Case Study

Case 1: Read the case study titled Who Made a Serious Mistake (Chapter 5 – ). Then, answer the question at the end of the case.

Case 2: Read the interaction between Mr. Pauli and his colleagues on (Chapter 6 – ). Then answer the questions at the end.

Please be sure to back up your answers to both cases with facts from the textbook.

Case 1: Who Made a Serious Mistake? (Chapter 5 – )

Jean Safari was investigating a serious error made by a Japanese worker at the Japanese subsidiary of a US multinational. A component had been inserted upside down, and the entire batch had been pulled out of production to be reworked. The cost of this event was high.

Jean asked the Japanese plan director for information about the employee who had made the error. Had she been identified? What action was being taken against her?

She was amazed when the director claimed not to know. “The whole work group has accepted responsibility,” he told her. “As to the specific woman responsible, they have not told me, nor did I ask. Even the floor supervisor does not know, and if he did, he would not tell me either.”

But if everyone is responsible, then in effect no one is, Jean argued. They are simply protecting each other’s bad work.

“This is not how we see it,” she was told. The plant manager was polite but firm. “I understand that the woman concerned was so upset that she went home. She tried to resign. Two of her coworkers had to coax her back again. The group knows she was responsible, and she feels ashamed. The group is also aware that she is new and that they did not help her enough, or look out for her, or see to it that she was properly trained. This is why the whole group has apologized. I have their letter here. They are willing to apologize to you publicly.”

“No, no, I don’t want that,” said Jean.  “I want to stop it from happening again.” She wondered what she should do.

Question: Should Jean insist on knowing who the culprit was? Should the culprit be punished?

Case 2: Raising his voice, Mr. Pauli . . . (Chapter 6 )

Raising his voice, Mr. Pauli, Gialli’s college, responded, “What do you mean, a crazy idea? We have carefully considered the pros and cons and believe that it would greatly benefit the buyer.”

“Please, don’t’ get overexcited” implored Mr. Johnson. “We need to provide solid arguments and should not get sidetracked by emotional irrelevancies.”

Before the Dutch representative, Mr. Bergman, had a chance to explain why he thought it was a crazy idea, the two Italian colleagues left the room for a time-out. “This is what I call a typical Italian reaction,” Mr. Bergman remarked to his colleagues. “Before I even had a chance to give my arguments as to why I think the idea is crazy, they walk out.”

The other managers were squirming uncomfortably in their chairs. They did not know what to think. Mr. Johnson got up and left the room to talk to the Italians.

Question: What do you think that (if any) is the role of emotions while doing business?

Again, be sure to back up your answer to the case with facts from the textbook (please use APA format). Your case report should have a minimum of 500 words. Submit your case report as Word document.

 

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