University of the West Indies Facu

MGMT 2008 – Organisational Behaviour

Group Case Study: Creative Toys Company

Lecturer: Dr. Nicole Knight
Due Date: March 18th, 2022

Group Members:

Krystal Blackett – 408001058

Karen-Ann Carter – 400008738
Rebekha Clarke – 400008322
Akiel Harvey – 400010872
Regina Marshall -
Table of Contents
BACKGROUND INFORMATION...................................................................................................................2
PROBLEM STATEMENT...............................................................................................................................4
ANALYSIS.....................................................................................................................................................5
MAJOR ISSUES AND DISCUSSION...........................................................................................................6
COMMUNICATION -............................................................................................................................6
REARRANGMENT OF THE WORK AREAS -...........................................................................................8
THE PHYSICAL LAYOUT -......................................................................................................................8
ALTERNATIVES............................................................................................................................................9
SOLUTIONS................................................................................................................................................12
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................................14
IMPLEMENTATION....................................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................17
BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The company Creative Toys is a small firm founded by Mr. John Wilson that produces

small wooden toys. Mr. Wilson was a carpenter by trade and created toys for his children as a

hobby. He has realized his niche within the market for these specific wooden toys in a time

where most toys were plastic and battery operated. Overtime he witnessed stable growth in the

manufacturing of the small wooden toys.

Each department was allowed to determine its own work strategy as long as production

flowed accordingly, and the orders were produced in a timely manner. The departments were

pretty much successful and had a low turnover rate, whereas all eight workers held their current

jobs for at least two years. There was also job rotation to help minimize the monotony for the

workers.

The physical arrangement of the workstations was arranged in circular setting which

everyone was able to communicate with each other to keep each other better informed about

their work productivity. However, the plant manager decided to seek the services of a consultant

in order to find a way to increase productivity and income without physically expanding the

department. This decision came about because the demand became higher than the production.

With the intervention of the consultant, they recommended the rearranging of the

physical layout plan of this highly productive department of the eight individual workstations,

which would allow for transportation to flow between the departments. The plant manager

agreed with the recommended changes and had the workstations rearranged. In implementing
this new layout, after two months the company encountered a problem which produced results

quite opposite to what the plant manager had envisage.

However, Mr. Wilson and the plant manager tried to decipher what was the cause in the

decline in productivity but could not come to a direct conclusion as to the cause of the declining

result. The plant manager spoke to the workers hoping to find some answers, but the workers

could not articulate the problem. Mr. Wilson spoke to the plant manager about the problem that

had surfaced, and he suggested offering pay raises might be the problem although the workers

were already being paid well. As a result, the problem was not solved.
PROBLEM STATEMENT

Since the demand for the Creative Toys had surpassed the production rate, the plant

manager recruited a team of consultants to determine how best an increase in productivity could

be achieved without physical expansion.

Contentiously, that arrangement did not work because it disrupted the interactive

relations between workers which helped them to motivate each other. The obvious separation of

employees was the main cause that declined the functionality of the transportation department

and production department.

However, the main problem was lack of communication between the plant manager and

the employees. Furthermore, the Mr. Wilson and the plant manager failed to communicate with

the employees first to get their feedback as to how to improve the productivity and efficiency of

both departments. Monetary issues were raised but given that analysis both the plant manager

and Mr. Wilson did not know what the real problem was.

Henceforth, seeing that the main predicament was lack of communication, the problem

statement can be defined as “Ways to help staff efficiently and effectively communicate for the

smooth running of the department to help promote productivity.”

ANALYSIS

As this case is being analyzed through the discipline of Organizational Behaviour, let us

first establish a brief overview of the case and its relation to this field of study. The plant

manager and the owner of Creative Toys (Mr. Wilson) were faced with a situation which they

could not quite comprehend and made their own assumptions based on the current knowledge

they had. The plant manager wanted to increase productivity and maximize efficiency

throughout the entire company and decided to rearrange all departmental workstations over a

particular weekend based on the recommendations of hired professionals as they believed a more

efficient traffic flow would assist in leading to the desired results. This decision was carried out

in an autocratic manner as no inputs were sought from the lower-level employees. “Autocratic

leadership, also known as authoritarian leadership, is a leadership style characterized by

individual control over all decisions and little input from group members. Autocratic leaders

typically make choices based on their ideas and judgments and rarely accept advice from

followers. Autocratic leadership involves absolute, authoritarian control over a group.”

