Case For Critical Analysis [PDF]

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CASE FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS RIO GRANDE SUPPLY COMPANY



Jasper Hennings, president of Rio Grande Supply Company, knew fell that a company’s top executive were largely responsible for determining a firm corporate culture. That’s why he took such personal pride in the culture of his taxes-based wholesales plumbing supply company. It didn’t just pay lip service to the values it espoused; integrity, honesty, and a respect for each individual employee. His management team set a good example for living those principles. At least that’s what he’d believe until the other day. The importance Jasper attached to respecting each individual was apparent in the company’s internet use policy. It was abundantly clear that employees weren’t to use Rio Grande’s computers for anything but business-related activities. However, Jasper himself was vetoed the inclusion of what was becoming a standard provision in such policies that management had the right to access and review anything employees created, store, send, or received on company equipment. He cut short any talk of installing software filters that would prevent abuse of the corporate computer system. Still the company reserved the right to take disciplinary action, including possible termination, and to press criminal charges if an employee was found to have violated policy. So how was he to square his cherish assumptions about his management team we’d was discover? Henry Darger, his hard-working chief of operation, and a member of his church, had summarily fired a female employee for having access another worker’s e-mail surreptitiously. She hadn’t taken her dismissal well” Just ask Darger what he’s up to when shuts his office door,” she snarled as she stormed out of Jasper’s office. She made what Jasper hoped was an idle threat to hire a lawyer. When Jasper asked Henry what the fired employee could possibly have meant, tears begun to roll down the operations chief’s face. He admitted that ever since a young nephew had committed been seeking escape from his troubles by logging onto adult pornography sites. At first, he’d indulged at home, but of late he’d found himself spending hours at work visiting pornographic sites, the more explicit the better. Jasper was stunned. After a few speechless minutes. He told Henry to take the rest of the day off, go home and think things over. The president himself needed the afternoon to gather his wits. How should he handle this turn of events? On the other hand, Henry’s immediate dismissal of the woman who’d tapped into another employee’s e-mail when the operations chief was violating the Internet policy himself was hypocritical, to say the least. The person charged with enforcing that policy needed to be held to the highest standards. On the other hand, Jasper knew that Rio Grande employee routinely used computer at their desks to check personal e-mail, do banking transaction, check the weather, or make vacation arrangements. The company had turned a blind eye because it didn’t seem worth the effort of enforcing the hard-and-fast



policy for such minor infractions. Besides, Henry was valued, if clearly troubled, employee. Replacing him would be costly and difficult. If Jasper decided to keep him on, the president clearly had no choice but to cross the line and get involved in Henry’s private life, and he would be treating Darger differently from the treatment the female the employee received. When he met with Henry again first thing in the morsning he needed to have a plan of action.



Question and Answer 1. What environmental factors helped to create the situation Jasper Hennings faces? What factors does Jasper need to consider when deciding on his course of action? The environmental factors that helped create this situation was how the company relied on consistency as its culture. By taking the strict stance in regards to personal use of the company’s computer system, and turning a blind eye to the employees’ usage of personal email, banking, and booking vacations has caused the employees to view the rule as one that was put into place but is never enforced. Jasper had an opportunity to stop this specific incident from occurring when he could have opted to install the technology needed to block these sites from the company computers. If the company would have had this technology this situation would have been handled without any issue. Since we do not know the course of action Jasper took the next morning, there are a few factors that I believe that he should weigh. One factor is that Henry and the female employee had violated the internet policy that specifically said that the company reserved the right to take disciplinary action. However, Jasper must also look back at how the company has been turning a blind eye to the usage of personal email, banking, etc. By doing this he has created an attitude within the employees that this policy is just ignored. Another factor is the severity of each situation. Henry is a valued employee who appears to be struggling with a personal dilemma, and the female employee (Jane Doe) might have been attempting to steal personal information from a co-worker. While doing this Jasper must attempt to always maintain respect for each individual, since that is what the company values the most. Another factor that the company should take into effect is updating the technology needed to enforce the “strict” company internet policy. By doing this it would allow the company to determine which sites can be allowed on the work computers, and allow for greater control over where the employees go. 2. Analyze Rio Grande’s culture. In addition to the expressed cultural values and beliefs, what other subconscious values and beliefs do you detect? Are conflicting values present? When values are in conflict, how would you decide which ones take precedence? Although there is already an internet policy, some of the employees are still using the internet for personal use. The management is aware of this but is not taking any action because they felt that it’s not worth the effort to enforce the policy for minor infractions.



