Individual assignment $1$Maximum marks: $80$Weight :$15\%$Organizational Behavior OBR $250$Topic: The Excellent EmployeeEmily, who has the reputation of being an excellent worker, is a machine operator in afurniture manufacturing plant that has been growing at a rate of between $15\%$ and $20\%$each year for the past decade. New additions have been built onto the plant, new plantsopened in the region, workers hired, new product lines developed, lots of expansion, butwith no significant change in overall approach to operations, plant lay$-$out, ways ofmanaging workers, or in the design processes. Plant operations as well as organizationalculture are rooted in traditional Western management practices and logic, based largelyon the notion of mass production and economies of scale. Over the past four years, thecompany has been growing in number and variety of products produced and in marketpenetration, however, profitability has been flattening and showing signs of decline. As aresult, management is beginning to focus on production operations $($internal focus$)$ ratherthan mainly focusing on new market strategies, new products, and new market segments$($external focus$),$ in developing their strategic plans. They hope to get manufacturingcosts down, improve consistency of quality and ability to meet delivery times better,while decreasing inventory and increasing flexibility.One of several new programs initiated by management in this effort to improve flexibilityand lower costs, was to get workers cross$-$trained. However, when a representative fromHuman Resources explained this program to Emily$$s supervisor, Jim, he reluctantlyagreed to cross$-$train most of his workers, but NOT Emily.Jim explained to the Human Resources person that Emily works on a machine that is verycomplex and not easy to effectively operate. She has to $$babysit$$ it much of the time.He has tried many workers on it$,$ tried to train them, but Emily is the only one that canconsistently get product through the machine that is within specification and still meetproduction schedules. When anyone else tries to operate the machine, which performs akey function in the manufacturing process, it either ends up being a big bottle neck orproducing excessive waste, which creates a lot of trouble for Jim.Jim goes on to explain that Emily knows this sophisticated and complicated machineinside and out, she has been running it for five years. She likes the challenge, she says itmakes the day go by faster, too. She is meticulous in her work, a very skilled employeewho really cares about the quality of her work. Jim told the HR person that he wished all

$.$ Page $3$of his workers were like Emily. Despite the difficulty of running this machine, Emilycan run it so well that product piles up at the next work station downstream in theproduction process, they can$$t keep up with her!Jim was adamant about keeping Emily on this machine and not cross$-$training her. TheHR person was frustrated. He could see Jim$$s point, but he had to follow executiveorders: $$Get these people cross$-$trained.$$Around the same period, a university student was doing a field study in the section of theplant where Emily worked, and Emily was one of the workers he interviewed. Emilytold the student that, although the plant had some problems with employee morale andexcessive employee turnover, she really liked working there. She liked the piece$-$rate paysystem very much and hoped that she did not have to participate in the recent $$Programof the Month$$ which was having operators learn each other$$s jobs. She told the studentthat it would just create more waste if they tried to have other employees run hermachine. She told him that other employees had tried to learn how to operate hermachine but couldn$$t do it as well as she could.Emily seemed to take a special liking for the student and began to open up to him. Shetold him that her machine really didn$$t need to be so difficult and touchy to operate, witha couple of rather minor design changes in the machine and better maintenance, virtuallyanyone could run it$.$ She had tried to explain this to her supervisor a couple of years agobut he just told her to $$do her work and leave operations to the manufacturing engineers.$$She also said that, if workers up stream in the process would spend a little more time andcare to keep the raw material in slightly tighter specifications, it would go through hermachine much more easily and trouble$-$free, but that they were too focused on going fastand making more piece$-$rate pay. She expressed a lack of respect for the managers whocouldn$$t see this and even joked about how $$managers didn$$t know anything.$$Answer All Case Questions: Each has a mark of $201.$ Describe the Background and Context of the Case$2.$ Using concepts from chapters $1-7,$ what are the key underlying OB issues that youidentified in this case? Expand on your answer using examples from the case toexplain your answer$\mathrm{.}3.$ What would you recommend to the organization to address the OB issues yI