a) Describe the culture of the organization based on the 7 Dimensions of Culture model in our textbook. Specifically explain the top 4 dimensions you think are important to ABC, and briefly explain why. (4 marks)

b) Say Abbie wants his organization to adopt a more innovative culture. Discuss, using the Six Steps to Culture Change (outlined in our textbook) how he could do this. Use specific examples of what he could do for the first 4 steps of the model. (4 marks)

a) Describe the structure of Abbie's Armoires Ltd., using the four building blocks outlined in the textbook. Use examples or information from the case to support your answer. If you cannot easily find specific information, speculate what you think may be right, based on what you know about the organization. (4 marks)

b) Say Abbie's Armoires Ltd. wants to drastically reduce its carbon footprint. This involves equipment/machinery changes, procedural changes and a general change in attitude of all employees. Explain, using Lewins three stage process, how this change could be implemented. Make sure you identify each stage and give a specific example of what could be done in each stage. (3 marks)

Abbie's Armoires Ltd. Background Abbie Bhardwaj founded Abbie's Armoires Ltd. (AAL) six years ago. The company designs and makes storage furniture such as cabinets, wardrobes and armoires. AAL quickly grew and expanded its product lines, focusing on exclusive store brand lines for retail clients including department store chains, and furniture and home dcor stores. AAL has developed a reputation for its product quality, attractive pricing, and service. As the company grew, Abbie realized that she needed more than just family and friends working for her. Four years ago, she hired a Chief Operating Officer (COO) and a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), so that she could concentrate on marketing/sales and longer term strategic planning Zachary Dezutti, coo, was a good fit, as he had extensive experience in designing and manufacturing various kinds of furniture. Zachary's team appreciate his friendly nature while still focusing on business matters. On many occasions, Zachary has shown concern for his subordinates. He regularly asks about their families and addresses everyone by their first name as he tours the manufacturing plant. Over time, Zachary hired two plant managers and three supervisors. Two of the supervisors oversaw plant operations and one managed the design department. Jacques Joanese is an experienced CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) in the manufacturing industry. Over time, Jacques has put together a small group of accountants and bookkeepers. Their responsibilities include costing jobs, payroll processing, health and safety, and maintaining accounting and inventory management systems. Jacques is demanding of his staff and is sometimes short-tempered with them, but the team is loyal and enjoy the challenges of their work. Because they have worked together so long, they have learned to stay out of his way when he starts yelling and slams his door. Everyone, including Abbie and Zachary put up with his behaviour because Jacques is very good at what he does. The executive team (CEO, COO, CFO) work well together. Abbie includes Zachary and Jacques on strategic matters and any other major issues concerning the company. With their complementary strengths and capabilities, they have been able to grow the company, with increasing orders, even with cheaper offshore competitors. AAL has enjoyed repeat business from customers because the company has been able to offer unique and high quality designs, at reasonable prices. Over time, AAL expanded its product lines and volumes. As it did, they grew in size. Two ye ago, the plant was renovated and updated to increase capacity, in anticipation of future growth. Abbie had a five-year plan to triple product lines and revenues, keeping their reputation for high quality and unique features. The executive team was in agreement that a good way to do this would be to buy out a compatible competitor. Ten months ago AAL entered an agreement to buy Cabinets & Wardrobes Corporation (C&W), a company about the same size as AAL. The owner of C&W planned to retire so the timing was right. Abbie felt the negotiated price was favourable to them. An added bonus was that C&W leased their facilities and their equipment, so it was relatively easy to unburden themselves of C&W's real estate and the equipment that AAL felt was not compatible with their modernization plan anyway. The 100 C&W plant employees were simply relocated to AAL's premises and a second production shift (evening shift) was implemented. Abbie realized it would take time to integrate the two companies. She assigned the task to Steve Chang and Jas Singh, two long time AAL managers, and Linda Yashika and Poppy Leung, two supervisors from C&W. Linda and Poppy led a productive team of C&W employees for many years. Jon Pham, a devoted AAL employee was made supervisor of the evening shift, reporting to Steve. In addition, two C&W employees, Ben Wise and Sean Dalton were made Quality Control Supervisors, a new function, reporting to Jas. Six months ago, and as a result of the merge, Abbie grudgingly accepted that she could not continue to manage hiring and personnel administration so she