Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Lakeland Wonders is a 94-year old manufacturer of high-quality wooden toys with three plants in
Minnesota and almost 5,000 employees. Cheryl Hailstorm, CEO, is approaching her 6th month with
the company. The Company has new external investors with high expectations about the company’s
growth potential and a management team that is resistant to the significant changes needed to hit the
aggressive targets. In the past, the products of Lakeland Wonders were manufactured in the US.
However, the cost to produce in the US is too high to achieve growth targets set by the board. To
achieve targets, Cheryl needs to land the Bulls-eye contract which would require the company to
outsource some of its production process.
Team mission, Cheryl has She planned to Cheryl exercised INEFFECTIVE. Cheryl
planning and developed a outsource leading by example to feels most of her
goal setting vision to launch a manufacturing to implement her vision managers are
lower-priced line China in order to and planned change, agreeable, but are
catered to the meet the board’s by scheduling to visit deliberately moving
mid-market aggressive growth customers, setting slowly behind her back
target aggressive deadlines in the implementation
for new projects, and of the vision
proposing a bonus
scheme to the union
for improving cycle
times
Team roles Getting people Cheryl gathered the Cheryl developed her INEFFECTIVE. The
involved with the management team own vision and only team member
plan to proceed in the conference expected the who supports Cheryl’s
immediately to room to discuss the management team plan is the CFO, and
offshore outsourcing plans and everyone in the he’s looking at it
manufacturing to and how it will company to agree and strictly from a
ship in time for proceed implement it numbers perspective.
the holidays
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B. The Medical City Case
1996 marked the inception year of transformation for the Medical City, a hospital complex, as it
underwent a radical overhaul from its physical edifices to its business processes and organizational
culture.
The physical state of the old Medical City was unimaginable for individuals seeking immediate
healing and wellness. The original hospital was situated at an area plagued by traffic congestion, as
well as characterized by limited bed capacities, parking slots, and commercial spaces. Treatment and
payment areas were distantly located from each other, causing inconvenience to patients and visitors
alike. In the advent of the dramatic revamp, major changes resulted to an improved overall hospital
experience – capacious spaces for commercial and dining use; increased number of consulting suites,
parking slots, patient accommodation, treatment, and diagnosis areas; and widened circulation areas
to accommodate foot traffic. The ground floor, for instance, accommodates several banks, flower,
food, and coffee shops, a beauty salon, and a gym. This brought The Medical City akin to a world-
class hotel.
However, Dr. Alran R. A. Bengzon of The Medical City emphasized that change shall not only be
physical but also organizational. Change warrants setting up a similar structure that would match the
physical transformation work, such as introducing process changes to optimize the day-to-day work
of running the hospital, and rebuilding the company culture without moving away from its roots. The
renewed Medical City instituted new mission and vision statements built on the old slogan “Patient
on Center Stage, Service of Greater Worth”, which express the company’s four core values: excellent
and compassionate service, client partnership, primacy of the human resource, and integrity. This
paved way for aligning the range of services offered with the organization’s goals and aspirations.
Participatory change was likewise introduced, whereby employees from various units and
departments had a direct involvement in coming up with services they wish to offer and the
corresponding requirements needed. The same employees similarly underwent a culture scan in
order to unearth the beliefs, attitudes, and values underlying the relationships among each other.
The following table provides for the specific activities, interventions, and strategies performed by the
Medical City to bring about the desired organizational change, and an assessment whether or not
they are effectively or ineffectively carried out:
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Team roles Implementation Enlistment of Leaders and “change EFFECTIVE. These people
of the change cooperation of agents” of the served as the coach to their
program to all leaders, “movers”, program were subordinates. They
levels of the and “shakers” selected to act as key reviewed business process
organizations implementers and improvements, cascaded
role models the OD&T agenda down to
their colleagues in their
department, trained and
received feedback from
them and communicated it
to the management
Inter-team Identification of Focus group Doctors and non- EFFECTIVE. The team
relations beliefs, discussions were doctors were brought came up with a list of
attitudes, and conducted with together in cross- idealized attitudes, values,
values separate surveys for functional teams and behaviors that served
underlying doctors and non- were the two groups as a basis for designing OD
TMC doctors to get a worked closely programs and human
organization sense of the together in resource management
organization’s brainstorming ideas systems.
culture. to address specific
process
improvements.
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C. Venus Marketing
Venus Marketing Corporation is a family corporation that sells cosmetic and health products with an
estimated 300,000 active accounts. When Daniel Ledesma became the company’s Executive Vice
President and Chief Operations Officer, he faced two problems: the company’s financial losses and
poor employee management.
The financial losses are partly due to a lack of accounting or evaluation system to determine which
branches were making money or not. Also, the company’s support departments such as HR,
Accounting, IT and Data Management did not have systems efficient enough to manage an
overstaffed organization ready for a makeover.
In terms of culture, the company has a patriarchal culture. As a result, employees are dominated by
relatives and friends, some of whom were hired or even continuously promoted though they were
not qualified for the positions. Other promotions were rewarded because of an employee’s length of
service and loyalty, which resulted to positions being occupied by unqualified employees.
The company also do not have a formal assessment of employee performance and no regular
performance evaluations. Employee evaluations were only made to justify salary increases, but
without clear standards or reliable benchmarks to measure employee performance. Finally, the HR
Department was not strong in monitoring or implementing training needs or organizational
developments.
Team roles Formalize goal Upgrade system by Goals and objectives EFFECTIVE. Non-
setting as part of starting partial were documented and performing managers
performance computerization and monitored. HR and employees were
evaluation initiated introduced training easily identified
improvements in the programs in through the new
procedures. Tasks preparing financial performance
and responsibilities statements. evaluations.
per position were
being clearly
delineated.
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income or below capacity for self- in question were reduced the
profit level liquidation given a chance to turn company’s financial
business around. losses.
In the end, all these changes resulted to reduction in the company’s operational costs. In the territory
branches, retrenched employees found their new work as collectors and supervisors working on a
commission basis as more flexible where they earn even more. Employees who stayed with the
company continued to express their support for management. Overall, there has been an improved
work efficiency at the head office and field operations. The whole organization is now singularly
motivated and committed to achieving the company’s mission-vision and values.
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