Page 703 - Business Principles and Management

C HAPTER 25 A SSESSMENT

CASE IN POINT

CASE 25-1: Encouraging Employee Involvement
The Orion Corporation recently implemented employee involvement
teams as part of an organizational development program. The employees
in the customer support department of the engineering division were ex-
cited about the chance to participate in solving a problem they had been
facing for some time. Fourteen of the 20 employees had school-age chil-
dren. Several times during the year, the employees needed time off from
work to attend parent-teacher conferences, help with projects in their
child’s school, or attend an important school activity involving their chil-
dren. Orion had no policy that allowed employees time away from work.
The employees either had to miss the school activities or call in sick. Most
of the employees felt uncomfortable about taking a “sick day” when they
really were not sick.
The employee team worked carefully and developed the following plan:
Each employee could have up to two half-day absences for school-related
activities during the year. The absence would have to be scheduled at least
one week in advance and only one employee could be absent at a time.
The other employees would complete the work of the absent employee be-
fore they left for the day without additional pay. The department manager
could cancel the absence with one day’s notice if the department had spe-
cial assignments or extra work.
The employee team submitted its plan to the department manager. The
manager rejected the employee recommendation. She identified two reasons
for rejecting the plan: (1) The company could not have different policies
concerning employee absences for each department. (2) Not all employees
in the department had school-age children, so the policy would be unfair to
those employees who did not.

THINK CRITICALLY
1. Do you believe the manager made the right decision about the team’s
recommendation? Why or why not? What should the manager do
now, based on her decision not to accept the team’s recommenda-
tion? If you were the manager, how would you respond to the team’s
recommendation?
2. How do you believe the employees will feel about the organization,
based on the manager’s response to their proposal? What would
you recommend the employees do, based on the responses of the
manager?
3. How can the Orion Corporation improve the way it organizes and
uses teams in the future? Should the manager’s role change now that
employee involvement teams are being formed?

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