The Dashman Company Case:
Summary
The Dashman Company was a large decentralized concern making many types of equipment for the armed forces of the United States. Late in 1940 the company faced increasing difficulty in securing certain essential raw materials. So Mr. Manson, the company’s president, appointed an experienced purchasing executive, Mr. Post as vice president in charge of purchasing to improve the situation. But there seems to be no improvement
Situation:
In this case Mr. Post has recently been hired as the VP of the purchasing department.
Post decides to centralize a part of the system by announcing through letters to the purchase executives that all the purchases made over $10000 should be cleared with the head office and that he is notified about contracts that are being negotiated at least 1 week in advance. The plant managers express support and co-ordination but the head office doesn’t receive any notice from any plant in this period.
Problems:
The people in the organization have taken the letter very casually as they feel that it is useless to follow what the letter instructs them to and there could be ‘n’ numbers of reasons for this. 1. The centralization announced just 3 weeks before the peak buying season. 2. Mr. Post not being taken seriously as a result the heads of purchases of the units were not in effect made a part of the decision making process which could have reduced the efficacy of the measure that was decided upon. 3. Mr. Post found wanting in People management; doesn’t visit plant heads, only sends terse letters 4. The reaction of the people might be different provided that the mode of communicating the decision would have been different. Mr. Post has been very blunt in communicating the message to the people of his organization. 5. There is no