Changes in the Plastics Division Ed Sullivan was general manager of the Plastics Division of Warner Manufacturing Company. Eleven years ago, Ed hired Rusty Means as a general manager of the Plastics Division's two factories. Ed trained Rusty as a manager and thinks Rusty is a good manager , an opinion based largely on the fact that products are produced on schedule and are of such high quality that there are almost no customer complaints . In fact, for the past eight years, Ed has pretty much let Rusty run the factories independently . Rusty believes strongly that his job is to see that production runs smoothly . He feels that work is work . Sometimes it is agreeable , sometimes disagreeable . If an employee doesn't like the work , he or she can either adjust or quit. Rusty , say the factory employees , "runs thinks He^ prime s firm and doesn't stand for any nonsense . Things are done by the book , or they are not done at all " The turnover in the factories is lownearly every employee likes Rusty and believes that he knows his trade and that he stands up for them Two months ago , Ed Sullivan retired and his replacement , Wallace Thomas , took over as general manager of Plastics Division . One of the first things Wallace did was call key management people together and announce some major changes he wanted to implement These included : (i) bring the operative employees into the decision -making process ; (ii ) establish a planning committee made up of three management members and three operative employees ; (start a suggestion system ; and (iv) as quickly as possible , install a performance appraisal programme agreeable to both management and the operative employees . Wallace also stated he would be active in seeing that these projects would be implemented without delay . After the meeting , Rusty was upset and decided to talk to Robert Mitchell , general manager of sales for the Plastics Division . Their conversation is as follows : Rusty :Wallace is really going to change things , isn't he? Robert : Yeah , maybe it^ prime s for the best . Things were a little laid - back under Ed. Rusty liked them that way . Ed let you run your own shop . I'm afraid Wallace is going to be looking over my shoulder every minute . Robert :Well , let's give him a chance . After all , some of the changes he's proposing sound good . Rusty :Well , can tell you our employees won't like them . Having them participate in making decisions and those other things are just fancy management stuff that won't work with our employees .