In the company there was task-oriented employees and the company could be seen the culture from the different perspective. But the problem that has faced to company is not expressed from their performance perspective. We assumed that the employee has no problems in contribution of their duty regarding their respected job. So then, it didn't express someone who has fired because of his or her performance. Even though the management has provided some right to access on what employees did on the internet, and to take action on those employees who violate the rule of the organization, but it is only Darger, the chief of the company, who solely take action on employee for the illegal thing they performed. This weak internal communication and absence of discussion between the leader and the work force. In addition to the expressed cultural value and believes the subconscious cultures we detect are suspicion, mistrust or disbelieve, because of the suspicion of employees one other, by violating the settled rule of the organization, for instance accessing one's email without the knowledge of the others. Misusing of organization resource and ambiguity or vagueness- the expressed values (honesty, integrity and respect) that are expected by J. Henning to be addressed by his management team was not implementation. Also having a lack of transparency and the management itself is not a cultural leader\managers talk the talk rather than walk the talk (H.Darger). Lastly, fear of employees that is the work force is not extrovert due to lack of involvement culture, in addition, inequality and lack of flexibility manifests the company. Moreover, values that are conflicting in this case refer to those internal values that are contradicting, when values are in conflict, it creates a negative consequence both to the employee and to the employees. Because, if due to the conflicting values, the employee gives warning, termination and the like, it creates discouragement to the workforce and employees lack to be motivated to use their maximum effort. If due to the conflicting internal values turn over or employee dismissed is increasing, it is cost to the organization, cost of hiring new employee which in turn leads to other additional costs like training and time costs, and cost of firing the previous employee. Therefore, organization needs to set their values based up on the organizational mission and vision by participating the workforce regardless of their ranks, democratically. So, then values are in conflict, those values that coincide with the positive impact in productivity of the organization should take the first grade. Since everyone is there, because of the presence of the organization. For instance: values such as workforce empowerment in decision making, transparency, in discrimination and the like are possibly fruitful for both parties, and values related to weak communication, hidden promotion, only targeting the profit with exploitation of employee’s deterioration the good will of the organization. In such turbulent time, the focus of the organization is not only profit oriented, rather it is holistic which focus on employees as well as costumers. 3. Assume you are Jasper. What are the first two action steps you would take to handle the Henry Darger situation? How would your role as a cultural leader



influence your decision? What message will your solution send to the other managers and rank-and-file employees? As a cultural leader, Jasper needs to be able to effectively communicate and reinforce Rio Grande’s values in day to day activities for his employees to follow suit. In a time of crisis such as the Henry Darger case, Jasper would have to ensure that the company's policies and decisions continue to uphold company culture. A further look into the internet use policy in SWOT and evaluation of alternative options would best aid in decision making. I would first apply the appropriate disciplinary action to Mr. Henry Darger based on the company’s Internet use policy. Since I am, I will keep the honesty policy and not install software filters but will apply appropriate actions to any employee found violating the policy. Conduct seminars to reinforce the company’s values and policies to existing employees and to acclimate new employees Development of Alternatives. In addition, a leader should always think about the advantages and disadvantages of every decisions or actions that he/she may give to the employees. So, if I will do nothing for this case, there would be advantages like the company gets to keep a valued hardworking employee that will save the company the trouble of finding a replacement but the disadvantage there, it may give negative impact on employee morale. Another one action is to fire Henry Darger and install software filters to prevent unauthorized internet access. The good thing there, employees will not be able to use the internet for personal use. Employees will be afraid and think twice before violating company policies and the bad side is,



the



company will lose a hard-working and valued employee and it would be hard and costly to replace Henry Darger. A culture shapes what the organization seems behave because culture encompasses the work flow, communication or employee’s interaction, organizational thinking and other aspects. Therefore, adopting good organizational culture profits the organization as well as the work force. To the other managers and rank-and-file employees, make continuous assessment and supervision in order to get feedback for corrective actions.



MEMBERS: Charish C. Semilla Leny Geromo Rexan Ganaban Egelyn Polinar Melvin Walohan Aivegen Parilla Zyrah Mae Concepcion Principles of Management BA- 101 3:30- 5:00 MM 1C