Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, two childhood friends, founded Ben & Jerry's ice cream company with little knowledge of it. Their market share soon grew to cover large cities in New York and Boston (Cummings & Worley, 2009). On par with their competitors in the ice cream business, Ben & Jerry's is operating many scoop shops scattered across the United States. The company's headquarters based in Burlington has become an attractive site within Vermont, with over 600,000 tourists visiting the area each year (Cummings & Worley, 2009). Initially, Ben and Jerry envisioned the company to adopt an organizational culture different from all other companies in the U.S. The culture revolved around the belief that a company should not neglect its local community, and should give back to the community. The company has further partaken in several local charities and opted to use Vermont-based dairies in their distribution networks. In essence, social responsibility and a feeling of togetherness encompass the company's organizational culture. This case study will analyze critical issues within the company, formulate alternative courses of action, and offer recommendations.
Key Issues
According to Cummings & Worley (2009), Ben & Jerry's grew significantly over five years, netting over 47 million dollars in sales, right from 4 million in 1984. Beginning as a simple and fun project, the company now boasts more than 350 workers and generates over 14 million dollars in gross profits. Ben and Jerry's desire for the company is to create a conducive work environment that is fun and treats its employees as part of a family entity. In their attempt to promote family dynamics within the business structure, the two friends failed to employ an authoritative figure. Bindah (2017) notes that for an organization to adopt family dynamics within its structure, the leadership style should take an approach that promotes a work environment geared towards treating each member as part of the family. If an authoritative figure could have been present at the company, it would have adopted a better organizational structure and culture.
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Another issue presented by the case study is a lack of effective communication from the board down to other employees. When the board members were asked about how they envisioned the company should be, they did not have a collective vision as each member voiced their separate ideas. There was also miscommunication between the board members, further depicting the widening cracks amongst the company's leadership. The board could not openly and honestly talk about the challenges they were facing (Cummings & Worley, 2009). Instead, the board would often blame the organization and other employees for their mischief rather than address issues surrounding their leadership and communication approaches.
On the other hand, employees were assigned duties and responsibilities beyond their knowledge, skills, and experiences. While both managers and supervisors had the technical-knowhow to handle the majority of their assigned tasks, they lacked leadership qualities to take charge of their extended roles. As such, there was no flow of information and communication between departments, employees spent more hours working, and the company was always in a crisis mode. Moreover, employees often felt the pressure and stress working under extreme conditions, and there was an increased number of unfinished products. The author noted that most of the managers were smart but had no action plan to implement their visions for the company. While the management style is suitable for a small business with very few employees, the magnitude of Ben & Jerry’s requires a management approach that is critical of effective communication.
Potential Courses of Action
In the case study, the authors stressed on team building. In essence, team building encompasses all the planned activities that enhance how teams perform their duties in the workplace. Moreover, team-building helps team members develop their interpersonal abilities and acquire problem-solving skills necessary to tackle different workplace challenges (Scott, 2018). The case author began the team-building process with the senior managers attending an offsite team-building retreat, noting that this group was inexperienced with the roles they undertook. In other cases, organizational development practitioners opt for a bottom-up approach in team building rather than a top-down as used by the authors in the Ben & Jerry’s case. When leaders are deemed inexperienced, they hesitate to outsource, develop, and implement new ideas critical to team building and employee engagement.
Another potential course of action would be to implement a third-party intervention. Third-party interventions are used to resolve conflicts among a small group. However, the method is not suitable for a large group as it may widen the rift between the two groups, pinning one group against the other. Conflicts among board members in Ben and Jerry's case would have been solved through third-party intervention. The conflict culminated between Ben and Chico, the company's general manager (Cummings & Worley, 2009). Each person had a different perception of running the company, creating a rift within the management. While both leaders made substantial decisions, the lower-level managers did not understand whom to follow to enforce their decisions and approaches. Lack of effective communication skills from either of the managers can be attributed to the escalated rift from the board.
