Individual Case Analyses

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of Instructor]

[BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT]

[Date]

Individual Case Analysis

1. Since arriving in Singapore, Lancaster has formulated several opinions about the health of the Eastern Hemisphere organization. What are his concerns both now and for the future?

Bill Lancaster was appointed as President of Black and Decker Eastern Hemisphere organization in 1995. After analyzing the situation and overall working conditions of the company, Bill Lancaster was quite depressed as he found many drawbacks in the management system of the company as well as in its growth and development (Morrison and Black, 1998, pp.4). According to Bill, the managers of the company didn't seem to be growing or developing, and the overall assessment system was not helpful for the company's development and progress. The management style that was followed by the organization was one of the major concerns. In Black and Decker Eastern Hemisphere, Management by Objectives (MBO) plan was used by the managers, which was believed to be an outdated system at the time in the United States and was replaced even by other systems in the country. Overall, the company was facing bad and old-fashioned management style; there were also and some bad managers that were resulting in the downfall of Black and Decker Eastern Hemisphere organization development and growth. Bill Lancaster was able to predict that the future of the company was going to be gloomy. The company needed to take into account these issues very seriously and take appropriate steps and decisions to save the company's future. For these reasons, Bill Lancaster wants to use the Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) to counter most of the problems of Black and Decker and help it become a success. Lancaster expected that Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) would successfully address the majority of the concerns related to Management by Objectives, the company's managers and employee's performances and its evaluation problems as well. In Management by Objectives (MBO) method, the company's managers would meet with the employees individually and discuss issues with them or take their suggestions. Most of these suggestions or meetings that would take place did not seem to have any fruitful outcome, and the managers were merely informed or mostly ill-informed in general about the problems. In Bill's opinion Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) will solve most of these issues and would be helpful for the company.

2. What problems does Lancaster want ADP to address?

Bill Lancaster wanted Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) to address issues that MBO was not able to address appropriately or eliminate the issues that were created because of outdated Management by Objectives (MBO) system. Under Management by Objectives (MBO) method, it is usually difficult to make the system objective (Morrison and Black, 1998, pp.5). The management of the organization wasn’t developing and growing, and largely the employee evaluation and appraisal organization was not useful for business growth and productivity. The management style that was followed by the organization was one of the major concerns two major complications that Bill Lancaster wanted Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) to address was to lessen or eliminate the disparity of the management style of people such as authoritarian style and employee empowerment in the Black and Decker organization. Secondly, Lancaster wanted to tackle the lack of growth problem related to managers the company and its employees and help the overall improvement of the company. Management by Objectives (MBO) was widely used in the west in the 1980s, but currently, it is seen as old fashioned and less productive (Mio et al., 2015, pp. 327-330). Whereas, Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) in Bill’s opinion would be more productive and on point.

3. What concerns do Asian managers have about ADP? How substantive are these concerns?

Asian managers in Black and Decker had some concerns concerning Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) as it was not seen as compatible with the Asian culture. The major concern was that Asians unlike Americans are less likely to open up and they are expected to not offer vital feedback about their managers or upper management. For instance, Anita Lim who was working with the company for six years was against to the idea of introducing the U.S edition of Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) because Asians are not very open or extroverts when it comes to discussing their issues or opening up about others problems. Therefore, Asian managers expected that the U.S version of the Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) might result in not getting critical feedback about the supervisors or bosses and other important information from the employees. Besides, Asian people are very sensitive with privacy matters which Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) lacks in their view. Thus, in Lim's judgment Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) will not be braced by most of the Asian staff. Anita Lim also showed serious concerns about the confidentiality of the Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP). The change from Management by Objectives (MBO) to Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) was seen as quite drastic to these Asian managers. Bill Lancaster wants to put in place a more modern approach concerning employee review process that is Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP), and abolish the outdated system of Management by Objectives (MBO) that in President's opinion was not working well for the company and its management system.

4. What action should Lancaster take: wait, go ahead with a hybrid or full speed ahead with the U.S. version of ADP?

It was challenging for Bill Lancaster to go ahead with his plans for the company because of various reasons. The company was facing multiple issues at the time such as less development and growth, employee evaluation issues, bad management, and management system, etc. Bill after carefully attending to the organizational issues and investigating the processes he thought he had three options, one was to wait and decide with time what to do with the system and how to improve it but, he was of the opinion that the organization do not have enough time to and waiting would be damaging to the company's health. Another option was to go ahead with Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) and implement it as in Bill's opinion was the most on point solution for most of the issues of the company and its management. The third option was to agree with Lim's proposal to practice Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) partially and to not radically apply it (Morrison and Black, 1998, pp.12). If Bill waits and does nothing then most probably the company’s productivity will lessen even further and result in greater losses. If Bill decides to put in place Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) as a new system then he will be facing some challenges especially related to Asian culture. Therefore, the most appropriate option in this scenario would be to practice a hybrid model of ADP and MBO.

In my opinion, Bill Lancaster should adopt a hybrid system as it would be less risky considering the cultural differences and concerns of the staff members. With Asian managers and employees being less open and having a tendency of sticking to the Management by Objectives style of management; on the other hand, Management by Objectives (MBO) having its drawbacks that need serious attention as well, the company should move slowly and partially with the process and avoid making drastic changes. Bill should gradually implement new ways and gain the trust of the staff in the process. In this way the transition from Management by Objectives (MBO) to Appraisal and Development Plan (ADP) would be more smooth and effective; in addition, the occurrence of conflict during the transition phase will be less likely.

Works Cited

BIBLIOGRAPHY Morrison, Allen and Stewart Black. Black & Decker -Eastern Hemisphere and the ADP initiative. Ontario: Ivey publishing, 1998.

Mio, Chiara, Andrea Venturelli, and Rossella Leopizzi. "Management by objectives and corporate social responsibility disclosure: First results from Italy." Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal 28.3 (2015): 325-364.