established a formal Human Resources department, headed by Pinky Anumba, an outside hire with extensive HR experience in medium sized companies. Pinky hired two managers, one for HR issues and one for administration. Pinky became the fourth member of the executive team. Organizational Chart of Abbie's Armoires Ltd. President Abbie Bhardwaj VP Manufacturing Zachary Dezutti VP Finance Jacques Joanese VP HR & Admin Pinky Anumba Manufacturing Plant Manager Steve Chang Manufacturing Plant Manager Jas Singh Accounting Team HR Manager Norman Li Plant Supervisor Jon Pham Plant Supervisor Poppy Leung Administration Manager Plant Supervisor Linda Yashika Quality Control Supervisor Sean Dalton Quality Control Supervisor Ben Wise Current Situation Tuesday 5:00 P.M. - Executive Team Meeting Abbie: "Wow, Danny Sanderson of The Den Room just told me we've won the bid to produce their new Storage Rack product line! And just yesterday, Furniture Emporium granted us another large contract! We're going to be busy over the next while to get these orders produced and out the door, with everything else going on. And we still haven't heard from Store Age." Zachary: "This is awesome. But what about the plant? How am I going to find enough people to add a third shift? I figure that's what we'll need to meet these orders. Besides, I've heard rumours that our current staff is not exactly happy with the integration of C&W and AAL." Pinky: "We should announce this news to the company as quickly as we can. If we don't the grapevine might distort the message." Jacques: "Well at least we have the equipment in place. The machinery can handle a third shift; that's what we've planned for. Thankfully we have all of the necessary machinery to take on these orders and don't have to worry about additional financing. From my viewpoint, we are well positioned to get into the big leagues. We have competitive prices and have shown we're better than our offshore competitors. Our new bonus plan should keep the workers happy. I say let's go after as much as we can. Pinky, can you handle the hiring of a hundred more employees? Maybe should take it over again." Abbie: (looking at her watch) "I have to leave. My son's soccer team is having a parent/child dinner tonight, and I have to be there on time, remember, AAL is a company sponsor. Let's meet again tomorrow morning. In the meantime, think of some ideas for a communication piece and how we can recruit and hire more employees quickly. Let's plan to work through the day on this tomorrow. I'd like you each to touch base with your direct reports before we meet, to gather any additional information you think we should have as we hash through this. Wednesday 10:00 A.M. Executive Team Meeting (Pinky brought Norman Li, HR Manager to present his draft) Norman: "Here is a communication plan I have put together: Hold two general information sessions to pass on the good news and explain planned next steps. Post invitations on the company bulletin board and send out a mass email, asking everyone to attend one of the sessions. Suggested times are today at 4:00 PM, just at the end of the day shift and 5:00PM, just at the beginning of the evening shift to ensure everyone can attend. Personally inform all management personnel so that they can make sure all staff are aware of the meetings and stress that all employees are invited. Print copies of an information sheet explaining the details of the new orders and the plans to complete these orders. Jacques: "This is crazy! People only care about what they will get out of this. We've gone through things like this before; our job is to manage and plan the orders. We don't have to involve everyone. In fact, it will make us look weak." Abbie: "I disagree. This is good news and we should celebrate it with everyone. Besides everyone's work has an impact on the quality of our products and we want to make that a top priority." Abbie sat back, arms folded, and listened to the rest of the team discuss the plan. Eventually the executive team agreed with Norman's proposal. As Norman left the meeting, Pinky thanked him for his work, especially on such short notice. Abbie and Zachary looked up and smiled in agreement. Pinky: (after Norman left) Norman told me about some concerning issues. He did some digging and found that the afternoon shift regularly has a higher level of absenteeism than the day shift. Also overtime costs are about 10% higher for the weekend work we did to make up for downtime due to the plant renovations. I think we should investigate these two issues; they may be symptoms of a larger problem. If we have a problem we are not aware of, it could get worse when we add another shift and 100 more employees Zachary: "Hmm, I spoke with my managers this morning as you asked Abbie, and Sean Dalton told me that rejects by the Quality Control department have risen. He was actually just writing an exception report for me. He has started to look into this. It may be because of the new equipment and the learning curve of using it, but he's not sure. He also told me that the in the past month Linda and Poppy (the ex C&W supervisors) have written a higher number of disciplinary warnings on their subordinates. Here's the weird thing... the increased rejects are coming mainly from Linda and Poppy's shifts. It seems that Jon's team is doing OK. Steve