Case studies

Mudflats Biscuit Manufacturing Plant Roles Mudflat is said to be a leading businessman in the hill country who owns the largest and the one and only state of the art biscuit manufacturing plant in the country that was running for more than 30 years. His business constitutes over 2000 employees and his products had a 70% market share in the local market. He also exports his products to 20 countries including USA. Roles Mudflat also had other business Interests In the field of hotels, travel, apparel and plantation.He is a father of two children who has completed their Master Degrees in Bangor n the field of IT and Fashion Design. His belief was that it's his prime responsibility to look after the welfare of his fellow employees' and their families and his character towards them was more of father than an owner of the plant Itself. He also proved that paper qualification does not matter when It came to real life business. Them in order to enjoy his retirement. He then appointed his son Reason as the Director Operations and his daughter Rossini as the Director Marketing.Overall analysis of this case is to see as to how the new management approach is different to that of the old management approach of managing the biscuit manufacturing plant. 2. Question 1 – Discuss about the leadership approach of Roles Mudflat and how the company was benefited for many years with his self-learned management skills and main drawbacks of the process. The leadership approach used during the reign of Roles Mudflat at his manufacturing plant is a mixture of Autocratic approach, Democratic approach and Paternalistic approach.As an autocratic he decided that his manufacturing plant would be more controlled if he did not recruit professional managers. Through practicing autocratic approach he was able to make quick decisions, this was rather unofficial as he was facing constant changes in the environment due to competitiveness in the local as well as the foreign markets. It was ra ther a challenging thing for Roles Mudflat to be looking into his workers needs as they were needed to keep his business from falling apart.Through democratic approach Roles Mudflat was able to create an environment as such that he appointed his most senior employees as Supervisors to overlook employees under thereby encouraging decision-making amongst them. He also believed in an open-door policy, which encouraged employees to come to him whenever and whatever time they wanted to talk to him. This resulted in building the employer and employee relationship which built trust in-between, encouraged team- work amongst his fellow employees and so forth. Finally, as a paternalistic Roles Mudflat was more looked as a father rather than a boss.This is so because he believed that the people working for him were the best assets he possessed. He not only looked into the needs of his employees, he also extended an extra hand towards the needs of their families too. He supported his workers by giving 02 month bonuses, provided soft loans to purchase a motor cycle to errors who worked more than 05 years, distributed a dry ration pack worth of RSI. 1000/-, offered scholarships to their children whom were selected to universities, provided books and other accessories to needy children. Society, without which survival of the company would be damaged. And he also was a people person, although he did not have an HRS to look into the needs of the employees he happen to do it the way he understood how to manage people. The benefits gained through Roles Mudflat with his self-learned management skills are however very few compared to that of the drawbacks. He believed in an open or policy, whereby all employees' feedback was considered and he acted upon accordingly. This policy improved the morale of employees to a greater extent and had a direct impact to the turnover.When employees feel that their decisions and feedback are accounted for they gain a sense of belongingness and tr ust which helps Roles Mudflat retain his fellow employees. Another benefit is that Roles Mudflat has a 70% market share in the local market, exports his products to 20 countries including USA, caters to the needs of over 2000 employees and also together has won over the society through certain CAR projects. The little knowledge of management he has, had helped him not only look into the internal environment but also to cater to the external environment too.The drawbacks of the leadership approach used by him is such that, it is the result of lack of interest of the leader that leads to his adopting this style. This proves poor management and makes the employees lose their direction and focus. Roles Mudflat has no interest about the future of his business, I. E. No mission or vision of the business, no career development for his employees. According to the case, his most senior employees are Just Supervisors. They have no development beyond that because he does not see the importance of such a promotion for such employees.This may be due to his lack of knowledge of how to manage people or more or less the reason as to his lack of interest to take his business forward. There is no proper organizational structure that illustrates the positioning of the employees of the manufacturing plant. He has no set procedure and policy of how the business has been running in the past and how it came to be. This is necessary for the next heir who would be taking over. Without this policy or procedure no one can put two and woo together and continue the business, or to survive in the competitive market. . Question 2 – What are the shortcomings of the new approach taken by the young directors and their team to the change the process? The new approach taken by the young directors and their team to the change the process was rather costly. Rather than providing internal promotions they hired two Secretaries as Personal Assistants to the newly appointed directors. Six manag ers were hired for the core functions of the company namely Production, HRS, Quality, Supply Chain, Marketing and Finance.The managers were the newly appointed directors' classmates. They failed to identify manpower requirement, through internal recruitment. They incurred a lot of finance on unnecessary expenses like for instance; Reason came to understand that the company was running without a vision consultant in the country to come up with an attractive vision and corporate plan. Reason made available printed cards to all employees with the vision and mission statement and spent one million rupees on fixing digital boards with the company's vision.The HRS introduced a new incentive scheme based on individual performance and informed all employees that their annual bonus will be based on performance appraisals. Here the new management failed to inform the employees as to how their performances were going to be appraised and as to what they had to do in order to improve their curre nt performance. Employees had no one to go with their grievances as they were not given much attention as compared to Roles Mudflat. Employees were highly denominated as they faced difficulties communicating with the new management.The new directors failed to integrate the culture of the company's vision and mission. There was a clash between the previous culture and the existing culture. Reason and Rossini were too busy recruiting new blood to the organization that they ailed to realize the damages it was doing to the company. The employee turnover increased by 25% of the first three months Reason and Rossini took over the company. 