QUESTION 41

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Read the following case and respond to any 3 questions that follow. Respond to all parts of each question. Please ensure that your answers include relevant theories and models from the course as well as examples from the case to support your conclusions

Columbia Paper Company

Columbia Paper is engaged in the manufacture, sale, and distribution of fine uncoated printing and specialty papers. The company makes approximately 100 grades of fine paper with the majority of its market being Canadian. In addition, the firm produces a full line of coated printing, fancy, and gloss paper. This paper is used in producing labels, brochures, greeting cards, and textbooks.

The company has two major manufacturing operations, on in Quebec and the other in Ontario. The latter location is responsible for the specialty coated papers. Over the last three years, the firm has modernized its Quebec mills to increase productivity and reduce costs through the application of newly developed technologies. The Ontario plant has also undergone modernization, but not to the extent that the Quebec plant has. Sales last year topped $129 million with a net income of $4.5 million. The company employs a total of 1412 workers in its manufacturing and marketing operations and the plants are all unionized

The plant manager is Susan Bums, who is the key person in the manufacturing organization. Susan has an MBA from the University of Western Ontario and graduated eight years ago at the top of her class. She has five years in marketing in the pulp and paper industry but with no manufacturing experience. Reporting directly to Susan are four day supervisors: a supervisor in charge of finishing, a shipping and receiving supervisor, a supervisor of coaters and sheeters, and a supervisor of maintenance

Now we focus our attention on the finishing department. The day shift supervisor of this department is Mike Tran. Mike immigrated to Canada from Vietnam in 1968. He finished high school here and has been with Columbia Paper ever since. He started as a junior stock boy and worked his way up to his current supervisory position. Mike is abrupt, demanding, and impolite. He tends to make all the decisions himself and all tasks are quickly assigned with no explanation (verbal or written) of expected outputs. Mike tells all new employees to talk to Rashid Khan (a well respected employee who has been there for many years and gives sound advice) if they want to find out what level of production per shift is demanded of him or her.

Supervision is very close on the day shift, with Mike constantly inquiring where employees have gone if they are away from their posts on the assembly line. Tension is usually very high during this shift as opposed to the two others (evening and night shifts), when few of the top brass are around. The day supervisor's style of leadership is based on the use of fear. He often acts aggressively by yelling at employees and threatening to dock the pay of, demote, or fire the offending employee if his concerns are not addressed. Employees are paid by the hour and their hourly rate is above the industry average. Communication is only one-way, downward from supervisor to worker.

The manager of plant operations, Susan Burns, is remarkably different. While she gives clear task directions and sets challenging production goals, she also has an "open door" policy and tends to consult her employees before making important decisions that affect them. She can be approached at any time regarding a problem and does take a genuine interest in her employees. When she notices good-quality work, or when production targets are exceeded, she makes a point of praising those responsible. She actively listens to an employee's opinion and if valid, she accepts it.

While the plant manager is liked very much by employees, she is disliked and resented by the supervisors who tend to have external loci of control and want to be told what to do. They see her as being too considerate or "soft." Once a month, the plant manager holds departmental meetings with all the supervisors and other employees in attendance to review operations and obtain their input. Any problem can be discussed, with priority being given to safety. Very clearly, there is some tension and conflict between the plant manager and her supervisors

Informal teams play a very important role in this company. Work on the assembly lines is monotonous and repetitious and forming groups is one means of psychological release. Each department of the firm has its own informal groups or cliques and there is also some interdepartmental rivalry present. This is evidenced by certain type of activities such as equipment (forklifts) being taken by one department from another or being deliberately misplaced just to frustrate the other departments.

In the finishing department, there are, to a degree, barriers to be overcome before a team accepts a new member. Such barriers include: (a) How much can he or she produce? (b) How fast can he or she acquire the necessary skills? (c) How willing is he or she to be accepted by the team? Acceptance is generally not difficult; however, one person was not so fortunate last summer. She was hired to do the final skid wrapping at the end of the finishing ine. The team did not accept her from her very first day, and they therefore increased production drastically to a rate that even an experienced wrapper/finisher could not keep up with, As a result, the new employee did not last beyond her third day on the job.

Remaining Time: 2 hours, 34 minutes, 50 seconds.

Question Completion Status: beyona ner tira day on te job.

The finishing department has an informal team leader, Gerry Sharpe, of whom all members are a bit afraid. Because of his quick sarcastic wit, he often gets back at an offending employee by causing him or her embarrassment in front of co-workers. Gerry sometimes also likes to break company policies in order to upset management and usually gets away with it. He consistently takes group member complaints to the union and occasionally to management. He is always filing grievances (complaints).

The teams do give their members some release by making a game of work. Many practical jokes are carried out, which do much to reduce the boredom of the job. Team pressures are prevalent when one deviates or begins to deviate from the so-called output levels. For examples, one day a worker found himself with a full day's run of good paper that could be run quickly. After a while the other workers on the line sensed the increased pace of production and seriously suggested that the worker go and either get lost in the plant or use the washroom facilities for at least 30 minutes. Upon his return, the worker discovered that the group had informed management that he was not feeling well enough to work. Also, many times during the summer, if the majority of the group did not feel like working they would leave and shut down the entire line. Management complained a lot but did not do much for fear of union reprisals

Upward communication (communication from employees up to their supervisors and managers) in the firm is very poor. Employees consistently keep as much information from the supervisor as possible. Even if a special order is being searched for and an employee knows where it is, he or she is not likely to tell and it is left up to the supervisor to find it.

Many problems have gradually come to the surface, and lately the following have become major concerns for Columbia's management:

• The quality of goods is very poor with a high number of rejects in tonnage per year.
• Low employee turnover in jobs due to the high wages and overtime but employees still talk a lot about planning to quit.
• The rate of grievances is high
• Absenteeism and slowdowns occur frequently. Employee morale is low.

In this company, fear and threats are used, and employee morale is thought to be a function of regular pay, overtime pay, fringe benefits, and social functions. The firm does have social committees, which organize both social outings and weekly draws. However, turnout for the outings is always very poor and considered a big joke among most employees. Because of the monotony of the work, absenteeism is high, even on overtime shifts in which employees are paid 150 percent of their normal hourly rate. After five days of work, the employees have had just about enough and want to spend the weekend with family or friends. This is considered more important than the work.

Slowdowns also occur frequently. They take two forms. First, employees on the whole are either upset at management or else do not feel like working, which causes an overall fall in productivity. Secondly, sabotage of equipment sometimes takes place, Employees know how to deliberately jam moving tables or other parts of the machinery, which causes downtime. The downtime is recorded on production sheets, which are handed in to management daily. Hardly a day goes by without some downtime being listed

In general, the Columbia Paper Company is in difficulty, since it has problems in all the key areas. The firm must seek solutions in order to increase productivity and reduce costs. It is rumoured that the Ontario plant is not cost-efficient enough to warrant the expansion program that the Quebec plant underwent. The company has to make extra efforts and strive toward a new model of organizational behaviour.

1. Explain the conflict handling styles used by Susan Burns, Mike Tran, and Gerry Sharpe.

2. What are the sources of conflict between Susan Burns and Mike Tran??

3. Use Expectancy theory to explain the motivational problems in Columbia Paper's finishing department and make reccomendations for improvement.