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The new manager of the network installation coordination section had just met with her management team for the first time. The meeting did not go well as it appeared to have no direction, purpose, or resolutions. The new manager's successful history of process improvement management had prompted her move into the new position. She needed to mould the existing group into a functional team with common goals, objectives and purpose as quickly as possible. In order to accomplish this goal she must determine the factors leading to effective performance and to develop a course of action.

The owners of the company were concerned with the rapid rate of growth facing their company. The company had revenues of $6.3 million and employed 30 highly skilled workers. These numbers were expected to double or triple in the next couple of years. To determine how well the company was structured to achieve its future goals, they hired a consultant he had worked with successfully in the past. The consultant's major role was to make recommendations as to the appropriate organizational design (culture, people, layers of management and administrative systems) in the event that the company grew from 30 to 60 or even 120 employees. Among other issues, questions regarding compensation were surfacing, and the owners wanted to address these questions as soon as possible.

The president and chief executive of a hospital, is anticipating resistance to his newly-formed vision for the hospital. The exact source and reasons for the resistance are not totally clear to him. Notwithstanding the difficulty of the change he would propose, he recognizes that the conventional hospital is no longer able to respond effectively to its demands with the resource constraints caused by government funding cutbacks. With varying degrees of support from the administration, doctors, nurses, and other professionals, he has to take action to get the proposed redesign plan back on track.

The Vice President - Manufacturing, is faced with a series of disputes between his direct subordinate, the maintenance supervisor, and one of the maintenance foremen. The situation is threatening to disrupt maintenance operations and the VP feels it is time to intervene. His problem is what to do and how to do it. (To be used in conjunction with Martin Brass Company (A) Tom Fuller, Vice-President, Manufacturing, case 9A96C005; and Martin Brass Company (B) Harry Smith, Supervisor, Maintenance Dept., case 9A96C006.)

The Vice President - Manufacturing, is faced with a series of disputes between his direct subordinate, the maintenance supervisor, and one of the maintenance foremen. The situation is threatening to disrupt maintenance operations and the VP feels it is time to intervene. His problem is what to do and how to do it. (To be used in conjunction with Martin Brass Company (A) Tom Fuller, Vice-President, Manufacturing, case 9A96C005; and Martin Brass Company (C) Jim Jones, Foreman, Maintenance Dept., case 9A96C007.)

The Vice President - Manufacturing, is faced with a series of disputes between his direct subordinate, the maintenance supervisor, and one of the maintenance foremen. The situation is threatening to disrupt maintenance operations and the VP feels it is time to intervene. His problem is what to do and how to do it. (To be used in conjunction with Martin Brass Company (B) Harry Smith, Supervisor, Maintenance Dept., case 9A96C006; and Martin Brass Company (C) Jim Jones, Foreman, Maintenance Dept., case 9A96C007.)

The president of a national computer sales and installation company wants to develop a plan to improve morale and reduce turnover. The company has grown rapidly is experiencing high employee turnover and low morale. In addition, a report, prepared by the controller, indicates a link between the increasing turnover and reducing customer retention (sales) data.

A project manager in the Operational Research Department of an automobile assembly plant must decide how he can most effectively redirect his team to meet management's deadline and design expectations. For five months, he had been supervising the work of three young company employees who were developing a simulated assembly line. However, because his current responsibilities left him in charge of four or five projects at a time, all in varying stages of completion, he had left his assistants to work together with very little intervention from him. As a result, he was facing the pressure of an uncompleted project and an unnecessarily elaborate design. (This case should be used with Antar Automobile Company - Part I: The Automation Project and Antar Automobile Company - Part III: Conflicting Objectives.)

A project manager in the Operational Research Department of an automobile assembly plant has to decide how he can most effectively redirect his team to meet management's deadline and design expectations. For five months he had been supervising the work of three young company employees who were developing a simulated assembly line. However, because his current responsibilities left him in charge of four or five projects at a time, all in varying stages of completion, he had left his assistants to work together with very little intervention from him. As a result, he was facing the pressure of an uncompleted project and an unnecessarily elaborate design. (This case should be used with Automobile Company - Part I: The Automation Project and Antar Automobile Company - Part II: Team and Individual Objectives.)

A project manager in the Operational Research Department of an automobile assembly plant must decide how he can most effectively redirect his team to meet management's deadline and design expectations. For five months he had been supervising the work of three young company employees who were developing a simulated assembly line. However, because his current responsibilities left him in charge of four or five projects at a time, all in varying stages of completion, he had left his assistants to work together with very little intervention from him. As a result, he is facing the pressure of an uncompleted project and an unnecessarily elaborate design. (This case should be used with Antar Automobile Company - Part II: Team and Individual Objectives and Antar Automobile Company - Part III: Conflicting Objectives.)

The company's CEO, president, and a consultant took on the task of designing an organization to support the company's growth. They were to develop a structure and set of administrative systems (policies, performance appraisal, compensation and partnering program) that would ensure the achievement of the company's key success factors (see S-S Technologies (A) - Introduction, case 9A94C005), the maintenance of the existing culture and the attraction of the kind of people they wanted working for them.

An introduction to a series of cases with a small, international high technology company. The subsequent cases deal with marketing S-S Technologies Inc. (B) - Marketing, measurement issues S-S Technologies Inc. (C) - Measurement Issues(C), and organizational design S-S Technologies Inc. (D) - Organizational Design.

The vice-president of manufacturing for a company that produces pumps and electrical controls, must consider potential opportunities in the pumps market. The pump division is not living up to its potential and a reorganization of the division is being considered. Management opinion varies, and many conflicts and misconceptions must be dealt with.

In the final case of the Kapco series, Matt's firing, and how he handled it, are presented. See Kapco Limited (A), case 9A93D015, for the origins of the story.

Matt Gruber is an effective and highly motivated executive, yet his inability to deal with superiors is shown by numerous instances of abrasive behaviour. Matt's rise and fall at Kapco is described in this case, which is one of a four-part series (see 9A93D016, 9A93D017, 9A93D018). The series' teaching objectives are to learn to manage and to maintain successful relationships with supervisors and to effectively manage an employee who has difficulty relating upward.

This (B) case in the Kapco series presents the situation described in Kapco Limited (A), case 9A93D015, but from the perspective of one of Matt Gruber's superiors.

Further information is provided to the situation described in Kapco Limited (A), case 9A93D015, which leads to a request for Matt Gruber's resignation.

In the final case of the Kapco series, Matt's firing, and how he handled it, are presented. See Kapco Limited (A), case 9A93D015, for the origins of the story.

Further information is provided to the situation described in Kapco Limited (A), case 9A93D015, which leads to a request for Matt Gruber's resignation.

This (B) case in the Kapco series presents the situation described in Kapco Limited (A), case 9A93D015, but from the perspective of one of Matt Gruber's superiors.