MGMT20001 ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Semester 1 2024

Due: 11:59pm midnight, Sunday 7th April 2024

Submission: Submit as one document via OB Canvas Word length: 1000 words

Assessment weight: 10% of the total mark for the subject

Instructions

−  This assignment asks you to analyse a case, drawing on academic literature to answer three questions.

−  In order to answer the questions you must read the Case Study below.

−  You must include all of the required readings in your response.

−  In addition to the required readings, you must use at least four articles from

academic peer-reviewed journals. You will be given information about how to find  and reference such sources in the skill-building session held in Week 2 of Semester.

Individual Assignment Questions

The following questions relate to the material we covered in MGMT20001 about the contrast between Scientific Management and the Human Relations School.

1. Which of the three managers Bill Moses, Jack O’Reilly and Jay Raju is most closely aligned with Scientific Management in the way they run The Lynx Sports Car Company? In your answer be sure to demonstrate which specific aspects of management of the company are inspired by Scientific Management and how this  impacts the effectiveness of the service and the experiences of the employees (300 words).

2. Which of the three managers Bill Moses, Jack O’Reilly and Jay Raju is most closely aligned with Human Relations in the way they run The Lynx Sports Car Company?  In your answer be sure to demonstrate which specific aspects of management of the company are inspired by the Human Relations School and how this impacts the effectiveness of the service and the experiences of the employees (300 words).

3. By the time of this assignment due date, you would have attended 5 tutorials in

Organisational Behaviour, and would have experienced your tutor’s style of management across multiple class activities. Is your tutor’s style of management more closely aligned with Scientific Management or Human Relations School?

Using both academic research and evidence to support your answer, identify three features of your tutor’s management practices, and consider the impact of these features on your student experience (400 words).

Individual Assignment Required Readings

1. McShane et al. (2016). Introduction to the field of organisational Behaviour. In

McShane et al (Eds. 6), Organisational Behaviour: Emerging Knowledge. Global Insights. (pp. 2-38). Australia: McGraw-Hill. [Chapter 1]

2. Freedman, D. H. (1992). Is management still a science? Harvard Business Review, 20(6), 26-32.

3. Coy, P. (2007) Cog or CoWorker? BusinessWeek, 58-60.

4. Miller, D., & Form, W. H. (1964). The evolution of managerial philosophies. In

Industrial Sociology: An introduction to the sociology of work relations (pp. 643- 686). New York: Harper & Row Publishers. [Chapter 15]

Case Study: The Lynx Sports Car Company

By Roy Smollan, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

The Lynx Sports Car Company had been producing expensive sports cars from an old factory in Hamilton, New Zealand for three decades. After a number of years of success, it had recently fallen on tough times: for the last two years, it had made losses due to rising labour costs and a declining share of the market. Lack of capital for modernisation, greater competition and a decrease in sales in New Zealand finally persuaded the original owner, Bill Moses, who supervised production and liaised with retailers, to sell the company to an international sports car manufacturer. At the age of 73, he decided it was time to change his lifestyle and tend to the apple orchards on his small farm.

Over the past 30 years, the company had built a reputation for fine-quality cars and attractive styling. Bill insisted that to produce a high-quality product it was important that every part was thoroughly checked and the assembly process carefully and—to use his word—‘lovingly’ carried out. Deadlines for delivery to car dealers had occasionally been missed, but Bill had always believed that dealers and their customers would be prepared to wait for a car that was something special.

Many of the 26 employees had been with the company for over 20 years; 17 had been there since the beginning. It had a very flat management structure, with all employees reporting directly to Bill. He insisted that the Lynx Sports Car Company was a ‘family’ , where everyone was taken care of and where everyone’s loyalty and commitment were taken for granted. For the last five years, he had set aside 10% of the company’s after-tax profit for a bonus for employees, all of whom got the same amount, regardless of their salary. For the annual end-of year-function, the staff and their families were always invited to a barbecue at Bill’s house. He had attended the funerals of staff members’ relatives (as had most of the employees,regardless of whether the services were scheduled during working hours). In the previous year, three children of members of staff had each been given $2000 towards their tertiary education fees. One employee was ill for nine months and had his salary paid for the entire duration of his illness, which was far beyond legal and contractual requirements. On the other hand, another employee had been fired on the spot when he swore at Bill for insisting that he stay late, unpaid, to correct a mistake he had made. All the staff except the two office clerks were male and came from a mix of different ethnic backgrounds.

Staff had become accustomed to arriving after the official 8:00 a.m. start, but often took shorter lunch breaks than was normal for the industry and generally did not mind staying late. They were usually prepared to devote extra time to colleagues who needed work-related help.

