Mrs. Krupa Devi worked for 20 years in the Horlicks Biscuits Ltd, she joined very recently the Nutrine Biscuits Ltd, as the production manager, she was supposed to attend a routine departmental heads meeting last Friday at 4.30 p.m., which was presided over by the managing director of the company. She did not attend the meeting as there was no formal or informal communication to her, the managing director didn’t like her absence as there were many important items to be discussed regarding production department, Mrs. Krupa Devi was called by the managing director on the next day and asked explanation for not attending the meeting Mrs. Krupa Devi replies that there was no information. The secretary said that it was a routine meeting and as such information was not sent to any departmental head. But all other heads, except Mrs. Krupa Devi, attended the meeting.
(a) Who is responsible for the occurrence of such a mistake?
(b) Find out the reason for the incident. How do you propose to solve such problems in future?
Answers
Answer:
secretary
by taking precautions and being carefyl
Answer:
Case Summary
Mrs. Krupa Devi worked for 20years in the Horlicks Biscuits Limited. Currently she is working in Nutrine Biscuits Ltd, as the production manager. As it is clearly mentioned in the case, she missed a routine departmental heads meeting last Friday because there was only informal notice about it. The meeting was very important and the managing director was not happy with the absence of departmental head. So next day, when the director called Mrs. Devi for an explanation she replied it was because no notice was provided to her about the meeting but the secretary disagreed saying it was a routine meeting and no information was provided to any of the departmental heads but everyone except Krupa was present in the meeting.
Answers
a) After reading the case, I think everyone’s in the company including company’s management responsible for the occurrence of such mistake. At first, at the time of appointing new employee, people who are responsible for should clearly explain company’s routine activities rules and regulation, policies and how the information flows about different types of activities within the company. So, when there was informal notice about the meeting that’s going to happen in coming Friday, Mrs. Devi thought that it was not so important meeting to attend because there was no any formal written notice to address.
• From secretary’s side:
She is also responsible for such mistake because she is much older employee than Mrs. Devi. She is well known how the notice flows about routine activities rather than new employee, Mrs. Devi. She should make sure that the participants are known about the meeting and if someone cannot attend she should let the managing director know about it and even reschedule the meeting if necessary. So, being responsible secretary, she should clearly inform Mrs. Devi about upcoming meeting.
• From Mrs. Devi side:
Although she is new employee and not being familiar to the new company’s way of flowing information, she was clear about the upcoming meeting in coming Friday. Being responsible production manager, she should follow up about the meetings with her employee colleagues, which she didn't.
b) According to my understanding, lack of proper communication in the company is the main reason to occur such mistake. There’s such a poor flow of message to the staff. Similarly, the method to provide the notice also seems unmanaged inside the company. When a new staff is hired in the company, they should be made clear about the rules and regulations of the company. So it is the responsibility of the company to make sure the staff is known about the general things about the company. So the poor management of the company is one of the reasons to occur such mistake.
To solve these kinds of mistake from happening in the future I would propose such ideas/strategies to avoid such mistake:
i. After hiring new employee, I would conduct orientation program where old and new employees can interact with each other. So when there are any difficulties in workplace, they would feel comfortable to share the problems regarding workplace, information sharing, etc.
ii. I’ll divide employees in groups and make one of them group leader from each group so that each and every individual can get proper information about meetings, routine activities, etc.
iii. I’ll create online chat group or phone call/ text messages for the employee to pass the notice.
iv. Even for a small meeting, I would provide formal written notice for each Department’s Head and also paste/pin it on the notice board.
Explanation: