CASE STUDY

CHAPTER 1:
CASE STUDY 1:
Ashutosh Goenka was a manager in ‘Axe Ltd.’, a company manufacturing air
purifiers. He found that profit has started declining from the last six months. Profit has an
implication for the survival of the firm, so he analyzed the business environment to find
out the reasons for this decline.
1. Identify the level of management at which Ashutosh Goenka was working.
2. State three other functions being performed by Ashutosh Goenka.
Answer.
Ashutosh Goenka was working at top level of management. The three functions
being performed by him at this level are outlined below:
1. He is responsible for formulating the overall organizational goals and strategies.
2. He is responsible for all the business activities and its impact on society.
3. He has to coordinate the activities of different departments in pursuit of common goals

OR CASE STUDY 2:
Jayant is working as Head Relationship Manager in the wealth management
division of a private sector bank. He has created an internal environment which is
conducive to an effective and efficient performance of his team of ten relationship
management executive” A typical day at work in Jay ant’s life consists of a series of
interrelated and continue functions. He decides the targets for his department which are in
line with the objectives of the organization as a whole. The future course of action for his
team members is laid out well in advance. The various resources required by the
relationship managers like an iPad with GPS system, account opening forms, brochures,
details of account holders etc. are made readily available to them. The executives are
given sufficient authority to carry out the work assigned to them. Jayant works in close
coordination with the Human Resource Manager in order to ensure that he is able to
create and maintain a satisfactory and satisfied workforce in his department. Through
constant guidance and motivation, Jayant inspires them to realize their full potential. He
offers them various types of incentives from time to time keeping in view their diverse
individual needs. Moreover, he keeps a close watch on their individual performances in
order to ensure that they are in accordance with the standards set and takes corrective
actions whenever needed. In context of the above case:
Identify and describe the various functions of the concept as identified in part (a) of the
question by quoting lines from the paragraph.

Answer.
The various functions of the management concept mentioned in the above paragraph are
listed below:
 Planning: It is the function of determining in advance what is to be done and who is to
do it. “He decides the targets for his department which are in line with the objectives of
the organization as a whole. The future course of actions for the team members are laid
out well in advance.”
 Organizing: Organizing is the process of bringing together human, physical and
financial resources and establishing productive relations among them for the purpose of
achieving the desired goals efficiently and effectively. “The various resources required by
the relationship managers like an iPad with GPS system, account opening forms,
brochures, details of account holders etc. are made readily available to them. The
executives are given sufficient authority to carry out the work assigned to them.”
Moreover, the managerial function of staffing involves manning the organizational
structure in order to fill in the roles designed into the structure. “Jayant works in close
coordination with the human resource manager in order to ensure that he is able to create
and maintain a satisfactory and satisfied workforce in his department.”
 Directing: Directing involves leading, influencing and motivating employees to perform
the tasks assigned to them. “Through constant guidance and motivation, Jayant inspires
them to realize their full potential. He offers them various types of incentives from time
to time keeping in view their diverse individual needs.”
 Controlling: Controlling is the management function of ensuring that events conform to
plans. ”Moreover, he keeps a close watch on their individual performances in order to
ensure that they are in accordance with the standards set and takes corrective actions
whenever needed.”
CHAPTER 3:
With changes in the consumption habits of people, Neelesh, who was running a
sweets shop shifted to chocolate business. On the eve of Diwali he offered chocolates in
attractive packages at reasonable prices. He anticipated huge demand and created a
website chocolove.com for taking orders online. He got lot of orders online and earned
huge profit by selling chocolates. Identify and explain the dimensions of business
environment discussed in the above case.

