1. Based
on the reading and studying (Organizational Behavior Science, MBA) of the
following case “Data Will Set You Free”, do an individual piece of work in the
form of an electronic report of between 4000-5000 words. The
application of theories and in-depth and logical analysis of the case is the
main criterion for scoring.
2.
Writing format: Times New Roman font, 12th font
size, 1.5 times line spacing.
Case
Incident “ Data Will Set You Free ”
Ford CEO Alan Mulally is known for
starting meetings by saying “Data will set you free” and for trying to change
Ford’s culture to one that is based on increased accountability, more
information sharing, and hard metrics. “You can’t manage a secret,” he is also
fond of saying. Although it’s not clear whether Mulally’s approach will work at
Ford, which is known for its self-contained fiefdoms where little information
is shared, some companies have found that managing people according to hard
metrics has paid off. Consider Freescale Semiconductor, a computer chip
manufacturer based in Austin, Texas.
Freescale has discovered that in
order to have the right people at the right time to do the right job, it needs
an extensive and elaborate set of metrics to manage its 24,000 employees in 30
countries. Of particular concern to Freescale is retention. “There’s no greater
cost than human capital, especially in the technology industry,” says Jignasha
Patel, Freescale’s director of global talent sourcing and inclusion. “When
you’ve got a tenured employee that decides to walk out the door, it’s not just
one person leaving, it’s that person’s knowledge and network and skills.”
To manage talent and prevent
turnover, Freescale holds line managers accountable for recruiting, hiring, and
retaining employees. To do that, managers need to project their talent needs
into the future and reconcile those with projected availabilities. Patel
provides line managers with census data that helps them make their projections,
but at the end of the day, the responsibility is theirs. “What we have done is
taken all of our inclusion data, all our metrics, and we’ve moved the
accountability over to the business unit,” Patel says.
Patel also provides Freescale
managers with benchmark data so they can compare their effectiveness with that
of other units. The benchmark data include the number of people hired,
turnovers, and promotions—and breakdowns by demographic categories. “There’s [a
return on investment] for everything we do,” says Patel.
In
general, what do you think are the advantages and limitations of such metrics? Based
on what you have learned from Organizational Behavioral Science, how would you
deal with acquisition and retention of employees you supervise if you were a manager?
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