Easiyo Case Study- Managing People and Organisations

EasiYo Case Study- Managing People and Organisations

EasiYo was established in New Zealand as a small family run business in 1992, and has now expanded to a multinational dairy product company. Under the leadership of Paul O’Brien, who joined the company as CEO in December 2009, managerial inefficiency was a major management challenge present at the time. Managerial inefficiency can be defined as failing to achieving maximum productivity; wasting or failing to make the best use of time or resources (Oxford University Press, 2015). This challenge is evidenced through the issues of an ineffective management practices, an unskilled workforce, lack of goal orientation, motivation and ineffective management functions as presented in the case study. Through an analysis of EasiYo’s management and organisational issues that Paul O’Brien faced when he joined the company, it is evidenced that management principals and managing organisational systems are concepts integral to the successful operation of a business.

The inefficiency issues present upon O’Brien’s arrival at EasiYo may be solved by adapting the best practice of managing (Clegg et al, 2011). Although there is no ‘one best way’ to manage, these widely used principals “reduce management to simple principles or one-best-way” (Clegg et al, 2011, Pg 446) and are applicable to the work force at EasiYo. These management models include Fredrick Taylor’s Scientific Management principles and Elton Mayo’s Human Relations principles. Although each of these principles take different approaches to the management of the work force, they would both assist O’Brien in effectively and efficiently managing the diverse work force at EasiYo to maximise productivity and reduce inefficiencies.

Fredrick Taylor’s Scientific Management principles can be applied to “eliminate quality and food safety risks, reduce manual handling and to give greater capacity to handle product variety efficiently” (Jones R & George M, 2003, pg 111). The work force had a strong human relations focus as recruitment often involved the original recruits introducing family members to the company, so that at one stage around half of the 24 predominantly Tongan production workers were related to each other (Jones R & George M, 2003). However this should not be at the expense of efficiency, the employee’s were reliable and respectful but not as productive as they could be (Jones R & George M, 2003). O’Brien stated that on his initial observation management needed to be more measurement based (Jones R & George M, 2003). Taylor’s principles would require O’Brien to identify and develop the most efficient way of performing work tasks, selecting and training the appropriate employees with the necessary skills and working closely with the employees to ensure maximum efficiency through a mix of automation and staff surveillance