calm seas case

CHAPTER 1

MANAGEMENT BASICS – CALM SEAS CASE

Tasneem Khan is the General Manager for Calm Seas, a small ocean kayak manufacturing company in western Canada. It is the end of the day in mid-October. Tasneem is wondering where the day went. She has gotten nothing done on the "to-do" list that she had with her when she started her day. And yet, she had been busy from the moment she walked in until now. She shrugs her shoulders and starts to tackle some of the work piled up on her desk. Everyone else has left the building by now. Perhaps she can get in a couple of hours of uninterrupted work before she goes home.

Tasneem had been promoted to General Manager almost two years ago. She had been the Sales Manager before that for 3 years and had worked in sales for another company for 3 years before that. As she sat at her desk, she thought that the job of General Manager was certainly challenging.

Being a manager was tough. There was always something going on to eat up her time and keep her busy. Tasneem wondered sometimes how she ever got anything done. She knew how to do her job — that wasn't the problem. It was trying to get things finished! She thought back over her day to try to figure out what happened.

Her day had started before she even got to the office. Her cell phone had rung when she was driving to work. The caller was one of her sales staff who was on his way to a client's office, but his car had broken down. A car was essential for the sales person's job and he had an important client visit to make that morning. He had tried to contact the Sales Manager, but he was on a plane and couldn't answer his phone. She promised to see what she could do about it when she got to the office.

As she walked through the parking lot, she saw the sign on the wall of their building, advertising for two more production assistants. That sign looked as though it had been up there forever. They were always looking for production assistants. Tasneem made a mental note to ask their Human Resource Administrator about that.

When she walked into the office, Tasneem asked her Administrative Assistant to arrange for a rental car company to take a car out to their sales person, stranded on the side of the road.

Tasneem turned her computer on, knew it would take a while to start and decided to go to the employee lounge for a coffee. She chatted for a few minutes to a couple of other employees who were there, flipped through the morning paper, glanced at the notices on the bulletin board and returned to her office.

She opened up her e-mail and watched all of the new e-mails enter her inbox. She shook her head and wondered how she could have so many new ones. She had checked her e-mail from home last evening and had gotten caught up. Now, she had 60 new e-mails! How was that even possible? She looked more closely and realized that half of them were e-mails that she had been copied on, but didn't necessarily need to see. She was tempted to delete a lot of them, but then thought she might miss out on some information that she needed to know. She sighed and opened up her calendar to see what was scheduled.

She had appointments that day with the company lawyers to go over the papers to buy a small piece of land beside their office so that they could build an extension of their building. They needed more production capability and they were delighted when this land came up for sale. She got it for a fairly good price and the expansion could start at the end of the month.

In addition, there was an appointment scheduled with the contractors to review the designs for the new building. This was the first meeting for them to get together and they needed to really get detailed on their requirements and budget for the construction.

Just as she had returned to look at her e-mail, her Administrative Assistant had come in to her office, complaining that she couldn't get the numbers to reconcile on the sales reports. The Assistant was responsible for ensuring all of the sales figures submitted by the sales staff matched the invoices. Usually she had no problem with this, but they had just installed a new software program and this month, the numbers didn't work out. Tasneem sat down with her and spent the next thirty minutes trying to figure it out. Finally, one of their delivery people, who was good at computers, came along and gave them some ideas for trouble- shooting. Fifteen minutes later, they solved it.

As Tasneem walked back to her office, the sales staff with the car problem phoned back to say his rental car still had not arrived and he was getting anxious about his upcoming client visit. They talked for a few minutes and as he was talking, the car arrived. Tasneem got off the phone.

The meeting with the lawyers came next. These were lawyers they had used on a number of occasions before for legal issues, so after the legal matters had been taken care of, they visited with one another and chatted over more coffee. The meeting lasted an hour.

After the lawyers left the building, the Production Supervisor waved at Tasneem and asked her to come into the production room. There was a problem with the finish surface on four of the kayaks that were being completed. The finish on the kayaks looked bumpy, which was unusual and spoiled the look of the kayak. This had not happened before and the kayaks could not be shipped to customers in that condition!

