Org Mgmt - session 2

This class gets better and better !

We had 2 cases.

Case I: Levi Strauss and global sourcing

Abstract:
In 1993, senior managers at Levi Strauss & Co., the world's largest brand-name apparel manufacturer, were deciding whether the company should have a business presence in China, given the human rights and other problems there. The China Policy Group has been asked to use the company's "principled reasoning approach" to make a recommendation based on the company's ethical values and newly-adopted global sourcing guidelines. Teaching Purpose: Intended to develop decision-making skills. Allows for discussion of the concept of human rights and of company responsibilities for the activities of suppliers operating in different economic, cultural, and legal environments.

Well, first one had all the regular stuff about
1. Do business with China
2. Do business with China only if they comply with rules of engagement (ethics)
3. Do not do business with China.

Levi Strauss did start but in 3 years they stopped business with China (Chinese would rationalize most of their guidelines for showing compliance).

Case II: Karen Leary

Description:
The case describes the evolution of the working relationship of Karen Leary, a new manager of a Merrill Lynch retail branch, and Ted Chung, a new financial consultant in the branch. Leary has some concerns about her working relationship with Chung and with his performance. Chung makes what Leary perceives to be an unreasonable request for a private office. Leary must respond to this request, taking into account the implications of her decision for her ambitions for the branch office and her career.

Subjects covered:
Diversity, Ethics, Financial services, Human resources management, Interpersonal relations, Management styles, Managers, Organizational behavior & leadership, Performance appraisal, Sales & marketing, Sales management, Service industry, Superior & subordinate, Supervision.

Well, considerable inputs could be provided by me based on experiences in Infy.
a. Infy's Delivery Manager's funda of why is relative rating good, etc was completely supported by the Harvard MBA faculty citing case of Harvard relative rating curve itself.

b. If somebody is a rebel and cannot conform to company culture, he needs to be ousted in a certain way....or rather attitude adjustment needs to be done....

c. It should be imperative for managers to learn about cross-cultural practices or they would keep on losing talented employees like Ted Chung.

d. This also reminds me of an individual at Infy who tried negotiating for extended onsite (a reward) in vague after having a perception that single-handed client interaction would help him get an upper hand in negotiations with management.

This course has a graded assignment due June 5th (case on Oxfam). Well, now the pressure has started building up...w.r.t. assignments and regarding the mgmt course.