River Woods Plant Manager - Case Study Example

In order for the project to be successful, the manager will be needed to come up with strategies to manage the project together with the subordinates and the expected challenges. This will be especially helpful because he will be new, with a new project and current subordinates who have been using functional lines of reporting. In this case there is an introduction of a new plant in a location away from the headquarters. Current personnel will be shifted to work at the location of the new plant and any extra staff will be taken to other branches.

The new plant is viewed to be viable in the future and it will have new methods of production, manpower requirement as well as lower cost of production because it will be automated. The new plant is being used to implement a decentralized system of management signaling a move away from the centralized system where there was function line reporting. In the centralized method, marketing was under the vice president, manufacturing and other functions under senior vice president and no plant had a general manager.

In the new system the general manager will take charge of personnel and all function save for sales and marketing (Whetten & Cameron, 2007). There are concerns over a shift from line reporting to plant level focus as well as upgrading the current staff to use the new plant. Use of the new plant, setting of procedures, appliance design and production plan are expected to pose a challenge. There are complaints from the current employees over moving to a smaller town who are also dissatisfied with their new roles.

These are the same people who will be expected to foster unity of the plant and assist in success of the new plant and the entire company. Issues are expected between managers with regard to power sharing and teaching them on how to exercise their power with the new changes. In an organizational context, personal power of the manager