Tasneem asked the Production Supervisor to call the Production Manager, the production operator and the buyer, who was also a chemist, for a meeting to figure out this problem. An hour and a half later, the bumpiness on the surface was gone and the finish looked perfect.

Tasneem next drove to the bank. She had an appointment there to discuss the financial arrangements that they needed for the expansion. As she drove there, she called the friend she was supposed to have lunch with, and cancelled. No time for lunch today. She rummaged around in her briefcase for an energy bar. She made a mental note to grab a sandwich later.

The afternoon just sped by. Tasneem had the meeting with the contractors, got reports from the sales staff containing recommendations on pricing structures, had a conversation with the Sales Manager for some new product ideas and talked to accounting about some budget projections that she had to present at Calm Seas next Executive meeting. She asked her Administrative Assistant to run out and buy her a sandwich.

Finally, she caught up with the Human Resource Administrator before he left for the day and they discussed the problem they were having finding good production assistants. Tasneem wondered if the Human Resource Administrator was having trouble doing his job. She had hired him only two months ago and thought that she'd have to check in more often to see how he was doing with his responsibilities.

That brought Tasneem to the end of the day. The building was quiet now. Most people had left for the day. She looked at her computer and sighed. Over 100 e-mails! She opened up her sandwich and settled in to examine her messages. Another busy day.

2.5 Questions for the Manager's Job

1. Review the management functions, roles and skills. Which ones can you apply to Tasneem at Calm Seas?

2. Review the management functions, roles and skills. Relate these to a manager you know.

3. Review the management functions, roles and skills. Which ones are skills that you have? Which ones do you need to work on?

4. Do you agree that "a manager is responsible for the application and performance of knowledge" as Drucker says? Why or why not?

5. Do you think that management functions, roles and skills are different depending on the industry? Give some examples.

6. When you examine the management functions, roles and skills of a manager in a not-forprofit organization, how would they differ from a manager in a for-profit organization?

CHAPTER 3

PLANNING - CALM SEAS CASE

Calm Seas is a small Canadian manufacturer of ocean kayaks. They also sell kayaking accessories including paddles, bilge pumps and other essentials. They are located in Nelson, B.C., where they have both their plant and their administrative office. They have about 60 employees in total and have been in operation for over 20 years.

They sell their products to retail stores in North America and to distributors in Japan, Germany, Greenland, Norway, New Zealand and Australia. They also sell directly to outfitting and tour companies, to groups that teach people how to kayak and to educational institutions and sports organizations.

Calm Seas makes ocean kayaks out of 2 very different materials. One is called "composite". These materials are fibre glass, kevlar or graphite laminates. The other type of material is rotationally molded polyethylene (plastic). Very different production methods and materials must be used in the making of these two different types of kayaks. Calm Seas has different types of models in both materials (for example, double or single seating, smaller day kayaks, bigger kayaks for longer, multi-day trips).

The kayaking industry is competitive. Manufacturers must develop, test and market at least one new model every year. Since there are both national and international competitors in the industry, it is also very important for Calm Seas to maintain and expand their network of retail stores and distributorships.

Production is also a very important process at Calm Seas, since they pride themselves on making the best-quality kayaks possible, through continuous quality improvements. Calm Seas has an excellent reputation for quality. Their prices are fairly competitive, although they are a bit higher than their two main competitors. Feedback from clients generally indicates that customers will buy the Calm Seas product at a higher price because they can be assured of a good quality product that is also shipped out by the agreed-upon time. Calm Seas ships their products to their various clients around the world.

There are a few competitors in the world, but two main ones. One is located in Australia and one in the United States. These other companies offer very similar products to the

products from Calm Seas. A client looking to buy a kayak or a number of kayaks, will balance price, quality, company reputation and sales representative relationship in their purchase decision.

Business has been steadily growing over the past 10 years, as more and more people are getting interested in kayaking. It is both a sporting and a leisure activity. For a person who wants to get out paddling on the water, and who doesn't have much technical skill, ocean kayaking is the perfect activity.

