Reference no: EM133040863

Mr. Chakreswar is the supervisor of 25 unskilled workers working in a grocery warehouse. To reduce the costs, the management has decided to install mechanized materials- handling equipment. Since the workers laced training and knowledge about productivity and cost reduction effects of this equipment, the supervisor had to struggle a lot to introduce the change by involving all of them in it. Ultimately, the new equipment was installed with the active cooperation of his workers. A few months afterwards, Mr. Chandrasekhar was asked to install sophisticated quality control equipment among a group of technical workers. Since this group consisted of educated employees, who were in a better position to understand the company's problems, he expected little opposition to the proposed change. Accordingly, he did not exert himself much before introducing the new equipment as he had done earlier in the case of unskilled workers. Contrary to his expectations, the group resisted tooth and nail to the introduction of the new system until it was given up .However, the mistake proved to be very costly to Mr. Chandrasekhar.

He lost his job.

Questions

1) How do you explain the behavior of the two groups in accepting or rejecting the change contemplated by the management?

2) What should have been done by the supervisor to avoid resistance by the technical group of workers to the proposed change?