Answer:
Following dimensions of business environment are discussed in the given para:
1. Social Environment. Social Environment consists of attitudes, beliefs, desires, customs
and traditions, level of education, composition of working population, culture, religion,
values, etc. Values refer to concepts which are held by the society in high esteem and
traditions include social practices that have been followed by the society for a long period
of time.
2. Technological Environment. Scientific improvement and innovations are included in
the technological dimension of business environment. It provides new ways and methods
of producing goods and services. For example, technological developments in the field of
computers and information technology have changed the ways in which companies
promote their goods and services.
CHAPTER 6: ORGANIZING
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“Organizational changes – The Body Shop”

Hoặc TOYOTA
Toyota Motor Corporation (TYO: 7203) has often been referred to as the gold standard of
the automotive industry. In the first quarter of 2007, Toyota (NYSE: TM) overtook
General Motors Corporation in sales for the first time as the top automotive manufacturer
in the world. Toyota reached success in part because of its exceptional reputation for
quality and customer care. Despite the global recession and the tough economic times
that American auto companies such as General Motors and Chrysler faced in 2009,
Toyota enjoyed profits of $16.7 billion and sales growth of 6% that year. However, late
2009 and early 2010 witnessed Toyota’s recall of 8 million vehicles due to unintended
acceleration. How could this happen to a company known for quality and structured to
solve problems as soon as they arise? To examine this further, one has to understand
about the Toyota Production System (TPS).
TPS is built on the principles of “just-in-time” production. In other words, raw materials
and supplies are delivered to the assembly line exactly at the time they are to be used.
This system has little room for slack resources, emphasizes the importance of efficiency
on the part of employees, and minimizes wasted resources. TPS gives power to the
employees on the front lines. Assembly line workers are empowered to pull a cord and
stop the manufacturing line when they see a problem.
However, during the 1990s, Toyota began to experience rapid growth and expansion.
With this success, the organization became more defensive and protective of information.
Expansion strained resources across the organization and slowed response time. Toyota’s
CEO, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of its founder, has conceded, “Quite frankly, I fear the
pace at which we have grown may have been too quick.”
Vehicle recalls are not new to Toyota; after defects were found in the company’s Lexus
model in 1989, Toyota created teams to solve the issues quickly, and in some cases the
company went to customers’ homes to collect the cars. The question on many people’s
minds is, how could a company whose success was built on its reputation for quality have
had such failures? What is all the more puzzling is that brake problems in vehicles
became apparent in 2009, but only after being confronted by United States transportation
secretary Ray LaHood did Toyota begin issuing recalls in the United States. And during
the early months of the crisis, Toyota’s top leaders were all but missing from public sight.
The organizational structure of Toyota may give us some insight into the handling of this
crisis and ideas for the most effective way for Toyota to move forward. A conflict such as
this has the ability to paralyze productivity but if dealt with constructively and
effectively, can present opportunities for learning and improvement. Companies such as
Toyota that have a rigid corporate culture and a hierarchy of seniority are at risk of
reacting to external threats slowly. It is not uncommon that individuals feel reluctant to
pass bad news up the chain within a family company such as Toyota. Toyota’s board of
directors is composed of 29 Japanese men, all of whom are Toyota insiders. As a result of
its centralized power structure, authority is not generally delegated within the company;
all U.S. executives are assigned a Japanese boss to mentor them, and no Toyota executive
in the United States is authorized to issue a recall. Most information flow is one-way,
back to Japan where decisions are made.
Will Toyota turn its recall into an opportunity for increased participation for its
international manufacturers? Will decentralization and increased transparency occur?
Only time will tell.
Case written by Berrin Erdogan, Carlene Reynolds, and Talya Bauer to accompany
Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2009). Organizational behavior (1st ed.).New York: Flat
World Knowledge. Based on information from Accelerating into trouble. (2010, February
11). Economist. Retrieved March 8, 2010,
from http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15498249; Dickson,
D. (2010, February 10). Toyota’s bumps began with race for growth. Washington Times,
p. 1; Maynard, M., Tabuchi, H., Bradsher, K., & Parris, M. (2010, February 7). Toyota
has a pattern of slow response on safety issues. New York Times, p. 1; Simon, B. (2010,
February 24). LaHood voices concerns over Toyota culture. Financial Times. Retrieved
March 10, 2010, from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/11708d7c-20d7-11df-b920-
00144feab49a.html; Werhane, P., & Moriarty, B. (2009). Moral imagination and
management decision making. Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.
Retrieved April 30, 2010, from http://www.corporate-
ethics.org/pdf/moral_imagination.pdf; Atlman, A. (2010, February 24). Congress puts
Toyota (and Toyoda) in the hot seat. Time. Retrieved March 11, 2010,
from http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1967654,00.html.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are the pros and cons of Toyota’s structure?
2. What are the most important elements of Toyota’s organizational structure?