(https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-autocratic-leadership-2795314). Under autocratic leadership

there are some advantages and disadvantages, which we will focus more on the disadvantages

because that was the direction the company was going in. The first disadvantage is that strict

leadership can sometimes lead to employee rebellion and it also kills employee creativity and

reduces group synergy and collaborative. These first three disadvantages can be clearly noticed

in the functioning of the workers after the rearrangement of the workstations. Additionally, the

autocratic leadership style also causes group input to reduce, and it can also result in a high
turnover rate which we believe Mr. Wilson and the plant manager is anticipating if the problem

is not brought to the fore.

Rearranging the workstations of the employees resulted in a decline in productivity of the

transportation department. Although the rearrangement of the space is an important factor, the

weight of this case lies in how this process was carried out which created certain hygiene factors

among the employees in the transportation department. It is at this point that it can be recognized

that a managerial fault was made as the assumption that one action would gain the same reaction

from every department.

MAJOR ISSUES AND DISCUSSION

COMMUNICATION - The plant manager did not seek input from staff regarding what

could have been done to increase productivity (autocratic leadership style) and he did not consult

with Mr. Wilson prior to bringing in the consultants

The Mr. Wilson and the plant manager did not acknowledge the informal group

functioning of the organization. According to Mullins, “Informal groups are based more on

personal relationships and agreement of group members than on defined role relationships. They

serve to satisfy psychological and social needs not related necessarily to the tasks to be

undertaken. Groups may devise ways of attempting to satisfy members’ affiliation and other

social motivations lacking in the work situation. Membership of informal groups can cut across

the formal structure.” It can also be noted that this significant change affected the organization

culture in that they were stripped of their independent decision making of their own work setting.

The major issue in this entire case is the lack of proper communication on the part of

management. Communication is crucial within the organization to ensure motivation. Shonubi et

al stated “Communication has crucial impacts among work groups in that organizational

communication is a channel to flow information, resources, and even policies.” (Eisenberg &

Good all, 1997; Shockley-Zalabak, 2006)” as cited in Shonubi 2016. This communication was

one physical barrier that the plant manager failed to do which left the organizational department

unmotivated and caused production to decrease. The act of rearranging the workstations was

done swiftly, without informing or seeking suggestions from the employees. It was also done

over the weekend, so come the new working week the employees were met with an unfamiliar

layout. No downward communication was initiated by management before the change or even

after the change was realized by the employees. Neither was there any upward communication

from the employees to management regarding their opinions on this change. Instead of voicing

any concerns they may have had, they all collectively chose to remain disengaged. The lateral

communication between the employees was also affected by the change where the increased

distance between the employees made socializing a bit more difficult, therefore changing the

atmosphere of the work environment for the employees. Before the change, the employees were

fulfilling a social need in the workplace through the interpersonal relationships which they had

formed due to their proximity to each other. The employees have been optimally for the last 2

years and relied on their need for affiliation as a source of motivation. The abrupt rearrangement

did not result in a favourable response as the employees’ needs were no longer being met. “As a

management tool, communication intends to establish good interpersonal relationships, non-

confrontational and based on the achievement of common goals: to increase the level of skills,

the needs to mobilize employees on the path of changing goals, in order to exploit to the fullest

of their work force that evolution of forms of production. It resembles some of the factors that

could explain the objective of increasing the role of communication.” (Bucăţa 2017)
 REARRANGMENT OF THE WORK AREAS - the work area was rearranged from a

circular position to a square without notifying staff members, members were then unable to

converse and keep up with each other’s productivity like before.

As long as results were achieved, upper management practiced a laissez-faire leadership

style by allowing each department to manage their respective workspaces/stations and

procedures. As a result of this, the employees of the transportation department arranged

themselves in a circular setting. Due the circular arrangement of the workstations, the employees

have fostered a social work relationship as each employee kept abreast of each other’s habits and

productivity. As stated in the case, these eight staff members have been working together in the

same department for no less than two years, and this was also credited to their high level of

productivity. They were suddenly stripped of permission or choice to design their own work

setting. The atmosphere of having close social relationships with work mates was made more

difficult due to the new positioning of and distance between the respective workstations

“During change management employees’ need to be put first, because the most

challenging part of change management is steering employees’ to the same direction for

successful outcome” (Khan 2017)This is what the plant manager failed to consider when he

implemented the change within the company. He also did not consider the fact that different

departments require different formats to work efficiently. Hence Ellen Savage states that

different policies can be implemented for different departments based on location. This is seen

within The Creative Toys company where other departments experienced a raise in productivity

due to the organizational change.

THE PHYSICAL LAYOUT - The transportation department was located between the

painting department and the wooden block department. The supplies and completed products
were kept in a storage area in Shipping and receiving creating considerable traffic through the

departments. The consultant analysis was that the old layout did not facilitate efficient traffic

flow between the departments. Again, the communication barrier was enforced when the plant

manager decided to interrupt such interactions

ALTERNATIVES
Hiring consultants is usually a costly investment so before undertaking the decision to hire them,

there are a few alternatives that the plant manager could have explored for several reasons.

One such alternative would have been to have a strategic meeting with Mr. Wilson to see if he

was happy with the current output of the company or if he wanted to try to meet the excess

demand for their products. Mr. Wilson’s business was created out of a hobby and not a financial

need so he could have been happy with his profit margins as they were.

Another alternative would have been to open the lines of communication by engaging in

consultative leadership with the staff before bringing in the consultants. It’s well known that

employees’ attitudes toward the organization have a significant effect on how they approach

their jobs and how they treat customers. But recent research also suggests that high levels of

employee engagement are associated with higher rates of profitability growth. (Kumar 2015) The

plant manager should take advantage of every opportunity to encourage input fro m staff. In this

case he could have had a meeting with the staff members to seek ideas from them regarding how

productivity could have been increased. Using feedback from staff members makes them feel as

though they are valued and have a voice in the organization and whether their suggestions are

implemented or not, they feel their input is important to management.

Along with the current recommended arrangement of the transportation department, the plant

manager could insist the members of that department adapt to the changes made and increase

productivity or there would be consequences for not reaching set production targets. This

approach is least likely to achieve the results he wanted as two months had passed and there was

an actual decline in productivity however since the turnover rate was low as a result of good

wages and fringe benefits, there is a possibility that the employees would eventually fall in line

as they would not want to face the consequences of not meeting set targets. Similarly, the plant

manager could have implemented a reward system for meeting set targets. Workers obtain a

variety of outcomes from their jobs such as pay, job security, benefits, feelings of

accomplishment, promotions, etc. When properly implemented, a reward system increases job

satisfaction and improves productivity. It can also help managers understand how individuals are

motivated to choose among various behavioural alternatives. To enhance the connection between

performance and increased productivity, the plant manager should use a system that ties rewards

very closely to the desired performance.

Lastly, once the plant layout allows, the supplies once received could be stored closer to the

wooden block department decreasing the considerable traffic by the forklift driver through the

departments. Facility layout and design is an important component of any business's overall

operations, both in terms of maximizing the effectiveness of the production process and meeting

the needs of employees. The basic objective of layout is to ensure a smooth flow of work,

material, and information through a system. The basic meaning of facility is the space in which a

business's activities take place. The layout and design of that space impact greatly how the work

is done, the flow of work, materials, and information through the system. The key to good

facility layout and design is the integration of the needs of people (personnel and customers),
materials (raw, finishes, and in process), and machinery in such a way that they create an

efficient, single, well-functioning system. (Unknown 2020)

SOLUTIONS
Most successful organizations know that effective communication increases loyalty, job

satisfaction and powers productivity. Since the plant manager is unclear as to why productivity

dropped and since the staff members were unable to articulate what they believed to be the

reason for it, he should carry out an employee opinion and satisfaction survey using a mixture of

open and close ended questions regarding the recent changes and how the employees feel about

them. After analyzing the results, he should then use the results of this survey to provide

feedback to Mr. Wilson and the staff members and discuss any action plans to be implemented.

To improve morale, Mr. Wilson and the plant manager should arrange to meet directly

with staff to acknowledge there were some errors made regarding the implementation of the

consultants’ recommendations. Both Mr. Wilson and the plant manager should offer an apology

and explain what decisions led to that point. They should also acknowledge and discuss any

grievances brought up by the staff members and discuss the steps that Creative Toys Company

will be making towards taking responsibility for their actions.

When productivity declined, the most noticeable change was the rearrangement of the

workstations in the transportation department, in this situation a compromise can be made that

allows the staff members to continue to work closely but will still be able to facilitate efficient

traffic flow. The eight (8) workers would be divided into two (2) teams. Team Nascar comprised

of 4 workers and their workstations would be rearranged so they were next to each other one side

of the department and Team F1 would be arranged the same way on the other side the

department, allowing the workers in the department to still work in close proximity, just in

smaller groups. They would still have 4 workers manufacture on toys and trucks respectively in
the morning and then switch in the afternoon, allowing job rotation to continue so monotony

remains decreased. Even though in two (2) small groups, they would still be able to

communicate and monitor each other’s productivity as was done before.

Another viable alternative is for the old layout to remain in place. This is because the

original design helps accomplish the various tasks through an informal work structure.

