behaviour : emerging knowledge : global insights (4th ed..). North Ryde, N.S.W.: McGraw Hill Australia. Authors . Steve MeShane, Mara Olekales, Tony Trava glide greed. Pages : 523-525 ADDITIONAL CASE STUDIES $78007/0/6247 year of publishing : 2013 opportunity for employees to work on a variety of sites for short a new position if they left Austral. On the one hand. employees periods, giving them the opportunity to carn very good money. understand the need for growth and change, particularly as the The new supervisor admits that his is a more directive and company already has ongoing work with Chinese companies on centralised style of management, and that his job is to ensure that the other hand, many are resisting the changes Initiated by the procedures are laid down and followed. Some employees have supervisor. complained that the supervises is not very diplomatic when giving The fact that the new supervisor lacks specific industry guidance or instructions. So far. Overton has thrown his support knowledge places him at a disadvantage and has added to the behind the supervisor because change has to take place, but admits friction in the workshop. Some employees are adjusting but a that on occasion he has to smooth the waters and make excuses few of the long-term employees are refusing to work under the for him. strict conditions and accountability that the supervisor wishes From Overton's perspective. the supervisor understands the to implement. These employees claim that the supervisor would need for timely performance and nis effect on production costs, be less autocratic if he learned more about their jobs and really quality and the effectiveness that is part of Australsstrategic focus, appreciated just how difficult the work can be Overton also agrees with the supervisor that some employees Overton acknowledges that employees may be worried about have a relaxed attitude and have had it pretty easy as there have being forced to accept some time working in China, or concerned bean ongoing problems with some employees timekeeping A that operations might move from Perth to China. Their fears are large part of the problem is that the work is highly specialised totally unfounded, but it seems a possibility to some of them and the current employees are very experienced and would though the company has made it clear this is not something we want be hard to replace. especially given Western Australia's current to do', explains Overton. "We have discussed this with employees labour shortage, so some employees know they have significant formally informally and in group settings. We have aliberated the bargaining power over the management. The counterweight to this point a number of times! We are also open to discussing individual is that their specialisation could make it harder for them to find concerns, What else can we do?" first. These problems may be anything from house repairs to a HIGH NOON AT ALPHA request for an advance on wages. Only in rare cases, when M Ang MILL cannot resolve the Issue, Is the matter brought up with the mill manager. Mr Ang always ran a tight ship, and did not let anyone forget it. His superb technical competency helped him to keep the BY ARIF HASSAN AND THIVAGAR VELAYUTHAM, mill in top shape. He became accustomed to receiving the highest INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA appraisal ratings from the mill manager, who appreciated his firm. Alpha Plantations Sdn Bhd is a palm oil plantation located in methodical and almost militarily officiant way of running the mill Malaysia. It consists of a palm oil estate and one palm oil mill It In 1999. the palm oil industry in Malaysia faced many challenges is a wholly owned subsidiary of a British multinational company World oil prices plunged due to oversupply, and palm oil prices hit and was founded with the purpose of supplying crude palm oil for a 15-year low. This cut the profit margins of all palm oil producers its parent company's detergent-manufacturing business. Since its and caused Alpha Mill to post regular losses, Captain Chubb. the formation most of the managers have been recruited from the Us 54-year-old former Royal Engineer and mill manager. was mi a loss with many British ex-soldiers and police officers joining up Mr Ang as to how to improve performance "We are doing nothing wrong Slow Lee first joined Alpha Mill in 1965 at the age of 15 as a labourer. and have met all our efficiency targets It's this market that is killing and rose through the ranks to become the most sanlar non- usl' he exasperatedly explained during the annual year-end visit of managerial staff member at Alpha. Mr Ang is the senior production the directors from London Very soon Captain Chubb was given his supervisor at Alphas palm oil mill. His immediate superior is the marching orders. mill manager and he has two junior superusers to assist him, The Soon after, a new mill manager was appointed. Mr lan Davison. mall operates on a three-shift cycle of 25 operators each, and each a 32-year-old who hailed from Edinburgh, was very different from supervisor (including Mr Ang) is in charge of one shift all his predecessors. He was not a career plantation anguess Mr Ang is responsible for the smooth operation of the daily and had never managed an agricultural product-procesung mill palm oil processing. He coordinates the activities of all three shifts before. He was actually an electronics engineer with an bay League with the two supervisors, prepares the daily production reports, MBA on the fast track to a top management position His previous deals with short-term human resources planning issues and minor appointment was as factory manager of a detergent factory in discipline issues, and sets and evaluates short-term performance Egypt, where he managed to streamline and modernise operations, targets for all three shifts In addition. he acts as the 'gatekeeper'. and Increase financial performance dramatically Headquarters in which means that any mill personnel who wish to see the mill London had high hopes that he would be able to do the same with manager must first see Mr Ang who tries to solve the problem Alpha Mill and return it to profitability524 ADDITIONAL CASE STUDIES His first action was to analyse operations at Alpha Mill and Mr Any's response to this was to push himself harder. He was look for ways to reduce production costs and increase profits. He always the first to arrive and the last to leave. He would spend arrived at the following conclusions! a lot of time troubleshooting process problems. He pushed his Current performance standards allowed too