Bradford Chemicals manufactures high-quality plastics and resins for use in a variety of products, from lawn ornaments and patio furniture to automobiles. The Bradford plant located near Beatty, a town of about 45,000 in a South-eastern state, employs about 3,000 workers. It plays an important role in the local economy and, indeed, that of the entire state, which offers few well-paying factory jobs. In early 2004, Sam Henderson, plant manager of the Beatty facility, notified Governor Tom Winchell that Brad- ford was ready to announce plans for a major addition to the factory—a state-of-the-art color lab and paint shop that would enable better and faster matching of colors to customer requirements. The new shop would keep Brad- ford competitive in the fast-paced global market for plastics, as well as bring the Beatty plant into full compliance with updated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations. Plans for the new facility were largely complete. The biggest remaining task was identifying the specific location. The new color lab and paint shop would cover approximately 25 acres, requiring Bradford to purchase some additional land adjacent to its 75-acre factory cam- pus. Henderson was somewhat concerned with top management’s preferred site because it fell outside the current industrial zoning boundary, and, moreover, would necessitate destruction of several 400- to 500-year-old beech trees. The owner of the property, a nonprofit agency, was ready to sell, whereas property located on the other side of the campus might be more difficult to obtain in a timely manner. Bradford was on a tight schedule to get the project completed. If the new facility wasn’t up and running in a timely manner, there was a chance the EPA could force Bradford to stop using its old process—in effect, shutting down the factory. The governor was thrilled with Bradford’s decision to build the new shop in Beatty and he urged Henderson to immediately begin working closely with local and state officials to circumvent any potential problems. It was essential, he stressed, that the project not be bogged down or thwarted by conflict among different interest groups, as it was too important to the economic development of the region. Governor Winchell assigned Beth Friedlander, director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development, to work closely with Henderson on the project. However, Winchell was not willing to offer his commitment to help push through the rezoning, as he had been an enthusiastic public supporter of environmental causes. Following his conversation with Governor Winchell, Henderson sat down to identify the various people and organizations that would have an interest in the new color lab project and that would need to collaborate in order for it to proceed in a smooth and timely manner. They are as follows: Bradford Chemicals • Mark Thomas, vice president of North American Operations. Thomas would be flying in from Bradford’s Michigan headquarters to oversee land purchase and negotiations regarding the expansion. • Sam Henderson, Beatty plant manager, who has spent his entire career at the Beatty facility, beginning on the factory floor fresh out of high school. • Wayne Talbert, local union president. The union is strongly in favor of the new shop being located in Beatty because of the potential for more and higher- wage jobs. State Government • Governor Tom Winchell, who can exert pressure on lo- cal officials to support the project. • Beth Friedlander, director of the Governor’s Office of Economic Development. • Manu Gottlieb, director of the State Department of Environmental Quality. City Government • Mayor Barbara Ott, a political newcomer who has been in office for less than a year and who campaigned on environmental issues. • Major J. Washington, the Chamber of Commerce chair of local economic development. Public • May Pinelas, chairman of Historic Beatty who argues vociferously that the future of the region lies in historic and natural preservation and tourism. • Tommy Tompkins, president of the Save Our Future Foundation, a coalition of private individuals and representatives from the local university who have long been involved in public environmental issues and have success- fully thwarted at least one previous expansion project. Henderson is feeling torn about how to proceed. He thinks to himself, “To move forward, how will I build a coalition among these diverse organizations and groups?” He understands the need for Bradford to move quickly, but he wants Bradford to have a good relationship with the people and organizations that will surely oppose destruction of more of Beat- ty’s natural beauty. Henderson has always liked find- ing a win-win compromise, but there are so many groups with an interest in this project that he’s not sure where to start. Maybe he should begin by work- ing closely with Beth Friedlander from the governor’s office—there’s no doubt this is an extremely important project for the state’s economic development. On the other hand, it’s the local people who are going to be most affected and most involved in the final decisions. Bradford’s vice president has suggested a press conference to announce the new shop at the end of the week, but Henderson is worried about putting the news out cold. Perhaps he should call a meeting of interested parties now and let everyone get their feelings out into the open? He knows it could get emotional, but he wonders if things won’t get much uglier later on if he doesn’t. Questions 1. Do you think it is necessary for Henderson to meet with and try to build support from such a diverse group of people before moving ahead with the color lab and paint shop? Why? 2. How does the institutional view in the chapter help explain the events in this case? Discuss. 3. Which of normative or coercive forces among stake- holders do you think are more likely to affect the decision to build the color lab and paint shop? Why?
