Effective Leaders Dealing With Dilemmas - Assignment Example

Introduction At the end of the month nearly 18 million toys had been recalled and a man directly tied to the controversy had committed suicide. Whatwere these events and would it be possible to rectify them? As you will see, this was no ordinary dilemma, and it would take the experienced and steadfast leadership of Mattel top-executive Thomas Debrowski to right the ship and tell the world that the, “vast majority of those products that were recalled were the result of a design flaw in Mattel’s design, not through a manufacturing flaw in China’s manufacturers (Oleson 2007).” This essay functions as an examination of effective leadership in the face of a dilemma, and analyzes the response of Mattel executive vice-president Thomas Debrowski as he effectively rectifies a controversy that brought the world’s largest toy manufacturer to its knees. Background of the Company The company featured in this research analysis is Mattel. According to total revenue, Mattel is the world’s largest toy company. The company produces a large array of toy products, the most prominent of which include Hot Wheels, Matchbox cars, Barbie dolls, Masters of the Universe He-Man action figures, American Girl dolls, board games, and, formerly, video games machines. While Mattel is now an extraordinarily complicated corporate entity, with over 26,000 employees, the company originated in the 1945 in the Southern California garage of Eliot and Ruth Handler and Harold ‘Matt’ Matson. The original Mattel toys that were produced were an assortment of dollhouse furniture and picture frames. In 1959, the company’s most famous toy, the Barbie Doll was developed by Ruth Handler, who later became president. Barbie Dolls now represent over 80% of Mattel’s total profits. Despite originating in California, Mattel no longer has production factories in the United States. Their last factory was part of the Fisher-Price division and it was closed in 2002. Today, nearly all of the Mattel production factories have been outsourced to China for drastically cheaper labor costs. Mattel demonstrates a complicated corporate management-leadership structure, and features detailed company and product guidelines. In 1995, a critical shift was made in the management structure from a “tall” structure, to a “flat” structure. This can be better understood as a gradual change from predominantly hierarchical forms of management, to a structure that engenders an increased emphasis on a cooperative approach due to the leveling of previously upper-level management. This brings top management into increased contact with Mattel’s operating divisions, and it is believed that this “flat” structure functions to motivate these operating managers. Mattel’s management structure differs from many similar corporate entities, as their flat structure reduces the emphasis on intermediary management. This leadership structure places increased emphasis on the creative faculties of the Division Managers, as their proximity to upper-level management creates an atmosphere at Mattel where the Division Managers can develop and introduce innovations. The result has been said to “be a more supple, flexible, and efficient organization (Fixman, p. 10, 2003).” In other regards, Mattel functions like a typical corporation, with a Board of Directors, a CEO, and other top-level management overseeing a dichotomous array of corporate functions. The Leader Fig. 1 Thomas Debrowski Picture The leader featured in this study is Mattel’s executive vice-president of World-Wide Operations Thomas Debrowski. Debrowski is 58 years old and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Delaware College of Science and Agriculture. According to a recent profile in Forbes, including stock options, Debrowski makes an annual salary of $2,078,420.00 (Forbes 1998). As executive vice-president, Debrowski’s overseas Mattel’s worldwide manufacturing, he ensures logistic efficiency, and has a crucial role in supply chain management proceedings. He directly controls the oversees operations and distribution, including global sourcing, procurement, manufacturing operations, operations finance and strategy, operations technology, product integrity, operational planning, environmental affairs, health and human safety (Forbes 1998). Debrowski joined Mattel after working at The Pillsbury Company for nine years as senior vice president of Operations. His role with Pillsbury was extremely similar to the tasks he now overseas with Mattel and they include processes across a wide spectrum from purchasing and manufacturing to product quality and environmental affairs. Debrowski also worked for twenty-years at Kraft Foods, Inc. In fact, Kraft Foods was Debrowski first career. He started there in 1972 and was eventually promoted to vice president and director of Grocery Operations. He has also spent significant time living and working overseas, with particular interests in Europe and Asia. While Debrowski clearly has an impressive track record of success in upper-level management and is a highly functioning and well-rounded