This class broadly covered various principles that are crucial to successful management including the functions of management in organizational activity, theories of management, and how management thought has evolved. We constantly discussed different cases and how they could be fixed through proper management including the downfall of Enron. Every Friday, we were also given cases to work on in groups where we applied all of the content that we had learned throughout the week.

Two such cases are shown below about the toxic culture at the United States Postal Service (first paper) and the choice to ignore contamination at Blue Bell ice cream factories (second paper). Each week, my group members and I would read articles about corruption and management issues before coming to class on Friday so that we could answer the questions our professor gave us together.

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USPS Case Study

1.     What are the clues about the culture at the Postal Service that are described in the case? List which category they fall into (e.g., mission, business practices, artifacts, etc.). For each one, explain what it says about the organizational culture at the Postal Service.

The Postal Service is described as a very autocratic work culture. Managers were trained and have worked under this culture and are therefore more likely to continue it. It would appear their mission statement must focus only on efficiency and not a productive culture. Their business practice creates a divide between management and employees. For example, managers usually don’t explain their reasoning behind decisions saying “because I told you so”.  Their behavioral artifacts are mostly made up of stringent policies that not only inhibit creativity but creates a system where employees feel like they don’t matter.

2.     Does it seem like there is a strong culture at the Postal Service? Explain your answer. What are the implications of this (e.g., what does it mean for the Postal Service if there is a strong culture or what does it mean for the Postal Service if there is a weak culture)?

Yes, it seems like there is a strong culture at the Postal Service because each employee follows that culture of hierarchical leadership. The employees feel as if they cannot deviate from the commands of their superiors which leads to many employees becoming frustrated. A strong culture is implemented at USPS in which everyone in the organization is a part of the same culture, and they are all alike. It is probable that the employee who committed homicide was angered by the organizational culture and how he was unvalued at the company.

3.     Do you think the general organizational culture at the Postal Service played a role in the workplace homicide at the City of Industry facility? Explain why or why not.

Yes, because of the culture at USPS it created what some would call a hostile work environment. Many employees did not feel valued and in turn, did not value their work or their coworkers. If the employee had feelings of anger toward employees within USPS, I’m sure he felt as if he couldn’t talk to someone about it. Their hierarchical way of organizing their business caused the need for control and order to be prioritized over the well-being of the employees. The difficulty with having this type of control implemented is that once a new employee starts, the culture becomes “ingrained” in them and if they rise up throughout the company, they are more likely to continue to carry out a similar type of control creating a vicious cycle.

4.     How can the Postal Service change its culture? Describe the steps and be specific in how they are applicable to the Postal Service (i.e., do not just list the steps).

• Create a Sense of Urgency: This urgency should begin by highlighting the violence and in some instances deaths, that have occurred within the Post Office, showing that they need to change. These actions have made the environment within the USPS high-stress with little ability to pursue individual needs while at work.
• Change Leaders & Other Key Players: In the case, one of the main problems preventing the Post Office from changing their culture has been the remaining presence of leadership that believes in maintaining the hierarchical culture that they have. They need to bring in new leaders who want to be a part of the change that needs to occur.
• Role Model: Finding people who exemplify the culture you are trying to create will eventually lead to the creation of said culture. This is performed by the visual cues by the said role model to influence other employees. By superiors displaying these qualities and different types of leadership, the employees will be trained this way and in turn feel valued, have boosted morale, and happier work experience.
• Train: Once a new culture is developed, employees need to be retrained to understand how operations will change in the new environment. They need to understand that the old hierarchical system will be gone and that they will have more freedom to make their own decisions. The training will teach them how to be more independent in their work and how they should react differently to various situations.
• Change the Rewards System: There doesn’t appear to be any rewards system that could contribute to a lack of motivation within the employees.  They could implement a system where if they reach a certain performance goal they get more vacation days.
• Create New Stories and Symbols: By creating new stories and symbols, the organizational culture could be drastically improved. As of now, there is a hierarchical leadership style that causes hostility and a lack of employees who try their hardest. If a new culture could emerge, it would turn around the company by boosting employee morale which would cause more effective and efficient workers.

By: Layton Bigelow, Katelyn Housler, Tyrique Lake, Lexi Marzloff, and Joe Petrillo ~~~ November 22, 2019

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Blue Bell Ice Cream Case Study

1.     What are the ethical issues presented in the case? Explain why they are ethical issues.

The main ethical issue in this case study involves Blue Bell’s prioritization of profits over the safety of its stakeholders. They failed to change conditions at their Oklahoma plant following FDA inspections and did not comply with regulations at their other two plants either. Multiple deaths and the overall spread of the Listeria outbreak from their products could have been completely avoided if the plants had complied with basic health standards. Instead, they chose to allow their products to be contaminated and had unsanitary conditions in the factory that allowed the listeria to spread (ice cream left on the floors added moisture to the air and helped it to spread). Managers within the factories did not want to take the time to clean up the facilities because they did not want to slow production which could have marginally reduced company profits. Blue Bell chose to ignore the apparent signs that their products were contaminated with listeria just so they could make more money, and people died because of it.

