Consolidated Products: Case Analysis

In this case, there was a plant manager named Ben Samuels who had been with Consolidated Products, a nonunionized manufacturer, for ten years. When the company was taken over by another firm one day, Ben was asked to take early retirement, and a man named Phil Jones came in to replace him.

Ben was very well liked by the employees. He built a fitness center for his employees, and they enjoyed the social activities sponsored by the plant several times a year. He became very close to his employees over time. He had great relationships with them. He felt that it was very important to treat employees properly so that they would have a sense of loyalty to the company. The employees came to Ben with any problems that they needed solved. In return, he would do anything he could to fix the problem.

This showed that Ben had partnership building skills within him. This, to me, was a great thing. He was a democratic leader. He trusted his employees and felt they would work their best even when he was not around to supervise them. Unfortunately, “Under Ben, the plant had the lowest turnover rate amongst the company’s five plants, but the second worst record ever for costs and production levels. He did not set objectives and standards for the plant, and he never asked the supervisors to develop plans for improving productivity and product quality” (Yukl, 1998). This created a problem within the company, but his firm never seemed to have minded because he had been with the company ten years before anything was ever said. And, this was only because the plant acquired another firm. Someone must have been happy with Ben in order to have kept him on board for so long.

Phil Jones was an autocratic leader. He began making changes as soon as he came on board to Consolidated Products. He got rid of the fitness center and company social activities

first to cut costs. Employees were displeased with his actions as a leader. Feelings of hostility arose. It felt to me that Phil did not have any relationship skills. He looked at getting the job done no matter what it took or who he had to step on to get it done. This creates such a hostile environment if not handled correctly. He was very job-centered, while Ben was employee-centered.

Phil believed that if someone did not want to do their work, get rid of them and find someone else who does. “He told his supervisors to give any worker who had substandard performance one warning, and then if performance did not improve within two weeks, to fire the person” (Yukl, 1998). He would