Question

Thomas Motor Company

John Thomas is the Managing Director of the Thomas Motor Company. He succeeded to the position of Managing Director after his father Martin Thomas died four years ago.  Martin Thomas was the founder of the Thomas Motor Company.  He started off as an apprentice mechanic in a suburban area of Melbourne when he was only eighteen working as an assistant to Fred Luthans, proprietor of Luthans Automotive Repairs. Martin learnt all he knew about vehicle mechanics from him. He was a keen and enthusiastic learner and Luthans liked people like that. He saw a lot of potential in Martin and once remarked to a fellow worker after Martin completed a job in record time, “That kid is going to be someone someday. By the age of twenty-one, Martin had become one of the fastest and most skilful mechanics that Luthans had ever taught.

Five years later, Martin left Luthans Automotive Repairs and opened up his own garage in Geelong, a city 70kms west of Melbourne. With his natural knack for vehicle mechanics, Martin’s small business prospered, expanded and grew into the well-known Thomas Motor Company of today.

It had been taken for granted that John Thomas would one day succeed his father Martin as Managing Director of the Thomas Motor Company.  Martin was conscious of this and he wanted young John to have a solid background in vehicle mechanics and sent him off to automotive technical school. He did not want John to be taking on a job which would be beyond his capabilities when he took over the business.

The company’s office where John Thomas was located was based in downtown Geelong, but the workshop was situated some kilometres away in an industrial estate on the outskirts of town. Working in the workshop were the five mechanics employed in the business. Steve Robbins, aged forty-five, the Foreman in charge of the workshop, was a veteran at the Thomas Motor Company. He had been Martin’s long-time friend and had been with the Thomas Motor Company since the day it was formed. He was the most experienced and skilled worker there.

Robbins basically did some administrative work besides the usual repair tasks at the workshop. He was the one who sorted out the work of the other mechanics, although there was no formal job description for his job. Robbins was an informal sort of leader. He would often join in the fun with the others and treated them as his equal. Everyone at the workshop was a member of a closely knit group and there was little need for Robbins to keep them in line. The atmosphere suited him extremely well.

Bob Johnson, aged thirty-four, was the next most senior mechanic on the floor. He had been with the company for the last fifteen years, and in many ways was considered a veteran too. Like Foreman Robbins, he was fast and very competent in his job.

Dik Kelly, aged thirty, had been with the company for the last ten years. He was just as skilful as both Robbins and Johnson but lacked the years of experience which made the other two men faster.

Jim Richards, aged twenty-one, was the only apprentice in the workshop. The workshop was at the moment short of one mechanic. The last one, Dave Hines, had left for Melbourne, preferring the glamour of a bigger city. His unexpected departure left the workshop one man short. As mechanics were not easy to come by, Robbins decided to train a mechanic himself. Richards the Apprentice, therefore, was supposed to learn, while helping either Robbins, Johnson or Kelly. He had been in the workshop for the last year.

Finally, there was Ralph Turner, aged thirty-six, and a newcomer to the workshop. Hired just three months ago, Turner had been working for his father at the Turner Trucking Company’s Workshop. The Turner Workshop had initially handled their own trucks and some trucks from other firms. Lately, however, the Turner Trucking Company contracts with several firms had expired. The firms refused to enter into new contracts. Soon Turner found that the Workshop section of his business was, in fact, operating at a loss. This was due to the fact that they were only servicing their own trucks fixing and maintaining the reduced Turner Truck Fleet. Eventually, Turner senior decided to close down the Workshop part of the business and signed a contract with Thomas Motor Company to service his remaining trucks. This, however, left young Ralph Turner without a job. Turner thus approached Robbins and asked him if there was a vacancy for a mechanic in his workshop. As Richards was still a novice, and since the workshop really needed another mechanic, Robbins the Foreman agreed and Ralph Turner was hired.

In the beginning, Robbins has told Turner about the way in which things were done around the place. Turner seemed very understanding and accommodating. He seemed quite happy and enthusiastic about his newly found job. This was despite the fact that he was the second lowest paid worker there. The pay was calculated by computer, based on both seniority and skill. Turner, of course, lost out on seniority, but he appeared not to mind this. Robbins thought that it was probably because he felt lucky to even have a job.