Leveraging communication through shared work responsibilities reduces workload and leads to

increased productivity for individuals. The new design creates a challenge in communication,

creates distance and loneliness between workers, which reduces their work motivation. Lack of

motivation puts a strain on employees who see work as pressure rather than an opportunity to

perform. A proper work layout is critical to the functioning of workers and leads to a drop in

productivity.

. . .
.

. . . .
RECOMMENDATIONS

The Contingency Approach

Before the consultants were brought in and the recommended changes were implemented,

upper management previously allowed each department to determine their own procedures and

methods as long as production orders were filled on time. While giving the departments

autonomy is not recommended, having some say in the manner in which they worked was

especially important to the transportation department and was partially responsible for their high

productivity. A management by objective approach requires management and employees to

jointly agree to specific objectives (in this case increased productivity), and then follow through

on the implementation of these objectives, this is more likely to achieve the desired results

wanted by the plant manager, it will see staff and management jointly setting goals, both groups

will participate and plan as to how to reach them and management will conduct periodic reviews

to assess their progress and make revisions where and when necessary. The benefit of this

objective reduces confusion as to the goals set, there is effective planning and efficient utilization

of resources and there is accountability and transparency on both sides

After the plant manager received the recommendations from the consultants, he agreed

with the suggestions and made the decision to implement the suggestions without any hesitation.

Future decision making should include cost benefit and what if analyses before being

implemented. These analyses would uncover any hidden costs and unpredictable variables,

evaluate the possible outcomes and allow him to make better informed decisions before

presenting them to Mr. Wilson and the staff members.

IMPLEMENTATION

The autocratic approach by the plant manager did not work in this situation to increase

output he desired. For increased efficiency and effectiveness, management needs to adopt a

contingency approach when dealing with each individual or department. This approach states

there is no singular way to plan, manage or react to problems that may arise, and what works

with one individual or department may not work with another. The plant manager must be

situation-oriented and adopt and implement a management style that permits all directions of

communication and consultative means of evaluating the performance to ensure an environment

of respect and growth.

Finally, the management at Creative Toys Company needs to acknowledge the

importance of the informal group within their organization and the vital role it plays in achieving

their organizational goals. There are many benefits to these informal groups once they are

embraced by the formal organization. Informal groups often improve communication between

management and staff, better working relationships are fostered among employees themselves

and management which leads to less conflict within the working environment, they also lighten

the work of management as less supervision is often needed. Regular staff meetings should be

held to keep staff informed about productivity as well as any important implementations being

made by management, these meetings should also be used to encourage staff to bring forward

new ideas they may have or suggestions for improvement.

CONCLUSION

In essence, although the main issues that were discussed in this case were very important,

there were some other stringent factors that could not be elaborated upon. However, Mr. Wilson

and the plant manager have to be accommodating and understanding to achieve the

organizational goals and have an open mind to the current situation at hand. The key to effective

communication is very important in solving stringent problems within any organization. One of

the main keys is being a good a listener. The plant manager should have asked the opinions of

the workers first before making such decisions.

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The International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities Intervention pp. 1904-1914.

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Organization. March.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316360042_The_Role_of_Communication_in_Enhan
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Claire Katunge Mutuku, J. K. D. P. M.,. 2014. "Effects of Organisational Communication on Employee

Motivation: A Case Study of Nokia Siemens Network Kenya." International Academic Journals of
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England, P. H., n.d. n.d. "The Impact of physical environments on employee wellbeing - topc review."

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Mullins, Laurie J. 2007. Management and Organisational Behaviour. England: Pearson Education
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Nancy M. Lorenzi. 2000. "Managing Change: An Overview." Journal of the American Medical Informatics
Association, Volume 7, Issue 2 Pages 116–124.

Savage, E.,. 2014. Different Policies for Different Departments Sometimes Acceptable. October 3.
Accessed March 3, 2022. https://calchamberalert.com/2014/10/03/different-policies-for-
different-departments-sometimes-acceptable/.

Singh, A.,. 2017. "EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION: A STUDY ON MODERN WORKPLACE MOTIVATION."

International Journal of Engineering Sciences & Management Research.

Strick, J.,. 2022. Applying Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs To A Modern Workplace. March 15. Accessed
March 10, 2022. https://www.ecoportal.com/blog/maslows-hierarchy-of-needs.

Unknown. 2020. Facility Layout and Design - Encyclopedia - Business Terms. February 6. Accessed March
13, 2022. https://www.inc.com/encyclopedia/facility-layout-and-design.html.

Ward, C.,. 2021. What is horizontal communication? February 17. Accessed March 10, 2022.
https://www.twineapp.com/blog/what-is-horizontal-communication.