The Nataraj Metal Products Company

(Adapted from The Slade Company Case prepared by P.R. Lawrence and John A. Seiler, Harvard Business School)

The Nataraj Metal Products Company (hereinafter referred to as the Nataraj), has it manufacturing plant at Arani and employs about 500 workers. It produces a variety of metal products such as brass knobs, steel frames, collapsible iron gates, chromium handles and so on. Orders for these are placed by building contractors in and around Madras but the volume of orders fluctuates, with the rainy season being the slowest period. The company is reputed for quality products delivered on time and at competitive prices.

The Production plant has a Tool and Die department, the Stampling department, the Plating department, and the Paint department. The Production Control, Maintenance and Receiving and Shipping departments are also under the Production Manager, Mr. Ramanujam who has been transferred a month ago from the Avadi plant to the Arani plant.

Workers in the tool and die department are highly trained craftsmen. Because of their skills they are paid much higher wages than those in the plating and paint departments who workers are not so highly skilled. Many of the workers in the plating and paint departments have been with Nataraj for several years. Those in the stamping department are the least skilled and lowest paid. Turnover rates in this department are also high.

The plating department is located at the far east side of the plant and 40 men work in the department, plating or oxidizing the metal plates or making parts for paint applications to be done at another end of the plant. The men work in four different aisles in the department, each aisle placed under a supervisor. The activities that take place in these aisles comprise: (1) acid dipping, where parts are manually immersed and treated in acid solution so that they could be etched; (2) barrel tumbling, where parts are smoothed by being loaded into drums containing caustic or corrosive solutions, and (3) plating where parts are loaded on racks and immersed by hand through the plating sequence. Cycle times, chemical formulas, composition of abrasive mixtures and chemical formulas differ depending on the quality of plating needed and the metal used.

In aisle 1, acid dipping for high quality painting is undertaken and men here work closely with men in aisle 3 who are engaged in high-quality tumbling work. Workers in aisle 2 tumble items of regular quality and sometimes work on oxidation dipping. Men in aisle 4 do tumbling work with respect to certain special products 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 the department vary considerably. That part of the plating department containing the tumbling barrels and plating machines is constantly awash with cold water, steaming acid, and caustic soda and men working here have to wear special boots and gloves in the scorching month of May as in the cold month of January. The rest of the area is dry and relatively more comfortable to work in.

Workers in aisle 1 were are very friendly with each other and frequently helped one another in getting the jobs complete in time. The “Subramanian group” as they were frequently referred to, worked overtime whenever necessary to get rush orders completed and always cooperated as a team. Members in aisle 2, under the supervision of Mr. Krishnan operated in a different style. Mr. Krishnan was the nephew of the company’s President, Mr. Suresh Srivastava and felt he could not be touched by anybody including the Production Manager. He came late, left early, and all but one of his workmen were indifferent to their jobs. Krishnan hardly trained anybody and the group never worked overtime. Aisle 3 had a different mode of operation. The individuals there wanted to be like the Subramanian group and under the direction of Mr. Narayanan learnt how to do a good job, though they did not enjoy the same status that the Subramanian group did in the Plating department. The two groups, however, got along well together and often went out for picnics on a Sunday or holiday. Workers in aisle 4 kept to themselves and though Mr. Swaminthan himself was a very capable young man, he took neither the time nor the trouble to teach his constantly changing workers how to do the best possible job. No sooner would he train a man than he would quit. So Swaminthan did most of the rush jobs himself using whoever was around to help him.

The working hours for the workmen were from 7:00am to 5:00pm with half an hour’s break each for lunch and afternoon snacks. The supervisors were expected to 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 card system and every worker had to daily punch the time he came in and out from work. An interesting dynamic that operated in the Plating department was the Subramanian group had an arrangement by which the workmen took turns for one to come at 7:00am and punch in the time cards for all the other workmen in the aisle. Mr. Subramanian was aware of what was going on but did not bother about it. His reason for ignoring the malpractice was that the workers were being paid much lower wages than the industry average and thus he felt they deserved to work shorter hours. According to Subramanian they were the best workers and would give anything to get the job done, including their time and energy. They always met deadlines and certainly deserved some time off. Subramanian also proudly said, “No one can do better and more professional job then my crew!”

Most of what Mr. Subramanian said was true. The workers did overtime and complete the job when rush order suddenly poured in. They also never seemed to be satisfied with their work unless everything met their standards of near perfection. When Subramanian was asked by an external person whether it would be better for the workers to unionize in order to get better wages, he replied “that things were better as they were now since workers did others jobs during their off-time and earned good wages and still showed interest and pride in their plating work. If they were unionized, they might get better wages but would also tend to get lazy, and become more indifferent 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 totally indifferent to what was going on in his aisle. He even said that, “I have spent several years here and know that no matter how one works, there is no place one can go further up here at Nataraj. I do what I think is a fair day’s work and take it easy. Those who work hard hoping they will climb up the ladder in this organization are simply fools”.

Krishnan’s men also engaged in the same type of punching tactics that Subramanian’s men did but, so far it seems that Krishnan did not seem to be aware of what was going on. Nobody discussed the matter with Krishnan since supervisors in the other aisles seemed to have slight respect for him and totally disregarded him. It was no wonder then than Krishnan felt so isolated and showed his aggressiveness in many ways. He shouted at his men when work did not get done, but despite the lower standards of performance of his group, he never got into trouble with the higher-ups for either taking more time to get the job done or not performing as high quality as the other groups in the plating department did. To feel good about himself, Krishnan tried to write Tamil novels which were always rejected by book publishers. The more he failed, the more he walked in to work drunk and the less he seemed to know what was going on in the plating department.

The Swaminathan group did not punch time cards for each other, but the workers were very unhappy that they were the only ones who were always at the workplace on time. Once they arrived, they hardly started any work till just five or ten minutes before Swaminathan came. Not wanting to incur their displeasure, and being acutely aware of the fact that the workers were grossly underpaid. Swaminathan did most of the work himself using the help of whoever was available.

The Production Manager, Mr, Ramanujam was aware of the punch-out system and the other problems in the Plating department and was considering what action to be taken.

Questions:

NOTE: All your answers should be supported with theories from the chapters of Attitude, Perception and Leadership.

Analysis of the case:

1. Identify and enumerate the facts of the case.

2. Identify and enumerates the areas of consideration (problems) of the case.

3. In general what is the problem of the case?

Solving the case:

4. Present two alternative of actions (solutions). Each solution must be supported of at least two or three advantages and disadvantages and appropriate theories.

5. Choose one of the solutions in solving the problem and explain thoroughly on how the solution to be implemented. Apply the functions of management in the implementation process.