The sport part of the kayaking market mainly centres on river kayaks, which Calm Seas does not manufacture. The river kayak market involves a very different clientele, a different material and different manufacturing processes. These kayaks are small and very light. It takes a lot of skill to manage a river kayak. The river kayak enthusiast is the kind of person who would shoot down steep waterfalls, manuoevre through rapids and do "water dancing" with their kayaking. Calm Seas has decided not to go after this market.

The two other types of kayaks available to consumers are the inflatable and the foldable kayak. The inflatable is also called a "sit-on-top". It is made out of plastic and is often the type found at all-inclusive resorts or other vacation properties. The foldable kayak is made of lightweight fabric and literally folds down to the size of a large suitcase. Both of these kayaks are considered specialty kayaks and are not something Calm Seas wants to get into.

The employees of Calm Seas vary in age and in gender. About 40% of the workers are female and the age range is from 22 to 63. The average age of the employees is 28. They are all involved in sports and kayaking. They are non-unionized. There are some employees who have been there since the beginning and some who have just joined. The average length of service for the staff is about 8 years.

4.12 Questions for Organizational Planning Section:

1. One of the important factors to examine in planning is demographics. Go to this other online resource to look at demographic factors. How do you see these demographic changes impacting your work environment?

http://bookboon.com/int/business/hrm/generational-challenges-in-the-workplace

2. Using the demographic information from the previous question, conduct a strategic planning analysis for Calm Seas. Figure out the SWOT, grand strategy, mission statement and possible action plans. What is their competitive advantage? Who are their stakeholders?

3. Find other examples of mission statements. Are they clear? Do you understand what the company does as a result of reading the mission statement? Would these statements provide guidance to decision-making in the organization?

4. There is a lot of writing and research about the topic of "competitive advantage." Look up current business articles that deal with this subject. How does it relate to organizational planning?

5. Popular topics today relate to the concepts of "corporate social responsibility" and "business ethics". Research what these concepts refer to, why they are being discussed and what companies are doing about them.

6. Find a local not-for-profit organization. Conduct a strategic planning analysis for this organization. How is this process different from the analysis of the for-profit organization?

— Calm Seas case 5 Organizing - Calm Seas case

Calm Seas could be organized a number of different ways.

As described in previous sections, Calm Seas manufactures and sells ocean kayaks. They produce both composite and plastic ocean kayaks that they sell to retail stores in North America and to distributors around the world. They also sell directly to outfitting and tour companies, to groups that teach people how to kayak and to educational institutions and sports organizations.

Calm Seas must look back to their mission statement and then figure out which structure might allow them to accomplish this best.

How are they going to get done what needs to be done? How can they group similar functions together? How can they maintain their competitive advantage?

5.11 Questions for Organizing Section

1. Examine all the bureaucratic structures. Which one would be best for Calm Seas?

2. Could Calm Seas use some type of group structure? If so, what would that look like? How would it be organized?

3. What structure exists in the company that you work for? Or study in?

4. There is a lot of material written about groups and teams in organizations. Do some research and find out what makes for successful groups in organizations.

5. If an organization wants to change from a structure with lots of layers to one that is more "flat", they have to do more than just get rid of lots of middle managers. What other things would have to change?

6. When you look at the different generations that were described in the generations article mentioned earlier, what preference might each generation have for a centralized as opposed to a decentralized structure? Explain your answer.

7. Look at some not-for-profit organization websites. Given the information you find there, how do you think they might be structured? Draw them out. Do the same for a hospital. How about a university?

CHAPTER 6

LEADING - CALM SEAS CASE

Tasneem Khan is the General Manager at Calm Seas, the ocean kayak manufacturer. She reports to the founder of the company. Calm Seas has a strong emphasis on quality in the products they make — indeed they have made it part of their competitive advantage.

The organization has a curious mixture of a bureaucratic structure and a team structure. In the production area, they have implemented a team structure, as outlined in the previous section. There are teams involved in production, and those teams report to co- coordinators/supervisors who ensure that everything is being done properly. They put this structure into place about 10 years ago and have enjoyed the benefits of that structure since then.

