As the case pointed out there are a few different options that can be looked at prior to any action.

The approach that Robin brought to the table was too narrow. He should have gone to the other executives and brought up the financial situation and then said, How are we going to fix this situation? By putting the problem on the group he is making everyone figure out a solution. In addition, he would be working to bring the team together. The approach that Robin should have taken, in order to maintain high morale within the company, would be to have layoffs be the last resort. He should have looked at more options for recovering from the financial struggles. One way that Robin could have handled the situation would have been to cut the executives salaries before layoffs would occur. He should have made each person come up with solutions to the problem. There is a tendency for people in the group setting to begin to do group think. To avoid group think, he could have everyone go to their offices and think of several ideas on their own before going over ideas as a group. If he did that, he would have to set a minimum number of ideas that everyone had to come up with before the meeting so that everyone would be forced to be creative. In order for this method to work, Robin would have to require everyone in the group to bring their ideas to the table in a large brainstorming session. From that point, they would be able to narrow down the ideas to the most feasible option and proceed from there. By forcing the executive team to come up with their ideas individually, each one of the executives would have to formulate their own stance. They would not be able to jump on the backs of the more dominant personalities in the group and resort to group think. Overall, the approach that Robin used to resolve their financial crisis was too narrow minded. It seemed as though many of the executives didnt care that much how they did the layoffs because it wouldnt affect them personally. Robin needed to make the financial position of the company a problem for whole team to solve.
-What is the problem/issue in the case? The main problem/issue within this case revolves around the new CEO of Delark s, Harry Denton who was brought in to change the image of the company but ultimately, he simply focused on strictly downsizing the company by laying off a significant number of employees (20% for a total of 3,000 people) and the closure of various establishments that did not fair well in terms of business. Seniority wasn t even taken into considerations when laying off the employees and therefore, the issue revolves around this. He laid off people very quickly because he thought that this was the least intrusive and the most gentlest way of laying off the employees. From this, Denton was under a lot of heat from the surviving employees after the downsizing and even from the new employees brought into the company and basically, another additional element to the downsizing were his inefficient methods of dealing with potential terminated employees because of his negligent actions of not holding meetings between the terminated employees and himself. Additionally, when Denton took over the company, he decided to refurbish and renovate the style and look of the buildings and therefore there was a lot of costs involved in the overhaul and this was yet another reason for the downsize to reduce the salary and wage costs

and to allocate them to renovation. What are the facts in the case that support this problem/issue? Harry Denton was brought in as the new CEO to repair Delarks from financial difficulty but instead, he worsened the state in which the company was operating. By laying off approximately 3,000 employees within the firm with little to no warning (the lack of meetings) and focusing on allocating costs towards renovations in order to change the image of the company instead of focusing on the case at hand and that is striving to elevate the company from its financial losses, Denton came under a lot of scrutiny from all over the organization. The closure of the Madison expansion is an example because the owner there, Sylvia O Donnell was in total shock and awe when she got the letter of her and her employees being terminated from the organization. Even Thomas Wazinky, the head of Delark s HR department whom Denton shared confidential information about the company, was in fear of being terminated. This showed that Denton had an erratic behavior and could not be trusted when dealing with change within the organization. Another fact within this case is derived from Denton s fear of specific employees (who are the head of a department) leaving for a rival company because of the sudden disappearance of the satisfaction of working at Delark s and thus this would attract many subordinates within the organization as well to follow in the same suit. What is your analysis (you must provide theoretical support for your analysis)? The analysis of Denton is quite decisive in the sense that he does fit a typical manager s view of change. In order to lift the financial burden off of a company, he would have to downsize the company and close various chains of the stores that did not fair well in terms of sales. By closing these chains, many employees were laid off and so the company recovered money through this. Subsequently, the company s sales had gone up but at the expense of terminating a significant of employees who had worked at Delarks for decades. Many employees had left the firm and the surviving employees had many colleagues terminated and were extremely upset with Denton for his lack of initiative in informing the employees beforehand of their termination. This resembled a lack of communication skills on the part of Denton between the employees within the organization, which resulted in total chaos and dissatisfaction throughout Delarks. What are your conclusions? My conclusion is that despite the organizational wide dissatisfaction of Denton s downsizing procedures, he did fulfill his objective as the CEO and was to improve the financial stability of the firm. The sales for Delarks was up and it seemed that Delarks would continue to bring in a positive net cash flow for the future as well. Denton did what he set out to do but at a high cost. Employee morale was very low because of the termination of approximately 3,000 employees and the subsequent closure of various establishment chains. His lack of communication skills and lack of initiative towards informing the employees of the lay-offs was the result of the dissatisfaction and low surviving employee morale. Due to this, working at the company no longer feels gratifying to them, which would cause them to

leave the firm to work for a competitor. In the long run, long-term consequences will befall Delarks, which could eventually cause the closure of the business due to the perception that the people running the company have erratic behaviours when dealing with organizational-wide change. What are your recommendations? Denton should perhaps take courses on effectively communicating with employees in the firm to see how they operate on a daily basis and what sorts of changes would best suit them and at the same time, improve the firm. Lack of communication when downsizing has a large negative tendency to create dissatisfaction across an organization because of not only their resistance to change but the processes involved within it that would hurt the employees such as the mass layoffs and allocations to renovations. Denton should perhaps hire an external organization that would strictly deal with organizational change, while he focuses upon improving the status of the firm itself financially, economically and in the perception of their consumers because of Delark s now tainted image. He should also attempt to find out what the employees need in order to be satisfied but also helping the organization simultaneously by communicating with the head of each department on a daily basis and giving out monthly surveys to the employees on what they both want and need within the organization. Also, when terminating an employee, Denton must hold a meeting with the specific individual on exactly why he s doing so and what the severance package includes after the termination in order to help the person get another job. If it s a massive layoff, then Denton should hold a conference for all of these employees. Delarks organizational model can be represented using the Star Model. The Star Model uses strategy as the dominant role, which includes vision and direction. What happens in Delarks case is exactly what happens when aspects of the Star Model fail. Confusion, Friction, and Low Performance, which are the effects of misalignment, were evident in Delarks case. This is due to having no common direction (Denton s decisions against the organizations), and failure to align structure with strategy (top management not on par with vision). Removing empowerment from Wizinsky and most of the staff was the critical factor of low performance and morale.