Words: 1064
Synthesis: America is an American company which decided to outsource their manufacturing division to the Philippines in order to reduce labor cost and restore of their competitive edge due to their rival companies outsourcing from other Asian countries as well. Bill Dawson was assigned as the plant manager and a Filipino DULLS MBA Graduate was hired to be his assistant. The purpose of his assistant was to bridge the gap of culture. However, the assistant is a Mainline while the workforce is Sebaceous; this resulted in another sub-culture gap.
Productivity of the plant was decreasing over time and Bill’s decisions are antagonistic in the point of view of the workforce. The result of this is consistent employee turnovers and ever decreasing productivity. Point of View: Bill Dawson point of view shall be taken. He is the main person in charge of the plant and has all the authority to make actions for the good or the bad of the plant. Statement of the Problem: 1. What actions must Bill Dawson take in order to achieve satisfactory productivity 2. What motivational method should Bill implement to stimulate positive response from his Filipino employees?
Statement of the Objectives: 1. To evaluate his current resources and decide what needs to be changed and reorganized. 2. Develop a motivational system plan that will value employee welfare and inspire them to be more productive. Areas of Consideration: 1. Filipino Cuban Culture As stated in the case, the local employees are not disciplined. It was observed that employees take extended breaks, chat endlessly and engage in non-work activities. These result in a lot of wasted time and low productivity. Most of the employees are females and had not previously worked in a manufacturing environment. America Way The America is obsessed with efficiency and quality-oriented production techniques. Needless to say, it can be assumed that they follow hardcore mainstream Miguel is a Mainline and Sebaceous see him as too urban, too serious, too self- centered and they do not trust him. Also, it is important to note the double standard treatment that Miguel displays towards the Sebaceous and Bill Dawson. Miguel is very respectful to Bill but the opposite towards the workers. 4. Bill Dawson Managerial Upbringing and his Perception of Filipino Culture Bill is the son of a tobacco farmer.
He is highly intelligent but never attended college. He worked his way up to get a high management position using his experience and street smarts. He is known to be firm but fair and dresses casually. He is also somewhat large and looked intimidating. The problem of Bill is that he did not make a concrete effort in understanding Filipino culture in his preparation for his assignment. He merely relied on his uncle’s stories and the country shared love for basketball. 5. Millet being fired Millet frequently Jokes, teases and asks personal questions to Bill during training sessions.
Bill was not happy about Millet’s behavior which is why he decided to fire her. It was evident that after she was fired, the mood of the employees especially belonging in the same department with her changed. Employees are less cheerful however, productivity slightly improved. Discussion of Framework: l. Organizational Culture Types One of the frameworks applied for the case is the model of Deckhands, Farley and Webster on Organizational Culture Types. The model shows four culture types which are: Clan, Hierarchy, Autocracy, and Market. Each culture label includes assumptions relating to: dominant, organizational attributes, leadership styles, organizational bonding mechanisms and overall strategic emphasis (Recalls, 2005, p. 73)” II. Multilateral Expectancy Theory Multilateral Expectancy Theory is also applicable for this case. This theory focuses on achieving goals that are for the benefit of the community. This theory, commonly use the “we approach”. In addition, the application of the theory to the case would motivate and encourage the workers to participate in the decision making and cooperate in solving the company’s problem.
It focuses on group efficacy which would generally apply to American’s female employees. It also highlights Organizational Citizenship Behavior (COB) wherein the person would be motivated to not only focus on his work but also to help his colleagues to the benefit of the company. Employees of America need to be encouraged to collaboratively aim for their purpose of reaching their productivity goal. However, the application of this theory also acknowledges that there are other goals that are needed to be set such as “nonofficial elements” of the company.
With this, Balanced Scorecard can also be seed as a tool in measuring the financial goals as well as the nonofficial goals that are important to the company. Also the Value Chain framework for productivity can be applied by America in the sense that they have to effectively convert their inputs into viable outputs. Alternative Courses of Action: A. Create an action plan with the following steps: 1. Understand and embrace the local culture 2. Implement a motivational incentive scheme 3. With the newly motivated employees, improve the productivity of the plant PROS: 1. Workers will become adjusted to their boss 2.
Motivated employees tend to be more productive 3. Workers will be back to their cheerful behaviors but at the same time have improved over their performance CONS: 1. It might be difficult for Bill Dawson to adjust since he is accustomed to the America Way 2. Employees may be skeptical on his new behavior and may perceive it as an act B. Retain the current set-up but find a way for the employees to respect top management. Bill can replace Miguel with a Cuban mediator so that he may effectively implement his new plans for the company. 1. Less adjustment for Bill Dawson and for the employees 2.
Smooth flow of operations with an apparent concern for employees from the Management CONS: 1. Miguel will lose his Job 2. There is no assurance that the new Cuban mediator will gain the support of the existing employees 3. Improvement of productivity is not assured. C. Close operations in Cube and look for another Asian country like China for their labor force since it has not been working for America. 1. The company will cut its losses and move on 1. Loss in investment for the company due to another relocation of the plant 2. There is no guarantee that the same scenario will not reoccur in another Asian country