> After two years in your first job, you are promoted to call center manager for a major hotel chain. The expected service rate is 3.0 minutes per telephone call per customer service representative (CSR). With three telephone CSRs on-duty during the 6:30 t
> What is the implied service rate per service counter employee at an airport automobile rental counter if customer demand is 36 customers per hour, two service counter employees are on duty, and their labor utilization is 90 percent?
> What is the implied service rate at a bank teller window if customer demand is 26 customers per hour, two bank tellers are on duty, and their labor utilization is 90 percent?
> A telephone call center uses three customer service representatives (CSRs) during the 8:30 to 9:00 a.m. time period. The standard service rate is 3.0 min- utes per telephone call per CSR. Assuming a target labor utilization rate of 80 percent, how many c
> The demand for intensive care services in an urban hospital is nine patients per hour on Mon- days while intensive care nurses can handle four patients per hour. What is nurse (labor) utilization if five intensive care nurses are scheduled to be on duty
> A plant manufactures three products, A, B, and C. A drill press is required to perform one operation for each product. Machine operators work at 75 percent utilization, and the machines have 95 percent utilization. The plant operates one eight-hour shift
> The consumer loan division of a major bank wants to determine the size of the staff it would need to process up to 200 loan applications per day. It estimated that each loan officer can process a loan application in approximately 20 minutes. If the utili
> A big city automobile quick-service oil change shop can process 20 autos per hour over its multiple bays. Each mechanic can change the oil and do other related tasks at a rate of one car every 30 minutes. If the center wanted a target labor utilization o
> Jack Bracket, the CEO of Bracket International (BI), has grown his business to sales last year of $78 million, with a cost of goods sold of $61 million. Average inventory levels are about $14 million. As a small manufacturer of steel shelving and bracket
> An automobile-emissions center tests 50 autos per hour. Each inspector can inspect one auto every four minutes. If the center wanted a target utilization of 90 percent, how many inspectors would they require?
> As the assistant manager of a restaurant, how many servers will you need given the following information for Saturday night’s dinner menu: • Demand (dinners served) 5 100 dinners per hour • Server target utilization 5 85% • Service rate per server 5 16 d
> A 30,000-seat college football stadium is used 18 times for games, concerts, and graduation ceremonies. Each event averages six hours and assumes the stadium is full for each event. The stadium is available 365 days a year from 6 a.m. to midnight. What i
> A state department of transportation district is responsible for 300 miles of highway. During a winter storm, salt trucks spread an average of 400 pounds of salt per mile and travel at an average speed of 25 mph. Because of nonproductive travel time, the
> Tony’s Income Tax Service is determining its staffing requirements for the next income tax season. Income tax preparers work 50 hours per week from January 15 through April 15 (assume four weeks per month). There are two major tasks: preparation of short
> Worthington Hills grocery store has five regular checkout lines and one express line (12 items or less). Based on a sampling study, it takes 11 minutes on the average for a customer to go through the regular line and four minutes to go through the expres
> Given the following data for Alice’s assembly shop: Number of machines = 6 Number of working days in year = 340 Processing time per unit = 40 minutes a. What is the annual capacity with a single eight-hour shift? b. What is the capacity with two shifts
> We know the following data for Albert's fabricating production area: Number of machines = 5 Number of working days in year = 340 Processing time per unit = 60 minutes a. What is the annual capacity with a single eight-hour shift? b. What is the annual
> Define the concept of value.
> Explain how goods differ from services.
> Define a good and a service.
> State three of the key activities that operations managers perform and briefly explain them.
> Describe how operations management is used in work throughout business organizations
> Explain the concept and importance of operations management.
> Define critical path. Describe, in your own words, the procedure for finding a critical path.
> What information do you need to collect to conduct a basic CPM model and analysis?
> As the assistant manager of a restaurant, how many servers will you need given the following information for Saturday night’s dinner menu? • Demand (dinners served) = 100 dinners per hour • Service rate per server = 16 dinners/hour What assumptions mig
> What do arcs and nodes represent in a project network?
> Define and give an example of an immediate predecessor.
> Identify and discuss three contributors and impediments to project success.
> Describe the role of the project manager. What skills should he or she possess?
> What are the four major steps in the project- planning process?
> Describe the logic of computing the probability of completing a project.
> Discuss the three key factors of the project- planning process.
> How is the expected time and variance of each activity computed using PERT?
> Explain the PERT concepts of optimistic time, most probable time, and pessimistic time estimates. How would you estimate these times for a specific activity?