On Mondays, all staff gathered for morning tea and a discussion of the week’s schedule. At this meeting, Bill would share information on the company’s sales, costs and other financial matters. Staff were encouraged to share information of their own at the meeting and to make suggestions and ask questions. Sometimes these meetings were only 15 minutes long; others would go on for over an hour. Every Friday, most of the staff left work at 4:00 p.m., around half of them getting together for a drink at a local pub. Bill would occasionally join them for a while.

Bill made most of the important decisions in the company but often sought the advice of

MatiuAnaru, who was unofficial deputy manager and ran the factory when Bill was out of town. Bill also spent many hours with the designer, Kenji Takada, a contractor, looking at trends in styling and sports car design. He usually trusted Kenji’s judgment on new designs or modifications.

At a Monday-morning staff meeting early one October, Bill announced his decision to sell the company and leave at the end of the month. He was not surprised at the shock and dismay this caused: nobody had any idea that he had been contemplating selling the company, let alone that he had concluded negotiations. Some expressed hurt that they had not been consulted or   even informed that selling Lynx had been on Bill’s mind. He replied that he had not wanted to create any uncertainty in case the sale had not gone through and he preferred to have completed the deal quickly before any rumours got out. He said he knew little about the new owners except that they had one factory in Ireland, another in Brazil and a wide range of dealers in Europe, the UK and North America. He informed the staff that representatives of the new owners would arrive in New Zealand at the beginning of November and would address staff on the first Monday thereafter at 8:00 a.m. He had no information about the new owners’ plans other than that they wanted to expand and modernise Lynx’s operations. He thanked the staff for their loyalty and the high quality of their work.

Everyone was on time for the first meeting with the new management in early November.

Jack O’Reilly, the new CEO, coolly welcomed them and gave them an outline of his

experience at the company’s head office in Dublin, Ireland. He introduced the new production manager, Jay Raju, who had managed factories in India and Brazil. Jack announced that,

while he had a huge amount of respect for Lynx’s products and staff, changes were needed for the company to regain its competitiveness and make a profit. Internationally, the market for

sports cars had improved but Lynx was struggling to introduce new technology, both in the manufacturing process and in the cars’ on-board features. He noted that the company had no website.

He informed the staff that the company would invest a considerable amount of money in new equipment and introduce a sophisticated computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) approach to vehicle assembly in abid to cut unit costs and increase output. New features would be added  to the cars, such as advanced information systems, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, fuel-injection and  a keyless start. The new system would be managed by Jay, who would train the staff how to use it. The employees were stunned to hear that a number of long-serving staff in production  would be made redundant within two months. People immediately demanded to know who

would go. Jack replied that the exact number and names would be decided within a few

weeks, but he did not expect it to be more than three or four. On the brighter side, he pointed

out, a sales and marketing department would be created with a particular emphasis on

exporting. A new position of marketing manager had been established and had already been advertised. The production manager and marketing manager would report to himself as CEO.

When asked by Matiu if the Monday-morning meetings would continue, Jack replied that he did not believe them to be necessary. Staff would be informed in other ways of what was

happening. In his view, financial information was confidential and staff might easily reveal

something that would be to the disadvantage of the company. The staff slowly made their way back to work but found it difficult to concentrate.

‘This is scary’, said Paulo Talau. ‘I could be out of a job shortly. Maria has just been laid off at the bank and we will be in big trouble. ’

‘I’m 64’, replied Ang Li. ‘Who’ll hire me at my age? I’ve been here 18 years, and there’s no car production in New Zealand now. ’

‘Yeah, and we don’t know anything about these new people’, complained Matiu. ‘We don’t

know what else they are going to do. This CAM stuff is nonsense. Computers can’t make cars. These people don’t love cars like Bill did: it’s just about money to them. ’

‘Maybe it won’t be so bad’, said Harold Carter. ‘A lot of companies use CAM and other computer programs—even robots. There are short courses at some colleges that cover this sort of stuff. I checked out some of the programs on the internet. ’

Nothing more was heard of the company’s plans for another two weeks. One Thursday

morning, staff arriving at work were surprised to find that everything on the staff noticeboard had been removed, including the personal photos and the international rugby schedule. There was one new memo informing staff that the informal practice of starting at different times

would be immediately discontinued. Hours would be strictly from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with morning tea from 10:30 to 10:45, lunch from 12:30 to 1:00 and afternoon tea from 3:00 to

3:15. The notice also indicated that subsidising the tertiary education of the children of staff

would not continue. A staff meeting was scheduled for the next day at 4:45 p.m. ‘Here we go’, said Paulo. ‘Lots of bad news already and more coming. ’

‘Too true’, commented Alex. ‘Why did they have to take our stuff off the noticeboard?’ ‘This meeting is the big one’, said Joe Peters. ‘This is where we get the chop!’

