Paul Simard was delighted when Ancol Ltd. offered him the job of manager at its Jonquiere, Quebec plant. Simard was happy enough managing a small metal stamping plant with another company, but the headhunter's invitation to apply for the plant manager job at one of Canada's leading metal fabrication companies was irresistible.
Although the Jonquiere plant was the smallest of Ancol's 15 operations across Canada, the plant manager position was a valuable first step in a promising career.
One of Simard's first observations at Ancol's Jonquiere plant was that relations between employees and management were strained. Taking a page from a recent executive seminar he had attended on building trust in the workplace, Simard ordered the removal of all time clocks from the plant. Instead, the plant would assume that employees had put in their full shift. This symbolic gesture, he believed, would establish a new level of credibility and strengthen relations between management and employees at the site..........

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss the consequences of the time clock removal on Ancol's effectiveness as an organization using any two of the perspectives of organizational effectiveness.

2. What changes should occur to minimize the likelihood of these problems in the future?