Case Study

Assessment: Case Study/ Question and Answer Appendix 1: Scenario – JKL Industries JKL Industries overview JKL Industries is an Australian-owned company, selling forklifts, small trucks and spare parts to industry. They also have a division that leases forklifts and small trucks. The company’s head office is in Sydney and has branches in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra. Change After 12 years in business, focusing on forklifts and small trucks, JKL Industries has negotiated the sales rights to a range of medium and large trucks from an overseas supplier. This opportunity will provide JKL Industries with an advantage in range over its competitors. Sales results over the past five years have indicated strong growth in forklift and truck sales, which have averaged 10% sales growth per annum. The rental market has been in decline for the past three years due to the reduced costs of these vehicles and some taxation benefits to industries who purchase these vehicles. Taking the sales rights opportunity will, however, entail some significant changes, including significant changes to the current organisational structure. The company will reposition itself to focus solely on retail sales and service and exit the rentals market, in which forces such as competition and consumer choice reduce potential profitability. In accordance with the organisation’s values, JKL Industries intends (to the extent feasible) to recruit from within the company and up-skill or re-skill existing employees presently working in rentals who wish to remain with the company. Given the company’s previous history of employee grievances over pay and conditions and current plans to restructure, JKL Industries has identified poor communications and an organisational climate of conflict as a risk to business goals. Moving forward, the organisation intends to build and maintain a positive organisational culture, reduce risk and achieve organisational goals through:

● developing an effective policy framework for managing internal communications and consultation, in accordance with organisational objectives, business ethics, and compliance requirements ● communicating and building support for organisational initiatives and objectives

● managing information flow to: ○ provide managers and employees with at-hand information to perform their work responsibilities ○ communicate ideas for improvement (top-down and bottom- up) ○ facilitate feedback both to and from employees and management on relevant work performance and outcomes of consultation.

Diversity issues An internal management review of the organisation has uncovered the following issues:

● Poor leadership on the part of managers and low accountability and sense of personal responsibility for results on the part of both managers and employees. ● A lack of interpersonal skills, cultural sensitivity and emotional intelligence among managers and employees. ● A lack of trust. ● A lack of awareness of relevant policy and legislative requirements for diversity and business ethics. ● A culture of chronic conflict, characterised by:

○ resistance to change ○ hostility ○ passive aggression ○ avoidance of conflict, while leaving issues unresolved ○ issues that are apparently resolved and agreed flaring up repeatedly.

Networking issues As a manager, you have noted:

● A lack of awareness of internal and external networking opportunities. ● A lack of understanding of the purpose/s of networking and its relation to individual, team and organisation-wide goals. ● A lack of understanding of how to take advantage of networking opportunities through use of interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence. ● No internal communities or social platforms through which functional or cross- functional teams can discuss professional issues, and share insights and perspectives.

Brisbane Branch Manager You are the new manager of the Brisbane branch. Over the last two weeks you have familiarised yourself with the organisational environment and the characteristics and needs of your team. You have read the consultant’s report on proposed communication and consultation strategies and are 100 per cent behind the approach. The strategy will need to be applied to supporting diversity and facilitating better networking. The JKL Industries Brisbane Branch Manager reports to the Operations General Manager.

Appendix 2: Questions For the following scenario-based questions, put yourself in the position of the new Brisbane Branch Manager and answer the questions accordingly. Question 1: An employee has complained to you that some members of your team have not made any effort to accommodate non-Christians in this year’s Christmas celebrations. The employee feels excluded and disappointed that an opportunity to bring the team together has instead divided the team along religious lines. Draft a response to the employee’s complaint. In your written response include the following:

● Greet the employee respectfully, thank them for bringing this concern to your attention and reinforce the message that JKL Industries values the important principles of trust and confidence among the teams and overall organisation. ● Describe at least two pieces of JKL Industries’ policy or procedure that conflict with the team’s behaviour towards the employee. ● Identify one piece of relevant legislation that has informed the JKL policies and reinforced the company’s commitment to becoming an industry leader in cultural diversity and ethical values. ● Describe how policies and processes can help to promote cultural diversity, ethical values and relationship-building. ● Describe any changes or additions you would make to JKL Industries’ policies or processes, including future communications intended to implement and raise awareness of these documents. ● Explain how you intend to approach the team to resolve this particular issue fairly and how that will be consistent with organisational policy and the desire to further promote cultural diversity and ethical values.

Question 2: To respond to the issue described in question one, you have decided to meet with the team to directly address the behaviour. Plan and conduct a role-play meeting to address the issue with the team. (Assessor and group members to play parts of organisational team.)

● Use the following bullet points to plan how you will conduct the meeting. Consider a sensitive introduction to the matter that led to the need for this meeting ● Reinforce the message that JKL Industries values the important principles of trust and confidence among the teams and overall organisation including dealings with external clients. ● Describe what potential problems may occur if the team ignores this matter and outline the benefits of arriving at a suitable resolution. ● Explain the consequences of unacceptable behaviour, while maintaining trust and avoiding the impression of taking sides.

Question 3: As a manager new to the Brisbane area, you feel that you need to develop contacts with people internal to the organisation, such as managers, and external people, such as suppliers, business networks, managers’ networks and mentors. How would you approach networking to achieve goals? In your written response to the above question:

● Describe how networking with internal and external people could help you build positive relationships to achieve organisational and professional goals. What networking or networks would you suggest? ● Describe a situation in which you have previously joined a network to achieve organisational or professional development goals. Describe the purpose of that network and comment on:

○ how you built stronger relationships within the network ○ the result of the networking for you personally ○ how your involvement benefitted your team and organisation.

● Research an online network relevant to the scenario that would be appropriate for you to join as a manager. (E.g. LinkedIn provides many free opportunities for similar purposes.) Address the following based on your research experience:

○ Provide the name and the purpose for the online network that you explored. ○ Provide a link to an article that you found useful as a supervisor or manager. ○ Describe the potential identifiable benefits for your team and organisation if you applied concepts from the network contributions. ○ Research an article from another source that you think is helpful for management development, and that you would consider posting in this network forum. Explain:

– the general topic of the article and provide a link as reference

– why you personally found the article helpful – how the article could assist managers with identifiable/measurable outcomes for their teams.

Question 4: Think about your current internal and external relationships related to your working life. Using the Networking Plan template in Appendix 3, develop a plan for maintaining effective internal and external relationships. Using the template provided in Appendix 3:

1. Prepare a plan to develop and maintain internal and external relationships, including a schedule for the next three months.

2. Provide a rationale for each activity. Appendix 3: Networking plan Networking activity

Person

Schedule

Description/rationale for networking activity

Date for follow up review