confirmed this. I also know that Jon has a good relationship with his staff, and he has a good track record. Pinky, can you tell if Linda and Poppy have a higher rate of absenteeism than Jon?" Jacques: "She's the HR person, of course she knows! The absenteeism and overtime costs help to explain why our unit costs are rising. I did notice the overtime line was up on the weekly financials, but Pinky, you beat me to it. So, Ms. HR expert what do you have to say about the absenteeism?" Pinky: "Actually Jacques, you are right, and I am aware of what's happening. Linda and Poppy's teams have considerably higher incidents of absenteeism than Jon's." Abbie: "Well it sounds like we better find out what's going on before we hire more people. We'd better get to it. I'm going to prepare the presentation for the sessions this afternoon. Meeting adjourned." (quietly) "Jacques, Can I see you for a minute?" Later That Afternoon (after the information sessions) Abbie: "Wow, I'm shocked. I expected we'd generate a lot of excitement with our news, not such an up-rise. It almost felt like a mutiny! It seems like people have not been happy with us for a while, and the floodgates just opened." "Many people commented that they liked things the way they used to be, but that seems to mean different things to different people. Some liked the family atmosphere we had many years ago, others liked the old C&W methods. When we negotiated with C&W's founder, I thought our styles were more similar than different. I thought when we appointed the plant managers and supervisors, making sure to take eligible people from each company, that they would be able to help bring the two groups together cohesively. I'm especially surprised that the old C&W staff prefer the top-down management style to our more inclusive and democratic methods. They actually respect us less, feeling we are softer and more wishy-washy." Zachary: "I was actually caught off guard when they started complaining about the supervisors, especially Linda and Poppy. I hate to admit it, but I had no idea that they were so rigid and unforgiving in managing and scheduling. I felt a lot of anger in the room when people opened up about them. Mostly I'm surprised that some of our long time employees feel they were not being treated with respect and dignity. Why didn't they come to me sooner?" Jacques: "Even some of my loyal office staff piped up. We just went through a renovation; thought working conditions were good. No one ever complained about workload before. And they are upset about the shift premium we are paying the plant workers! We just put in a new bonus system, which is better than anything I had when I was a junior accountant. What a bunch of ingrates!" Abbie: "All right, we have to turn things around fast; these new orders are coming, and it would be suicide to renegotiate them now. We have to fix these problems before we hire more people or they will get worse." Zachary: "In my area, I found out that some of the older AAL employees are not happy because they were not given the opportunity to work on and test the new equipment. That task has fallen on more of the old C&W employees, who certainly like that, in fact they seem to be gloating over it." Pinky: "Here's something else, has anyone gone to the bowling nights lately? People are complaining about having to pay more now. We did reduce the company discount after the merger, thinking some discount was better than nothing, but it hit a nerve with some people. Also, we were hoping these events would help bring the original AAL and ex-C&w people together but more original AAL people are going, and the ex- C&W folks who do go, tend to play on different lanes." Zachary: "I didn't even think that being way from the shop floor while we were looking for an acquisition would have such an impact. I was so excited about the merger that I did not realize how much time I used to spend in the plant, talking to staff. Maybe spread myself too thin, neglecting the people. Like I said, I was blind sighted when I heard about the personnel problems we are having." Pinky: "Can we meet again tomorrow? I think this is top priority. A brainstorming session might help." Abbie: OK, let's do that. In the meantime, let's not beat ourselves up over this. The important thing is that we now know there is a situation, and we can do something to fix it. I'm asking each of you to dig up some research to help explain what is happening and why. This should help us devise a solution. Thank you all." Let's say Abbie Bhardwaj (Abbie's Armoires Ltd. case) plans to terminate L and Poppy, and promote or find two new supervisors. Using Fiedler's model, what leadership style should these supervisors have? (Explain the Fiedler model and apply it to this situation.) State any assumptions you make as you do this. (6 marks) Answer the following questions relating to the behavioural theories of leadership: What is the general approach of these theories? (You do not have to describe a specific theory, only explain the general idea around the approach.) (2 marks) You read that the behavioural approaches were largely abandoned, but what did this approach contribute to further research into leadership? Give specific examples. (hint: some of the later theories used some of the attributes of the behavioural approaches) (2 marks) 3:39 pm