Each employee was trained to take on tasks that used to be done by some middle managers, and those employees saw an increase in their salary. This team structure has allowed Calm Seas to improve their quality emphasis in their finished products. It has also reduced their turnover rate — employees are staying with Calm Seas longer now. They know that if they go to another manufacturing facility, they will likely experience a functional structure, a more narrowly defined job and a reduction in salary. All of these factors are compelling reasons for an employee to stay!

Tasneem describes the working environment this way. "We've cultivated a strong quality ethic through this structure. know that they are accountable for the quality of the work done by their team. Everyone must have clear expectations and responsibilities and these must be communicated to everyone in the team. Ihis becomes the cultural norm. Everyone then becomes accountable, responsible and in charge of quality assurance."

Communication among the employees in the plant is also illustrated in the company policy manual. Section 8.1 states "The company practices an "open door" policy with regard to the accessibility of supervisors by employees. Supervisors make themselves available to employees as much as possible within operational requirements. If a supervisor will be unavailable for an extended period, she/he will specify an alternate. Employees respect the supervisor/supervisee relationship and do not go "over the head" of their immediate supervisor without discussing their intent to do so with the supervisor."

She continued, "I am not the boss, in that I can't just do anything I want, when I want. Issues must always be discussed with the employees."

The employees set up performance goals with their team and with their supervisor. attainment of these goals helps the employee to get their raise earlier. In addition, there is also profit-sharing for everyone in the company, except for the General Manager and the founder.

Tasneem says, "I can't claim to be a success but then say everyone else is a screw-up. My own success is the result of the successes of the people for whom I am responsible. Others' success will then be my success. In this way, I am a supplier to the employees."

7.14 Questions on Leadership/Motivation Section:

1. What kind of leadership and motivation does Tasneem seem to be using now at Calm Seas? Is this appropriate? Why or why not? Should she change the leadership and motivation techniques? If so, how? Explain your answer.

2. Motivating the different generations on the workplace is one of the biggest challenges for managers. Review this resource for information on the different generations.

http://bookboon.com/int/business/hrm/generational-challenges-in-the-workplace

How can managers and leaders know how to motivate these generations? Do they have to motivate these groups differently? Why or why not?

3. Go to the following link for an excellent 10-minute video on motivation. http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/2010/04/08/rsa-animate-drive/

What other insights about motivation do you get out of this video? How can you use this information?

4. Research the job design theory and the job characteristics model. Why are they placed in the motivation section? How can a leader put these concepts to use in the workplace?

5. Ihe topic of "organizational culture" is often tied to the topics of leadership and motivation. Research this topic and explain how it ties in.

6. What motivators can the leader in the not-for-profit organization use? Be specific.

CHAPTER 8

CONTROL - CALM SEAS CASE

Tasneem Khan, as the General Manager at Calm Seas, has a lot to keep track of. She has the overall responsibility for the profitability and the continued growth of Calm Seas. This didn't happen by accident. She and other people in the organization had to figure out how to make sure everything was going according to plan.

She thought that if she had to keep a list of everything she had to monitor, it would take too long. She and the others just had to do it. As long as she looked at the different functions, plans for the company and the separate operations, she would be OK. Tasneem also recognized that the only way they could make sure everything was going in the right direction was to have everyone working together. This way, they could all get to the place they wanted to be.

Tasneem was glad that they had worked together to form the plan for the company. They knew that they wanted to continue to emphasize quality in all of their products and they knew they had to design and develop new models. These were their top priorities. In addition, they also knew that the way to achieve this was to ensure that they had a large number of factors in place, including: the right employees in place, motivated, skilled and trained employees, efficient work processes in place, reliable suppliers for their raw material, good relationships with their distributors, a reasonable increase in sales, as well as many others.

