on strike to protest against management trying to intensify work and cut workplace pensions, and supported the idea of ‘workplace democracy’, whether direct or representative.

The strange thing at Cellel was there seemingly was no dissent, no politics, nothing. Sarah knew this was not because the working conditions were perfect – staff were expected to work long hours to finish projects and meet deadlines, and there was a performance-related pay scheme which clearly benefited the friends of more senior staff rather than the best workers.

Sarah had also seen staff at Cellel experience abuse and bullying from other staff on multiple occasions.

So why didn’t staff resist, or complain? Sarah wondered if it was related to how the CEO had cultivated a particular way of thinking at Cellel. The recruitment process was notoriously difficult, leading people who worked there to think they were special. There were also few ‘managers’ in the conventional sense; workers were organized into 'cells', and cells were organized into larger ‘hives’. Each cell and each hive was judged on its collective performance, which had an impact on promotions and pay bonuses. This meant that team members would often target other members that they perceived as not working hard enough, or not having the right ‘attitude’.

HR were largely absent in all of these processes, and the CEO was a distant figure, appearing only to give motivational speeches to the workforce or offer philosophical insights about how Cellel was changing the world in ways which would go down in history. While these speeches For use with Introducing Organizational Behaviour and Management 4e, David Knights and Hugh Willmott © 2022 Cengage EMEA

may sway some, Sarah could not believe that she was the only one who thought the way she did. The problem was, what could she do to change things, and how could she find other likeminded people in Cellel to help her?

Problem-solving activity 1. What does the Cellel case study tell us about the formal and informal ways in which power is manifested in an organization?

2. What role do ideas and ideology play in shaping how power is exercised in organizations?

3. How could Sarah seek to challenge and change the problems in her workplace?

4. What would you do in Sarah’s position?

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Chapter 9: Culture CASE STUDY: A clash of cultures?

Brunswick and Cavendish are rival companies in the highly competitive market for advertising.

Brunswick: Dynamic young businessman, Nick Brunswick, founded Brunswick in 2000. He now admits that he then knew little to nothing about management but learnt on the job as his business grew.

Over time he developed a system of business units. These units are business groups that are very customer-focused, being responsible for one or more clients depending upon the size of the account. Each is run by a Client Manager who reports directly to Nick, and contains a group of staff including, copywriters, graphic designers and media professionals, all of whom have clearly defined roles.

Brunswick has a traditional managerial structure led by Nick, together with Finance, Operations, Marketing and Human Resource Managers, each of whom has their team of support staff. The senior management team report directly to Nick and are responsible for maintaining their specialist areas and for developing procedures for the company. The company has been highly successful at attracting and retaining corporate customers since its inception. However, as the company’s bureaucracy has grown, it has become increasingly inflexible. Recently, the chance to obtain some important contracts has been lost, due to the company being unable to put together a pitch in time, despite the company employing over five hundred staff.

Cavendish: Cavendish was formed by a group of five business school graduates in 2010. All had initially worked for other companies within the market sector but had kept in touch and also retained their dream of eventually setting up their own company. This day came sooner that any had expected as the 2007 Financial Crisis led to several being made redundant at the same time.

When they decided to form their own company they realized that, in order to survive, they would have to offer something new and different. They set about developing a highly flexible and creative organization, able to come up with innovative campaigns over a short timescale in order to help customers quickly respond to changing market conditions.

Cavendish currently employ seventy-five permanent staff, mostly with traditional advertising industry backgrounds and skills, but they also employ people on short-term contracts or as subcontractors. The five partners occupy senior management roles, but there is no fixed structure.

Teams are put together as and when required to work on different campaigns and are led by ‘Team Captains’. It would be quite normal for a team member to be on five or six teams at any For use with Introducing Organizational Behaviour and Management 4e, David Knights and Hugh Willmott © 2022 Cengage EMEA

one time and perhaps to be leading one or more of these. Whilst this helps the organization effectively utilize its human resources, there is often conflict over individuals’ time, when two or more teams are up against tight deadlines. Sometimes, the company can appear chaotic; its organizational structure is mostly successful, although sometimes it is not, and recently some customers have been lost through failure to deliver.

Problem-solving activity 1. Compare and contrast the cultures of the two companies, suggesting pros and cons of each and identifying the prevailing workplace culture of Brunswick and Cavendish.

2. How easily could the owner(s) of each organization engineer cultural change?

3. If the two organizations merged, what might happen to the culture?

4. Is culture the main issue that is affecting the ability of Brunswick and Cavendish to capture and retain customers? What other issues does the case study raise?

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Chapter 10: Technology CASE STUDY: Foss Telesales Michelle Taylor is the current CEO of Foss Telesales, and she is in a very good mood. Foss is a medium-sized company (20 staff and £4 million turnover per annum), but she believes the fortunes of Foss are about to change for the better in a very significant way.

