Black & Deker-Eastern Hemisphere and the ADP Initiative - Case Study Example

In October 1995, Bill Lancaster was appointed as the President of Black & Decker Eastern Hemisphere. Within a few months of working there he was faced with a critical decision of selecting a new system of functioning within the organization. On one hand manager HR Anita Lin proposed a new performance appraisal and management development system and on the other hand should he introduce Appraisal Development Plan (ADP) throughout the eastern hemisphere. Before being position as the President of Black & Decker Eastern Hemisphere , Lancaster had seen the level of success ADP brought to the U.

S and was quite impressed by its performance in terms of management development. But will the ADP be suitable choice for the Asian organization culture or not? The main problem existed over the question of 360° feedback element. Lancaster was bothered that whether the employees will be comfortable working in an environment where your performance gets feedback from your managers, coworkers, subordinates & peers. Another concern that Lancaster had about the Eastern Hemisphere headquarter was that Black & Decker had either spent or committed to spend $80 million for the setup of Singapore headquarters and new factories in India, China and Singapore itself.

But the main problem laid in that in the early 90’s Black & Decker ranked 5th in Asia and had a very weak share. From the case its evident that this also bothered Lancaster that even after investing so much what if the position did not improve much or didn’t improve at all. Lancaster also found out that there was no specific system in place and various managers operated in styles which they were comfortable with; some preferred empowerment of there subordinates, while others believed in the traditional authoritarian styles.

The Gap between the bosses and their subordinates in this part of the globe has always existed. People were very reluctant and cautious while talking about people higher than their ranks because of the fear of developing negative opinion and grudges in the minds of the people they commented on. 1b. will ADP address those weaknesses? how? After getting promoted as the President of Eastern Hemisphere Lancaster started off to analyze the weaknesses in the system there by talking with the employees throughout the organization.

Firstly interviewing MAC of Eastern Hemisphere which was composed of the directly reporting members to the Headquarters of Black & Decker. Next he also gave time listening to the people other than officers and leaders of the organization. A traditional MBO(management by objective) - type system was being used which had been replaced in the US some time back. Although half of the fortune 500 companies had MBO system but they were not completely happy with it and when ADP system came they quickly shifted to it.

ADP will resolve the weaknesses in the following manner: By implementing the ADP system in the Eastern Hemisphere the Boss-Subordinate gap can be bridged and the employees can feel relaxed while working increasing the much needed productivity to step up the ranks. ADP system would make managers interact with their subordinates more often hence making them keep a track of individual employee performance and can guide them in one way or other. A calm and peaceful working environment will be formed as everyone will take care of their attitude and behavior with each other while at work as they know they’ll be evaluated on this basis apart from their work performance. It