Slack is certainly not the only chat or messaging system in use inside organizations but it is certainly one of the biggest. Estimates now hold that over 40 percent of American workers now use a chat app of some kind at work. That number goes up to more than 70 percent if you happen to work for a tech firm. The company estimates that the productivity of users goes up by about a third once they get used to the software. This increase in productivity occurs primarily through the reduction of e-mail and meetings. The software structures conversations between employees in threads (or “channels” in Slack terminology) in the ultimate collaborative work environment. Employees can update the formal and informal groups they belong to in real time with information and updates. While the goal of these messaging systems within an organization is to help with communication, the dissemination of knowledge, and decision making; the reality of how the system gets used is far more complicated. In addition to helping work productivity, the system gets used for team building and personal use as well. These differences can sometimes begin to get confusing, especially when Slack’s interface allows users to communicate in a way that resembles social media. New York Magazine author Molly Fischer states, “It takes the group dynamics already present between co-workers and douses them in digital accelerant. Experiences familiar from other forms of social media— the avalanche of group consensus, the fear of missing out, the publicly performed friendships, the sudden exposure—become, with Slack, part of the work world.”* The same things that are addictive about social media become addictive in the office’s messaging system. In fact, there are websites devoted to helping employees break their “Slack addiction.” It doesn’t take long for people to start making jokes. One New York–based clothing designer playfully tweeted during a four-hour software outage, “With Slack being down, productivity in thousands of companies is currently skyrocketing.”* Slack is built to operate effectively across lots of different devices from traditional computers to mobile devices. The result can be a “never off” mentality from employees. Instead of e-mail chains, employees find themselves as part of lots of informal conversations, and the pressure to always be adding or replying to the conversation can be overwhelming. As with most tools, the effectiveness of the medium depends on the user and his or her ability to manage, organize, and somehow differentiate the useful information from the simply distracting. 8.1 What are the issues (good and bad) with working for a company that uses a messaging application like Slack? 8.2 What rules would a company need to put in place to ensure efficient use of Slack in order to help employees make better decisions? 8.3 How might artificial intelligence help employees to make decisions using the data that is stored in conversations that take place through Slack? Would you be comfortable with a company accessing all your messages?
> Consumer products giant P&G has its share of supply chain scope. In 2012 the company realised $84 billion in sales and 25 of its brands generated $1 billion or more revenue. In order to realise this revenue, the company procures inputs worth over $51 bil
> Micro Compact Car AG (MCC), a wholly owned subsidiary of Daimler-Benz (formerly a joint venture of Daimler-Benz and Swatch), is the company behind the Smart Car. The Smart City Coupé is a two-seater car measuring 2.5 metres in length, which
> Bacalao is fish that has been salted and dried, traditionally in the open air on rocks; today it is done in a drier. It has been produced in Norway since about 1640, can be kept refrigerated for several years, and is said to improve over time. It has dev
> Almost a fifth of the UK’s wheat crop goes into poultry feed and, although feed supply chains are often short and integrated, there are opportunities to improve the performance, even in these commodity chains. This was found to be the c
> The Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) supports the development and progress of ECR initiatives in the UK and across Europe. IGD aims to fulfil consumer wishes better, faster and at less cost with forums such as reducing wasted miles (2018). The wor
> A car assembly plant is built around a simple sequence of tasks that starts in the press shop and ends as a car rolls off the final assembly line. Figure 6.13 shows these basic tasks in summary form: Figure 6.13 Basic tasks in a car assembly plant Whils
> This case study, although simplified, has been derived from a real world industrial situation. The Cranfield Currency Company (CCC) manufactures various types of cash machines under three product families, which are each produced in three variants: . The
> Victoria SA makes ‘fantastically good cakes’ from basic ingredients such as flour, eggs and butter. Demand for Victoria sponge cakes comes from two sources. Some big retailers place their order with the firm two days i
> The vast majority of warehouses in the developed world still use the pick-by-paper approach. But any paper-based approach is slow and error prone. Furthermore, picking work is often undertaken by temporary workers who usually require cost-intensive train
