Page 498 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

CHAPTER 15 • Operations Management 497
Practicing the Skill Situation 2. You are the moderator of a group session with five
other people. The purpose of the session is to formulate a plan
Follow the directions:
that requires consent from all participants. One of the partici-
Form teams of three. Analyze each of the following scenarios pants is so involved with the important details of the plan that
and formulate a conflict-handling strategy: he is delaying the group from reaching agreement. As modera-
tor, what would you do in this situation?
Situation 1. You are a staff specialist and have been assigned
two projects: one by your immediate supervisor and one by the Situation 3. Your boss has called you into his office and you
supervisor of another department. There is adequate time to find that he wants your opinion about the performance of one of
complete both projects by the deadline date; however, neither your coworkers. The coworker is your best friend and neighbor,
project would be completed with the degree of excellence but you are inclined to believe that his performance is substan-
required by your organization. What would you do? dard. What would you tell the boss?

WestWood Travel Services Experiential Exercise
To: Ebben Crawford, Director of Operations
From: Anne Mendales, President
Subject: ISO 9001 Certification

I’ve been doing a lot of reading on total quality manage- process improvement, benchmarking, training, teamwork,
ment and I think we need to look at using TQM principles. and empowerment to our travel business to make us more
Since our business has grown from one office with 12 em- competitive? Write up your analysis in a bulleted list format
ployees to five offices with nearly 50 employees, I want (no more than two pages please) and get it to me by the end
to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to meet our of the week.
clients’ needs, especially since we’ve lost some clients to This fictionalized company and message were created for educational
competitors. Could you do an analysis describing how we purposes only, and not meant to reflect positively or negatively on manage-
might apply the concepts of customer focus, continuous ment practices by any company that may share this name.

CasE applICatION 1
#

Tragedy in Fashion

lthough one fortunate and lucky young woman was Rock-bottom labor costs enticed global clothing giants to
pulled out alive after 17 days buried in the rubble, Bangladesh during the mid-2000s. Many of the retailers that have
A over 1,100 workers perished in a deadly factory relied on these factories are known for cheap, “fast” apparel:
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building collapse in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in April 2013. The H&M, Zara, Lee, Wrangler, J.C. Penney, and Walmart. And
Rana Plaza building collapse is now considered the deadliest when you’re selling many articles of clothing for $20 and under,
disaster in the history of the it means your costs (especially
clothing industry. As stated when being shipped from an-
in this chapter, the dynamic The deadliest disaster in the other location halfway around
competitive environment fac- history of the clothing industry the world) need to be tightly
ing contemporary global or- controlled. Also, the concept of
ganizations demands new fashion trends has changed over
solutions, but, as this story the last two decades. Where
illustrates, sometimes those solutions have consequences— fashion used to be “good” for an entire season, now fashion
tragic consequences. As global apparel retailers reassess their styles, colors, shapes, and so forth, change, seemingly overnight.
operations management strategies, changes are likely to be Retailers like Zara and H&M have hooked customers on
forthcoming. fast fashion—that is, clothes that go from concept and design