Oilwell: Team Management

Oilwell Cable Division Bill Russell was acting general manager of TRW and now he is being appointed as general manager with an assignment of lay off twenty people or achieves an equivalent reduction in labor cost. The Oilwell Cable Division is part of the Industrial and Energy Segment of  TRW that represent 24 percent of its sales and 23 percent of its operating profits. The Oilwell Division is a acquired business by TRW what was Crescent Wire and Cable Company of Trenton. The four reasons for moving the Oilwell cable (Crescent Wore and Cable Company) from Trenton to Lawarence are Lawerence is considerably closer to the customer

• Lawerence has a more supportive labor environment.

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• The wage rate for the Lawerence area are very reasonable
• There is an already existing building Gino stripoli, formal general manager, was gien the task to start operations in Lawrence and he established new management system.

He established eleven team relating the activities and all teams were doing their jobs very well. There is also a co-ordination team. The team is successful. Though there were some problems initially.

There was a good deal of mistrust among employees regarding management’s  motives. There were also some technical problems. But after two years Gino solved the problems. Though TRW has ten competitors in the cable market, its market mainly depends on the demand of the submersible pumps. Because the basic product produced by the Oilwell Cable Division is wire that provides power  to submersible pumps used in oil drilling. Evaluate team management at TRW’s Lawrence plant. What organizational behavior system is it most similar to? Does it reflect theory X or theory Y assumptions?

There were in total 11 teams where five production teams are formed around the production process.  Each team meets on a weekly basis or as needed and resource team meets every two weeks. That increases the coordination between the team and team members.  There was no formal agenda but the meeting on production process and labor scheduling which increases the production.  Team also build relationship between various level of the organizations Collegial organizational behavior system is most similar to. It reflects Theory Y assumption.  Examine the results from team management at Lawrence.

Do they support a “satisfaction causes productivity” or a “productivity causes satisfaction” relationship?  There were some initial start-up problems, but late it seems to be a success.  In the beginning there was a good deal of mistrust among employees. But later it being solved.  First there was a lot of frustration with a high level of turnover. Because there was only one union employee brought from Trenton. To solve the problem a compensation scheme was developed that encouraged employees to master the various pieces of equipment in the plant. Turnover dropped from in excess of 12 percent to a range of 2 to 4 percent. Also employment had dropped from a high of 132 to what seemed to be a more optimal level of 125. They support “satisfaction causes productivity”. From the workers’ point of  view, the major benefit of team management is their ability to control their jobs. This control has resulted in a high level of commitment by the employees, as evidenced by the numerous suggestions made by the teams that have resulted in significant improvements in quality and productivity.

Can participative and team management approaches work equally well during times of organizational crisis and during normal times? No, from my opinion, though during normal times participative and team management approaches work equally but during organizational crisis it can’t work equally. The responsibility of the team management is to solve any problem equally and help other team members to solve the problems. But in participative approach people can deny to help others. Beside this when contradiction between the people exist the situation also become more complicated in participative approach

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