Black & Decker †Eastern Hemisphere and the ADP Initiative (A) Essay

1. What are Lancaster’s concerns for the future of the Eastern Hemisphere Organization? What problems does he hope to address with ADP? In 1995 when Bill Lancaster was appointed the President of Black and Decker Eastern Hemisphere his initial impression about the organization was depressing. There were some major concerns one of them is the management style that was followed. The current managers were using the Management by Objective (MBO) type plan which is believed to be outdated system that had been replaced in the US some time ago. There were some bad managers and some bad management styles. It was obvious to have lack of growth and development. These concerns led him to see a dark future. These problems require immediate attention and correction to save the organization from its negative impact. ADP means Appraisal Development Plan. Lancaster wants to use ADP to overcome above stated problems and move to the path of development. The expectations of Lancaster from ADP are that it would be able to address the problem of getting the ill informed MBO reviews, as in MBO the managers only see very few aspects of their employee’s job performance. In MBO managers meet with employees on an individual basis but it was not fruitful as managers would be ill informed and just make up a list of suggestions. It is expected that new ADP system would solve some if not all the management problems. 2. What concerns do Asian managers have about ADP? Asian managers such as Anita Lim who had been with Black & Decker for six years were opposed to the introduction of the U.S version of ADP in the Eastern Hemisphere. Her first concern was that Asians might not willingly open up the way Americans do. They might not give critical feedback about their bosses. She also challenges the confidentiality of the ADP system – No matter what a boss says about the feedback being anonymous an Asian might not believe it. Lastly she thinks that a change from MBO to ADP is quite radical and Asians would not support radical changes of this nature. There were some more concerns that came up such as linguistic barrier concerns and cultural barriers in relation to how Asians compete with each other and the relationship they had with their seniors. 3. What action should Lancaster take concerning the ADP initiative in the Eastern Hemisphere Organization? Lancaster has some challenging options in front of him on how to progress further. One is to wait, the other is to implement ADP fully and last is to go with Lim’s recommendation to apply partial ADP model. If he waits to implement ADP he is allowing the Eastern Hemisphere sink further into low productivity and hence low profitability. On the other hand, if Lancaster goes with the new ADP process he faces some cultural and other above mentioned challenges. So it is advised to go with the hybrid model of ADP which was advised by Lim. By following this path Lancaster will be taking a calculated risk. On one hand he is slowing the recovery process of Eastern Hemisphere but on the other hand he is taking initiative for the much needed recovery. By following Lim’s recommendation, Lancaster would be more culturally sensitive at the same time kick start the Eastern Hemisphere towards the path of recovery. Appendix 1) Appraisal and Development Plan Process. Retrieved from â€Å"http://www.missouristate.edu/human/training/ADPTraining.htm† 2) Management by Objectives. Retrieved from â€Å"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Management_by_objectives†