Reference no: EM133472147

You are all hired as an individual or as a group of OB Consultants to make recommendations on the future direction of The Zen Company for long term sustainability. Read the "The Zen Company" case and answer the questions in Part I and Part II. Your answer should showcase your ability as a group to think strategically with consideration for company conditions, your knowledge of the course content and your ability to synthesize and augment the material across all chapters in the text or/and lectures.

Communicate clearly, concisely, and correctly in the written, spoken and visual form that fulfils the purpose and meets the needs of the audience.

Analyse, evaluate, and apply relevant information from a variety of sources Manage the use of time and other resources to complete projects.

Show respect for the diverse opinions, values, belief systems, and contributions of others.

The Zen Company Case Study (Total Mark= 100 marks)

Step 1 - Read the following description of the Zen Company

Zen, Inc., located in a large city in Atlantic Canada, is a medium sized manufacturer of clothing and equipment relating to outdoor and exercise activities. The Johnson family incorporated the company approximately 30 years ago. Ten years ago, the company offered shares to the public through the over-the-counter market. Zen experienced significant growth approximately 10 years ago and they expand nationally and internationally to North America. Recently they have been considering expanding their facilities and product lines again to Europe, Asia and South America to take advantage of the rapidly growing outdoor activities industry.

While the company has grown slowly and has many loyal employees, while some departments and division are profitable, and the employees' performance are well above average, other departments and division not so much and some NOT at all.

Currently Zen employs 700 individuals in spread across North America the following departments: 30 in accounting and finance, 10 in information technology, 50 in operation, 10 in human resources management, 500 in manufacturing, logistic and warehousing, 100 in marketing, sales and customer service, and 10 in research & development, across North America. Even though they have 10 locations across Canada and United States, most employees are tenure and from same background as Zen has traditionally promoted from within and occasionally recruits from outside the organization.

Zen Inc structure has been hierarchical with many management layers. Johnson family are all part of the executive table including the older brother as a CEO. There are many departments but only a few teams in R&D or a few projects. Lately due to expansion there has been complains coming from employees and last year the company hired an outside consultant to conduct employee engagement survey and the result was ill-favored:

The moral is low, and employees are not happy. Organization climate is based on rules and formal process and as such culture is company is stifling and each department and division have their own subculture which makes the company culture quite weak.

Many departments and employees feel they are rarely any communications amongst company departments and executives, and they are working in silos. Most communications are done via e-mail and are vague If there are meetings, they are usually done by managers of departments. Also, many employees do not know who they report to as they receive directions from different managers. Although the company cascades the goals each year for all employees, they are ambiguous and

The employees believe that there is power struggle amongst the Johnson family and due to this many senior managers and department managers use the politics to influence their boss and employees by upward appeals, legitimacy and pressure so employees perform, and they can keep their job. Leadership style is rigid control and micromanage and there are no compromising.

Also, the technical and marketing expertise of their current employees is questionable. The production techniques, product lines, and processes have recently been converted sophisticated technologies and continue to do so. But some of the production equipment is still out of date. There is concern if the company is ready to face the changes in next decade if they want to remain competitive.

Zen is planning to increase their productivity within the next few months. Top management projects an increase of 10% within the next year, 20% within the next two years, and 30% in productivity in the following three years. Sales within the last 3 years have increased consistently, from $10 million to $12 million to $15 million. But the profit percentage has been decreasing slightly over the past five years, from 10 percent to 7 percent.

The finance department has traditionally managed the capital structure of the firm. Currently the firm has a relatively small debt. Increasingly, however, the organization has been experiencing cash flow problems.

The human resources department was titled the personnel department until recently and its major function has been record keeping. The top position in the department is held by a former sales representative that was moved laterally into a staff position in the department and then inherited the top position when the former job holder retired. The company has also been involved in violation of the employment law and union negotiations. Recently, threats of slowdowns have been heard from the manufacturing workers.

The manufacturing department is the largest in the company. It has lacked cohesion and has experienced significant inefficiencies due production techniques. The department has a rigid hierarchy and all managers have been promoted within the department.

The marketing department has primarily included sales representatives and their managers. One manager has also had the responsibility for the advertising program in the company, and the advertising has been contracted to outside organizations.

The research and development group is small. Although increasing funds have been allocated to research and development, most managers in the company feel that it has little impact on sales. R & D has spent a lot of effort on developing new fabrics for outdoor clothing but has done little product development or equipment innovation beyond that.

The information systems department includes primarily computer operators and a few programmers who are responsible for automating the accounting practices in the company. There is no management information system. The computer is primarily used for customer billings, payroll, and purchasing.

Step 2 - Answer the questions in Part I and Part II

Part I Questions - The Issues-

What are the issues that you see in Zen Company? For full mark, you need to complete all issue including those that are not mentioned above which you think will be considered as issues based on your knowledge of course material.
What is the Motivational theory/s that is related and could help this organization employees? Explain why?
How does Attribution Theory fit with scenario? Explain why?
Are these behaviours (Employees & Managers) caused externally or internally?
How does Situation Strength Theory fit in this scenario?

Part II Recommendations - your answer should indicate the broad direction and philosophical changes you recommend for long term business success base on your course material. For this section you must refence the course/text to back up your recommendations

How can they resolve the power struggle and Conflict between employees?
Based on the above scenario what leadership theory/s would you think is most suitable for this company and why?
Given the current situation, how can they, with your assistance, assess the long-term (broad) change/s required? And what specific actions they have to take for this change to be successful? Why?
What would be your recommendation for Zen Company to succeed in future? Examples in, communication, teams, diversity, organizational structure