Business Management Case Study

Chet Craig is the Central Plant Manager of the Norris Company. He started as an expediter in the company's eastern plant and was quickly promoted to Production Supervisor in three years. After two years, he was promoted to Assistant to the Manager of the Eastern Plant. Five years later, Chet was transferred to the central plant as an Assistant, and after one month, was promoted to his current position.

Chet is an outgoing, friendly person who genuinely wants to do well in his job. He has many creative projects he is passionate about implementing. However, it appears Chet does not have enough time to attend to his own responsibilities. He is constantly attending to his subordinates, answering phone calls, and making decisions for other people. He has no time to devote to his own projects, and is being questioned by his superiors about the status of the projects which should be underway already.

After a typical day at work, Chet is questioning himself as an efficient executive. He has been busy all day, but has not accomplished anything significant. He performed his daily routine but all the projects he has been enthusiastically thinking about are no where close to being accomplished. As well, he feels that he is depriving his family and church of the time he should be devoting to them, he does not have time for recreation, and he is far from attaining his personal objectives.

Issues

It appears that Chet is afraid to lose control, which results in him taking a long time to tour the plant. During the daily tours, he should just be checking with the supervisors that everything is up and running - not get involved in deep conversations and attend to the small tasks that the employees are responsible for.

Chet is a le...

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... Chet, as Plant Manager, to operate more efficiently, the change must be implemented to empower employees to make their own decisions and feel confident in doing their work without constant assurance. Every employee and supervisor must be retrained so they are clear on their job description and their responsibilities. Chet will have more time to work on his own projects and feel like an effective Plant Manager at the end of each workday. This change will increase the plant's productivity and the entire staff's satisfaction and development. The important part of instilling the change is to make it transparent to all the members of the organization, ensure they embrace the change, offer and receive frequent feedback from employees, practice effective communication to all the members, and conduct performance appraisals to ensure productivity is meeting company standards.