The workshop opens at 8.00 am daily and the mechanics are assigned jobs by Robbins. At 10:00 am there is an unofficial coffee-break where the entire crew would go across the street for a cup of coffee. This is looked upon as a social gathering, where the men would get to know each other better. Being an unofficial coffee-break, it is agreed that anyone who does not complete his first job by 10:00 am has to forego his coffee-break for the day.

Now, Ralph Turner seemed to constantly miss his coffee breaks. Although skilful, he was not as fast as either, Johnson, Kelly or Robbins. During his first three weeks there, he only managed to attend one coffee-break.

By the end of the fourth week, trouble was brewing. Turner had become quite alienated and dissatisfied with his job. He tried to hurry through his work so that he could make it to these social gatherings. Also, he did not want to appear to be the slowest around. His haste, however, led to one of the trucks which he repaired breaking down because of a faulty gasket.

Hearing about this, Robbins spoke to Turner in his usual mild-mannered fashion. He basically advised Turner to be more careful with his work and to take his time. Turner acknowledged this with an unfriendly shrug of his shoulders.

Over the next few days, Turner’s dissatisfaction grew even more as he tried to hurry his work, yet making an effort to be careful. Unfortunately, he still missed his coffee-breaks. At lunch, he chose not to associate with the rest of the crew and there was little communication between him and the others.

Soon, Turner began complaining about various things. He went up to Robbins and told him that the workshop was too dirty. So dirty, that he found it hard to work in it. Robbins tried to explain to Turner that they were understaffed at the moment and, besides, workshops were naturally dirty. Turner responded by saying, ‘It was always clean at my father’s workshop’. Not long after that incident, Turner complained about the noise from the loudspeakers. The men had always worked with the radio on so that they could keep up with the football scores and the racing. Turner once shouted, “Turn off that thing! How’s a man supposed to work in this kind of noise?”

By this time the rest of the men had quite enough of Turner and his temperamental behaviour. They ostracised Turner from their activities, which led him to believe that they were talking about him behind his back. One thing led to another, and things gradually went from bad to worse. Turner started spying on the others when they worked on his father’s trucks and he also complained about Apprentice Richards to Foreman Robbins. Turner told Robbins that Richards was more concerned about going off for the coffee-break and was not at all interested in his work or learning from the more experienced staff.

These two incidents led the others to dislike Turner even more. His spying on them implied his suspicions that they were not doing their work properly. This insulted the men.

Gradually, Turner became bolder about his suspicions and constantly lurked around his father’s trucks. He insisted that he, and only he, should work on the Turner trucks. Robbins replied that this was quite impossible, as sometimes two or three Turner trucks were in at the same time. Turner’s reply was that he would work on as many of them as he possibly could.

As a result of all these commotions, Turner’s competence as a mechanic fell drastically. He seemed to be more careless in his jobs and paid little attention to work other than that on his fathers’ trucks.

The final showdown came when one of the trucks which Turner had worked on broke down again. This time the front axle was dislocated. Turner had apparently not tightened the nuts properly. The accident could have been fatal if the driver had been driving at a faster speed. To make matters worse, the truck belonged to the same owner of the truck which had broken down before. Robbins the Foreman got an ultimatum from the customer.

The following day, John Thomas paid an impromptu visit to the workshop. There he met the staff and Robbins took the opportunity to tell John Thomas what had happened. Robbins mentioned that Turner had reached the point where he would do more harm than good to the company, but on the other hand, the Turner account was quite a large one. Firing Turner would mean losing the Turner account, and thus quite a substantial amount of business. But Robbins quickly added, ‘If we don’t fire him, he may be the cause of us losing even more accounts. I’d prefer to lose one account, large though it may be, but still remain in business, rather than keep one substantial account and eventually go bankrupt’.

Question: What is the background of this case and identify the issues.

2. what are the key management and business or organizational issue?

3. what theories are on change, on leadership, motivation and on planning.

