Solved: Please I need help with an assignment: A case study about Ethics

Ahura Iron and Steel Co. Ltd. was located at Panaji, Goa. It was started by Parsi Industrialist, Mr. Cama. In 1969, it was taken over by Government of India, retaining its original name for goodwill reason. In 1971, Ahura Iron & Steel Co. merged with Cochin Mfg. Co. located in Daman. The new name now was ‘Ahura-Cochin Ltd.’. Cochin Manufacturing Co. Ltd. manufactured products like T.V.s, Calculators and computers with no assembly line production in place.

There arose a need of team building Program at the Company. The organization got restructured with the initiation of a team building approach to management. Prior to this program, the following problems were observed:

•       Employees complained that:

1.     There was lack of belongingness

2.     Unable to trace the relevance of their job into overall structure of the organization.

Accordingly, the following problems were faced by the Organization:

1.     High absenteeism and labor turnover

2.     Refusal by employees to work overtime, thus late deliveries on important projects

3.     12 months before reorganization was initiated, the company’s market share dropped by 20%

4.     The company also lost about 50 Million Indian rupees

5.     Customers complained about shoddy workmanship and returned back, more and more rejected parts

Thus arouse the need for the team-building program to improve the then prevailing conditions. The initiation program of team building was led by Mr. Satish Sharma. Mr. Satish Sharma, the M.D. of Cochin Mfg. Co. Ltd. since 5 years, attended a Management Development Program (MDP) in Kathmandu, Nepal. Its title was ‘Job Enrichment: A way to restructure Jobs for greater motivation’. A profound impression was made on Mr. Sharma encouraged him to outline a 5-step proposal for his organization. Therefore, the Board adopted this program on the spot. With the initial loop-holes in the program, it later succeeded when preliminary actions were taken in following ways:

•       Short stint of training on communication, motivation, how to conduct meeting were imparted to the employees

•       Employees were made to realize that the incentive system depended upon the success of entire organization.

After mediocre success of the organization, with regards to the above steps taken, quick action was called for in following ways:

•       Every department had to create an organization chart with each function logically defined

•       Every role of an employee and its goals were formally noted down on a paper

•       A 3-day brain storming session was followed to make all aware of corporate goals and every manager’s role would be in concurrence with the corporate goal

•       Comparisons were made before and after implementation of the program

•       Turnover and absenteeism were closely monitored

•       Interaction among members of the teams were enhanced

Thus, with the implementation of all the above steps, the team building program worked well at the new Cochin Mfg Co. Ltd. Now, considering to the values conducive to the above exercise in terms of Business ethics, it was decided that:

•       Each employee should try to relate its individual interest to organization’s interest

•       Adequate reward conferred to employee for the performance rendered

•       Leadership style should not be ham-handed that discourages the subordinates to work

•       Mutual Co-operation should be enhanced in the organization

•       Respecting of time should be of prime importance

•       A healthy competition among the teams should be such that instead of sabotaging each other’s work, the teams should acknowledge the highly competitive teams

•       Sincere attempts should be made to avoid any distortion of communication to the top management

•       The administration and manufacturing staff should be tolerant towards each others functions in the organizational chart

•       The advent of any change should be logically analyzed than simply resisted

•       A reasonable level of trust on both the old and the new member should be practiced by the directors who seek information from their subordinates.