The Nataraj Metal Products Company (hereinafter referred to asthe Nataraj), has it manufacturing plant at Arani and employs about500 workers. It produces a variety of metal products such as brassknobs, steel frames, collapsible iron gates, chromium handles andso on. Orders for these are placed by building contractors in andaround Madras but the volume of orders fluctuates, with the rainyseason being the slowest period. The company is reputed for qualityproducts delivered on time and at competitive prices. TheProduction plant has a Tool and Die department, the Stamplingdepartment, the Plating department, and the Paint department. TheProduction Control, Maintenance and Receiving and Shippingdepartments are also under the Production Manager, Mr. Ramanujamwho has been transferred a month ago from the Avadi plant to theArani plant. Workers in the tool and die department are highlytrained craftsmen. Because of their skills they are paid muchhigher wages than those in the plating and paint departments whoworkers are not so highly skilled. Many of the workers in theplating and paint departments have been with Nataraj for severalyears. Those in the stamping department are the least skilled andlowest paid. Turnover rates in this department are also high. Theplating department is located at the far east side of the plant and40 men work in the department, plating or oxidizing the metalplates or making parts for paint applications to be done at anotherend of the plant. The men work in four different aisles in thedepartment, each aisle placed under a supervisor. The activitiesthat take place in these aisles comprise: (1) acid dipping, whereparts are manually immersed and treated in acid solution so thatthey could be etched; (2) barrel tumbling, where parts are smoothedby being loaded into drums containing caustic or corrosivesolutions, and (3) plating where parts are loaded on racks andimmersed by hand through the plating sequence. Cycle times,chemical formulas, composition of abrasive mixtures and chemicalformulas differ depending on the quality of plating needed and themetal used. In aisle 1, acid dipping for high quality painting isundertaken and men here work closely with men in aisle 3 who areengaged in high-quality tumbling work. Workers in aisle 2 tumbleitems of regular quality and sometimes work on oxidation dipping.Men in aisle 4 do tumbling work with respect to certain specialproducts only. The supervisors for aisles 1 to 4 are Mr.Subramanian, Mr. Krishnan, Mr. Narayanan, and Mr. Swaminathan,respectively. The working conditions in different parts of thedepartment vary considerably. That part of the plating departmentcontaining the tumbling barrels and plating machines is constantlyawash with cold water, steaming acid, and caustic soda and menworking here have to wear special boots and gloves in the scorchingmonth of May as in the cold month of January. The rest of the areais dry and relatively more comfortable to work in. Workers in aisle1 were are very friendly with each other and frequently helped oneanother in getting the jobs complete in time. The “Subramaniangroup” as they were frequently referred to, worked overtimewhenever necessary to get rush orders completed and alwayscooperated as a team. Members in aisle 2, under the supervision ofMr. Krishnan operated in a different style. Mr. Krishnan was thenephew of the company’s President, Mr. Suresh Srivastava and felthe could not be touched by anybody including the ProductionManager. He came late, left early, and all but one of his workmenwere indifferent to their jobs. Krishnan hardly trained anybody andthe group never worked overtime. Aisle 3 had a different mode ofoperation. The individuals there wanted to be like the Subramaniangroup and under the direction of Mr. Narayanan learnt how to do agood job, though they did not enjoy the same status that theSubramanian group did in the Plating department. The two groups,however, got along well together and often went out for picnics ona Sunday or holiday. Workers in aisle 4 kept to themselves andthough Mr. Swaminthan himself was a very capable young man, he tookneither the time nor the trouble to teach his constantly changingworkers how to do the best possible job. No sooner would he train aman than he would quit. So Swaminthan did most of the rush jobshimself using whoever was around to help him. The working hours forthe workmen were from 7:00am to 5:00pm with half an hour’s breakeach for lunch and afternoon snacks. The supervisors were expectedto be at work from 9:00 in the morning till 5:00 in the afternoon,with a half hour break for lunch. There was a punch time cardsystem and every worker had to daily punch the time he came in andout from work. An interesting dynamic that operated in the Platingdepartment was the Subramanian group had an arrangement by whichthe workmen took turns for one to come at 7:00am and punch in thetime cards for all the other workmen in the aisle. Mr. Subramanianwas aware of what was going on but did not bother about it. Hisreason for ignoring the malpractice was that the workers were beingpaid much lower wages than the industry average and thus he feltthey deserved to work shorter hours. According to Subramanian theywere the best workers and would give anything to get the job done,including their time and energy. They always met deadlines andcertainly deserved some time off. Subramanian also proudly said,“No one can do better and more professional job then my crew!” Mostof what Mr. Subramanian said was true. The workers did overtime andcomplete the job when rush order suddenly poured in. They alsonever seemed to be satisfied with their work unless everything mettheir standards of near perfection. When Subramanian was asked byan external person whether it would be better for the workers tounionize in order to get better wages, he replied “that things werebetter as they were now since workers did others jobs during theiroff-time and earned good wages and still showed interest and pridein their plating work. If they were unionized, they might getbetter wages but would also tend to get lazy, and become moreindifferent to their work at Nataraj. According to Mr. Subramanian,pride in work and not money was the motivator. Furthermore, Mr.Khrishnan, talked mostly about things in general and seemed totallyindifferent to what was going on in his aisle. He even said that,“I have spent several years here and know that no matter how oneworks, there is no place one can go further up here at Nataraj. Ido what I think is a fair day’s work and take it easy. Those whowork hard hoping they will climb up the ladder in this organizationare simply fools”. Krishnan’s men also engaged in the same type ofpunching tactics that Subramanian’s men did but, so far it seemsthat Krishnan did not seem to be aware of what was going on. Nobodydiscussed the matter with Krishnan since supervisors in the otheraisles seemed to have slight respect for him and totallydisregarded him. It was no wonder then than Krishnan felt soisolated and showed his aggressiveness in many ways. He shouted athis men when work did not get done, but despite the lower standardsof performance of his group, he never got into trouble with thehigher-ups for either taking more time to get the job done or notperforming as high quality as the other groups in the platingdepartment did. To feel good about himself, Krishnan tried to writeTamil novels which were always rejected by book publishers. Themore he failed, the more he walked in to work drunk and the less heseemed to know what was going on in the plating department. TheSwaminathan group did not punch time cards for each other, but theworkers were very unhappy that they were the only ones who werealways at the workplace on time. Once they arrived, they hardlystarted any work till just five or ten minutes before Swaminathancame. Not wanting to incur their displeasure, and being acutelyaware of the fact that the workers were grossly underpaid.Swaminathan did most of the work himself using the help of whoeverwas available. The Production Manager, Mr, Ramanujam was aware ofthe punch-out system and the other problems in the Platingdepartment and was considering what action to be taken.
Questions: NOTE: All your answers should be supported withtheories from the chapters of Attitude, Perception andLeadership.
Analysis of the case:
Q1: In general what is the problem of the case?
