Request for Proposals: MidAmerican Manufacturing Company

The MidAmerican Manufacturing Company has sent out an RFP for proposals to increase employee productivity. In order to develop a proposal, your consulting team has done some homework.

Here is what your consulting group has learned about the company:

The leadership team consists of 10 members:

• Chairman of the Board2 years
• President5 years
• Senior Vice Presidentnew
• Assistant Vice President3 years
• Director of Global Research7 years
• Director of Community Research8 years
• Director of Administration10 years
• Research Analystnew
• Research Analyst10 years
• Office Manager30 years

Company Overview:

The MidAmerican Manufacturing Company is a seventy-five year old established manufacturing company in the Midwest. The company has a solid reputation in the community for producing quality products. There are 100 employees at the headquarters and five satellite offices throughout the country. Much of the communication is online and meetings may be held in person and through video conferences.

Over the past four years, the company has experienced turnover at the highest levels. There have been two interim chairs, three senior vice presidents and three new team members. There is no succession plan. The senior vice president is often overruled by the President. The assistant vice president does not have all of the qualifications for the position but was in the right place at the right time to move from research analyst to the current position in the department. The three directors staged a coup to oust the previous senior vice president, who was near retirement. The previous senior vice president is now a research analyst in the department with a vast amount of institutional knowledge. Everyone thinks the senior vice president, now research analyst, will retire when eligible. The directors were left to their own devices during the staff upheaval and created their own working environment. When a research analyst retired last year, a new research analyst was brought in. On the analysts first day, there were no keys to the office, no password to the computer, and no type of orientation or introduction to the team. Staff meetings are contentious as the new Senior Vice President works to exert power and control over the department, especially the directors. The team is resistant to that authority.

Amazingly, the production in the company is still above average although employees have not been pushed to deliver an excellent product for quite a while. There is no innovation to be seen in the company. Things appear stagnant. The Chairman of the Board wants the President and Vice President to turn up the heat on employee productivity and wrote the RFP with that in mind. While the RFP is about company productivity, the leadership team is in crisis. Given the background information your team has uncovered, you have decided to focus first on the leadership team since that is where decisions are made. Direct your presentation to the leadership team.

Q) Analysis and Presentation Details

Diagnose the situation at MidAmerican Manufacturing by considering the theories and elements of leadership with Change Theory

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