9.8 Questions on the Controlling Function

1. What control measures should Tasneem put in place at Calm Seas?

2. Issues on the workplace today include monitoring of employee use of the internet at work and use of surveillance cameras to monitor employee behaviour at work. Employers can argue that these control methods are necessary. Employees can argue that these control methods are intrusive. Do you think these control measures are necessary? Why or why not? Are there any conditions under which they could be required?

3. Employee theft and white collar crime are obviously of concern to the organization. They are also issues that are increasingly being discussed as problems. Research this issue and relate it to the issue of control.

4. Do you agree with the saying that we "measure what matters"? Is that possible? Desirable? Why or why not?

5. Research a not-for-profit and determine what control mechanisms they might have in place.

6. If we "measure what matters" in a not-for-profit, what activities could they be measuring that are different than the for-profit organization?

FOR FURTHER READING

Bassi, L & McMurrer, D 2005, 'Developing Measurement Systems for Managing in the

Knowledge Era,' Organizational Dynamics, May, pp. 185—196.

Cloke, K, & Goldsmith, J 2003, 7he art of waking people up: Cultivating awareness and authenticity at work. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

Dirks, KT & Ferrin, DL 2002, 'Trust in Leadership: Meta- Analytic Findings and

Implications for Research and Practice,' Journal of Applied Psychology, August, pp. 611-

628.

Donaldson, T and Preston, LE 1995, 'Ihe Stakeholder Iheory of the Corporation: Concepts, Evidence, and Implications', Academy of Management Review, January, pp. 65—91.

Drucker, P 1974, Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices, Harper & Row, New

York.

Galt, Virginia 2006, 'Top-ranked bosses know how to "walk the talk'", 77qe Globe and Mail, October 28, PP. B13.

Garvin, DA, Edmondson, AC, and Gino, F 2008, 'Is Yours a Learning Organization?' Harvard Business Review, March, pp. 109—116.

Hackman, JR 1987, '7he design of work teams', In J Lorsch (Ed.), Handbook of organizational behavior, Prentice-Hall. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, pp. 315-342.

Hackman, JR 2002, Leading teams: Setting the stage for great performances, Harvard

Business School Press, Boston.

Hackman, JR & Oldham, GR 1975, 'Development of the Job Diagnostic Survey', Journal of

Applied Psychology, April, pp. 159—170.

Hackman, JR & Oldham, GR 1976, 'Motivation Through the Design of Work: Test of a

Theory,' Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, August, pp. 250—279.

Jarrar, YF & Zairi, M 2001, 'Future Trends in Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage: A Global Survey', Total Quality Management, December, pp. 906—912.

Kanungo, RN 1998, 'Leadership in Organizations: Looking Ahead to the 21st Century,' Canadian Psychology , 39, nos. 1—2, pp. 77.

Katz, RL 1974, 'Skills of an Effective Administrator,' Harvard Business Review, September—October, pp.

90-102.

Keller, RT 2006, 'Transformational Leadership, Initiating Structure, and Substitutes for Leadership: A Longitudinal Study of Research and Development Project Team Performance,' Journal of Applied Psychology 91, no. 1, pp. 202—210.

Latham, GP & Pinder, CC 2005, 'Work Motivation Theory and Re-search at the Dawn of the TwentyFirst Century', Annual Review of Psychology, 56, no. 1, pp. 485—516.

Leahy, T 2000, 'Tailoring the Balanced Scorecard', Business Finance, August, pp. 53—56.

Locke, EA & Latham, GP 2004, 'What Should We Do About Motivation Theory? Six

Recommendations For the Twenty-First Century', Academy of Management Review 29, no.

3, July 1, pp. 388-403.

Lowe, Graham 2007, '21 st century job quality, achieving what Canadians want', Canadian

Policy Research Networks

Mangelsdorf, Martha E 2009, 'Debunking Management Myths', MIT Sloan Management

Review, October 1.

Miles, RE and Snow, CC 1978, Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process, McGraw- Hill, New York.

Miller, D 1987, 'The Structural and Environmental Correlates of Business Strategy', Strategic Management Journal, January—February, pp. 55—76.

