SESSION 6c: Greener Pastures
Civil engineers, Borthwick Contracting, is one of Australia's most successful road and bridge
building enterprises. They have been around for a long time and have acquired vast
experience plus a great deal of corporate knowledge. Despite its size, Borthwick's is a very
finely tuned organisation with a core workforce of about 400 most of whom are engineers
and highly skilled construction staff who are supported by a small human resources
department. The hardest working and most pressured people, however, are those involved in
the tendering process because Borthwick's success depends on securing new contracts. While
a successful tender is a cause for celebration, everyone is aware of the pressure staff were
under to meet tender deadlines.
In normal circumstances, everyone plays his or her part in coping with the pressure but for
some reason of late, everyone seems to be struggling. The first signs of dissent began when a
tender deadline went perilously close to being missed. That tender was not successful and
neither was the next. Feedback from the companies that awarded the tenders highlighted that
while the price was competitive, the prevalence of errors and other inconsistencies gave
cause for concern - this had never happened before. Now, with a two big contracts nearing
completion and none in the pipeline, Borthwick Contracting is faced with the prospect of
relying on its long-term maintenance contracts to provide the bulk of its cash flow.
Toby Jenkins, a thirty-year veteran Borthwick Contracting, heads the tendering team. Despite
his experience, he is clearly unhappy with what is going on so much so that be intimated that
unless things improved he would quit and find a job with a company that appreciated him.
Word of Toby's discontent filtered through to the upper echelons and the Deputy Manager,
Libby Mitchell (also an engineer), took the unprecedented step of asking Toby for a 'please
explain'. At the meeting, Toby did not hold back. He made it abundantly clear to Libby that
the office staff in all departments were angry and unhappy with the way the company was
being run. When asked to elaborate, Toby gave the following examples:
•
•
•
•
•
Too many casual staff were being employed, most of whom needed training. This not
only took time, it also takes people away from their core jobs;
No matter how busy things are, staff who were on leave were not replaced;
On-going staff development programs were virtually non-existent except for the
outside workers;
There was no consultation; and
There were too few resources, especially when big projects were under way.
Toby finished by saying that ever since the management structure was streamlined to save
costs, a 'them and us' culture had developed. This, he said, meant more work for the lower
levels but no apparent increase in the workload for the upper levels. Libby thanked Toby for
the meeting and assured him that she would look into his concerns as a matter of urgency.
Five weeks after the meeting the state government announced it had finally committed itself
to a massive harbour development and would soon be calling for tenders. The next day Libby
announced that Borthwick Contracting would be tendering for the job and that she expected
everyone to pull together to ensure its success.
On hearing the news, Toby made a point of sending an e-mail to Libby asking what had come
of their meeting. Libby replied that she had been very busy but would give it her attention
soon. A week later, Toby sent another email to Libby only to receive the automatic reply,
'Libby is on leave until the end of the month' which was some three weeks away. In
frustration and anger Toby took immediate medical leave and, at the same time, submitted his
resignation as did two other members of his team. At the same time, be emailed the General
Manager informing him to expect more resignations.
The General Manager was nonplussed. He had not heard anything from Libby prior to her
taking leave thus he could not understand why Toby, not to mention his two colleagues,
would give up their $140,000 salaries (plus other benefits), especially when such an exciting
project was on the horizon. When Libby was contacted, she expressed her surprise and
disappointment to Toby who simply said, 'You just don't get it, do you?'
Question/s to think about
1. What changes need to be made at Borthwick Contracting and why?
Improve communication channels
Provide more points of contact
Disconnect between management and workers
2. As an OD consultant, what initiatives would you implement to resolve the situation?
Team performance incentives
In text references for the Nokia document but don’t include in reference list
2 submissions, one for similarity score, below 20%