THE CASE OF AVALANCHE, INC.Form A
Background
Angela Carp was the manager for the snowboard production department at Avalanche Inc., a company that manufactures skiing equipment, ice skates, snowboards, snowshoes, and a variety of snow-related accessories, gear, and clothing. Angela was enrolled in an MBA program in nearby Ogden, Utah. She had read a lot about participative management and was impressed by the results of case studies and consultant reports. It seemed to her that there were many benefits to be had in production-type departments like hers where employees were really involved in decision making. Angela decided to experiment with participative management to find out if employees would respond positively to it. The employees are not in a union, hence, she knew she could make changes in decision-making practices without having to get approvals and assorted sign-offs. Angela chose the topic of job rotation to introduce participative management in her department.
Job Rotation
In the snowboard production department at Avalanche, job rotation was a standard practice. That is, the company expected each department manager to use job rotation of employees for purposes of cross-training, reduction of boredom on the job, creation of within-department flexibility, and so on. The rotation of jobs was believed to be an important element of employee motivation. AngelaÕs boss, Hans Volk, the plant superintendent, did not specify to Angela nor to any department manager specifically how to conduct job rotation. It was generally expected that each department manager would do it and do it in a way that fit the needs of the department and the group of employees. Department managers were required to prepare a brief report every six months in which they explained how the job rotation was achieved.
For the past two years, Angela has made all of the job rotation assignments. She keeps a calendar of assignments and on an average of about every three weeks she makes some new assignments and changes in the work and tasks of the employees. The department does not have shift work; all employees in the department work on one shift. Since March of 1996, the employees at Avalanche are the best-paid employees in the snow recreation (goods production) industry. The firm is very successful and many local people seek to be employed at Avalanche. When there is a job vacancy, it is not unusual for dozens of people to apply for the job. The job rotation idea is one that people seem to accept and take for granted. In AngelaÕs department, there have been very few complaints about the rotation of jobs and tasks. Most of the complaints have been from people who liked what they were doing and didnÕt want to move to something different.
On Wednesday morning, Angela told her 17 production employees to shut down all production activities at 2:45 Thursday afternoon and report to a conference room in the administrative section for a 3:00 p.m. meeting. The meeting was about job rotation. At 3:00 on Thursday all the employees were assembled in the conference room. Angela told them that she was really pleased with the way the job rotation was working out as far as flexibility gained and the interest that the employees seemed to take in their jobs and the quality of output and so on. She said that it was working out so well that she thought she could delegate the whole job rotation program to them, for them to manage as they saw fit. After all, everyone understood the nature and purposes of job rotation and if they could self-manage the program perhaps even greater benefits could result. Also, successfully performing this kind of supervisory or management task could help them in applying for a promotion in the future. Finally, the time savings for Angela in having delegated the job rotation planning and scheduling would allow her to spend more time training employees in the computer-aided manufacturing equipment.
To Angela, the employees seemed genuinely enthusiastic about taking over the job rotation program to manage on their own. She asked if there were any questions or comments. There were very few comments from the group. Since there were about 30 minutes left in the workday, Angela told the group she was going over to the work area to finish a project she had started earlier that day and that the next 30 minutes was theirs to do some initial planning regarding how to assume the job rotation tasks. She left the meeting feeling pretty good; maybe she was even a bit smug. She thought to herself, ÒThis participative management experiment is going to be a big success. IÕm really glad I decided to do this.Ó
Results
About one week later, when the normal job rotation changes would take place in accordance with the schedule that Angela had put in motion, she noted that virtually no one was shifting to different tasks. She thought this was strange but said or did nothing. Another week passed. Everything was going well in the department, yet there were no changes in the rotation of jobs or tasks. Angela quietly asked the senior fiberglass technician, Harry, what was going on with the rotation plans. Harry told her that basically nothing was going on with the plan. He said there were three things going on for various people in the department with regard to her delegation: First, many people were tired of rotating jobs and would just as soon be left alone; second, no one would step forward and take responsibility for the initial planning, not even a small committee; and third, some people didnÕt like the idea of doing AngelaÕs job for her. After all, sheÕs paid to do administrative tasks, they arenÕt. Stunned is a good word to describe how Angela felt when she heard HarryÕs comments.
Questions
1.ÊWhat are some benefits of empowerment, especially as it is represented in this case? For the employee? For the organization?
2.ÊCould Angela have introduced empowerment (as per the practices she suggested) differently? Explain.
3.ÊIs what Angela proposed a delegation of authority?
4.ÊWhat can Angela do now?