much machine operators even harder, but he felt that he had less of a handle on breakdown and changeover time. Better standards were his operators now that they had direct access to the mill manager achievable with the latest technology. and most of their minor needs were seen to by him. Sometimes he Wastage could be reduced and yield improved dramatically became annoyed about his operators' mistakes and would resort by installing machinery based on new technology. to shouting and cursing, which had the immediate effect of moving Personnel numbers were too high-they could be reduced people in the direction he wanted. This was in contrast to the mere with technology, multi-tasking and unleashing the full glare that would have sufficed previously- potential of workers. The continued poor performance of Alpha Mall affected Personnel were just cruising along. They were not fully Mr Ang's mid-year appraisal rating. which fell down from 'excellent committed to achieving better performance to merely 'adequate'. During the appraisal interview an annoyed Mr Hygiene needs were not being met. Davison bluntly told Mr Ang that he needed to understand clearly The old colonial and hierarchical company culture was not what the initiatives were all about, and that he had to let the team conducive to performance improvement. take some responsibility, make mistakes and learn from them. "With Information was not shared across the mill. Operators only your knowledge of this mill, you should be able to provide them know about their own little area in the mill and almost with all the technical input they need. he said, Mr Davison also nothing about the company as a whole. added: 'It might help if you treated our people with a little more Mr Davison proposed to remedy the situation with the respect. We aren't living in the 1940s, anymore you know.' Mr Ang following initiatives was thunderstruck by the appraisal but did not raise any objections Empower operators by morganising the shifts into self- on the spot. He silently deferred to Mr Davison's judgment and directed production teams where the supervisors would now promised to do better. He also reiterated his utmost support for play the role of 'facilitators' and thereby gain commitment. Mr Divison and his plan. Install new technology and automation. After the mid-year appraisal, however, there was a noticeable Adopt more stringent performance measures. change in Mr Any's demeanour. He became very quiet and began Mr Davison implemented and executed those initiatives by first to take a less active role in the dally running of the mill. He was organising an excursion to a local picnic spot for the entire factory superficially polite to the operators and answered most requests After the icebreakers, games and lunch, he held a briefing session for help with "Get the team together and discuss it amongst on the beach, where he explained the situation that Alpha Mill yourselves. Show the boss that you can solve it for yourselves, was in and the need to make changes. He then unveiled his plan At first the teams were at a loss and mill performance suffered for the first time. The response was enthusiastic, although some badly, but within two weeks the team had found its feet operators privately confessed to not understanding some of the and performance began to improve. One of Mr Ang's junior terminology that Mr Davison used. At the and of the excursion. supervisors. Mr Raman, was able to coordinate between when there was some time allocated for feedback, Mr Ang production teams to ensure that the performance gains were expressed his full support for Mr Davison's plan. 'We in Alpha Mill maintained The effect on Mr Ang was devastating. He became have full confidence in you, our new leader, and we assure you of withdrawn and began to drink more than usual. His presence at our 11036 support to make your plan a successl' he said at the and team meetings became a mere formality and he contributed next of his speech to nothing, taking a back seat to other team members. He spoke When the new machinery had been installed and each shift very little to mill personnel and became a mere shadow of his had been reorganised into self-directed work teams, the plan former self. was put into motion. Whenever the team faced a problem during Mr Davison was very aware of the changes taking place on the processing and tried to find a solution using the techniques that mill floor. He decided that it was time to have Mr Ang removed had been taught, Mr Ang would step in after some time, issue from his position. He began to plan for a reshuffle of Alpha instructions and take over the process. 'This is a simple problemn. Mill's organisation chart where Mr Ang would be promoted no need to waste time over it. Just do it.' His instructions were to the new position of mill executive, a staff position with a always followed and the immediate problem was always solved small pay raise. His responsibility would be to advise the mill However, the production team reverted to the old ways of working. manager on technical, quality and efficiency problems faced by and none of the expected benefits of teaming was realised. Given the mill. He would be assigned to carry out minor Improvement the new, tighter performance standards and reduced number of projects and performance audits from time to time. Mr Raman staff, the team consistently underperformed. Team meetings were would be promoted as supervisor and report directly to the mill one-way affairs where Mr Ang would tell everyone else what had manager. Mr Ang would no longer have any line authority over gone wrong the production team. This reorganisation was quickly approvedADDITIONAL CASE STUDIES by head office and Mr Davison proceeded to lay the groundwork mill inspection. The confrontation was very loud, acrimonious and for the announcements and the necessary paperwork Little did he public. It ended with Mr Ang being terminated for insubordination forcace what was to follow. and areas misconduct. Mr Aing was in the head office one moming when the personnel After Mr Ang had loft, Mr Davison felt that the obstacle to executive's clerk congratulated him on his imminent promotion. better commitment and morale was gone and that performance A surprised Mr Ang enquired further and learned of the plans that would improve greatly. He was very wong. Team performance Mr Davison had in store for him. It was the final straw. He rushed began to deteriorate and no amount of pep talks could improve it. back to Alpha Mill just as Mr Davison was about to conduct his noon He began to wonder what had gone wrong