Scenario based question – Application 4

Scenario based question  – Application 4

Individual Assessment – worth 15%.

 

Instructions:

• Students must come to class prepared by reading the case on eLearning, and then studying relevant sections of theory from the textbook and the eReadings.

 

• You are to read through the case, and then answer all of the questions. Note: some questions may have multiple parts. Every part of each question requires an answer.

 

 

• Assessment will be based on selecting the correct option (A, B, C, D or E) AND providing correct justification.

 

• Marks may be indicated in class, but actual marks are likely to vary, based on the justification expressed in your submitted answer sheet. This will be marked by your tutor after class, and your final mark will be recorded.

 

 

• All answer sheets must be returned to your tutor.

 

• Your returned answer sheet will constitute your attendance and participation in this tutorial. If an answer sheet is not returned with your name on it, you will be considered as absent from the tutorial, and you will receive zero for this assessment.

 

• You will have a fixed period of time to complete all questions. This period of time will be equal across all students. YOU MAY NOT HAVE ENOUGH TIME TO COMPLETE EVERY ANSWER.

Scenario based question  – Application 4

In 1975, Fred Ferret opened Wollongong Wire Works – a wire loom foundry in the heart of Wollongong’s industrial area. Over the next 30 years he built his business up to be the number one provider of wire looms in Australia. Fred pinned his success on his no-nonsense authoritarian, task-based leadership style – something he associates with his command training in Vietnam. In 2005, his list of clients included: Telstra, Ford Australia, Optus and Andrew Antennas, with annual sales of, respectively: $2.5 million, $1.8 million, $1.2 million, and $1 million. He employed 250 staff in manufacturing, 25 staff in warehousing, 16 staff in administration and 32 staff in sales.

Fred’s business recently suffered a setback due mainly to the global financial crisis, and in 2008 he lost two of his biggest clients. As a result, Fred had to reduce his workforce by 40%. At the same time he expanded his sales force to extend sales operations into South East Asia.

Now, in 2012, things are beginning to look up. He has just renegotiated with Telstra and Ford who are about to award him with contracts at least as large as his 2005 contracts. Fred has also been successful in Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia receiving contracts in total of over $10 million.

Fred is now facing a problem even larger than his original problem. He has too few skilled workers to meet the demands of these new contracts. He also needs additional sales and technical staff to work overseas. Further, his recently laid-off workers are bitter with their recent redundancies and refuse to be re-employed. Rumours have since spread through the Wollongong community that these workers had a poor work ethic and were not organisational focused, and Fred tried everything he could to retain them. Each also received generous payouts.

Gender	Male	75%
	Female	25%
Age	19	10%
	20	15%
	21	20%
	22	25%
	23	10%
	24+	20%
Study	Electrical	65%
	Management	25%
	Marketing	10%
Work experience	Bar work	25%
	Restaurants	15%
	Retail	20%
	Work-related	10%

Table 1. Breakdown of student demographics

 

Fred occasionally teaches at Wollongong University, where he is well received by students and staff. This connection gave Fred an idea for a possible solution to his problem. He is negotiating with the university and TAFE to take the top 150 high achieving students from three classes: management, marketing, and electrical engineering. This will give him a new staff of 150 workers ready to start in four weeks. These students though, have had no previous work experience in this industry. Many have not even worked before. Most of the students are in their early twenties. They are all of Australian ethnicity and are mainly male. A breakdown of these students can be found in Table 1. Fred feels however, that given their lack of experience, he will need to establish tight job descriptions and work orders.

Questions: There are two questions. Each must be answered. The first question is worth 5 marks each. The second question is worth 10 marks. This assessment totals 15 marks (15% of the subject assessment).

3b.  Culture:

1. b) Considering the cultural differences between Fred’s Sales team, and all of the cultures of the countries they will be working in, which of Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions presents the biggest difference for the sales team about to head into Asia?

 

Study the case carefully:

• From the options below, select (CIRCLE) the cultural dimension (from Hofstede) that represents the greatest difference, and
• Prepare two sentences to explain why.

• PDI
• IND
• MAS
• UAI
• LTO

Justification:

• _____________________________________________________________________

 

• _____________________________________________________________________

Study the case carefully:

• Based on this cultural difference, what issues are likely to result when staff travel to these foreign countries; and how can you best manage them (discuss 2 issues and strategies):

Issue 1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Strategy 1 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Issue 2 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Strategy 2 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Marking Sheet:

 

	Value	Marks
Q1	5
Q2	10

                                                   15%                     ___%