case study final assesment
Order Description
360 Degree Appraisals
In Durham, North Carolina, 170
GE
employees work in nine teams to produce the
GE90 jet engines that Boeing installs in its long
–
range 777aircraft.
Each TEAM OWNS the engines they build
From the beginning
of the
assembly
process to
getting them
loaded onto a
truck for delivery.
As they begin
each engine,
these teams generally receive no instructions
except
for the date on which the engine is to be
shipped from the plant. Getting the engine
produces is the tea
m goal, but the goal can be
reached only if the teams effectively manage
themselves. Besides producing and 8.5
–
ton jet
engine out of 10,000 individual parts, team
members order tools and parts; schedule their
vacations, training, and overtime; make
adjustments to the production process to
improve their
efficiency
;
monitor
their product
quality; and take responsibility for diagnosing
and resolving problems that arise among
members of a team.
Decisions about these and all
other
issues that the teams face are made by
consensus
, which was a founding principle for
the plant. Each employee understands that
living with ideas that they
don’t
necessarily
agree with is part of the job. They
don’t
blame
others
when things go
wrong, because they
make the decisions.
The
process of reaching
agreement on decisions is so much a way of life
here that people routinely talk about
“
consensusing
”
on this or that.
The one boss in this plant
–
plant manager Paula sims
keeps everyone’s
attention focused on the common goal: making
perfect jet engines quickly, cheaply, and safely.
Her job is to make sure that the efforts of all
teams are coordinated so that together
their decisions
optimize the plants performance and
then to free up resources for growth and
improvement.
In her four years as the plant manager
responsible for GE’s jet engine production
teams, Sims has learned that
communicating
your intentions properly
isn’t
always easy. She
describes her plant manager’s job as
the most
rewarding. To do it well requires a different
level of listening skills
–
significantly different.
More and more of what I do
involve
listening to
people, to teams, to councils, to ideas, trying to
find common them
es.
”
In this culture of continuous feedback,
one reason Sims has listened so carefully is to
monitor her own effectiveness. She learned
early that her actions can be easily
misinterpreted. Recalling an accident from her
early days,
she explained.
“
An employee came
to me and said,
‘
Paula, you realize that you
don’t
need to follow up with us to make sure
’
were doing what we agreed to do. If we say we will do something, we
we will do it for you.
–
you don’t need to micro manage us.
’
”
At
most
plants’,
following up is
just part of a manager
’
s job, but
here it was sending the wrong message
because
she always followed up, people concluded that
she
didn’t
trust them.
The real problem was the
she had
not yet learned the plants
norms about
decision making.
Sims also listens when the plant is
trying to solve a problem. At other companies
the title of managers almost means
“
decision
maker
”
, At GE/Durham, however,
the manager
actually makes only
about a dozen major
decisions each year. All other decisions either
rely heavily on input from, or actually made by,
the other plant employees. The plant manager
is responsible for making sure plant employees
know about problems
, and for informing the GE
360
–
Degree Appraisals
2
managers that she reports to about the
solutions.But
to get the solutions, the plant
manager is expected to listen, not decide.
For major
issues, such as
reducing
cost of important
moving safety, a task force is formed to
decide how to
address
the problem.
The plant
manager educates the task force
and everyone
else about the problem and e
explains why is
important . then
the task force takes
responsibility for finding solutions.
when they
have a plan for the future, the plant manager
informs those above her about how the plant
will proceed and makes sure the higher ups are on
board with the plan.
As the HR manager for the plant, Sims
has approached you with a request: she wants
you to help her install 360
degree appraisals for
everyone in the plant, including her. The 360
degree appraisals will not replace the other
performance measures that
already are being
used. They will be
simply be added on as a new
element in the performance management
system.
You have expressed some concerns
about the idea, but she is determine to move ahead with the plan. Describe how you will proceed
Case Questions
Begin by analyzing the possible advantages and
disadvantages of using 360
–
degree appraisals in
this plant.
Then
indicate the decisions you
would make regarding each of the following
questions:
1.Will you use one set of performance
dimensions for everyone, or
will people in different jobs be evaluated on different dimensions?
Explain YOUR LOGIC
2.How will you determine the specific content of the 360 degree appraisal form?
3. What type of rating format will be used to make the appraisal rating?
4. For the members of the nine production teams, who will provide performance assessment: All members of the team? Members of other team? will Sims evaluations for all employees .
5. How will the feed back be answered?
6. What plant is operation well right now. What steps will you take to ensure that this new activity doesn’t reduce the plants productivity