> As a global business serving the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers, GKN Driveline develops, builds and supplies an extensive range of automotive driveline products and systems, for use in everything from the most sophisticated premi
> The managing director of Wiltshire Distribution Transformers (WDT) had concentrated on a new generation of simplified, modular designs that used proven US technology. He had energetically exploited the market advantages this had given. WDT now has two ma
> A problem that is all too familiar to suppliers in the automotive industry is that of schedule variability. A vehicle assembler issues delivery schedules to specify how many parts of each type are required each day for the following month. And each day a
> Electro-Coatings Ltd electroplates parts for the automotive industry, for example, the marque badges fitted to the front of prestige cars. Customers were becoming increasingly demanding, resulting in Electro-Coatings undertaking a review of its internal
> Nearly 75 per cent of footballs were produced in Pakistan, mostly in the Sialkot district, Pakistan’s ‘export capital’ close to the border with India. However, an International Labour Organisation (ILO) study in 2002 showed that more than 7,000 children
> In 2005, Cisco Systems dealt with US$500 million of returned products and parts through a cost centre whose annual operating cost was just US$8 million. All returns were treated as defective product and service returns with the rationale being that all r
> Bloomberg is an information services provider that offers real-time financial data on the companies it monitors. This enables businesses to risk monitor these companies. A new development that Bloomberg is developing (internally first) is to extend the r
> For the last several years, convenience store chains across the country have launched fresh channel initiatives, which have included adding salads, freshly made sandwiches and other fresh grab-and-go products to its offerings. Penske Logistics was asked
> Smiths Aerospace is a largely UK-based supplier to both military and civilian aircraft and engine manufacturers, and is owned by General Electric of the USA. Several years ago, Smiths launched an initiative to outsource production of parts from UK suppli
> Nike has a central customer service centre (distribution centre) located at Laakdal in Belgium. The centre is 200,000 square meters in size and serves 45,000 customers in EMEA with footwear, apparel and equipment. The centre receives products from suppli
> The subject of air miles appears regularly in media headlines today. Here are two contrasting views of what is happening. Supermarkets and food producers are taking their products on huge journeys, despite pledging to cut their carbon emissions. Home-gro
> Rio Tinto is a globally operating mining company that has created central buying centres, including one in Singapore where dedicated teams buy in the supply market against forecasted demand from businesses inside Rio Tinto. This is different from traditi
> SC Johnson, the consumer products company, has gone through a major development in its Asian procurement operations, in an effort to incorporate the region into the global governance. Whilst, in the past, Asia was a more removed decentralized outpost wit
> Once the problems of introducing ‘just-in-time’ production systems (internal logistics) had been solved at the Xerox plant making photocopiers at Venray in Holland, attention shifted towards the finished product invent
> Walmart has set three ambitious goals for sustainability: 1. To be supplied by 100 per cent renewable energy. 2. To create zero waste. 3. To sell products that sustain the environment. In moving towards these goals, several key projects have been rolled
> Akzo, the Dutch-based chemicals and coatings company, owner of ICI and many other brands, has appointed a CSR officer to drive and coordinate CSR efforts across the company. To drive ownership, consideration and focus broadly across the company and in al
> When Airbus introduced its Airbus A380 double decker super plane in January 2005 to the press and the world it was an impressive show that brought out government leaders and made headlines all over the world. A little while later, however, delays to the
> The supply chain manager of OTIF plc is considering investment into a computerized routing and scheduling system for the distribution operation. The initial capital expenditure will be £25,000 and it is anticipated to have a useful life of f
> Komplex GmbH has four production lines, each of which operates for 8,000 hours a year. Each line makes a number of products, which are based on size and colour. Therefore, many changeovers are required, each incurring set-up and maintenance costs. Tradit
> Glup SA supplies a range of household soaps to supermarkets in northern Europe. There are 12 stock-keeping units (SKUs) in the range. The logistics manager has determined that an investment of €0.5 million on improved material handling equipment would co
> Filmco makes two thin film (gauge = 12μm) products for packaging applications in the food industry. Product A is coated so that subsequently it can be printed on; product B is uncoated. There is no changeover time on the production line, be
> Bond SA is planning to manufacture a new product with an initial sales forecast of 3,600 units in the first year at a selling price of €800 each. The finance department has calculated that the variable cost for each truck will be â