Foss is a call-centre whose business model is based on bidding for contracts from other companies to sell their products over the phone. The business model looks like this: Foss wins a contract from company X, Foss trains its telesales team up to sell company X’s product, and the more of company X’s product it sells, the more money Foss makes.

The biggest barrier to increasing profits has been the workforce. Productivity has often been low, and turnover has been high – staff do not stay very long, in spite of there being a performance-related pay scheme. Michelle cannot understand why staff don’t like working at Foss, but she doesn’t want to waste time finding out their problems. Instead, she has a different solution. A family member has designed a new piece of technology called Panopticos for her to use at Foss. Panopticos is a piece of software that can be used to listen into telesales staff when they are on a call to see how they are working. Not only does Panopticos monitor call length, key words used and duration of call, it also assesses things like how ‘enthusiastic’ the telesales worker sounds, and how often they are able to ‘objection manage’ a customer into making a purchase when they might otherwise hang up. In short, Panopticos allows for total management of the workforce.

Michelle is delighted because she thinks Panopticos can be used to make the less productive staff work harder and can also allow her to dismiss staff who are unable or unwilling to do this. Michelle also knows that she has to use Panopticos, if she doesn’t then another company will, and Foss will become less competitive; she could even end up out of a job herself!

The workforce at Foss, who have found out about this new software, have got a very different view. They think that Panopticos will make things worse for everyone. All staff will probably work harder as there will be more micro-management, call targets will increase, and workforce morale will fall as staff who are not performing (for whatever reason) are made redundant.

Some staff also fear that the Panopticos system could be developed even more and result in the automation of their calls, leaving them without a job entirely. Michelle secretly hopes this as well, but she decides to keep it to herself, she knows the technology isn’t advanced enough to make all her staff redundant… yet.

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Problem-solving activity 1. Which, if any, of the theories of technology explored in the chapter best explains what is happening in the case study?

2. How does the case study illustrate issues of power in the workplace?

3. What does the case study tell us about the wider role of technology in society, and the tensions it creates?

4. Can you think of any similar examples of technology disrupting workplaces in the contemporary period?

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Chapter 11: Globalization and Organizations CASE STUDY: Nissan’s Chinese venture As part of sweeping changes and a major reorganization effort, Nissan Motors is increasing its investment in a joint venture with its Chinese partner, Dongfeng Automobile Company.

Nissan’s first investment in China came in 2000, when the auto maker began its partnership with Dongfeng to produce just one sedan model. By 2008, the joint venture was producing 300,000 cars annually. With declining sales in both Japan and the United States, Nissan is relying on the Chinese market for sales growth. China is one of the largest consumers of automobiles, with annual sales of two million vehicles. Imports from Japan only will not cover demand. Dongfeng gains valuable expertise and access to resources through its partnership, while Nissan takes advantage of lower production costs and Dongfeng’s knowledge of the local market.

On the downside, Nissan must consider the impact on their brand if quality slips, as well as the risk of competitors gaining access to confidential information. This fear is especially acute in its relationship with Dongfeng, which also has a joint venture with Honda, one of Nissan’s rivals. What happens to global competitors if China is able to produce high-quality goods much more cheaply? One American manufacturer, seeing low-cost components similar to those made by his firm, says, ‘I can only assume this is “the China price” . . . It is about half the price.’ Ohio State University professor and author Oded Shenkar warns firms, ‘If you still make anything labour intensive, get out now rather than bleed to death. . . . You need an entirely new business model to compete.’ In 2008, Dongfeng released the first in a planned series of passenger cars under its own brand and built a plant capable of producing 160,000 vehicles annually.

Since 2008 Nissan has also had to navigate challenges in the global economy and pushback against ‘globalization’ in some quarters. Tariffs and restrictions have been generally increasing, as have wage demands and collective action from workers. There have also been unpredictable supply chain crises such as those caused by COVID-19 which has forced companies like Nissan to reshape their production process so that they can still try to meet demand.

References: Brian Bremner, “Nissan’s Boss,” BusinessWeek, October 4, 2004, www.businessweek.com on April 21, 2010; Ian Rowley, “So Much for Hollowing Out,” BusinessWeek, October11, 2004, www.businessweek.com on April 21, 2010; Pete Engardio and Dexter Roberts, “The China Price,” BusinessWeek, December 6, 2004, www.businessweek.com on March 7, 2005; Yuri Kageyama, “Nissan Beefing Up China Plants with New Company,” The Detroit News, June 12, 2003, www.detnews.com on March 7, 2005; “2008 Beijing Auto Show Preview: Dongfeng BF,” Edmunds Inside Line, www.insideline .com on April 21, 2010; Ian Rowley, “Big China Plans for Japan’s Big Three,” BusinessWeek, January 18, 2008, www.businessweek.com on April 21, 2010.

