Gabriel Almack

CHAPTER 1: CFCA
1.) Their problems seem to have all developed form each other. Low employee morale may have stemmed from the company’s lack of new and innovative ideas, and the low morale doesn’t help in motivating the employees to come up with new ideas. This lack of new ideas has caused the company to fall behind the competitive foreign and domestic competition, leading to an obvious decline in market share. In order to reduce these problems, I believe it is important to start with the consumer. What products are the customers demanding? Time spent researching consumer products related to what they are producing could help them come up with new ideas, increasing morale and consumer spending, and allowing them to stay competitive with their foreign and domestic competitors. It also appears that leadership in the company is lacking. Their idea of appointing group leaders to help come up with new ideas was good, but these people also seem to have little experience in such roles. Perhaps some sort of training of top and middle managers would help them to better understand the role they are being places into, giving them a chance to better lead their group members. The confidence and experience they would gain from training would help them in motivating their employees.
2.) I understand Martin Griffin was trying to accomplish in breaking each department up into teams; appointing a long-time employee as the group leader, facilitating brainstorming sessions, and coming up with new ideas which can better the company. The problem with this, however, is that each department does work together in one way or another. Sending one group off to come up with ideas about their department is great, but it is obviously going to affect other departments as well. It may have been smart to place a couple of trusted, promising, or long standing employees into each group. They would have ideas about each department coming a couple of different people, and they would also have gained a better understanding as to how the rest of the company operated. Knowing how the other departments work is invaluable knowledge for employees when they are trying to come up with new ideas. Each department can then come up with ideas which will better the company as whole, and not just benefit their department.
3.) It is important for Barbara not to become frustrated at the situation. After hearing what her co-workers had to say, she could ask what parts of her plan they did like, and what parts of the plan would benefit the employees in other departments. She could use those ideas as building blocks to restructure the plan her group had already put in place, and it would also give the other departments something to build off of when they begin developing their own company success plans.

CHAPTER 2: CFCA
1.) The obvious environmental factors that have helped to create the situation Jasper faces are factors of the internal environment, or corporate culture. Jasper has to take into account the key values and beliefs of the company, and apply them to the situation at hand. As president of the company, Jasper realizes that he himself is held to the highest standards when it comes to company policy. He knows that it would be wrong to let that woman go and not apply those some company regulations to a senior employee. He also sees the differences between what happened with each employee, as one broke the trust of her co-worker and went through her email, while another was simply coping with a rough time in his life. It is important, however, that Jasper set an example for his other employees. In this situation, Jasper is going to have to create a plan of action which will let the company beliefs shine through, while being somewhat sentimental to what his operations chief is dealing with. It is going to be hard for Jasper to not get involved personally with the operations chiefs situation.
2.) The company obviously has high standards when it comes to their employees productions, which is why computers have been assigned for work related use only. However, the company is very lenient on the rule, as they realize the computers are being used for little things like checking personal email. Small infractions as such are being overlooked because they are obviously not affecting employee work output, or violating trust between other employees. That trust was, however, broken when an employee went through a co-workers email. This is not a small infraction that can just be overlooked like the others. Viewing of pornography on company computers can also be seen as a major infraction, but again, it does not break the trust of the other employees. It does raise a red flag with the company though, as their operations chief is not setting a great example for his employees by firing individuals for violating polices the same as him (although the other employees don’t know this).
Some of the other subconscious values and beliefs I detected and briefly mentioned above are suspicion. If the operations chief is doing this, what are other employees doing? This could cause mistrust towards employees by management. It could also cause the employees to mistrust management, as they begin to believe that management isn’t following the regulations and standards that they are being held to. This begins to answer the question of conflicting values. They are definitely present. On one hand, you have an employee who clearly broke all trust with employees and management when breaking into another’s email. On the other hand, you have an employee who didn’t personally harm any of the employees, and who is still quite productive in his work, but did majorly break company policy. I believe the value that takes precedence here are values of trust and understanding. The woman employee can no longer be trusted. Darger, however, is still a trustworthy employee going through a rough time in his life.
3.) The first step I would take is sitting down with Darger and having him fully disclose everything that he has done and what he is going through. It is important to understand this in making a decision on his future with the company. Although it is somewhat personal, he has involved it with his work, so it is important to understand. The second step I would take is deciding if getting Darger some outside help or therapy could improve his situation, or if this is a personal addiction that has gotten to the point where it is going to begin affecting his production. Once all factors have been considered, I’d make a decision on whether to keep Darger or dismiss or (whether indefinitely or permanently).
My role as a cultural leader would play a major role. As mentioned earlier, it is important to set a great example for my employees, and to let the values of my company shine through. I don’t want to appear weak when it comes to advocating the goals and regulations of my company. At the same time, I don’t want to appear a man who has no respect for the personal issues which my employees face, and I believe it is important to make sure that the well-being and morale of my employees is high as to get the highest production out of them. That is the message that I would want to send to my other managers and employees. Doing something wrong will not be tolerated (such as snooping through another employees email), but I do have an open mind and am willing to give hard working and trusted employees a chance to better their lives and continue to thrive in my company. It is imperative that they take all of the necessary steps, however, otherwise they become a risk to the company and will have to be let go.