At the meeting, there was a hushed, anxious air. Jack began solemnly with an announcement that trading conditions for the sports car industry were more challenging than had been

forecast and that the layoffs would be greater than anticipated. Nine staff would be let go

immediately and would be given two weeks’ pay. He said he would read out their names and that anyone who wanted to see him would be free do so but he needed to leave for a prior

engagement at 5:30 p.m. He thanked all staff for their commitment over the years and said

that he had been forced to make the changes for the survival of the company. He then read out

the names, which included Paulo and Ang, six other production workers and one of the administration clerks. In stunned silence, the staff left the meeting room.

As they gathered outside, Joe was visibly miffed. ‘Why so many people? This is three times as many as they said it would be. ’

‘True’, responded Matiu, moving over to Paulo and Ang to console them. Paulo, however, hurried to his car and drove off. Matiuputhis arm around Ang and offered his sympathy.

Jack waited in his office until 5:30 p.m., but none of the staff called in. When he went to the

carpark, he noticed that his new Mercedes had two flat tyres. Only just able to control his

anger, he muttered to himself, ‘Do they think this is going to help? Just wait till I find out who did this!’

On Monday morning, Jack called a meeting of the remaining staff. He had decided not to say anything about his car. He tried to start off on a positive note by explaining that the company badly needed to make changes and that it would be helpful if everyone gave the new owners  and managers time to do so. He then introduced Shelley Preston, the newly appointed

marketing manager. She was 30 years old and had spent the last seven years working for a

variety of media and retail organisations. Shelley reported that the company was going to

maintain its existing dealer network in New Zealand but also market its cars online, which

would allow customers to specify details such as colours, upholstery, wheels, GPS/navigation and audio systems.

‘What does a girl know about cars?’, whispered Joe to Harold.

‘Well’, said Harold quietly, ‘this one seems to know what she’stalking about. ’

Jay gave considerable detail about the new CAM system that the company had bought. He

explained what the benefits were and how it would work. He said he needed three people to

train on it immediately and would be calling for volunteers. In due course, more people would develop the necessary skills but not all positions required this. Those who successfully

underwent the training would get a 15% salary increase. The system would be fully

operational by the end of February. A number of the production staff conferred after the

meeting. Some were sceptical that the company could make this work better than the previous system. One muttered that the costs were ridiculously high and that, rather than buy it, the

company could have saved a number of the positions that had been scrapped. Only Harold

and one other production employee, Richard Kingi, showed any enthusiasm for the system

and were the only production staff to apply for the training. To everyone’s surprise, Ellen

Nacewa from the accounts office had spoken to Jay about learning the new system. She

maintained she had a feel for information technology and could do her job while learning the new system. If this worked out, she would like to be transferred to the production role. There were mutterings from some of the production staff that an accounting clerk—and a female,    too—was being brought into replace their former colleagues.

End of Case Study.

Instructions

Structure/Formatting:

Write your response to each question in paragraphs.

Label your response to each question clearly using headings. (Q1, Q2 is acceptable.) Use double-spacing, and 12 pt font size, Arial or Times New Roman.

Assessment criteria/feedback sheet:

You will be assessed using the following criteria:

•   Conceptual understanding (60%)

•   Structure, organisation and writing (20%)

•   Research and referencing (20%)

Cover page:

Include a frontpage on your assignment as the first page of your assignment and fill in the

relevant details: full name, student number, subject code and name, due date and assignment name. If you do not include these details, we cannot mark your assignment.

The Assignment Cover Template is available on the OB Canvas page via:

Subject Overview > Assessment Information >Individual Assignment > IA Coversheet

Referencing:

All material used must be correctly cited and referenced, using the APA Referencing Syst em which includes:

•   In-text citations in the body of your short answer questions

•   A reference list as the last page of your assignment (listing only references you have cited).

•   Material that has not been referenced correctly maybe considered to be plagiarised, and as such maybe penalised.

•   We will also look for evidence that material included in the reference list has been used in the assignment.

•   Including references that have not been used may also result in your assignment being penalised.

There is a link to the APA Referencing System Guideline on OB Canvas page via

Subject Overview > Assessment Information > Assessment Guides

If  you   would  like  to  find  out  more  about  Academic   Integrity,   take  a  look  at  the Academic Honesty page available under Assessment Information.