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A Case Analysis for “Does this Milkshake Taste Funny? ” Assignment 3, Unit 1, Organizational Behavior Robert Kennedy College Presented by Julius Datinguinoo on 12 May 2009 I. Statement of the Problem(s) There are three major corporate problems that I can see on this situation: 1. Eastern Dairy is lacking in contemporary quality control, quality management, and quality assurance systems that would ensure compliance to quality standards like ISO 9000, HACCP & ISO 2200. 2.
Eastern Dairy is lacking in modern health, safety and environment (HSE) policies, procedures, and controls that would ensure compliance to environmental standards like ISO 14001 and ISO 14004. 3. Eastern Dairy has a poor inventory management & control system. II. Analysis 1. George Stein i. George is familiar with change because he had lived in various suburbs of a major city. He understands the need for change and he is comfortable in managing the change in his environment.
It is possible that his ‘change quotient’ (Clawson, 2001:10) has been developed at an early age by the constant need to adapt to a new neighborhood. As a teen, he is able to work on different types of menial jobs probably in different companies, which can confirm his adaptability. ii. George is a social person. This is supported by one of his major interest, which is hanging out at the local teenage gathering place, a drive-in restaurant. He also likes the camaraderie of the night-shift operators and even joined the union at Eastern Dairy.
These explain his needs for ‘friendship and belongingness’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:176). iii. His great interest in hot rods gives the impression that he likes excitement and challenge. He probably takes so much pleasure in it that it was his main motivation to take up mechanical engineering in college hoping it has some relation with being a mechanic. Liking “old-school” cars also says a lot about his values system. Indirectly, it could be deducted that he respects the old convention or tradition. iv.
George loves romance as revealed by his notable interest in Cathy, his girlfriend. His parents even motivated him to continue his education by a simple promise of a blessing to his marriage to Cathy following his sophomore year. This shows his need for ‘affection and acceptance’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:176). This also shows he respects his parents and values their opinion. v. George’s immediate need is money for dating and for his car. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the money and car are ‘physiological needs’ while dating is a ‘social need’.
Accordingly, ERG theory by Clayton Alderfer puts money and car as ‘existence needs’ while dating as a ‘relatedness need’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:176). vi. George is not a high-achiever. This is shown by his apparent lack of interest to develop his intelligence and ability by going to college even though his parents can afford to support his studies. He was also taking menial jobs for four successive summers, which indicates that he is not up for a challenging job. His parents needed to use ‘verbal persuasion’ to convince him to go to college (Robbins & Judge, 2009:189). 2.
Eastern Dairy (The company) i. The company had decided to be a pay leader. This is upheld by the fact that an entry-level operator job at Eastern Dairy pays more than double the minimum wage being paid by other companies (at least by the companies George worked for previously). With this pay structure, the company may attract ‘better-qualified, more highly motivated employees who will stay with the organization longer’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:228). ii. The company has given a great degree of autonomy to night shift employees. This is supported by the fact that there are no managers present at night.
The day-shift superintendent just relays the production orders to Paul. This situation shows that the company assumes ‘that employees like work, are creative, seek responsibility, and can exercise self-direction’, an application of Douglas McGregor’s Theory Y (Robbins & Judge, 2009:177). In this company, the job of the operator scores high in autonomy because it ‘provides substantial freedom, independence, and discretion to the individual in scheduling the work and in determining the procedures to be used in carrying it out’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:216). ii. The company sets specific, albeit simplistic, targets or goals to night shift employees. This is sustained by the fact that the production orders give specific instructions to the operators on how many gallons of mix needs to be produced during the night. In addition, the management expects that all equipments used in the production line be cleaned at the conclusion of the shift. It is clear that the company wants to motivate the employees by setting these two straightforward targets.
