Ravisti Industrial Limited powers businesses worldwide by manufacturing and supplying industrial products. The major markets that the company deals with is from the USA. There is an IT department to provide the services to support this core manufacturing division.
Mr. Mitesh has several years of experience in various roles in his career. He is young and passionate and believes in results. He has recently completed his Master of Business Administration, having a specialization in personnel management from the USA. He has joined as a COO in the IT department for the Mumbai location. The office timings when he joined were from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm. He felt that, as the company gets most of its business from the USA, the job timings should be from 11.30 am to 8.30 pm so that more services could be offered. He officially announced the change of timings and also gave the reason for the change in timings. There was no reaction for the first week. Later, Mr. Mitesh received a memorandum for the old office timings to be restored or to have different shift timings for different people. Mr. Mitesh did not yield to the demand. However, he was convinced that a step should be taken to instill a cooperative attitude among his employees, via an informal get-together. He started with a scheme where a monthly dinner was planned for all the employees at the office, and all the employees would bring their home-made dishes. They were also encouraged to bring their wives and children along for the dinner. The scheme was announced by sending an email to all the employees. The suggestions were welcomed to make the scheme successful.
No suggestions were received for the two monthly dinners. On one occasion, when the dinner party was approaching, Mr. Mitesh heard a conversation between two employees.
One of the employees said to another: ‘What are you bringing for the coming dinner party? I would be bringing nachos’. The other replied, ‘I would be bringing Biryani’, and both of them laughed. Mr. Mitesh felt that nobody was concerned about the suggestions for the dinner party. Though the event was not mission critical, and relatively frivolous, the scheme did not get due acknowledgment from the employees.
Questions
1. Assess the positive and negative consequences of the changes being implemented for the work timings.
2. What are the possible reasons for employees not supporting the actions of Mr. Mitesh?
3. Suggest how Mr. Mitesh should proceed in this situation.