Mark Morton 400036419

Case 9: Weytjen’s First Assignment

1. What is the decision context that Erik faces?

Erik was given the responsibility to solve a major logistics problem in the dishwashing
department. The washing machines keep breaking down and this is causing huge delays in the
cleaning process. The dishwashing department blames the maintenance crews for slow and
unreliable repairs and the maintenance crews blame the dishwashing department for nor properly
preparing dishes for the machines. Erik is required to look at the context of the different roles in
this issue and each of their responsibilities in order to get the dishwashing department back on
schedule.

2. What personal, business, and environmental factors influence Erik’s actions?

Personal:
 Maintaining a good relationship with both the dishwashing department and maintenance
crew
 Has another job waiting for him and does not need a reference so he may shirk on his
responsibilities
Business:
 The unions will have an impact on Erik’s decisions as he does not want to cause a labour
strike
Environmental:
 Other airlines that need services from Sabena Catering may put pressure on Erik to solve
the problems so that they get higher quality service

3. What is your assessment of the situation at Sabena catering?

The situation at Sabena Catering is very bad. The Sabena airline has not made a profit for 7 years
and has just had its largest deficit to date. Also there are frequently strikes that vary from short
outburst to long and drawn-out out events. This all shows that SNCS currently has low
organizational health and performance.

4. How ready is the organization for change?

Management: Is ready for change, have recruited an ambitious new team of senior managers
that are motivated to bring the company back to being profitable
Employees: Not ready, they are always fighting with management and think as though the
managers do not care about them. The employees are focused on their short term position and not
at the long term strategy that the new management team is trying to implement.

5. What specific actions should Erik take to resolve the problems?

Erik should have increased training sessions for the dishwashing department so to ensure
everyone knows the correct way to use the machines. He should also have the maintenance crews
have a log to record what they are fixing. This will show if the same thing is being fixed every
time it may be due to dishwashing departments mistakes. But if many different things are
breaking it could just be time to get new machines.

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