The Falcon Car Company, based in Sweden, was for many years experiencing labour dissatisfaction with its traditional moving assembly lines of production. This was reflected in high levels of absenteeism and personnel turnover, as well as recruiting difficulties at its plants.
To make the jobs more interesting, the plants were designed so that the workers could operate in teams. Instead of repeating a single short task, each operator was trained to do all the jobs in their team's area. Each team has its own entrance, changing room, coffee room and sauna. The factory has been built as six distinct product workshops, each fully equipped to build a whole car, rather than mere sub-assembly. Falcon allows its workers time off for further education and lengthy paternity or maternity leave. Wages are comparatively good at Falcon and are supplemented by bonuses for high quality work. Production workers have the opportunity to be promoted from the shop floor to more senior positions. Mr Karlberg, the Production Manager, was once himself a production line worker at Falcon cars.
Cars are rigorously checked throughout the assembly process. Each team tests its own work before the car passes to the next team. If faults are identified, they are traced to the operator responsible and noted on a board in their area. If faufts are frequent or serious, their supervisor will take the operator to see the car and point out the problems.
'We let people know their mistakes in a positive manner. We don't go round with a whip,' says Mr Karlberg. The human lessons that Falcon has learned have eased the difficulties the company initially experienced with high absenteeism, high turnover of staff and recruitment.
'The factory is the closest car assembly has come to building on the spot, with operators standing still and components coming to them. People are getting more and more educated, so industry has to become more and more interesting,' says Mr Karlberg.
The consequences of the changes implemented by Falcon Cars are that morale and motivation have visibly increased. The evidence that staff turnover and absenteeism levels have significantly dropped confirm this.

Questions

In the role of Mr Karlberg, the Production Manager of Falcon cars, write a report for the attention of the Managing Director of Falcon Cars, that answers the following questions.
(a) Suggest reasons why Falcon Cars was experiencing high staff turnover, high absenteeism and general dissatisfaction with its traditional moving assembly line.
(b) Why has the Falcon Car Company provided the teams of workers with their own entrance, changing room, coffee room and sauna?
(c) By applying appropriate theory, explain why the workers' motivation has improved.
(d) Using Falcon Cars as an example, what factors need to be addressed and means used in order to change a company's culture?