> Explain how to evaluate the effect of uncertainty of activity times on the total project completion time.
> Bennington Products makes four products on three machines. The production schedule for the next six months is as follows: The number of hours (hours/product/machine) each product requires on each machine is as follows: Setup times are roughly 20 percent
> Drew Ebel was contemplating buying an automated car wash franchise as a family business. His wife Caroline, their two kids, Jasmine and Luke, and their dog, Lilly, were a close-knit family that were tired of the bureaucracy of corporate and government jo
> When Walt Disney created the Disney empire in the 1950s, he forbid its star characters such as Mickey Mouse and Pluto to talk. Mr. Disney thought it would be too difficult to control the service encounters between customers and the Disney characters, and
> How does the Salvation Army manage to be “several different kinds of organization at the same time”? Does the Salvation Army’s approach seem workable for a large media company like Comcast or Disney that wants to reduce bureaucracy?
> Government organizations often seem more bureaucratic than for-profit organizations. Could this partly be the result of the type of control used in government organizations? Explain.
> In writing about types of control, William Ouchi said, “The Market is like the trout and the Clan like the salmon, each a beautiful highly specialized species which requires uncommon conditions for its survival. In comparison, the bureaucratic method o
> Look through several recent issues of a business magazine such as Fortune, Businessweek, or Fast Company and find examples of two companies that are using approaches to busting bureaucracy. Discuss the techniques these companies are applying.
> Describe the three bases of authority identified by Weber. Is it possible for each of these types of authority to function at the same time within an organization? Discuss.
> Why do you think organizations feel pressure to grow?
> Apply the concept of life cycle to an organization with which you are familiar, such as a local business. What stage is the organization in now? How did the organization handle or pass through its life-cycle crises?
> Do you think a “no growth” philosophy of management should be taught in business schools? Discuss.
> Why do large organizations tend to have larger ratios of clerical and administrative support staff? Why are they typically more formalized than small organizations?
> Caesars Entertainment centralized its big data analytics function to be more efficient. Can you think of some competitive issues that might lead a company to go from a centralized big data function to a function that decentralizes to various units?
> Why is knowledge management particularly important to a company that wants to learn and change continuously rather than operate at a stable state?
> Describe your use of codified knowledge when you research and write a term paper. Do you also use tacit knowledge regarding this activity? Discuss.
> Discuss some ways a large insurance company such as Allstate, Progressive, or State Farm might use social media tools such as microblogs or social networking. Do you think these tools are more applicable to a service company than to a manufacturing organ
> How might a hospital administrator trying to implement cross-functional teams use social network analysis to improve communication and collaboration among nurses, doctors, technicians, and other staff?
> Is Amazon an exchange platform or maker platform organization? Explain.
> In what ways might artificial intelligence incorporate bias into its decision making? Explain.
> How do the underlying assumptions differ for a traditional “pipe” organization and a new platform-based digital organization?
> Why do you think the application of digital technology typically leads to greater decentralization in an organization? Might it also be used for greater centralization in some organizations? Explain.
> How has the Internet of Things caused an explosion in the data available for analysis in organizations?
> Do you think the characteristics of a high reliability organization could be applied in non-HRO organizations? Explain.
> Vito Brassimo immigrated to the United States six years ago after working as design leader for an Italian company specializing in home sound systems. Armed with a vision and 15 years of experience, he founded his own com- pany, Technomagia, as the suppli
> A top executive claimed that top-level management is a craft technology because the work contains intangibles, such as handling personnel issues, interpreting an ambiguous environment, and coping with unusual situations. Do you agree? What type of
> Why might administrators at a hospital such as Seattle Children’s Hospital, described in this chapter, want to foster relational coordination?
> What is a service technology? Are different types of service technologies likely to be associated with different organization designs? Explain.
> How do smart factories differ from other manufacturing technologies? How might the transformation to a smart factory change how a manufacturing organization hires and trains employees?
> Why does Woodward suggest that span of control needs to decrease as technological complexity increases? Can you think of any circumstances that might change the relationship between the two?
> What is the level of interdependence among departments (finance, marketing) in a business school? What kinds of coordination mechanisms might be used to handle that interdependence?
> What is the difference between “reluctance to simplify” and “sensitivity to operations” in a high reliability organization?
> To what extent does the development of new technologies simplify and routinize the jobs of employees? Can you give an example? Can new technology also lead to jobs with greater variety and complexity? Discuss.