SAMPLE ANSWERS:
Q.1. Toyota Motor Company is globally reputed automobile brand, whose organizational
structure seems to be formalized explicitly in rules. The bureaucratic rules suggest that
the rules have to be followed by everyone in the company.
The current vertical structure in Toyota comes with its own pros and cons:
Pros:
1. The structure allows greater efficiency in management.
2. It has a well-established chain of command and decision making, which reduces
duplication and conflicts.
Cons:
1. The structure favors only effective leaders
2. Poor leaders make poor decisions which might affect the whole organization.

Q.2. In 2013, Toyota changed its organizational structure from the centralized structure
to:
- the Global hierarchy,
- the Geographic divisions, and
- the Product-based divisions.
This change was made to adapt the consumer's demand in each of the regional markets all
over the world. The most important element of this structure is the speed of handling
issues and problems of all Toyota's branches. However, this structure also has a weakness
which is the decreasing of headquarters’ control over the global organization.
CHAPTER 7: LEADING
Eating Lunch Standing Up
Susan Parks is the part–owner and manager of Marathon Sports, an ath- letic
equipment store that specializes in running shoes and accessories. The store employs
about 10 people, most of whom are college students who work part-time during the week
and full-time on weekends. Marathon Sports is the only store of its kind in a college town
with a population of 125,000. The annual sales figures for the store have shown 15%
growth each year.
Susan has a lot invested in the store, and she works very hard to make sure the store
continues to maintain its reputation and pattern of growth. She works 50 hours a week at
the store, where she wears many hats, including those of buyer, scheduler, trainer,
planner, and salesperson. There is never a moment when Susan is not doing something.
Rumor has it that she eats her lunch standing up.
Employees’ reactions to Susan are strong and varied. Some people like her style,
and others do not. Those who like her style talk about how organized and efficient the
store is when she is in charge. Susan makes the tasks and goals for everyone very clear.
She keeps everyone busy; when they go home at night, they feel as if they have
accomplished something. They like to work for Susan because she knows what she is
doing. Those who do not like her style complain that she is too driven. It seems that her
sole purpose for being at the store is to get the job done. She seldom, if ever, takes a
break or just hangs out with the staff. These people say Susan is pretty hard to relate to,
and as a result it is not much fun working at Marathon Sports.
Susan is beginning to sense that employees have a mixed reaction to her leadership
style. This bothers her, but she does not know what to do about it. In addition to her work
at the store, Susan struggles hard to be a good spouse and mother of three children.
Questions
1. According to the behavioral approach, how would you describe Susan’s
leadership?
2. Why does her leadership behavior create such a pronounced reaction from her
subordinates?
3. Do you think she should change her behavior?
4. Would she be effective if she changed?