Case originally published in Griffin/Moorhead, Organizational Behaviour, 1oE ©2012 South-Western, a part of Cengage Learning, Inc. Reproduced by permission. www.cengage.com/permissions

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Problem-solving activity 1. What features of globalization are exhibited in the case study, and how can these be better understood using material from the chapter?

2. What challenges to continued profitability does globalization present for large transnational corporations such as Nissan?

3. Is globalization a singular process, multiple processes, or something else entirely? How do critical approaches help us to better understand the impact of globalization on organizations?

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Chapter 12: Ethics at Work CASE STUDY: Glugg Energy Drinks Glugg Energy Drinks had recently undergone a period of restructuring. The company – an international soft drinks manufacturer – had developed a poor brand reputation; its energy drink was associated with a social media challenge whereby it was mixed with excessive amounts of alcohol and then drunk as quickly as possible (‘The Glugg Headache Challenge’).

Glugg was also associated with images of young people consuming excessive amounts of it to stay up late to complete school or university projects, and then being ill afterwards.

The management of Glugg were concerned that this negative imagery would prevent Glugg from attracting new customers and retaining their customer base as they got older.

Management had decided to pursue an ethical marketing campaign to show that Glugg wasn’t just an expensive, high-sugar, high-caffein energy drink; the managers wanted customers to know that Glugg had a social purpose, and had values.

Glugg’s management decided to launch a new campaign promoting the drink as an ethical product. Glugg was to source all its ingredients from organic suppliers and would donate 1 per cent of its profits to animal charities. This decision was made alongside the announcement of a new marketing slogan: ‘Glugg: giving the world a hug’. There was much media coverage of this new approach and, for a brief period, sales began to increase.

However, problems emerged quite soon after: a new scientific study was published showing the damage that energy drinks like Glugg did on the cognitive development of young people, and suggested they be banned for under-18s. Secondly, a group of whistle-blowers at Glugg reported problematic working conditions – there was a culture of sexual harassment in the workplace, unpaid overtime, and repeated attempts to evade tax by the company. Finally, a piece of media revealed that only 0.01 per cent of Glugg’s profits was actually being donated to animal charities; the other 0.99 per cent was going to a variety of ‘charity-focused businesses’ which were wholly- or partially-owned by Glugg. The social media hashtag #pulltheplugonGlugg was trending, and sporting events were turning down sponsorship offers from the company.

In short, Glugg’s attempts to rebrand itself as an ethical company had been a complete disaster, and now the senior management were at a loss for what to do next.

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Problem-solving activity 1. What does the case study tell us about some of the tensions and challenges facing companies who may wish to pursue ethical business practices?

2. Is the Glugg case an example of an organization trying to do good but failing, or an example of an organization cynically using ethics to advance its position in a capitalist market? How can we use the theories in the chapter to explore this idea?

3. What strategies can organizations who genuinely wish to behave ethically pursue to do so?

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Chapter 13: Management of Sustainability, or How Should We Manage Planet Earth?

CASE STUDY: NILE The UN 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) is taking place in Egypt in 2022 and already this had led to increased discussions about climate change among various groups and organizations across the country.

One group which has become increasingly vocal is New Improved Lives of Egyptians (NILE) a social movement comprising climate activists, political activists, trade unionists, and – most recently – a number of private sector organizations who are concerned about the impact of climate change on their businesses. NILE aims to increase awareness of climate change in Egypt and advocates progressive social change.

NILE is acutely aware that Egypt is already suffering increasing desertification, reduced rainfall, and ecosystem breakdown due to climate change. The group often uses the example that the River Nile (from which the group takes its name) is losing water and becoming unable to support agriculture as a prime example of how Egypt cannot ignore the climate crisis.

NILE wants to improve the lives of all Egyptians by ending climate change. Initially, the group welcomed the support – particularly the financial support – of some of the business communities who support NILE because they are also concerned about how climate change is impacting their companies. However, there are some differences of opinion emerging in NILE. Some within NILE advocate the overthrow of capitalism as the only way to stop climate change, while others advocate a more limited ‘Egyptian Green New Deal’ to create new jobs and decarbonize the economy. The business group within NILE advocates an end to excessive pollution and more investment in businesses like theirs which use new environmentally friendly technologies.

There have been some accusations within NILE that the business group are only really concerned with increasing their share price and are actually part of the climate problem. The business group within NILE responded by saying that at least it has real-world, workable solutions to the climate crisis, rather than vague demands for revolution.

There is now concern among the founders of NILE that the aims of the group will be lost to infighting, and that NILE will be unable to successfully lobby the international community at COP27 and, more generally, the Egyptian government.

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Problem-solving activity 1. What does the case study tell us about the links between organizational behaviour and the climate crisis?

2. What approaches and strategy could NILE draw upon from organization theory and practice to improve their chances of bringing about progressive social change? Think about the content of other chapters when answering this question.

3. What other strategies and approaches can organizations take to become sustainable, and what are the limits to organizations being sustainable within capitalism?

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