4. Question 3 – Being the HRS Manager, what is your proposal to young directors to implement best HRS practices and processes in this 30 year-old company with over 2000 employees?When we look at the business that Roles Mudflat maintained for the past 30 years and the manufacturing plant that is now about to reach extinct, we could see that the mai n reason for this unsuccessful turn is the lack of knowledge the new management as about the culture and the business itself that was run by their father. As an HRS Manager, before I implement best HRS practices and processes I shall first speak to the employees and learn from them about the manufacturing plant. This is done so as to get a wider picture of the business as a whole, and as to how it was controlled by Roles Mudflat.Through this I could derive his secret of managing people and do a comparison of before and after the new management took control. As it is the employees are much disgusted over the way they have been treated and how much they have been ignored. So as an initial step I would involve employees in helping me to work out a SOOT of the past and present and get their valuable comments or suggestions, if any. Based on the SOOT analysis, I shall look into the areas that were lacking much expertise.Initially, the HRS manager should be able to fix the denominated sta ff and to do so he/she has to be very open to them, allow them to speak about their problems bothering them. Later, recruit a counselor to help those employees whose minds needs special attention. The HRS Manager should effectively encourage employee engagement benefit from owe employee turnover, greater customer satisfaction, a solid corporate culture, improved performance and communication, and higher commitment to the core values and objectives of the organization which had been embedded during the initial period when Roles Mudflat was leading.HRS Manager should also clarify the strategic direction by means of articulating the Vision, Mission and Values of the organization. HRS Manager should also integrate HRS programmed through HRS practices. For instance, by establishing a Staffing and Recruitment Policy it well help the organization to develop an effective recruitment tragedy in order to attract qualified workers who are committed to the organization's goals.The HRS Manager s hould also be able to identify the short-term and long-term human resources needs through a HRS planning process in order to mitigate resignations. HRS Manager should also develop a compensation policy. This is done by identifying goals and objectives of the organization by considering the competitiveness in attracting and retaining employees and whether performance is tied with pay increases. HRS Manager should also provide for training and development programmed so as to eater to all employees in need of training. Case Studies Case Scenarios Read the following scenarios. Answer, in a 50- to 100-word response, each of the following questions: Scenario 1 Sophia has been removed from her family and placed into foster care for the second time in the last 2 years due to her mother’s ongoing substance abuse. Sophia has missed many days of school and often comes to school dirty and wearing clothes from the day before. Sophia’s mother does not think she has a problem and blames the system for once again taking her daughter. 1. What can a human service professional do to help this family?They can have the family go to family counseling; also have the mother take substance abuse classes or to a drug rehab program. Then go talk to the foster care center and talk to Sophia and see why see is missing school and wearing dirty clothes. The human service can tell Sophia if she want to go back home she need to go back to school and get good grade and wear clean clothes to school then she can go back home with her parents Sophia would be my first focus because kids are most vulnerable. I would place Sophia in temporary foster care and set up biweekly meetings to understand her point of view of her current situation.I would also check her school attendance. And see if she needs some counseling to talk to someone about how she feels. We have a duty to protect that child not only from her living situations but also by placing her into a caring, loving family that will not allow this to happen. If she eventually comes to realization that this temporary situation could become a permanent situation maybe she will engage in the services offered and take things seriously the second time around, but never allow her to think it’s too late to make a change with her life. 2.How might the family’s previous involvement with the child protection system affect their willingness to engage in services the second time around? The family's previous involvement could be that they were not infor med of why their child was being taken out of their care and they are just upset about the whole situation of having her taken away. The case worker could have just taken the child and gave no explanation or propose a plan to help the family provide a stable environment for their daughter which would make anyone unwilling to engage in services. I would hope that the mother would realize the longer it takes her to seek help and stay clean the longer it will take for her daughter to return home. If she eventually comes to realization that this temporary situation could become a permanent situation maybe she will engage in the services offered and take things seriously the second time around, but never allow her to think it’s too late to make a change with her life. I am sure the child is very insecure of the Human Services at this point.Especially due to the fact that she has had so many issues with them in the past, and nothing has been done, at least nothing that was making a positive impact on her future. I personally feel having a closer relation with this child and building up trust may be a very positive approach. Social service workers are helpers. One asset that we possess in this profession is the ability not to judge. In this profession, just like our lives, we see people progress and regress. It does not stop our willingness to help.However, we do change our tactics to help these individuals with each failed attempt. Scenario 2 John has been homeless for most of his adult