Problem Statement
Jieliang came up with an alternative method for scanning barcode labels into the system, and then incorporated the change without permission. Marty is concerned about what other cost-saving ideas have not been brought to the attention of management.
Analysis
Hypothesis A
A reason why this could have happened is because the company has a Theory X management style.
Precision Electro-Tech’s production facility appears to follow a Theory X vision of their employee management, where they believe employees are lazy, ignorant, lack motivation and/or have no creativity. This company perceives their employees as workers without any spatial or creative thought processes. They adhere to a strict corporate-developed policy of TQM (Total Quality Management) from the beginning to the end of any product line. For each new product they produce, a new set of TQM is established that goes step by step in the most minute and meticulous matter. All of this is done without any input, review or feedback from the workers. The stages, priorities, assembly and product placement in the production line are micromanaged down to the exact place for the highest output of productivity possible. There are check off lists, visual directions and a constant push for the highest production possible at every given moment. Supervisors and managers focus on the outputs, productivity and carefully watch over the employees to make sure the rules are followed to the letter, and if they are not the employees risk being humiliated in front of their peers, or possibly terminated.
This type of environment does not foster any creativity or innovation. Here we see how Theory X does harm to the company by focusing too much on production and not balancing it with the employees. This does not encourage employees to speak up or make suggestions because everything from where to stand, what to wear, and how to hold a tool is clearly visualized and enforced by the management. There is no open communication or dialogue with the line supervisors, other than to be disciplined if there is a failure on the line. There is a suggestion box, but the oppressive production environment contradicts its usefulness Hypothesis B Another reason why this could have happened is due to Jieliang's introvert personality. There are several components to a person’s personality that influence such things from how they orient themselves to the world “extroversion/introversion”, how they perceive it “sensing/intuition”, how they make decisions “thinking/feeling” and the attitude they have towards the world “judging/perceiving” . Introverts tend to develop their own set of values and beliefs within themselves and sometimes it is difficult for them to interact within a large group of people as they don’t necessarily do what is expected of them. They tend to process information internally and then decide what it really means to them instead of just being all over the place talking about it. They are often not trusted by others because they do not know what they are thinking. In this case, Jieliang discovered that the she could save time by scanning a large number of barcode labels into the system at the same time and then put them on the metal shield, when what she was supposed to do was to put them on the shield first and then scan them into the system. Because of her introvert personality, Jieliang probably decided to test her new theory by breaking the protocol she was instructed to follow because she was afraid of communicating what she has found. It is a tendency of an introvert person to keep things to themselves and work on their own agenda.
Hypothesis C
A third reason why this could have happened is due to the supervisor’s lack of empathy toward the workers.
Empathy is one of the components of emotional intelligence, and without this ability to understand another's emotions; we cannot tell what is bothering them. If the yellow hat (Jieliang's supervisor) is unable to ascertain what is bothering Jieliang, then she won't realize that criticizing Jieliang in public is probably making her feel embarrassed in front of her co-workers. A lack of empathy could also make it impossible for the yellow hat to understand the change that Jieliang is proposing, because Jieliang is going against the company’s standard for the application of the bar codes. Many companies, including my own, are starting to use empathy towards the workers as a way to increase productivity. These companies are becoming more aware of their employee's emotions and that by upsetting that apple cart they are doing the employee a disservice, which in turn could possibly cause the worker to slow down on the shop floor. The employee might be thinking "If the company doesn't care about me, then why should I care about it." This type of slow down is actually infectious, and could possibly cause other employees to slow down their work effort. The shop floor slowing down is going to cause a slackening in production, which of course could cause a reduction in profits. The apparent lack of empathy shown by the yellow hat has also manifested itself in the fact that there are no suggestions in the suggestions box. In this case Marty should be paying more attention to the workers, since it is from that group that a number of work improvements have come from over the years. Marty's 20 years of experience in the manufacturing world, including time on the shop floor, should have allowed him to develop some empathy with the workers. In this case the lack of empathy shown by the company has caused the problem of a worker not being willing to step forward and submit a suggestion that could save the company an unknown amount of money.
Hypothesis D
A final reason that this could have been caused is due to the supervisor’s failure to recognize Jieliang’s social achievement driver. Jieliang’s social motivator for achievement is in the form of a personal challenge. She wanted to learn a new way of doing her repetitive job and to exceed her own time record of doing this, and she did. She not only figured out a way to do it quicker, but also in a manner that wasn't as monotonous as the manner in which she was trained to do it. But her creativity and social need for achievement were completely undermined and dismissed by her supervisor “yellow hat” and the rest of management. When management does not recognize the employees’ social needs or drivers, they are most likely missing out on a lot of creativity and new ideas that their employees may have. Also, by dismissing their employees’ social drivers, management is basically blowing out the candle for the employees; they are killing their motivation and drive. This is exactly what “yellow hat” did to Jieliang when she yelled at her in public for changing the way she scanned the barcode labels in the system. Jieliang will probably never again use her creativity to come up with new and better ways to do her job and probably feels that nobody in management cares about her as a person, but only as a robot capable of doing the same tasks, over and over again throughout the day.
Conclusion
Marty should be concerned that the Theory X corporate culture appears to be preventing innovation, and is creating an oppressive environment where the employees are afraid to use something as simple as the suggestion box. If they are afraid of management, and not allowed to think outside their basic instructions, or communicate the issues or obstacles they see on the production line, then management should expect to lose money. In the end, even though Jieliang actually figured out how to save time on the production line, she was screamed at because she never shared her idea with her superiors, and this was seen as unacceptable behavior since they had very specific instructions to follow. If she had more of an extrovert personality she would have probably brought it up to the supervisor’s attention; but based on what she actually did we can assume she has an introvert personality.
The lack of empathy shown by the yellow hat towards Jieliang is evident in the lack of suggestions in the suggestion box, and by the fact that Jieliang implemented her change to the bar code scanning without consulting her first.
Since Jieliang did not tell anyone about her desire to beat her own time record to affix and scan the barcode labels, and did not tell anyone when she came up with a better way to do so, no one came to the conclusion that her social driver is achievement. She did not run and tell her coworkers or her supervisors, or even write it down for the suggestion box. If Jieliang’s social driver had been power or affiliation, she would have handled her success in doing her task much faster, and in a completely different manner.
Recommendations
Marty needs to suggest revamping the management style to be a more Theory Y view of its employees. Encourage the employees to brainstorm or come up with new ideas on the productivity line. Challenge them to new ideas or output suggestions. The line supervisors need to tone down the confrontational approach and empower the employees to take responsibility for the line and get more involved in the creativity and innovation. The “yellow hat supervisor” should spend a little more time getting to know her employees. This way she could have seen that Jieliang’s personality was more towards the introvert side than the extrovert. By doing this she should be able to make her employees communicate with her more openly because they will trust her more and therefore will not be afraid of expressing their ideas in front of her rather than in front of the entire group or shift of employees.
Marty already knows that the change implemented by Jieliang has increased the speed with which the bar codes can be scanned, which in turn is likely to make the process more cost efficient. What he should do is take the time to talk with Jieliang to find out where she came up with the idea for the improvement. My recommendation to Marty would be to have companywide training for managers and supervisors regarding the social needs of people. This way management could observe their subordinates and become aware of what motivates each of them, and learn to treat each employee according to his or her social need. By having this training and putting it into practice, management would be able to get the best out of each employee and also encourage employees’ creativity which could lead to more ideas to streamline the production line and increase productivity for the entire company.