Question

A note on credible sources:

Credible sources are those whose reputation is widely respected and verifiable, such as McShane, Canadian Organizational Behaviour.

Case Eight   Organizational Culture

As a senior management consultant, you’ve been asked to make recommendations on how to change the organizational culture of Carfrae Filters. Carfrae Filters has had one President at the helm for more than thirty years. There is a senior executive group, including a Director of Human Resources. Supervisors, line managers and various office and production workers manufacture filters and related products.

Over the thirty years the President has had a very authoritative and hierarchal method of management and his bad temper is legendary. While it would be expected that decisions would come from the knowledge and experience provided by the executive group – the President has consistently made unilateral decisions, including those concerning hiring and firing. Lately the company is not doing as well as it had, due to increased competition and increased cost of production, and the President is making changes and firing people for no apparent reason.

As a result, there is a culture of fear. A negative reputation is forming about the organization on various company and job rating sites. Each functional group within the organization responds differently to the fear, for example: the people on the manufacturing line don’t understand why they have a new supervisor every six months, and several have begun calling in sick. The senior executive worry about their job security. No one looks forward to going to work anymore, and it is affecting the bottom line.

Questions:

• What steps would you recommend Carfrae Filters take to improve the culture of their organization under the current President’s leadership?

What steps would you recommend Carfrae Filters take to improve the culture of their organization once the current President decides to retire.  

Answer 1

Answer =1 As the current organizational culture is full of fear and under the authoritative control of the current CEO, it is important to change the organizational culture by facilitating a greater chance of internal democracy in the organization. This can be done by facilitating greater chances for the employees to come up with their opinions and thoughts and present to the management. Apart from this, the CEO can also think of distributing powers and decision making responsibilities to the other managers so that the structure of the company becomes more democratic and distributive in nature. He has to be more friendly with others and try to be patient and friendly with others. The managers and supervisors must be given greater time to perform and the decision to replace them should depend on their capabilities and performance.

Answer 2= In this case, the management must try to find the person who is more of a democratic leader who listens to others, facilitate them guidance, and respect their opinions and wisdom. The organization should rely on the performance of the candidate for the position of the president and it is important to analyse how well the candidate has done in grooming the new leadership and talent in the organization. For any organization to flourish, it is important to have the environment of participation and democratic values