ANSWERS:
1. According to the style approach, how would you describe Susan's leadership
style?
Susan’s leadership style can be categorized as task oriented. She runs the business
with mostly college students, which means that most of the employees are not long term
employees. Since she runs the business with mostly college students she is able to keep
down the costs but has to put in extra effort to train new employees with the turn around
on employees she will have. She is a hands-on type of manager who knows everything
about the business she is managing. She can also be categorized as goal oriented manager
and the constant growth in business proves it. Susan’s leadership style is more of
Authority-Compliance management style (9,1).
2. Why does her leadership style create such a pronounced reaction from her
subordinates? Subordinates who are also goal oriented have lot to learn from her and
appreciate the opportunity. Since Susan makes tasks and goals very clear for everyone
and keeps them busy end of the day they feel good about everything they’ve
accomplished. Subordinates who pay attention to people relationship may not like
Susan’s style because she focuses on the tasks rather than people relationship. They may
feel like she is more concerned about results than people and is focused only on getting
the work done. Susan works hard and tries to keep her subordinates also busy and
productive.
3.4. Discuss whether she should change her leadership style? In your opinion, if she
changed her style would she be effective? If so, why? If not, why not?
In Susan’s case she is dealing with temporary employees. And hence to some extent
employee relationship or employee satisfaction is not impacting the business as much.
With her leadership style she is passing the message to potential employees that “to work
at Marathon sports you must be task and goal oriented”. She only needs 10 employees to
run the business. What works for Susan may not work for bigger businesses. She can
continue with her leadership style and drive the same amount of growth every year.
Susan is not able to balance her work and personal life. She works very hard at the store
and is struggling with her personal life. Her current model is not sustainable model since
it is off balance. To bring balance in her life Susan must focus on bringing in few long-
term employees, train them and delegate some of the work. She must start focusing on
relationship style and take interest in her employees, value their individuality and respond
to their needs. Susan will not have to beat herself up every day if she can find dedicated
employees whom she can count on and train them to perform at the same level as she
does. Susan has proved herself to be very effective from task oriented perspective. She is
(9,1) type of manger and by incorporating the relationship style also she is trying to move
towards (9,9) style. If she can focus on the relationship side and maintain her task
oriented style she will be even more effective.
CHAPTER 8: MOTIVATION

Last November, I joined the CVS Caremark project at TCS in Noida, India after a
successful stint at TCS’ Bangalore office, where I had worked as a trainee. I had always
wanted to go back to Deli - my hometown - and live with my parents and when I got a
transfer to Noida which is just a few miles away. I didn’t waste a single moment in
saying yes to the opportunity. Many of my friends were also moving out from Bangalore
at the same time which only made my decision easier. I felt that the Caremark project
offered better career prospects, as it was a new project and we were offered to work on
the current technologies that were in demand in the market.
I was sure I would excel in my new position at Caremark, just as I had done in my
previous assignment. I joined as Assistant Systems Engineer on the Caremark project
with a handsome pay hike for becoming a confirmed employee of the company. Since
Caremark had international operations, there was a chance that I could be sent to USA or
the UK to work on projects there. Knowing that this would give me a lot of exposure,
besides looking good on my resume, I was quite excited about the new job. I joined my
boss, Ashish Mehta's five-member team in charge of the Caremark project out of TCS’
office in Noida. I had met Ashish during the interview sessions, and was looking forward
to working under him. My team members seemed warm and friendly, and comfortable
with their work. I introduced myself to the team members and got to know more about
each of them. Wanting to know more about my boss, I casually asked Shobha, one of the
team members, about Ashish. Shobha said, "Ashish does not interfere with our work. In
fact, you could even say that he tries to ignore us as much as he can." I was surprised by
the comment but decided that Ashish was probably leaving them alone to do their work
without any guidance, in order to allow them to realize their full potential.
At TCS’s office in Bangalore, I worked for Sudhir Reddy – someone I looked up to
as a mentor. He was always guiding but never interfering. Sudhir had let me make my
own mistakes and then learn from them. He had always encouraged individual ideas, and
let his team discover the flaws, if any, through discussion and experience. He rarely held
an individual member of his team responsible if the team as a whole failed to deliver - for
him the responsibility for any failure was collective. I remembered telling my colleagues
in Bangalore that the ideal boss would be someone who did not interfere with his/her
subordinate's work. I wanted to believe that my new boss, Ashish, was the non-
interfering type. If that was the case then surely his non-interference would only help me
to grow.
In my first week at work, I found the atmosphere at the office a bit dull. However, I
was quite excited nonetheless. The team had been assigned a new project and was facing
a few glitches with the new software. I thought about the problem till late in the night and
had come up with several possible solutions. I could not wait to discuss them with the
team and Ashish. I smiled to myself when I thought of how Ashish would react when I
told him that I had come up with several possible solutions to the problem. I was sure he
would be happy with me having put in so much effort into the project, right from day
one. I was daydreaming about all the praise that I was going to get when Ashish walked
into the office. I waited for him to go into his workplace, and after five minutes,
requested a meeting with him. He asked me to come in after ten minutes. When I went in,
he looked at me blankly and asked, "Yes?" Not sure whether he had recognized me, I
introduced myself. He said, "Ok, but why do you want to meet me?" I started to tell him
about the problems we were having with the software. But before I could finish he told
me that he was busy with other things, and that he would send an email with the solution
to all the members of the team by the end of the day, and that we could then implement it
immediately.
I was somewhat taken aback. Ever the optimist, I thought that he had perhaps
already discussed the matter with the team. I left Ashish's office and went straight to
where my team members sat. I thought it would still be nice to bounce ideas off them and
also to see what solutions others might come up with. I told them of all the solutions I
had in mind. I waited for the others to come up with their suggestions but not one of them
spoke up. I was surprised, and asked them point-blank why they were so disinterested.
Sanjay, one of the team members, said, "What is the point in our discussing these
things? Ashish is not going to have time to listen to us or discuss anything. He will just
give us the solution he thinks is the best, and we will just do what he tells us to do; why
waste everyone's time?" I felt my heart sink. Was this the way things worked over here?
However, I refused to lose heart and thought that maybe, I could change things a little.
But as the days went by, I realized that Ashish was the complete opposite of my old boss.
While he was efficient at what he did and extremely intelligent, he had neither the time
nor the inclination to groom his subordinates. His solutions to problems were always
correct, but he was not willing to discuss or debate the merits of any other ideas that his
team might have. He did not hold the team down to their deadlines nor did he ever
interfere. In fact, he rarely said anything at all! If work did not get finished on time, he
would just blame the team, and totally disassociate himself from them.
Time and again, I found myself thinking of Sudhir - my old boss - and of how he
had been such a positive influence. Ashish, on the other hand, even without actively
doing anything, had managed to significantly lower my motivation. I gradually began to
lose interest in the work - it had become too mechanical for my taste. I didn't really need
to think; my boss had all the answers. I was learning nothing new, and felt my career was
going nowhere. As I became more and more discouraged, my performance suffered.
From being someone with immense promise and potential, I was now in danger of
becoming just another mediocre ‘techie’.