Mintzberg, Henry 1990, 'The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact', Harvard Business Review. Vol. 68, Iss. 2, pp. 163-177.

Mintzberg, Henry, and Ludo Van der Heyden 1999, 'Organigraphs: Drawing How

Companies Really Work', Harvard Business Review, vol. 77.5, pp. 87.

'Motivating people: Getting beyond money.' McKinsey Quarterly, November 2009, page 2.

Peterson, Tim O & Van Fleet, David D 2004, 'The ongoing legacy of RL Katz: An updated typology of management skills', Management Decision, Vol. 42 Iss: 10, pp. 1297—1308.

Porter, ME 1980, Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and

Competitors, Free Press, New York.

Thomas, KW 2000, 'Intrinsic Motivation and How It Works', Training, October, pp. 130—

135.

Thomas, KW 2000, Intrinsic Motivation at Work, Berrett- Koehler, San Francisco.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

The following are terms that are often used in business articles.

Manufacturing Co. A company that makes a tangible product (you can grab and hold onto the product).

Retail Co.

Distributor

Service Co

Co-op

Monopoly

Competitive

Public Sector

Private Sector

Privatization

This company will sell products to the customer (or end-user). They do not make the product themselves, but they buy the product from the manufacturer.

This company exists only in certain industries and falls between the manufacturer and the retailer. The manufacturer sells the product to the distributor, who then sells the product to the retailer.

This company sells a service, not a tangible good, to the customer.

This is an organization that is jointly owned, often by the workers, to produce and distribute goods and services. The co-op exists for the benefits of the owners. Look up the Mondragon Co-op in Spain for an example.

The company is the only company in the area to sell that particular good or service. Ihe customer has no choice but to buy the product or service from this company.

At least one other company, perhaps more, offers the same or a similar good or service in that geographic area.

Any company that is not in the public sector.

Profit-oriented

Non-profit

(not-for-profit)

Proactive

Reactive

A company whose purpose (or mandate) is to make money for the shareholders. If the company's purpose is to make money but it doesn't, it is still a profitoriented company.

A company whose stated purpose is to end the year with no surplus money (profit). This company does take in money during the year (usually through government funding and/or their own fund-raising) but then they are supposed to spend that same amount by year-end.

An attitude of looking ahead and forecasting what may happen, with a view of preparing now to be able to cope better with upcoming changes.

An attitude of waiting for things to happen and then scrambling to fix things.

This manager (or organization) is always being taken by surprise by events and ends up "fighting fires" and generally running around tearing their hair out. They are not prepared and often complain that

they are a victim of circumstance.

Other terms:

CEO — Chief Executive Officer coo — Chief Operating Officer CFO

— Chief Financial

Officer

CIO — Chief Information Officer

The CEO is the head person in the organization. If there is another person in the company who is called the President, the CEO will be the senior person to the President (meaning the President's boss is the CEO). Sometimes the CEO and the President are the same person. COOS, CIOs and CFOs usually report to the CEO.

ENDNOTES

1. See the work of Henri Fayol, Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard, Max

Weber, Rensis Likert, Chris Argyris and many others.

2. Taken from the work of Robert Katz

3. Technique credited to Albert Humphrey

4. Again, from the work of Weber and Fayol.

5. From the work of J Richard Hackman

6. This represents a couple of different theories. One is the Tannenbaum and Schmidt

Continuum, while another is from the work of Kurt Lewin.

7. Taken from the work of Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard

8. Derives from Hertzberg and Hackman and Oldham

9 Hackman and Oldham's theory

10. John S. Adams' theory

11. Victor Vroom's theory

12. November 2009, Motivating people: Getting beyond money, McKinsey Quarterly, page

2.

13. Cloke, K & Goldsmith, J 2003, The art of waking people up: Cultivating awareness and authenticity at work. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.

14. Galt, Virginia 2006, Top-ranked bosses know how to "walk the talk". The Globe and

Mail, Oct. 28, Page B13.

15. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Flow+Chart

Thanks to Alia Azim Garcia, Manager, Labour Relations, CPRail for this template

iii