chapter - Pearson
chapter - Pearson
chapter - Pearson
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22<br />
Chapter 1 Organizational Behavior and Management<br />
tors. Several organizational behavior researchers believe that organizations in the future<br />
will increasingly become composed of a “core” of organizational workers who are<br />
highly trained and rewarded by an organization and a “periphery” of part-time or freelance<br />
workers who are employed when needed but will never become true “organizational<br />
employees.” In the years ahead, managing an organization’s human resources to<br />
increase performance will be a continuing challenge. The way in which John Deere has<br />
been meeting this challenge over the last decade is instructive. (See Insight 1.4.)<br />
INSIGHT C O M P E T I T I V E A1.4<br />
D V A N T A G E<br />
JOHN DEERE FINDS NEW USES<br />
FOR ITS EMPLOYEES<br />
Pictured is a John Deere production<br />
worker who is taking on the<br />
role of a salesperson and talking<br />
to farmers about the innovations<br />
in a new John Deere tractor model<br />
at one of the many trade shows<br />
that Deere attends to display its<br />
products.<br />
In the early 1990s, John Deere was losing millions of dollars;<br />
by 1994, its profits exceeded $400 million and have been<br />
increasing since. 27 How has Deere’s startling turnaround<br />
been achieved? According to CEO Hans W. Becherer, Deere has taken advantage of<br />
the skills and capabilities of its workers to increase efficiency and<br />
raise quality. Many of Deere’s problems stemmed from a competitive<br />
environment. Caterpillar and Komatsu were ruthlessly cutting<br />
prices to battle with Deere for a share of the dwindling agricultural<br />
machinery market. To survive, Deere was forced to downsize.<br />
After laying off managers and employees, Deere realized it had to<br />
find a way to make better use of the skills of the employees who<br />
remained.<br />
Deere undertook to teach its manufacturing workers new<br />
skills. It installed sophisticated, computerized production-line<br />
technology and trained workers to operate it. Deere also sought to<br />
improve its manufacturing by grouping workers into teams whose<br />
goal included finding new ways to reduce costs and increase quality.<br />
28 Deere was not content merely with improving workers’ skills<br />
in manufacturing; it also began to teach them new skills that would<br />
help them to find ways to increase efficiency and improve performance.<br />
For example, Deere realized that manufacturing workers,<br />
with their detailed knowledge about how Deere products work,<br />
could become persuasive salespeople. Groups of production workers<br />
were given training in sales techniques and were sent to visit<br />
Deere customers to explain to them how to operate and service the<br />
organization’s new products. While speaking with customers,<br />
these new “salespeople” were able to collect information that will<br />
help Deere further reduce costs and develop new products that<br />
will appeal to customers. The new sales jobs are temporary.<br />
Workers go on assignment but then return to the production line, where they use<br />
their new knowledge to find ways to improve efficiency and quality.<br />
These moves to empower employees have been so successful that Deere negotiated<br />
a new agreement with its workers, which specifies that pay increases will be<br />
based on workers’ learning new skills and completing college courses in areas such as<br />
computer programming that will help the company increase efficiency and quality.