Bader Industries Case

BADER INDUSTRIES

Suzanne has been Production Planning Assistant with Bader Industries for the past 2 years. She has been able to adapt to the culture of the organization and has learned her job pretty well. The production planning department is composed of 5 people and is headed by a manager.

On April 15, at 9 am, she received a phone call from Mr. Bader, the CEO and founder of the company. Mr. Bader requested Suzanne to check if the production schedule for the following week can accommodate another job for an account he was working on.

Dutifully, Suzanne did as she was told. She prepared an alternative production planning schedule that would accommodate Mr. Bader’s request without affecting the delivery dates of the other jobs. She then forwarded the alternative production planning schedule to her manager for approval. Two jobs will be finished later than originally scheduled but will still meet delivery dates.

At 1 pm of the same day, Mr. Bader called Suzanne again asking if his request has already been prepared. Suzanne said, “It is still in process”. Hearing this, Mr. Bader exploded. He felt as if his orders were not being followed. He shouted expletives at Suzanne over the phone. Suzanne was shocked at what she heard. After putting down the phone, she ran to the ladies room and cried.

In the meantime, Mr. Bader made his way to the office. He then called the entire production planning department to his office, and repeated his tirade over the phone to Suzanne, in the presence of the entire department. Suzanne was visibly upset and was trying to control her tears. The other members of the department were just quiet, avoiding Suzanne or Mr. Bader’s eyes.

It was only later that Mr. Bader found out that the alternate production schedule was already with