Mgt 500 - Analyze and Describe the Issues Faced by Malescowski and the Company and the Reason for These Issues

Modern Management

MGT 500

December 2, 2012

Analyze and describe the issues faced by Malescowski and the company and the reason for these issues

Jim Malescowski the president of the Wisconsin Specialty Products Division of Lamprey, Inc. is face with numerous issues related to the operation of the Lamprey's Oconomo facility. The issues in which Jim Malescowski is facing along with the company are: (1) the Oconomo plant is now paying there employees around $16 per hour in average wages, which is one of highest in comparison to the Mexican employees wage of about $1.60 an hour on average. The labor has become demanding especially in a third generation of employees at the company and the plant is not able to save money due to the increase cost of labor which has result in increased operations cost and low profit for the company. But the company could save $15 million a year for the Lamprey plant which will offset the increased cost for transportation, training and other things. The Oconomo plant has incurring losses compared to it competitors and these factors are contributing to the decision of moving the plant to Mexico in order to save on operational cost ;(2) a major dilemma for Malescowski is that he is worried that if the manufacturing plant closes down many of the employees are to lose their jobs and they will not have any other source of living in the overcrowded town. Malescowski is not looking forward to cutting jobs of the employees in order to save the money; (3) the company is faced with the problems of unionized within its United State manufacturing plants. The culture of the company has gotten out of control due to the union within the plant; also the company can not convince the union leaders to accept lower wages and cross-train employees to perform up to three different jobs; (4)The union bosses were not willing to accept the new plan and this made it difficult for the organization to convience its union employees to open up another product line and train these employees for new roles and tasks; (5) the last issues for the company is that there competitors has already edged in terms of price and is about to take over in quality too. There competitors are gaining in the price advantage over the Lamprey manufacturing plant (Draft, 2010, p. 299).

Taking on the responsibility to have to shut down this company it was something that had to be done. Some of the issues that Maslescowksi had to take into consideration that the company as a whole was struggling with the operation, culture and people, profit, the high cost of labor, and revenue. Today all organizations and companies are undergoing some type of change rather it's small or large. Many of the changes arise from quality, expense, the need for products and the competitiveness from other companies (Balogun, 2001, p 2). From reading this article it was evident that the biggest problem in which the Oconomo plant facing is the price for labor. When looking at labor cost, it "plays a prominent role in small-business operations. Business owners often hire employees to complete various business functions. Management provides business owners with a specific analysis of labor cost (Vitez, O, 2012)". In tough financial eras, many businesses are looking to slash labor costs and advance for best of their company. This is seen as a good and bad thing for a company because it affects all aspects of the company.

Describe a strategy for changing things that would help resolve the situation at hand.

The Lamprey manufacturing plant is about to shut it doors due the problems of high operational cost, unionized manufacturing plant and loss of profits. The time has come for the Lamprey manufacturing to adopt new changes to sustain long term stability in order to compete in the marketplace. Here are several strategies for changing things at the factory in order to resolve the current situation:

The company needs to provide some clarity on their mission statement, vision statement and objectives for the changing efforts and create urgency around the need for change. A company meeting should be call that includes its stakeholders, key management of the organization, union and other employees in order to discuss the current situation, problems and the outcome that will better the company. The company should provide clear information why the company is not able to keep up with the current market and how worst the situation can be if the problem is not addressed promptly and quickly. By doing this the company can gain the trust and support from key member in the organization in order to bring about a change.

Jim Malescowski has to create the proper plan for bringing this change into focus because the change is for the betterment of the company and the employees. The changes should involve stakeholders, managers, supervisors, union leaders and