Assignment 2: Mountain Ash Suppliers (15%)

This assignment relates to the following Course Learning Requirements:

• CLR1 - Understand organizational behaviour and its impact on the workplace
• CLR2 - Develop teaming and communication skills for academic studies and the workplace
• CLR3 - Develop workplace appropriate values, emotions, and behaviours
• CLR4 - Appreciate workplace culture and change strategies

Objective of this Assignment

You will demonstrate your ability to identify and apply key concepts and models applicable to the assignment to explain the behaviours in the scenario.

Pre-Assignment Instructions

Prior to starting the assignment, make sure you have read and understood the relevant concepts and models explained in the Module notes and required text as they apply to the Course Learning Requirements.

Assignment TasksStep 1: Read the Following Scenario

Angela Rossiter has worked for Mountain Ash Suppliers for almost a year since she left the Armed Forces. It is good to find a job back in her hometown and she is happy to be close to her family and friends. Mountain Ash Suppliers is the largest employer in the small town and Angela's Dad and Uncle worked there until their retirement. In fact, Angela's Dad put in a good word for her to get hired.

Angela was hesitant about taking the job as she was aware that she would be the only woman on the afternoon shift. There are times when Angela feels like there has not been any progress in her Unit in the creation of a civil and non-sexist workplace. It feels like the Unit is stuck back in 1970's in terms of the language used and lack of concern about being civil.

Angela works in the Packaging Unit of the factory, as part of two shifts of 12 employees each. Although the factory runs around the clock, the Packaging Unit only works the day and evening shift, from Monday to Friday. As the organization is very heavily based on seniority, all the senior employees work the day shift, and the newer employees work the evening shift. "New" is a relative term as several staff members working in the evening shift have been there for 9 years. Mountain Ash Suppliers does not have a large turnover of staff and, in the small town, working for Mountain Ash Suppliers means that you are set for life.

The Packaging Unit is a unique component of the Factory because it only operates two shifts per day and because the Unit is in a separate building housing the loading docks. The Packaging Unit at one time was a very productive unit and won industry productivity awards, but over time the quality and quantity of work has dropped dramatically. Products are often packaged without any quality control and sent to customers in damaged condition.

Soon after Angela started to work in the Packaging Unit, she was shocked at how lax things were. Coming from the Armed Forces, Angela was used to a lot of structure and direction regarding the work to be done and feedback as to how the objectives were being met. While in the Armed Forces, Angela prided herself on always having her work completed on time and often ahead of schedule. Angela notices that times for lunches and breaks are rarely adhered to and there was an incident where one employee missed a shift and another employee had put the employee's timecard in, as if the person was actually working. She brought it up to the employees on her shift and she was told that "was how things were done" and that she should just keep it to herself.

Angela has never worked in a place like this before. For one thing, the evening shift does not have an on-site supervisor, but instead is overseen by a supervisor in the main building. Angela thinks that she may have communicated in-person with the supervisor a total of 3 times, once when she was hired and another time when she had to go to the main building to sign a form for an industrial accident report. Several of the guys had been horsing around and Angela got pushed into the corner of a machine. She was hurt and she thought that her wrist might have been broken. That incident was notable as her colleagues told her not to file a report as it would only draw attention to the unit, and everyone was happy being left alone. Angela filed the report in any event, and she noticed for a few days after she did, her work colleagues treated her differently.

Most of the communication coming from the main building is by email, which creates lots of laughs on the evening shift. A couple of the guys print the emails off and change the wording so that it is funny and sometimes rude.

Angela spoke to her Dad and Uncle about feeling uncomfortable with the working atmosphere and apparent lack of dedication to getting the job done. Her Dad just told her to "ignore it and do your jobit is a great place to work, and the pension is the best in town." Her uncle added that "once you are in Mountain Ash, you are in for life." While Angela understood what his Dad and Uncle were telling her, it just went against her belief that you should work hard and do your job.

Angela was not sure that she could see herself working at Mountain Ash for the rest of her life as she just doesn't fit in. All her life she had been driven by the need to be the best that she could be and to excel in whatever she did. She was certainly not feeling that same sense of accomplishment at Mountain Ash. Then again, maybe it was just the Packaging Unit as she had not experienced the other Units.

The shift change every day is an interesting exchange that Angela still does not understand. For 10 minutes each day, during the shift change, the day and evening shift are on the floor together and every day there is a jostling back and forth between the two shifts in the form of name-calling and sometimes some pushing and bumping. The evening shift call the day shift the "old timers" and "dinosaurs" and the day shift call the evening shift the "pups" and refer to the night shift still "wearing diapers." Angela tries to believe that it is all in fun, but she wonders if sometimes it might be more serious than is let on. This behaviour is so strange to her and she does not want to be any part of it. It felt to Angela like there were two separate groups within the Packaging Unit, based on seniority and that there was animosity between the two groups for some reason.

It is obvious to Angela that there is a very distinct informal leadership in the packaging department, which is stronger than the formal leadership structure in place. Decisions are made within the shifts that sometimes go against the formal decisions made by the organizations. A prime example is that if a shift does not get their work done during their shift, then there is mandatory overtime where employees must come in on Saturday to work. There is an informal rule within the evening shift to slow down and to never finish all the work during the shift, so that the employees can come back in on Saturday to work and get paid time and a half. Soon after Angela started working in the unit, it was made very clear to her that she was working far too quickly and that she should slow down.

Angela also notices that the friendships among members of each shift tend to extend beyond the workplace. She knows that several members of the evening shift get together for social events during the weekends and play sports together. She has not been asked to join in the outside-of -work activities and she is OK with that. She heard through the grapevine that some people thought that she felt she was better than everyone else in the evening shift, although she never did anything to suggest that, as far as she knew.

Angela was surprised to notice when she went to the main building to complete the accident form that management had its own lunchroom and a separate parking area and while staff is required to wear uniforms, it appears as if management can wear street clothes.

Recently a notice had been posted in the packaging unit's lunchroom (also used as the storage room) that a health and safety committee was being formed and a representative from the Packaging Unit was required. Angela told a few of her colleagues that she was going to apply as she wanted to learn more about the company and how things "worked". The next day during the shift change she was approached by two of the day shift telling her that the unit would decide who would be the representative on the committee.

Angela continues to work at Mountain Ash, but her level of frustration is high. There are many times when she wants to say something to her co-workers about the way that they behave and how rude and disrespectful they are, but she hears her Dad's voice telling her to "ignore it and do your job!" Ignoring it is getting harder and harder to do.

It has not been made public yet, but the Senior Managers at Mountain Ash Suppliers are planning a complete overhaul of the packaging unit soon, as productivity levels are not satisfactory. The packaging unit has been hearing rumors of upcoming changes, but they do not know specifics. The word within the Unit is to resist any changes that may be coming, even to the point of slowing down production even more.

Step 2: Complete the Following Tasks

Provide a summary of what you see taking place in this scenario.

Explain the behaviours in the scenario in terms of motivation, team, values, perceptions, and culture models and concepts.

Describe what Mountain Ash Suppliers could be doing to support the Packaging Unit.

Suggest what Angela could be doing to make her employment more enjoyable.

Make sure you use the following formula when presenting your analysis i.e., name the concept/model you are planning to use to explain what is taking place in the scenario, define the concept and/or model and then apply the concept/model to the scenario.

You must generate your response from the scenario provided. If there is information that you require that is not noted in the scenario just make your own assumptions but ensure to note them in your assignment.