question archive Supplemental material created by professor According to the case, in approximately March of 1996, the ABB Elta organization had a total of 932 employees
Supplemental material created by professor According to the case, in approximately March of 1996, the ABB Elta organization had a total of 932 employees
Subject:ManagementPrice: Bought3
Supplemental material created by professor
According to the case, in approximately March of 1996, the ABB Elta organization had a total of 932 employees. At this time, David Hunter was still the country manager (served from 1990 through the end of 1996). As the case discusses, this was a difficult time because of several key factors:
1. Wage pressures were rising and exacerbating the productivity and profitability problems facing ABB Elta.
2. Employees were not accustomed to showing initiative and leadership for various cultural legacy reasons, largely stemming from mistrust and risk aversion during the Soviet era.
3. Efforts at leading the change toward more productive management practices were failing to make the desired impact, possibly due to an entrenched resistance to change as the prior leadership sought to defend their powerful positions in the organizational hierarchy.
4. Frank wanted to consider whether restructuring might be necessary and who might be the right people to lead a change initiative.
Frank Duggan entered this new leadership position in Feb 1996. As he entered that position, in February, he asked his good friend, Artur Czynczyk, to conduct a survey of the workforce leaders and managers. In all, there were 55 employees in various leadership, management, and supervisory roles at ABB Elta. Each of these 55 leaders had their own team of lower-level employees who worked for them. As indicated in the case, the organization was structured with several divisions: Power Transformers, Distribution Transformers, High Voltage Switchgear, Insulation Component Production, Galvanizing, Engineering, HR, and Paint.
The survey Artur administered contained only 3 questions:
1. To whom do you report? (Who do you consider to be your #1 Boss?) [name one person]
2. Who controls the resources needed for you to do your job better? [name up to 4 people]
3. Who do you trust most to help get our organization back on track? [name up to 4 people]
The responses are available in the excel spreadsheet under the tabs: Formal Chart, Resources, and Trust.
After receiving the responses, Artur began analyzing the data using NodeXL in order to look for patterns and to help Frank interpret the meaning of the data. NodeXL is an excel-based software program that can analyze social network analysis data. The following diagrams provide a graphical representation of the organizational networks for perceived formal authority, resource control, and trust. The nodes consist of names of managers and team leaders who were asked to indicate which other managers and team leaders satisfied the above (3) questions. The lines are actually directional arrows which indicate who selected whom as the most significant boss, controller of resources, and most trusted person. The individuals marked in Pink are actually the formal leaders of their respective departments within the organization. Finally, the size of the nodes are proportionately scaled to indicate the “in-degree.” This means that the people who are most often selected by others will have a node with larger diameter.
To whom do you report? (Who do you consider to be your #1 Boss?)
Who controls the resources needed for you to do your job better?
Who are the people who you trust most to help get our organization back on track?
Based on this information, and the associated info in the spreadsheet…
1. What are the main conclusions you would draw from looking at the first diagram showing the formal organization structure?
2. What is surprising about the workforce’s perception of who controls the resources that are most needed for people to increase their work performance?
3. What is surprising about who are the people most trusted to get the organization back on track?
4. After carefully looking at the graphical diagrams and the data, can you identify any individuals who may be representative of the entrenched resistance?
5. Based on the diagrams and data, who do you think should be selected as change agent(s)?
6. Frank would really like to have a person on the inside who could report back to him secretly about the progress of the cultural change and status of the resistance (a.k.a. as an informant with access to info about morale and the culture change progress). Can you identify anyone who may be trusted by people represented by both the entrenched resistance group and the potential change agents who could be such a well-positioned informant?