They were on the right track on implementing the ‘goal-setting theory by Edwin Locke’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:185). They just missed two key components, namely, difficult goal and feedback. iv. Somehow, there is a clear distribution of responsibilities for each of the seven operators in the night shift. There is some sort of equity in the workplace. v. The company allowed the formation of an employee union. However, it is unclear what type of employee involvement the union exercises as George, himself, saw little evidence of the union’s involvement in the day-to-day operations of the plant.
The union should be similar to one of these ‘forms of employee involvement – participative management, representative participation, and quality circles’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:225). vi. The company relied on an occasional visit by the inspectors from the county health department for the overall health check of the production facility. Although the visit does not include the important checks on safety and environmental hazards, it was still a good idea for the company to open their doors to a third party evaluator like the country health department.
This serves as a good motivation for the operators to do the cleaning task properly. Operators would not wish for the ire of the management if the country health department raises a complaint. This is a classic application of reinforcement theory of motivation, which states that ‘behavior is a function of its consequence’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:191). vii. The company does not properly maintain their storage warehouse. This is evident from the fact that Paul admitted that maggots are able to get into the bags of certain ingredients that were stored in the warehouse. . Paul i. Paul has taken into himself the role of “lead operator” for the night shift. Other operators look up to him for directions even though his status was no different from theirs. ii. Paul’s main aim is to produce the specified production target for the night in the allotted amount of time and then cleanup of pipes afterwards. No more, no less. He doesn’t concern himself about anything else aside from this. iii. Paul does not care about the quality of the final product and about the effects of a contaminated product would have on the health of customers.
This is exhibited by his instruction to George to remove the filters and let the production continue even though maggots have already been discovered in the filters. He is probably unaware of the risk of ‘myiasis’ that maggots can bring about (Wikipedia, 2009:1). III. Statement of Alternative Solution(s) 1. Create or revise company policies, procedures and guidelines that affect quality i. Quality Control – the management has to understand that quality control is no longer a mere inspection task but a competitive issue and part of the company’s strategy. As a representative of Ford Motor Co. nce put it “If it’s not right, we won’t ship it”. ii. Quality Management – the company should ensure that the technical, administrative and human factors affecting the quality of products and services are under control. iii. Quality Assurance – the company should be able to demonstrate the capability to control quality during the processes of product design, development, production, installation and servicing. iv. Certification – There are several internationally recognized quality management and quality assurance standards commonly used in various industries.
It is possible for the company to get an official certificate to prove that a recognized quality management system is being used. Common systems and standards are: a) ISO 9000 – This is a set of quality management guidelines developed by the International Organization for Standardization that can be applied in any organization. The company can try to obtain internationally recognized ISO 9000 certification. b) HACCP and ISO 2200 – HACCP is a food quality management system originally developed in the 1950s. It has now been incorporated into the ISO 22000 Food Safety Management System and is widely used in the food industry. . Introduce employee involvement into the system, for instance, a Quality Circle – This is a group of workers and management involved in production process. They meet regularly to discuss quality control problems. In addition, they try to prevent problems from occurring. Furthermore, their main aim is higher quality (lower possibility of defects) 2. Create or revise company policies, procedures and guidelines that affect health, safety and environment (HSE). i. Introduce an HSE Commitment that looks like this: We Care… | |We are all committed to: | | |- Pursue the goal of no harm to people; | | |- Protect the environment; | | |- Use material and energy efficiently to provide our products and services; | | |- Publicly report on our performance; | | |- Play a leading role in promoting best practice in our industries; | | |- Manage HSE matters as any other critical business activity; | | |- Promote a culture in which all Eastern Dairy employees share this commitment. | Get the support from top management and let all employees read, understand and apply this on a daily basis. ii. Create an HSE Policy that will establish that the company: a) Has a systematic approach to HSE management designed to ensure compliance with the law and to achieve continuous performance improvement; b) Sets targets for improvement and measures, appraises and reports performance; ) Requires suppliers to manage HSE in line with this policy; d) Includes HSE performance in the appraisal of all staff and rewards accordingly. iii. Establish a culture of intervention which gives each employee the right and duty to intervene with unsafe acts and conditions or when activities are not in compliance with the HSE Policy and Commitment. iv. Certification – It is possible for the company to get an official certificate to prove that a recognized HSE system is being used. The most common system and standard is ISO 14000. This is a set of environmental management standards to help organizations control the effects of their operations on the environment. 3.
