Rough Seas On The Link 650

Required

This assessment requires you to research the management literature in order to develop solutions to a case study which will be in your set text McShane, Olekalns and Travaglione, Organisational Behaviour: (Asia Pacific Edition) 4th edition.

Analyse the case study through reference to OB theories principles in the text, together with a range of scholarly journals.

Keep in mind that the external sources (outside the textbook) must be peer reviewed journal articles (although scholarly book chapters are also acceptable).  If you are in doubt of what constitutes a journal article or scholarly book chapter you need to ask your campus lecturer or the course co-ordinator.

As a minimum you need to answer the questions presented in the case study.

The purpose of this assessment is threefold:

1.To ensure that you have the research, writing and referencing skills to succeed in your postgraduate assessments. 

2.To provide you with the opportunity to critically analyse issues that impact on effective management.

3.To enhance your ability to develop solutions to problems drawing upon the research literature.

Objectives
This assessment item relates to the course learning outcomes numbers 1 to 5 as stated in the Course Profile.

The Executive Summary, Lists of Contents (both these are not essential) and References (absolutely essential) are not included in the required word length. 

Required

This assessment is based on Case Study 3 on page 241 of your textbook, McShane et al, Rough seas on Link650.   We are looking for you to research the management literature to help understand what went wrong on the Link360 from an organisational behaviour perspective.

The purpose of this assessment is threefold: 

1. to ensure that you have the research and referencing skills to succeed in your postgraduate assessment works.
   2. to provide you with the opportunity to critically analyse issues that impact on effective management.
   3. to enhance your ability to develop solutions to problems drawing upon the research literature.

The structure of the report should be as follows:

A]  Brief review of the key points of the case, with the review connected to the key points you are going to draw from the literature (around 500 words)

B]  Detailed analysis of the case, illustrated with evidence drawn from the literature (around 2000 words).  This ideally should be an integrated, well organised review of the articles/book chapters you have selected that address the case.  In preparing this, ask yourself questions such as:

∙does the paper contain evidence that is relevant to the case?

∙does the paper help us to analyse the case and develop solutions to the problems that occurred?

C]  Conclusion and recommendations (around 500 words)

INTRODUCTION

LINK650 was like a dream come true for Shaun. Shaun was very excited to start his new venture in LINK650. He also considered himself to be too lucky to be the one among the special 50 who got selected from a bunch of thousand aspirants. His wonderful interview experience even raised his hopes to new heights. However, the reality proved to be very different after Shaun joined LINK650 oil rig. All the 50 employees were thrown off to grueling work undermining their safety and security. The employees were also not provided any formal training for the job. They were asked to achieve unrealistic targets without any consideration of the existing issues. All these factors were just the surface of the oceans of problems the employees were facing in LINK650. The supervisors were mean to the extent humanly possible. They disrespected the employees and bad mouthed them. They forced them to achieve impossible targets just to please their superiors without any consideration for the employees whatsoever. Many employees thus resigned from the job unable to handle the physical and mental pressure. Many were also fired without appropriate reasons. There was also a fatal accident in the rig in which Bob Mckenzie died. These forced the employees to take a strong step. Thus, the employees invited the Seafarers International Union to unionize the rig. This was a fatal blow to the management as unions were very rare in oil rigs in Canada. The management still employed negative tactics rather than developing a good faith among the employees. This entire negative aura around LINK650 finally broke Shaun's commitment and thus, he also resigned and decided to go ahead with his education.

IDENTIFICATION OF THE PREVALENT ISSUE

There were serious issues involved in the work culture and management of LINK650 which allowed the situation to go so much out of hand. Now to understand exactly the reasons for the behavior of Shaun and the other employees in LINK650, we first need to identify the prevalent issues in the company.  Some of the main issues were:

Fig 1: Issues in LINK650

• Improper Organization Culture: The organizational culture in LINK650 was improper and unbearable. The management knowingly turned a blind eye to all these issues which worsened the conditions.
• Disrespect to Work Safety: Oil rigs are usually a dangerous place to work. Strict adherence to safety procedure is a must for working on an oil rig (Lim, 1995). However, in LINK650 the safety procedures were ignored beyond acceptance.
• No Motivation: Employees in LINK650 were not provided or ensure of any rewards which would motivate them to work efficiently. On the contrary, they were just forced and threatened to work hard rather than being inspired using appropriate means.
• Mistreatment by Supervisors: The behavior of the supervisors in LINK650 was mean and rude. They frequently misbehaved with the employees and found pleasure in doing so. This highly demotivated the employees.
• No Formal Training: The organization did not play any interest in training the employees for the job. This would have helped the employees to work efficiently and safely and thus would have been to the company also.

These along with some other issue like lack of communication, job insecurity, etc. made the working condition in LINK650 unbearable.