> Food supply chains are driven often by retailers and this holds for this case, which features a food sold in supermarkets that can be classed as a fast-moving consumer good (FMCG). Table 3.2 illustrates the cash-to-cash cycle times for three companies in
> For more than a century, Kimberly Clark (K-C) has supplied personal care products and now can claim that nearly a quarter of the world’s population, across 175 countries, use their products.. The K-C product range spans personal care, h
> Tesco PLC is the UK’s largest food retailer, with a revenue of about £51 billion for the financial year 2016–17. Across 11 countries in Central Europe and Asia, Tesco employs about 440,000 people making it
> Consider how you would react to 360-degree feedback. If you were the one receiving the feedback, whose views would you value most: your manager’s or your peer’s? If you were asked to assess a peer, would you want your opinion to affect that peer’s raises
> For junior-level employees who are trying to impress higher-ups and secure themselves a very lucrative career in the investment banking and financial services industry, the demands and stress levels can be especially intense. The responsibility, workload
> As Bobby Kotick described, a lot of the job satisfaction felt by Activision Blizzard employees comes from the mission of their company. One employee summarized that mission this to a number of dif ferent jobs at a number of dif ferent companies. Employee
> The move toward driverless cars represents another battlefield for Lyft and Uber. For its part, Lyft has forged relationships with General Motors, MIT, and Maymo—a division of Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Lyft’s plan is to create a suite of hardwar
> Accenture, one of the world’s largest and most successful consulting and professional services firms, recently abandoned its long-standing practice of evaluating the job performance of employees on an annual basis by ranking them against each other based
> Clearly the end goal behind the Improving Worker Well-Being initiative is laudable. The stickier question is how to achieve that goal in 72 different factories. A natural temptation would be to focus on interventions with universal appeal and to roll out
> When AT&T purchased Time Warner and its accompanying properties, including HBO, there was no shortage of individuals who wondered how the two cultures would mix. Communications expert Gary Arlen told The New York Times, “HBO’s and AT&T’s cultures also co
> Figure 2-3 classifies production deviance and political deviance as more minor in nature than property deviance and personal aggression. When might those “minor” types of counterproductive behavior prove especially cos
> Although ex-CEO Margo Georgiadis’ restructuring ideas were lauded internally at Mattel and many believed they were starting to show results, the environment shifted quickly for the toy company when retailer Toys ‘R’ Us declared bankruptcy and financial r
> Although it didn’t start that way, few people doubt the ability of Daniel Ek (CEO of Spotify) to be able to follow through any more. One early investor said, “When I first met him, he could completely articulate how this could affect the music industry a
> One of Emma Walmsley’s biggest challenges when she stepped into the CEO role at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) was to use her power and influence effectively to start to change the strategic focus of the company. Under the prior CEO, Sir Andrew Witty, GSK had tak
> The growing number and insidiousness of cyber-threats has become a huge concern for companies that are responsible for the security of private user data, account information, personal information, passwords, and so forth. The average cost of a data breac
> Teams are taken very seriously at Whole Foods. Not only are company employees referred to as “team members,” but teams are given a great deal of freedom to make important decisions. For example, teams help decide what items to order and sell, and how to
> The U.S. Marine Corps is a large organization with a highly recognizable culture that values mental and physical toughness, pride, and character. However, with emerging technologies and other geopolitical trends, the battlefield is changing in ways that
> At one point, Marriott’s personality assessment was supplied by Kronos—a human resource software company. Kronos became a larger presence in the personality assessment arena after acquiring Unicru—a firm that specialized in such tests. Kronos/Unicru has
> In addition to trust, Salesforce has a strong commitment to its equality value. The company is one of the first to employ a chief equality officer—Tony Prophet. “I’d been 40 years in the traditional business world, where we were told that creating shareh
> Ed Bastian’s profit-sharing formula stands as one of his biggest legacies. Originally, the formula gave employees 10 percent of Delta’s first $2.5 billion in pretax profits. They would then earn 20 percent of the profits beyond that $2.5 billion. Later,
> Describe the job that you currently hold or hope to hold after graduation. Now look up that job in the O*NET database. Does the profile of the job fit your expectations? Are any task behaviors missing from O*NET’s profile?