> Where would your university or college department be located on Perrow’s technology framework? Should a department devoted exclusively to teaching be in a different quadrant from a department devoted exclusively to research?
> There is research evidence to suggest that employees are happier working for a company that provides them with opportunities to contribute to environmental sustainability. Why do you think this would be the case?
> Benjamin and William Farrington started a small manufacturing business with their father, Samuel Farrington, who was a professor of biomedical science at a major university. They began the business by making a line of smaller and more precise non-reusabl
> A survey found that 69 percent of MBA students view maximizing shareholder value as the primary responsibility of a company. How would that philosophy fit into a hybrid organization?
> Is it reasonable to expect that managers can measure their social and environmental performance with the same accuracy as they measure financial outcomes when using a triple bottom line approach?
> What do you think would happen if a hybrid organization focused on profit goals to the exclusion of social goals? If vice-versa? Explain.
> Why would a social enterprise be better able to maintain a strong social welfare purpose by choosing other like-minded organizations with which to collaborate?
> Do you personally embrace a commercial logic or a social welfare logic? Why do you think you hold to that perspective?
> How might “mission drift” hurt the performance of a social enterprise?
> Compare and contrast the two major “logics” that organization members might hold in a hybrid organization.
> Explain the concept of conscious capitalism. Do you think managers and companies that espouse this kind of shared value approach are more likely to behave in socially responsible ways?
> What is a hybrid organization? How does it differ from a typical nonprofit or profit-seeking organization?
> Do you believe it is possible for a global company to simultaneously achieve the goals of global efficiency and integration, national responsiveness and flexibility, and the worldwide transfer of knowledge and innovation? Discuss.
> They are the most treasured possessions; they line mantels and living room walls; they are the first items frantically sought by family members following fires or natural disasters. They are family photographs. Considering the popularity and demand for b
> Traditional values in Mexico support high power distance and a low tolerance for uncertainty. What would you predict about a company that opens a division in Mexico and tries to implement global teams characterized by shared power and authority and the l
> Name some of the elements that contribute to greater complexity for international organizations. How do organizations address this complexity? Do you think these elements apply to a company such as Spotify that wants to expand its music streaming service
> When would an organization consider using a matrix structure? How does the global matrix differ from the domestic matrix structure described in Chapter 3?
> What are some of the primary reasons a company decides to expand internationally? Identify a company in the news that has recently built a new overseas facility. Which of the three motivations for global expansion described in the chapter do you think be
> Do you think it makes sense for a transnational organization to have more than one headquarters? What might be some advantages associated with two head- quarters, each responsible for different things? Can you think of any drawbacks?
> Many American companies enter China through joint ventures with local firms, but China is succeeding in the United States primarily with a strategy of buying companies outright. What are some factors that might account for this difference?
> Why do you think the tension between a desire for global uniformity and local responsiveness is greater today than in the past?
> Compare the description of the transnational model in this chapter to the elements of organic versus mechanistic organization designs described in Chapter 1. Do you think the transnational model seems workable for a huge global firm? Discuss.
> Name some companies that you think could succeed today with a globalization strategy and explain why you selected those companies. How does the globalization strategy differ from a multi-domestic strategy?
> How does the desire for legitimacy result in organizations becoming more similar over time?
> The Aquarius Advertising Agency is a medium-sized firm that offered two basic services to its clients: customized plans for the content of an advertising campaign (e.g., slogans and layouts) and complete plans for media (e.g., radio, TV, newspapers, bill
> Do you believe that perceived legitimacy really motivates a large, powerful organization such as Walmart? Is acceptance by other people a motivation for individuals as well? Explain.
> Discuss how the process of variation, selection, and retention might help explain innovations that take place within an organization.
> The population-ecology perspective argues that it is healthy for society to have new organizations emerging and old organizations dying as the environment changes. Do you agree? Why would European countries pass laws to sustain traditional organizations
> Discuss how the adversarial versus partnership orientations work between you and other students in your course. Is there a sense of competition or collaboration for grades? Is it possible to develop true partnerships if your grade depends on the work of
> Many managers today were trained under assumptions of adversarial relationships with other companies. Do you think operating as adversaries is easier or more difficult than operating as partners with other companies? Discuss.
> Assume you are the manager of a small firm that is dependent on a large manufacturing customer that uses the resource-dependence perspective. Put yourself in the position of the small firm, and describe what actions you would take to survive and succeed.
> How do you feel about the prospect of becoming a manager and having to manage a set of relationships with other companies rather than just managing your own company? Discuss.
