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Course Name: _Management Of Organizations_______________

Assignment Title: John Smithers Case

Submitted by: ___Akya Bhatnagar_______________

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Student Name PG ID
Akya Bhatnagar 62010339

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Answer i. Some key issues that led to the failure of the Six Sigma Initiative are:

• Weak Corporate leadership: The case tells us that Charles Bardley, President and Founder

of Sigtek, was an absentee leader. As the case progresses, we see that he puts in little effort to

reconcile the engineering and operations department leaders despite seeing a visible rift in

relationship between the two. The Six Sigma change initiative mentioned in the case could only

succeed if there was constructive synergy between the two teams. In absence of any

intervention from the corporate leadership, the likelihood of resolution issues that had persisted

for many years between the department leaders was quite less.

• Radically different leadership styles between Engineering and Operations department:

The case tells us that Andrew Cross, Engineering department leader, was open to new

management practices and encouraged fresh talent in the team. Richard Patricof, Operations

department leader, on the other hand disliked people who challenged the status quo and was

less concerned about substantive results. The effects of their leadership styles trickled down

the respective departments of the organisations. When the Six Sigma change initiative was

brought in, despite the positive response from the workers towards the initiative and a healthy

influx of new ideas for implementation, the department managers were mostly indifferent to

the proposed initiatives. This led to slow implementation of any viable ideas, which further

diluted the credibility of the instructor Mr. Smithers and negatively impacted the effectiveness

of the program.

• Poor employee morale: The case tells us that during the timeline of Mr Smithers agreeing to

be a quality instructor and delivering the Six Sigma change initiative, there were four rounds

of layoffs. Employee morale was low and the program didn’t receive the required attention.

Moreover, the autocratic environment at the firm and a lack of connect between the senior

leadership and the people working on the floor discouraged action on any grievances or

suggestions brought forward by the workers further eroding the effectiveness of the program.