> When you think of the U.S. Postal Service’s culture, what kinds of words come to mind? Where do these impressions come from? Do you think your impressions are accurate? What has the potential to make them inaccurate?
> How can two companies with very different cultures that operate in the same industry both be successful? Shouldn’t one company’s culture automatically be a better fit for the environment?
> Is it possible for an employee to have personal values that are inconsistent with the values of the organization? If so, how is this inconsistency likely to affect the employee’s behavior and attitudes while at work?
> If you worked in a matrix organization, what would be some of the career development challenges that you might face? Does the idea of working in a matrix structure appeal to you? Why or why not?
> Which of the organizational forms described in this chapter do you think leads to the highest levels of motivation among workers? Why?
> Which is more important for an organization: the ability to be efficient or the ability to adapt to its environment? What does this say about how an organization’s structure should be set up?
> Why do the elements of structure, such as work specialization, formalization, span of control, chain of command, and centralization, have a tendency to change together? Which of the five do you feel is the most important?
> Is it possible to be a great leader of employees in a highly mechanistic organization? What special talents or abilities might be required?
> Can you think of any potential “dark sides” to transformational leadership? What would they be?
> Consider the four dimensions of transformational leadership: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. Which of those dimensions would you respond to most favorably? Why?
> Describe your “job” as a student in terms of the job performance dimensions discussed in this chapter. What would be the benefit of approaching student performance from a behavior perspective rather than from an outcome (grades) perspective? What would t
> The time-sensitive and life cycle models of leadership both potentially suggest that leaders should use different styles and behaviors for different followers. Can you think of any negative consequences of that advice? How could those negative consequenc
> The time-sensitive model of leadership argues that leaders aren’t just concerned about the accuracy of their decisions when deciding among autocratic, consultative, facilitative, and delegative styles; they’re also concerned about the efficient use of ti
> Before reading this chapter, which statement did you feel was more accurate: “Leaders are born” or “Leaders are made”? How do you feel now, and why do you feel that way?
> What would it take to have a “politically free” environment? Is that possible?
> Who is the most influential leader you have come in contact with personally? What forms of power did they have, and which types of influence did they use to accomplish objectives?
> Which forms of power do you consider to be the strongest? Which types of power do you currently have? How could you go about obtaining higher levels of the forms that you’re lacking?
> Describe the communication process in a student team of which you’ve been a member. Were there examples of “noise” that detracted from the team members’ ability to communicate with one another? What was the primary mode of communication among members? Di
> Think about the team states described in this chapter. If you joined a new team, how long do you think it would take you to get a feel for those team states? Which states would you be able to gauge first? Which would take longer?
> Before reading this chapter, how did you define teamwork? How did this definition correspond to the definition outlined in this book?
> How would you describe your student team in terms of its diversity? In what ways would there be advantages and disadvantages to increasing its diversity? How might you be able to manage some of the disadvantages so that your team is able to capitalize on
> Think of something that you “know” to be true based on the method of experience, the method of intuition, or the method of authority. Could you test your knowledge using the method of science? How would you do it?
> Think about a highly successful team with which you are familiar. What types of task, goal, and outcome interdependence does this team have? Describe how changes in task, goal, and outcome interdependence might have a negative impact on this team.