A successful third-party intervention could demonstrate how effective communication would help resolve common issues within the Ben and Jerry's company. The intervention would first employ a motivational approach geared towards establishing equality among the leaders, creating a positive attitude, and impacting behavioral change among the members. Once all the differences have been identified, the conflicting members would incorporate more integrated solutions into their leadership style, including enforcing open communication, integrity, and honesty. The tension and stress within the organization would instantly be turned into workplace productivity (Zhang et al., 2018). The board would utilize its energy to solve organizational problems and drive the company's vision forward.
Large-group intervention is a potential approach to another course of action that could be taken by the company. Change management is necessary for any organization, and the large-group intervention is suitable for organizational redesign, strategic planning, and organizational development (Burke, 2018). As all members are involved in the intervention, the final product is shaped to fit into the organization's structure. The intervention further fosters collaboration among members; thus, everyone feels responsible for pushing the organization to achieve its set vision and objectives. Since the entire intervention process occurs in real-time, all organization members envision the change process simultaneously. The large-group intervention promotes communication among members, building long-lasting teams. During large-group interventions, members can also use that opportunity to share their opinions and ideas on other issues impacting the organization.
Conclusion and Recommendations
For Ben and Jerry's, the first recommendation would be the board providing full support for any proposed intervention. Some board members were not ready to relinquish some of their responsibilities to lower-level managers from the case study. For changes to be successful, the board's actions should communicate 100% commitment to the proposed interventions and be role models for the employees to follow and emulate. Without showing commitment to the change process, the employees will not be part of the change, further pulling the organization downwards (Van der Voet, Kuipers, & Groeneveld, 2016). Indeed, organizational change must involve all members of the organization, and if the leaders show zeal in enacting change, the employees will follow suit.
Team building is another recommendation that will foster effective communication and productivity within the company, as the authors suggested. However, the proposal would involve a confrontational intervention for the board members to mend their worsening relationship. Team building exercises would incorporate two groups; the board and the managerial employees. Each group would learn how to work well with others, pushing the company forward. Both teams will learn how to communicate effectively with one another and share ideas that will drive success. A successful team building intervention will streamline top-down communication, and each employee will understand their roles and responsibilities within the company.
Ultimately, the organization as a whole should undergo a large-group intervention as earlier noted. A caveat to undertaking such a massive intervention would be adopting several approaches to organizational development and conflict resolution, including self-management, active participation, and self-awareness. Before taking on such an enormous intervention, the organizations should first make efforts to resolve their inhouse issues before implementing other approaches to organizational development. Regardless, these recommendations will help the company organize their processes and strategies to corporate leadership and culture. More so, these recommendations will foster improved communication, leadership, performance, and overall productivity.
References
Burke, W. W. (2018). The rise and fall of the growth of organization development: What now? Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice & Research , 70 (3), 186–206. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1037/cpb0000116
Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2009). Organization development and change. Cengage learning. (9). Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=IuXKAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=related:0Vu-eZdleFGBFM:scholar.google.com/&ots=WMUwhTBkre&sig=yt_RGUxXemMrJHMaUkXwqH-fwRA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
Eric V. Bindah. (2017). Family dynamics and intergenerational entrepreneurs’ leadership style. Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research , 7 (1), 1–12. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1186/s40497-017-0083-1
Scott, W. (2018). the right stuff: building your perfect team. Supervision , 79 (10), 24–26. Retrieved from https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.umgc.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=5ffc94e7-3627-488b-9141-190f76db5164%40sessionmgr4007
Van der Voet, J., Kuipers, B. S., & Groeneveld, S. (2016). Implementing Change in Public Organizations: The relationship between leadership and affective commitment to change in a public sector context. Public Management Review , 18 (6), 842–865. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1080/14719037.2015.1045020
Zhang, X., Bollen, K., Pei, R., & Euwema, M. C. (2018). Peacemaking at the Workplace: A Systematic Review. Negotiation & Conflict Management Research , 11 (3), 204–224. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1111/ncmr.12128