Create or revise the inventory management & control policy, guideline and procedure. For Eastern Dairy, a significant amount of money is spent on inventory. Improper management (planning & control) of inventory can cause the business to lose money. The company needs to properly address their poor inventory control of bad storage that causes stock damage. Items can also be stolen or wasted without the knowledge of management if inventory is not properly tracked. There are several benefits of inventory management. The company that have a firm control on their inventory know their business value, their product worth, what products they will need in the future and precisely how much product to order.
Companies that have an understanding of their inventory also find that they are never in need of additional storage space (unless the business itself expands) because they manage existing space with efficiency. As a final point, inventory management and proper warehouse management puts business owners in a position in which they know what they have lost in the event of theft, vandalism, or some other unforeseen incident arises. IV. Recommendations The combination of quality control, quality management and quality assurance would decrease, if not eliminate, the possibility of having maggots or any other types of contaminants inside the tubes, filters and finally in the mix.
Management and workers would both be involved in quality control decisions. This will ensure that commitment is garnered from all levels of the organization. Quality should come first before production goals because, the fact is, clients do not care how much volume a company produces, they only care about the quality of the product they get An HSE Commitment, Policy, and the succeeding implementation and enforcement will greatly change the way employees and management view work. HSE takes health and safety of employees seriously. It also means regular maintenance is performed on company facilities to avoid the incidence of expensive and long downtimes.
A company that considers the environment before, during, and after performing activities scores high in the eyes of the public. V. Answers to Guide Questions 1. What should George do? George should intervene with the unsafe act that is transpiring. 2. What are the factors that will influence his decision? George’s next move will be influenced by his immediate needs and motivations. As the analysis on section II of this document indicates, George is motivated easily by what Maslow calls ‘lower-order needs’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:177) or McClelland calls ‘need for affiliation’ (Robbins & Judge, 2009:189). Due to this, I believe that George will follow Paul’s instruction and remove all the remaining filters to continue with the production. 3.
What changes would you introduce at Eastern Diary if you were in a position to do so? I would introduce many things to the company but not all at once. The recommendations section (Section IV) of this document explains my immediate actions. They would be followed by the introduction of intervention culture and then by a revised inventory management & control system. I’m confident that all of these changes will turn Eastern Dairy to the right direction as they did before in my present company. VI. Reference List Cousins, R. & Benitz, L. (1998) Does This Milkshake Taste Funny?. USA: NACRA. Robbins, S. & Judge, T. (2009) Organizational Behavior. 13th ed. USA: Prentice Hall. Clawson, J. 2001) Leadership and Intelligence. USA: Daden Business Publishing. Wikipedia (5 May 2009) ‘Maggot’ Maggot. http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Maggot [accessed 12 May 2009]. Directorym (2009) ‘Important Information About Inventory Management Wales’ Important Information About Inventory Management Wales http://articles. directorym. co. uk/Important_Information_About_Inventory_Management_Wales-r870421-Wales. html [accessed 12 May 2009]. **************************************** DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY OF WORK I affirm that the attached work is entirely my own, except where the words or ideas of other writers are specifically acknowledged according to accepted citation conventions.
This assignment has not been submitted for any other course at Robert Kennedy College or any other institution. I have revised, edited and proof-read this paper. CERTIFICATION OF AUTHORSHIP I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully acknowledged and fully disclosed in this assignment/paper/examination. I have also cited any sources (footnotes or endnotes) from which I used data, ideas, theories, or words, whether quoted directly or paraphrased. I further acknowledge that this written work has been prepared by me specifically for this course. – Julius Datinguinoo (12 May 2009) ****************************************