> Think about your student teams. Which aspects of both models of team development apply the most and least to teams in this context? Do you think these teams function best in an additive, disjunctive, or conjunctive manner? What are the advantages and dis
> In which types of teams have you worked? Were these teams consistent with the taxonomy of team types discussed in this chapter, or were they a combination of types?
> Think of experiences you’ve had with people who demonstrated unusually high or low levels of emotional intelligence. Then consider how you would rate them in terms of their cognitive abilities. Do you think that emotional intelligence “bleeds over” to af
> Consider your responses to the previous questions. Are cognitive, emotional, and physical abilities different in the degree to which jobs can be redesigned to accommodate people who lack relevant abilities? What are the implications of this difference, i
> Think of a job that requires very high levels of certain cognitive abilities. Can you think of a way to redesign that job so that people who lack those abilities could still perform the job effectively? Now respond to the same question with regard to emo
> What roles do learning, education, and other experiences play in determining a person’s abilities? For which type of ability—cognitive, emotional, or physical—do these factors play the largest role?
> If you owned your own business and had a problem with employee theft, would you use an integrity test? Why or why not?
> Consider the personality dimensions included in the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory and the RIASEC model. If you had to “slot” those dimensions into the Big Five, would you be able to do so? Which dimensions don’t seem to fit?
> Research on genetic influences on personality suggests that more than half of the variation in personality is due to nurture—to life experiences. What life experiences could make someone more conscientious? More agreeable? More neurotic? More extraverted
> Create a list of the most successful companies that you can think of. What do these companies have that others don’t? Are the things that those companies possess rare and inimitable (see Figure 1-2)? What makes those things difficult to
> Assume that you applied for a job and were asked to take a personality test, like the one offered by Kronos. How would you react? Would you view the organization with which you were applying in a more or less favorable light? Why?
> Given your background, which of the decision-making biases listed in the chapter do you most struggle with? What could you do to overcome those biases to make more accurate decisions?
> Do you consider yourself to be a “rational” decision maker? For what types of decisions are you determined to be the most rational? What types of decisions are likely to cause you to behave irrationally?
> What does the term “expert” mean to you? What exactly do experts do that novices don’t?
> Companies rely on employees with substantial amounts of tacit knowledge. Why do companies struggle when these employees leave the organization unexpectedly? What can companies do to help ensure that they retain tacit knowledge?
> In your current or past workplaces, what types of tacit knowledge did experienced workers possess? What did this knowledge allow them to do?
> Which component of ethical decision making do you believe best explains student cheating: moral awareness, moral judgment, or moral intent? Why do you feel that way?
> Putting yourself in the shoes of a manager, which of the four justice dimensions (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, informational) would you find most difficult to maximize? Which would be the easiest to maximize?
> Consider the three dimensions of trustworthiness (ability, benevolence, and integrity). Which of those dimensions would be most important when deciding whether to trust your boss? What about when deciding whether to trust a friend? If your two answers di
> Which would be more damaging in organizational life—being too trusting or not being trusting enough? Why do you feel that way?
> Describe a job in which citizenship behaviors would be especially critical to an organization’s functioning, and one in which citizenship behaviors would be less critical. What is it about a job that makes citizenship more important?
> Think about a job that you’ve held in which you felt very low levels of psychological empowerment. What could the organization have done to increase empowerment levels?
> How do you tend to respond when you experience over reward and under reward inequity? Why do you respond that way rather than with some other combination in Figure 6-6? Figure 6-6: Three Possible Outcomes of Equity Theory Comparisons
> Consider the five strategies for fostering goal commitment (rewards, publicity, support, participation, and resources). Which of those strategies do you think is most effective? Can you picture any of them having potential drawbacks?
> Assume that you were working on a group project and that one of your teammates was nervous about speaking in front of the class during the presentation. Drawing on Figure 6-3, what exactly could you do to make your classmate feel more confident? Figure 6