Questions for Discussion

 1. What, according to you, were the reasons for Rohit's disillusionment? Answer the
question using Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and Hertzberg’s Motivation Hygiene
Theory.
2. What should Rohit do to resolve his situation?
3. What can a team leader do to ensure high levels of motivation among his/her team
members?

ANSWERS:
1. Rohit’s need according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of need
1. Physiological need
- To stay with family and friends
- Hike in remuneration
- Better career prospects
2. Security need
- Get a job near to Delhi
3. Social need
- Healthy interaction with team members and boss
- Exposure to ideas
- Comfortable work environment
4. Esteem need
- Recognition from boss
- Appreciation from team members
5. Self-actualization need
- Rohit did not reach self-actualization

Reasons for Rohit’s Disillusionment

- Rohit’s social need and esteem needs mainly the reason for his disillusionment
- There is very little interaction between his boss and teammates
- Boss imposes his own ideas on the team do not give exposure to others to express
their ideas
- Boss does not recognizes the subordinate work
- Instead of giving appreciation he blames the team for delay in performance and
separate himself from the team

Question 2: Rohit should do:

- Rohit should maintain his high motivation level as he had in the previous job
- He should continue to take interest and actively participate in the task assign to
him and the team
 - Present as much as new ideas to his boss and try to convince him to
apply them in the practice
- He should convince his colleagues to participate in decision making and
creating new ideas even if they get rejected by their boss
- Try to establish an effective boss-subordinate relationship for betterment of
work environment

Question 3: Boss should do:

- He should maintain good work environment
- Try to establish effective boss-subordinate relationship
- Should motivate subordinates by giving appreciation and rewards
- Invite ideas from team mates
- Foster achievement motivation practice