Reference no: EM132217243
Derek has just been hired as a new supervisor of the quality control department of a Silicon Valley electronics firm. He was hired to create an exemplary quality control program that could be the heart of the firm’s reputation and brand. The previous supervisor had been transferred to Shanghai to co-ordinate quality control between the Chinese and U.S. branches of the firm. As Derek began to get to know his new team, he found the team had fairly high performance standards, good morale and low turnover. He also heard from several team members that Derek’s predecessor had been lax about following company rules to the letter, and he did notice that several team members sometimes left work early, came back from lunch a bit late or forgot to let him know when they were going to be out of the office. Derek was concerned that this lack of attention to company rules might carry over into laxity about upholding the highest quality standards in other areas of the team’s work, and he knew that his boss believed that he should be sure no employees abused company rules.
What should Derek do about discipline? (Please circle your preferred solution, once circled breifly explain as a leader behind the reason)
1. Do nothing about discipline, concentrate on quality, and justify his decision to his supervisor based on the team’s high performance and low turnover.
2. Gradually mention it to individual workers when he notices rule infractions, and work one-on-one to create change, one person at a time.
3. Tell his work group that he wants them to consistently follow the company rule on lunch breaks. When he gets good compliance on this rule do the same to change the team’s behaviour one rule at a time, until the whole team is following all the rules.
4. Call a special meeting to discuss rule infractions and let the team decide how to enforce the rules.
5. At his next team meeting, tell all employees that he is going to start enforcing all company policies and rules and imposing company punishments on all offenders consistently and equitably.