Cases on Important Topics in Management

Teamwork

Case One   Teamwork                                            
Martha is a Manager of IT who was assigned 10 employees to work as part of a team.  Martha has lots of experience in project management, but it is her first time leading a team. She contacted each person on the team individually and told them what they needed to do - she left the deadline up to them.  For some reason, after a month of time, the team was not responding how she thought they would, there was little cooperation and some members were asking to leave the team altogether while two other members were arguing often. Martha was distraught and could not figure out what went wrong.
1.With your knowledge of Teams from the course, list what went wrong in this scenario
2.Outline in detail what you would advise Martha to do to fix this situation and complete the project.
Case Two   Decision Making                                 
You have been asked to personally recommend a new benefits company to handle all the company benefits and pension for your organization of 500 staff. One of your colleagues, who is responsible for the project management, suggests that the best way to decide is to use a mathematical matrix and a set of pre-established factors that prospective companies can be scored against.
ï‚·What decision- making approach is your colleague recommending? Is this recommendation a good idea in this situation? Why or why not?
Case Three   Change Management                                          
As a Human Resources Business Partner, you have been asked by a Production Manager to help her create a change management plan. The change that will be implemented with involve modifying a work process that has been in place for over ten years and that front-line team members have become extremely accustomed to…but just isn’t efficient anymore. The Production Manager is concerned about resistance and the lack of adoption by the team members if the change is not rolled out “correctly”.
ï‚·Outline five strategies that should be employed, with examples, that will help minimize resistance to the change and enhance adoption of the new process.
Case Four   Conflict Management                                      
You have recently been promoted to a Manager that looks after two different teams of direct reports. The outgoing manager provided you with some insights about the various team members of both teams and made a point to mention that both teams work very differently from each other.
Specifically, Team A members were constantly sniping and undermining each other at both team meetings and in one on one interactions. The results that Team A produced were less than stellar.
However, Team B, which definitely disagreed with each other and had differing opinions and perspectives tended to get along well and generally produced superior work.
1.Briefly explain the difference between process and relationship conflict
2.Explain three possible underlying reasons why Team A may be experiencing relationship conflict and thee actions that the manager could take to help minimize relationship conflict as well as promote process conflict with Team A.
Case Five   Leadership                                              
In your role of Vice-President of Human Resources at ABC Inc., you have recently joined an organization that requires rapid change to compete in the marketplace.  You have heard the senior management team comment that your firm requires a strong leader to transform your culture.  
ï‚·You have been asked to prepare a five–point report to improve the understanding of transformational leadership (including a definition of leadership in general) and why it may benefit your organization. (10 marks)
Case Six   Power/Influence                                                                                           
You have just been hired as the project manager on a major project that is critical to the company’s success.  Eight people from different functional specialties have been assigned to your project team.  About forty percent of their time will be devoted to the project.  They take their direction from you with respect to the project but are not under your direct authority as they continue to do other work and continue to report to their current manager.  
ï‚·Describe the sources of power you can use to ensure that the project deliverables are completed on-time and to the level of quality required.



Case Seven   Equity                                                            
In this case we are dealing with the rumour of a potential union organizing drive in an organization which has been traditionally non-union.  You, the Management Consultant, has been hired to assist the organization with positioning itself to positively deal with this matter.
One of the key topics being argued is the notion that a union would provide Third Party Review of Management decision making through a mandatory Grievance/Arbitration process.   This is attractive to employees because it provides an element of fairness in the workplace.
Think about what you could advise the company to consider under these circumstances so that employees don’t feel a union is necessary and answer the following two questions:
1.How would the notion of procedural justice assist in this endeavour?
2.How would you recommend this notion be implemented?  
3.How would the notion of distributive justice assist in this endeavor?  
4.How would you recommend this notion be implemented?
Case Eight   Organizational Culture                                     
As a senior management consultant, you’ve been asked to make recommendations on how to change the organizational culture of Carfrae Filters. Carfrae Filters has had one President at the helm for more than thirty years. There is a senior executive group, including a Director of Human Resources. Supervisors, line managers and various office and production workers manufacture filters and related products.
Over the thirty years the President has had a very authoritative and hierarchal method of management and his bad temper is legendary. While it would be expected that decisions would come from the knowledge and experience provided by the executive group – the President has consistently made unilateral decisions, including those concerning hiring and firing. Lately the company is not doing as well as it had, due to increased competition and increased cost of production, and the President is making changes and firing people for no apparent reason.
As a result, there is a culture of fear. A negative reputation is forming about the organization on various company and job rating sites. Each functional group within the organization responds differently to the fear, for example: the people on the manufacturing line don’t understand why they have a new supervisor every six months, and several have begun calling in sick. The senior executive worry about their job security. No one looks forward to going to work anymore, and it is affecting the bottom line.
ï‚·What steps would you recommend Carfrae Filters take to improve the culture of their organization under the current President’s leadership?
ï‚·What steps would you recommend Carfrae Filters take to improve the culture of their organization once the current President decides to retire.