life. He is often seen on the medians of busy intersections asking for food and money or wandering through the park talking to himself. John used to seek housing in a homeless shelter but often chooses to sleep in the local park. During the winter, the local homeless coalition attempts to talk to John about staying in the shelter but he refuses.Staying out in the cold has led John to being hospitalized on several occasions, but he maintains that he is better off without anyone ’s help. 1. If you were a case manager for the homeless coalition what would you do to try and help John seek appropriate housing during the winter months? I would try to talk to John to see what happened all through his life and why he is homeless and why he refuses to stay in the shelter. There could be a mental or emotional underlying issue that could factor his reasoning with himself.I would try my best to offer John alternatives such as appropriate housing or shelter, along with assigning him to a case worker to follow up with and seek for resources. I would try to offer counseling and build that trustworthy client-caseworker relationship in order for him to understand and believe there are better ways to live in this world. Identifying the skills he may lack as well. It’s obvious John may be suffering from depression, lack of trust, and low self-esteem. The longer John remains in this state of mind it will be hard for him to get all his needs met. Adults, childre n and youth who have Developmental Disabilities are offered programs that range in intensity and setting according to their needs and desires – from highly supervised residential programs to job coaching and supported living. The Network strives to protect the welfare of individuals at-risk in numerous ways. I feel getting John involved in an organization like this one where he was taken care of and receiving meds I feel he would be on the path to a healthy happy life.In this case it would be good to know what disciplines John most likely fit into. Psychology would be my choice. I would attack his mind and behavior for a solution. 2. How does John’s outlook about receiving help affect his ability to get his needs met? John has too much pride in his self to accept the help he needs. He is already got it set in his mind that he can make its own his own without any help from anyone. He thinks this is a handout to him. Many homeless have this mentality and they live day to day on the streets.John (as well as the many others) need to be reminded that these programs are here to help and are not a handout in any way, most of the programs that are out there for the homeless are set up to assist those in getting back on their feet and off drugs and the street. This is going to be a process in which we may have to take baby step to get the job done. First we must get John to trust us, and let him know we are his friends looking out for him. We must get him to a doctor, get him medicated and get his mental illness under control so he understands us and his situation better.I believe after those two steps we will see huge improvements in him, and I’m sure he will also want to make great changes in his life. . Resistant means they have to attend but they don’t participate, they miss their appointments, So, We want to give John whatever services he will accept. Scenario 3 Juan often runs away from home because his parents constantly fight and oft en blame him for their issues. Juan runs away for 2 to 3 days at a time and will do this at least once a week. When he is at home, he typically does not follow the rules and will yell at his parents and siblings.Juan has a history of defiant behavior, but his home environment has often been chaotic. Juan’s parents have been through family counseling, but they feel it was not helpful and are reluctant to do it again. Juan sometimes will run to a local group home that takes in runaway youth. 1. If you were a counselor at the group home, how might you work with Juan to get him to stop running away from home so that he is not sleeping on the streets? I would try to talk to Juan to ask him why his parents are fighting about and why does he think he is the blame.Then ask him has he ever sat down and had a talk with his parents to see if he can help them out being he is the oldest in the family. I would try to get Juan to understand that the only blame he should take responsibility for would be any deviant behavior that he does. His parents fighting and him being blamed for it is just a way for them to pass the buck onto him and make him feel bad. He is not responsible for his parents fighting and once he can realize that and put measures of emotional protection he would not feel the need to run away. However I would encourage Juan to seek positive ways to handle and deal with the stress from home, whether becoming involved with sports or other positive groups. Juan would be offered therapy and anger management classes. Trying to figure out what makes him the angriest and we both figure out a solution to the problem so that he can remain in his home every night and learn the importance of rules as well. . Parent’s sometime worry when they don’t know where their kids are, therefore, causing arguments.I would show him ways he could be an influential key to the other kids in the house. 2. How might you try to work with the family even though they ha ve participated in family therapy previously and did not find it effective? I would try talking one on one with each family member. Since I have already talk to Juan, I would talk to his mother to see what she has to say and how she feels. Then I would talk to his father to see if he has been in Juan’s life from birth to now. After talking to the parents then I would talk to his brothers and sisters to see how they feel about him.Once I have completely talked to everyone I can understand what really happen or have a whole picture of all the problems. Then I will bring the whole family together and let them express how they really feel and how they want to stay a happy family. Encourage the parents to understand and accept the fact that there is a problem in the home and it starts with them. As a counselor there would be weekly follow up visits with the family. The family would be offered resources and as a whole we all work together to find a solution to the problems inside t he household.I am a firm believer that one should never give up. And as a human services worker, I will never give up on a patient or a family. Maybe, they weren’t ready to change with the first session, I feel we must give up all we got in order to show change and get a positive result. To break the ice, I would start by asking questions like, â€Å"What do you see the problem being? † This gives the parents some since of control in helping the problem. I would suggest marriage counseling to stop the arguing. There has to be another reason for their arguments other than Juan running away.