4. What are your objectives to save the company?

5. Implementation of action plans.

Answer 1

1. What is the background of this case and identify the issues?
   

Background:

John Thomas became the president of the Thomas Motor company after the death of his father Martin Thomas. Martin Thomas learnt his skills from Fred Luthans, the owner of Luthans Automotive Repairs. After acquiring all the skills of a mechanic, Martin opened up his own garage in Geelong city which was 70 kms west of Melbourne.

Martin sent John to Automotive Technical School so that he could develop all the skills required to take over his position of Managing Director.

The company’s office was located in downtown Geelong while the workshop was situated in industrial estate on the outskirts of the town.

There were five mechanics in the workshop:

1. Steve Robbins aged 45 was a friend of Martin and worked since the inception of the company. He was the foreman in charge and most experienced staff person. Besides the usual repairs Robbins used to do some administrative works. He was quite mixed with everyone and treated everyone equally.
2. Bob Johnson, 34, was the next second most senior mechanic and was working with the company for the last fifteen years. He was fast and very competent in his job like Steve.
3. Dik Kelly, 30, worked with the company for the last ten years. He was also skillful but lacked the years of experience as his seniors had and this made them faster.
4. Jim Richards, 21 was the only apprentice in the workshop.
   

Dave Hines who left the organization for his personal reasons. The unexpected departure of Dave caused shortage of a man in the workshop. As mechanics were not easy to come by, Robbins decided to train a mechanic himself. Richards was thus, supposed to learn, while helping either Robbins, Johnson or Kelly.

1. Ralph Turner, 36 was hired just three months ago. Turner had a work experience of working for his father at the Turner Trucking Company’s Workshop which got shut because of less work and operating in losses.

In the beginning Turner was working good & was comfortable with his position & salary structure. The mechanic team went on to tea/coffee break every day after finishing their first job by 10 a.m. Though skillful enough, turner fall slow to his coworkers and had to miss his breaks. This annoyed him. One day, to make it to the break he hurriedly finished his work. Due to this haste, a truck repaired by him broke down due to a faulty gasket. Robbins talked to him in this regard, but Turner took it in an unfriendly way.

Since he was regularly missing his breaks, he felt to not associate with others in the lunch as well. Disappointed with what was going on, Turner started pointing mistakes in the things. He used to spy on other mechanics. Told lies about the apprentice that he was not willing to learn and looked for coffee breaks. He further, wanted to work on Turner trucks of his father. His work did less good & more harm as trucks which he had worked on broke down repeatedly.

Issues identified:

1. Lack of communication in the workers.
2. Lack of work ethics in Turner.
3. Self-centeredness
4. Customer satisfaction at risk
5. Lack of proper number of workforces.

2. What are the key management and business or organizational issue?

The key management issues in the organization relates to informal distribution of job responsibilities.

The organization has some following issues:

• Lack of hiring & recruiting policies.
• Lack of support from top management (MD) of the company. A support is later, but the managing director does not even have a idea of what was going on.

3. What theories are on change, on leadership, motivation and on planning.

The theory of change will include the change in the organization's policies, strategies & processes as current business is making loss because of the employee’s lack of skills and dedication towards work.

MD followed an autocratic leadership style in which he has full control over his staff & ignoring the suggestions of his juniors.

Planning in this case should be to make organization well structured & implement policies & strategies like hiring, compensation, work environment etc. to keep the work flow smooth and make desired profits.

4. What are your objectives to save the company?

After studying this case, my objectives would be following to save the company:

• Consider the feedback of mechanics of the workshop to determine the severity of the situation and determine the suggestion.
• Talk to Turner to make things right. He may be provided training or asked to leave the job depending on his willingness to cooperate.
• Making good planning & policies so that such problems never occur.
• Give a structured job description to the employees.

5. Implementation of action plans.

This would be the last step, in which Turner will be asked about his decision to work properly or leave the company because he has damaged the reputation of the company which can cause to monetary losses. Further his ill behavior can lead to unsatisfactory work environment in the workshop.

After this, MD should implement more professional hiring & administrative policies to run the business professionally.