leader, he has particularly demonstrated a Situational Leadership style. That is, “the capacity to set high but attainable goals, willingness and ability to take responsibility for the task, and relevant education and/or experience of an individual or a group for the task (Hersey 1977, p. 21).” The Dilemma In August 2007, Mattel’s Fisher-Price subsidiary had to recall nearly one million Chinese made toys as they exceeded United States standards for lead based paint. Even as the threshold limit for lead based paint is 600 parts per million, many of the toys were determined to have as much as 110,000 parts per million – an extraordinary figure. By exceeding these set standards for lead based paint it is possible that children receive lead poisoning if they put the toys in their mouths. During the same month, Mattel was also forced to recall as many as 18 million toys because of a faulty magnet that was easily becoming detached. The danger of the detached magnets was demonstrated when a child swallowed a Polly Pocket magnet and had to undergo surgery. Even as there were no governmental restrictions regarding production of toys with magnets, it was widely understood that the company had remained negligible in producing the faulty toys. Indeed, one of the primary manufacturers committed suicide in the wake of the considerable controversy. While Mattel faced the primary dilemma of answering to the United States government and consumers, as to their lackadaisical production capabilities, they also faced considerable pressure from the Chinese manufacturers, as felt they had been wrongly indicted when the actual problem was Mattel’s faulty designs (Bapuji 2007). The Solution As executive-vice president of Word-Wide Operations it was Thomas Debrowski’s primary responsibility to effectively address the problems domestically and abroad. In his actions, Debrowski demonstrated exemplary Situational Leadership. Chinese manufacturing director Li Changiiang openly disparaged Mattel for its less than stellar safety standards. Debrowski responded by taking responsibility and apologizing profusely for the mishap (Olesen 2007). Debrowski followed these words with action by recalling more than 21 million toys that were constructed through Chinese manufacturers (Olesen 2007). In the wake of this occurrence, American consumers began making great efforts to not purchase Chinese manufactured toys, which further angered Chinese manufacturers. As a result, Debrowski openly admitted that the excessive led paint found in the toys was a direct result of Mattel’s negligence, and had nothing to do with Chinese manufacturing. He did, however, inform the Chinese that due to the high amounts of toys sold in China, they should be supportive of Mattel’s predicament. Finally, Debrowski also stated that Mattel assumed responsibility for the malfunctioning magnets. Recommendations While Debrowski’s swift and forthright actions prevented a tragic occurrence snow balling into a fatal disaster for the company, one must consider further actions that could have been taken. With the flat organizational structure at Mattel, the company could have implemented a company-wide safety review that completely restructured design standards for future toys. Rather than solely admitting to the error, Mattel could have incorporated these newly stringent standards into press releases and functioned as standard bearer in toy safety, not only for their own corporate interests, but for the good children throughout the globe. This sense of corporate responsibility is perhaps the only shortcoming that Debrowski failed to successfully convey. Indeed, the company did later adopt more stringent design standards; it was conveyed to the public as merely a requisite government restriction, not a socially concerned American entity. Conclusion As can be seen, it was Thomas Debrowski’s effective Situational Leadership that led him to make the right decisions and own up to the design flaws. While Debrowski successfully alleviated the situation, it’s possible that a further developed sense of corporate responsibility would have aided Mattel in the situation. To any degree, the situation is an exemplary instance of effective leadership dealing with a difficult dilemma. References Bapuji, Hari; Beamish, Paul W. (2007), "Toy Recalls - Is China Really the Problem?", Canada Asia Commentary (Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada) 45, ISSN 1481-0433, OCLC 45133004, http://www.asiapacific.ca/analysis/pubs/pdfs/commentary/cac45.pdf, retrieved 2007-09-25 Fixman, A. (2003). Key Mattel brands under siege from retails, knock offs. 3 pages. Los Angeles Business Journal: CBJ, LP Grossman, E. Forbes Magazine. http://people.forbes.com/profile/thomas-a-debrowski/51672 Hersey, P. and Blanchard, K. H. (1977). Management of Organizational Behavior 3rd Edition– Utilizing Human Resources. New Jersey/Prentice Hall. Olesen, A. (2007) Mattel says own design flaws are behind toy recalls. 3 pages. Oakland Tribute: ANG Newspapers. Mattel apologizes to China over massive toy recalls. 3 pages. Oakland Tribune: ANG Newspapers Read More