2.     Which of Blue Bell’s internal and external stakeholders were positively and negatively affected by the contamination crisis? Explain how they were affected.

Blue Bell’s internal stakeholders included supervisors and employees. The supervisors were negatively affected because they had to deal with the repercussions including laying off 37% of their employees and furloughing 1,400 more. The employees were negatively affected due to the hazardous working conditions within the factory and having to deal with supervisors who had ulterior motives. Many also lost their jobs because of an issue that could have easily been avoided.

Before the outbreak came to light and forced Blue Bell to completely stop its operations, all those employed by the company and its shareholders benefited positively because each group made money and the company made a profit throughout the process. They did not stop production and were, therefore, able to continue profiting without consequence for their actions. However, as previously stated, once the outbreak came to light publicly, all of these groups ended up having to face severe negative consequences. Stockholders lost countless amounts of profit as Blue Bell was almost forced to go out of business completely.

Externally, those stakeholders that were customers of Blue Bell and contracted listeria from contaminated ice cream were arguably the most negatively impacted group. At least three people died from this incident and many more had to be hospitalized. They lost their lives from something as simple as eating ice cream.

3.     Evaluate Blue Bell’s response to the ethical issues. Your evaluation should include answers to the following questions:

• Which ethical system did Blue Bell use to respond to the contamination problem? Explain your answer.

Egoism was the ethical system that Blue Bell chose to follow while the listeria crisis unfolded. They focused on maximizing production to ensure the most profit while they completely disregarded consumer well being. Health standards were almost completely ignored in the pursuit of profit. The company’s self-interest was the primary motivation behind how they responded.

•     Was this ethical system appropriate for this particular situation? Explain your answer.

No, this ethical system was not appropriate because they were mainly concerned with themselves and the profits that the company was making. They were ignoring the issues and conditions of factories and harming the employees and consumers in the end. Ultimately, they did not take all stakeholders involved in the situation into account and they chose to focus on helping those internal stakeholders that had the most power with the company. Companies should at least try to act in the best interest of all of their stakeholders when making decisions.

•       Was Blue Bell’s response a good one? Why or why not.

Their response was not good because Blue Bell failed to make a public statement on the contamination of their products. This response was unethical and dangerous to themselves as well as the public. If they had acted ethically to begin with by closing their factories sooner and cleaning up, they might have had more consumers respond positively to the clean-up and reopening of Blue Bell.

4.     Develop 2 possible alternative ways that Blue Bell could have responded to the contamination crisis. For each response, explain the following:

•       What ethical system does this response align with? Explain. 

Blue Bell should have taken a Utilitarianism approach. For example, they should shut down operations after the first signs of contamination were reported. After this, they should have dedicated resources to shutting down operations and cleaning up their factories.  They must come clean to the public and offer financial compensation to those affected.  This would be costly for the company itself but would benefit the most people since they don’t have to lay 37% of their employees.  This would also have a positive effect on the reputation of their brand.

A second approach the company could take would require relativism. This approach would require research of other companies that have similar transgressions in the past in order to find the best way to respond. Calculating the analytics and statistics of how people responded to the other companies could show which approach would be best and most ethical for their company.

•     Which stakeholder groups does this response affect and how does it affect them? 

Utilitarianism overall affects internal stakeholders including employees, floor managers, and supervisors within the factories. It also focuses on external stakeholders and ensuring that they experience the least amount of consequences possible. All potentially benefit from this approach because there would be cleaner working conditions and an overall happier workplace, and consumers would not have been infected in the first place.

However, this would have been a costly response which would negatively affect the internal stakeholders and their profits. It would have been expensive to shut down production to clean the facilities, but those costs wouldn’t even compare to the expenses that they ended up facing. Blue Bell went under and was barely saved by Sid Bass who invested $125 million to get a third of the company. The stakeholders affected by relativism both receive costs and benefits.  This approach is ethical, but also costly and a slower process. However, for this to work, Blue Bell would have to choose the most positive outcome versus looking at the cost/ benefit analysis of the situation.

By: Layton Bigelow, Katelyn Housler, Tyrique Lake, Lexi Marzloff, and Joe Petrillo ~~~ September 20, 2019