\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Discuss the consequences of the time clock removal on Ancol\u2019s effectiveness as an organization.
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Examine any two of the perspectives of organizational effectiveness.
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Describe the changes that should occur to minimize the likelihood of these problems in the future.
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0What recommendations do you have for Paul to improve the relationship between employees and management? <\/p>\n
CASE STUDY: ANCOL CORP
Paul Sims was delighted when Ancol Corp. offered him the job of manager at its Lexington, Kentucky plant. Sims was happy enough managing a small metal stamping plant with another company, but the invitation to apply to the plant manager job at one of the leading metal fabrication companies was irresistible. Although the Lexington plant was the smallest of Ancol\u2019s 15 operations, the plant manager position was a valuable first step in a promising career. <\/p>\n
One of Sims\u2019s first observations at Ancol\u2019s Lexington plant was that relations between employees and management were strained. Taking a page from a recent executive seminar that he attended on building trust in the workplace, Sims ordered the removal of all time clocks from the plant. Instead, the plant would assume that employees had put in their full shift. This symbolic gesture, he believed, would establish a new level of credibility and strengthen relations between management and employees at the site. <\/p>\n
Initially, the 250 production employees at the Lexington plant appreciated their new freedom. They felt respected and saw this gesture as a sign of positive change from the new plant manager. Two months later, however, problems started to appear. A few people began showing up late, leaving early, or take extended lunch breaks. Although this represented only about five percent of the employees, others found the situation unfair. Moreover, the increased absenteeism levels were beginning to have a noticeable effect on plant productivity. The problem had to be managed. <\/p>\n
Sims asked supervisors to observe and record when the employees came or went and to discuss attendance problems with those abusing their privileges. But the supervisors had no previous experience with keeping attendance and many lacked the necessary interpersonal skills to discuss the matter with subordinates. Employees resented the reprimands, so relations with supervisors deteriorated. The additional responsibility of keeping track of attendance also made it difficult for supervisors to complete their other responsibilities. After just a few months, Ancol found it necessary to add another supervisor position and reduce the number of employees assigned to each supervisor. <\/p>\n
But the problems did not end there. Without time clocks, the payroll department could not deduct pay for the amount of time that employees were late. Instead, a letter of reprimand was placed in the employee\u2019s personnel file. However, this required yet more time and additional skills from the supervisors. Employees did not want these letters to become a permanent record, so they filed grievances with their labor union. The number of grievances doubled over six months, which required even more time for both union officials and supervisors to handle these disputes. <\/p>\n
Nine months after removing the time clocks, Paul Sims met with union officials, who agreed that it would be better to put the time clocks back in. Employee-management relations had deteriorated below the level when Sims had started. Supervisors were overworked. Productivity had dropped due to poorer attendance records and increased administrative workloads.
A couple of months after the time clocks were put back in place, Sims attended an operations meeting at Ancol\u2019s headquarters in Cincinnati. During lunch, Sims described the time clock incident to Liam Jackson, Ancol\u2019s plant manager in Portland, Oregon. Jackson looked surprised, then chuckled. He explained that the previous manager at his plant had done something like that with similar consequences six or seven years ago. The manager had left some time ago, but Jackson heard about the earlier time clock incident from a supervisor during his retirement party two months ago. <\/p>\n
\u201cI guess it\u2019s not quite like lightning striking the same place twice,\u201d said Sims to Jackson. \u201cBut it sure feels like it.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Discuss the consequences of the time clock removal on Ancol\u2019s effectiveness as an organization. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Examine any two of the perspectives of organizational effectiveness. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Describe the changes that should occur to minimize the likelihood of these problems in the future. \u2022\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0What recommendations do you have for Paul to improve the relationship between […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-44074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research-paper-writing","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44074\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/papersspot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}