Crossing Cultures: Insights from Master Teachers - Essay Example

Case Study Too Short the Day Organizations are structures, where a ‘collage’ of employees will do their allocated work, under the management of a leader or manager. So, the success or failure of an organization depends on the role, the leader plays. The leader is the one who can lead humans under him/her to ‘heaven’ or ‘hell’. If the leader or the manager performs their role in an effective and optimal way, he/she can ‘sprinkle’ success on many lives. This paper will analyze the managerial skills of Giles Chamberlain, who is the production manager of a playhouse theatre. Chamberlain has hands full of work, when he starts a new week on Monday. But, at the end of that day, when the performance of Chamberlain's is analyzed from an overall perspective with particular focus on long term targets, it falls short of the expected levels. That is, over the weekend, Chamberlain had formulated a list of important long term tasks, which he planned to accomplish in the ensuing week, by making a start on Monday. Among the important tasks was the need to find new suppliers to buy several high-cost and large quantity materials needed for conducting the shows in their theatre. The search to find new suppliers got initiated mainly to reduce the ever increasing production costs. Apart from this step, Chamberlain also planned to implement new procedures in the production and staging of shows. The main purpose of the new procedures is to reduce overtime working and the resultant high labour expenses. The other main issue that inflates the production costs is the late buying of materials needed for the production, through high cost fast delivery mode. So, through these new procedures, Chamberlain wants the production team to order and get the needed materials in advance, at lower rates. The other plan of Chamberlain is to provide new flexible facilities on the stage, which will have long term use and importantly which can be modified by the designers in any way. This plan is to counter the present case of providing expensive new materials for each show. The other long term plan, Chamberlain had in his mind is to increase the use of modular stage designs, instead of using expensive timber for constructions on stage. So, “by the time he reached the theatre he was pleased about the approaching day and anticipated taking steps towards the resolution of these tasks” (Till) But the moment, he entered the building of the theatre, stage manager called him and explained to him that he needs more casual labour than initially agreed due to the changes in the play, The Son of Light. So, this addition of new labour clearly affected Chamberlain's plan to reduce labour costs, providing an unfavorable start. Even though he suggested to the stage manager that from now on, any overtime needs has to be authorized by him, some damage has been already done on that front. Chamberlain next interaction is with the head of Wardrobe, to discuss the total cost of the proposed trip to London to buy new costumes for a future production. This part of Chamberlain's day work went according to his long term plans, as they were able to plan out and buy the needed materials for the future productions well in advance. Also, by discussing the costume resale policies and the budget limits for the new costumes, he was able to focus on the reduction of production costs. But the other issue, which again inflated the production costs, is the damage to the shower unit, taken on loan from an outside company. That is, when he heard from the Head of Props that the shower unit had broken and was thrown away, he called the company, explained the problem and agreed to send an invoice for the replacement cost. Apart from these major interactions and decisions, he was also approached by other department heads including Head of scenic paints, who wanted particular paints, assistant director who wanted extra actors to cover up for absentees, etc, thereby raising the production costs. So, Chamberlain was not able to orient his work towards the long term tasks, he had set himself that morning, even though he fulfilled that day's needs, with partial success and failures. So, the things Chamberlain could have done are incorporating his long term targets even while fulfilling the daily needs. For example, when the stage director asked for more labour force, he should have suggested to the director to manage the work, using the available work force. This way, the existing employees could have been made to rise to the challenge, and at the same time extra labour could have been avoided, reducing the labour costs. Then, when the shower unit was damaged, he readily agreed to pay for the replacements costs, without conducting any formal inquiry to find how the damage happened and also who could be responsible for that damage. . ” Executives owe it to the organization and to their fellow workers not to tolerate non performing individuals in important jobs” (Drucker). This way, he could have fined the culprit to share a portion of the replacement costs. Finally, when the other department heads asked for more materials and other resources, then also he readily agreed to provide them, without holding any further discussions with them or other persons, about whether they need them without options. So, Chamberlain could have functioned in a more effective way for the actualization of the long term plans, along with the fulfillment of the