Background:
Ken Weatherford, the new vice president of Manufacturing was appointed to reorganize the Dallas works which is an AT&T plant in Texas. Weatherford created an idea called the Quick JIT in order to solve the problems and rearrange the factory. Ward was appointed to lead this project.
Problem Statement:
Quick JIT program was created in order to rearrange the factory in order to solve problems. The plans arranged by Weatherford and Ward do not meet the needs of the workers.
Analysis:
In the efforts to drive change, AT&T creates a team based proposal in order to liberate the “Ma Belle” train of thought that is blocking the company from drive change. The main issues facing the AT&T Company is worker’s morale, management styles, motivation of workers.
Based on the articles and the case study, there were several concerns. One of which included the ability to balance management and leadership abilities. According to the article “What leaders really do”, setting direction includes, gathering data, looking at patterns, relationships and linkages. In the case study, Weatherford, Ward and top management created a plan of action and structure to support the reorganization. Nevertheless, Ward felt that the project was “open ended”, and the management team was “making it up as they went along”. She was unaware of what the JIT team would do and as a result, she could not communicate a clear vision to her JIT team what their primary core job roles were. Due to the “uneasy silence” in the room, at the end of the meeting, Ward concluded that the team was unclear about how to solve these problems.
The same article also states that bad visions and strategies ignore the interest of those such as employees. Weatherfor ...