daily needs. “Time is neutral and does not change things. With courage and initiative, leaders change things” (Jackson). What they teach you at Disney U (niversity) In any organization, after the employees are recruited, they have to be provided optimal working environment to increase their productivity. The recruitment forms an important cog in the functioning of the organization. At Disney, this recruitment, training and apportionment part are carried out in an optimal way, so that the employed persons provide excellent service to the customers. That is, before any persons are employed in Disney, they are put through various processes and only the most pleasurable candidates are selected. Actually, the person who attend the recruitment and gets employed are not considered employees, but as actors, who perform in the Disney organization in various roles. The recruitment and the employment process starts with interviews, when Disney takes people who are normally gregarious and trains them to be more so. So, the basic necessity is their character. So, looks do no matter, only the person's attitude and personality is given prominence. The casting department puts more weight on interviews than resumes. “The interviewer bases the hiring decision on work experience, personality and educational background” (Lynch, 2001). So, because of this good recruitment process, the persons who are selected will provide quality service. All new employees, before they start work, have to attend 'traditions' classes or training classes (training is only known as tradition classes). During the training period, which is held mainly at the Disney University situated at Walt Disney World Resort, all the basic and important doctrines of Disney are incorporated into the recruited actors’ minds. All of Walt Disney World's "cast members" begin their careers with Disney at the Casting office” (Paton). One of the main parts of the training period is the learning of Disney terms, including the character's names. The training environment will also have the Disney feel with the posting of pictures of Disney's comic characters. Also, at the training period itself, the actors are given costumes not uniforms to wear to easily assimilate in the work environment. As put forward by one of the instructors in the university, working at Disney is like “going to foreign country. You have to learn a new language and a new culture” (Till). Instructors are also given major roles to imbibe the organizational culture of Disney in the employees. “He had to seduce the employees into a situation in which they had no choice but to rethink their identity” (Schein, 2004). So, in the training period, the employees should be well prepared by the higher officials in all aspects of management, including on how to raise their levels of performance. “Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people” (Rockefeller) Even in the working environment, the actors are made to follow certain regimen or rules to make them provide quality service. “…a firm understands its environment and fashions a response to that environment at the macro level” (Boyacigiller, Goodman, Phillips, 2003). That is, Men are not allowed to have “moustaches, beards, long sideburns, or earnings, while woman can wear small ring on each hand, with earrings no larger than a penny, avoiding painted fingernails, large hair decorations” (Till). The other activity which the actors are suggested to do is take pictures of visitors, so that the whole family can be visible in the that picture. So, Disney manages to “Disneyfy its employees” (Till). The other thing that makes the workers perform better is the Disney habit of not firing any workers. Instead it always tries to find new positions for problem workers. People's positive emotions enhance their performance in an organization (Warneka). And, based on that high performance, hourly workers are promoted and can join the management ranks as salaried workers. Awarding the deserving and ‘success achieved’ employees will stick them to the organization, and importantly will motivate them to give better results. “Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it” (Dwight). So, Disney is providing optimal recruiting, training and working environment for the employees to provide quality service. Reference: Boyacigiller. N.A., Goodman. R. A. and Phillips. M.E (2003). Crossing Cultures: Insights from Master Teachers. Routledge. Drucker, P. Inspirational Business Quotes. Retrieved January 31, 2008 from http://www.woopidoo.com/business_quotes/leadership-quotes.htm Dwight, D. Inspirational Quotes for Business and Work: Motivation. Retrieved January 31, 2008 from http://humanresources.about.com/od/inspirationalquotations/a/quotes_motivate.htm Hill, T. Too short the Day. Templeton College, University of Oxford Jackson, J. Leadership Quotes. Retrieved January 31, 2008 http://www.wisdomquotes.com/cat_leadership.html Lynch, L. (2001). Recruiting, retaining the best. Retrieved February 2, 2008 from http://www.progressivedistributor.com/mro/archives/MRO%20Coach/Lynch/LynchJJ2001.htm Patton, S.M. Service Quality, Disney Style. Retrieved February 2, 2008 from http://www.qualitydigest.com/jan97/disney.html Rockefeller, J. D. Church Champions Update, Mar 13, 2001 Schein, E. H. (2004). Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd. ed. Jossey-Bass Warneka, T. Quotes about Organizations. Retrieved January 31, 2008. http://quotes.zaadz.com/topics/organizations Read More