Leadership & Groups (Green River & Aberdeen)

In this Individual Project we will discussion the issues of how work groups and teams will work at FMC Green River or if will work at all? We will also discuss the differences in leadership between FMC Green River and Aberdeen and the implementation for Green River. Also we hope to come up will a communication process for both FMC locations and hope what is working at FMC Aberdeen will work at FMC Green River, because FMC Green River is so much larger it will talk more work and effort but it could work it all put their all together to make it work.

FMC is and has been a successful company for the last fifty-six years. First originated in 1948 and produced 1.3 million tons of various grades of soda ash a year. The success of the first business brought about a second refining plant in 1953, which was completed in 1970. FMC Aberdeen, located in South Dakota with a population of 30,000 is also a successful subsidy of FMC. FMC Aberdeen employs one hundred people, produces one product, which is a missile canister for the U.S. Navy. FMC Green River managed by Mr. Dailey, produces various chemicals, has over 100 domestic and international customers, 1,150 employees, creates several products and works closely at times with the United Steel Workers of America. (Clawson, 2005)

Aberdeen has a great structure for the ability to create quickly various small work teams such as informal groups or self managed work teams that allow the group to focus on improving a such as informal groups or self managed work teams that allow the group to focus on improving a specific process. At Aberdeen the small groups gather, choose their own leader, poll together ideas and come up with a solution to specific problem. Once a solution is found the team disbands. Since Aberdeen's company is smaller and its employees create a family atmosphere, the role relationships between the people in the groups have a strong personal bond. This basic idea will also work at FMC Green River but will require some modifications. At Green River, if they follow the same concept, then the small groups that gather to solve a specific problem must also remember that what effects one decision in the process they are improving may have a devastating impact on another division of the same company since the company produces different products. Quickly creating teams on the spot for resolutions to specific problems as done at Aberdeen is much easier when only dealing with one product for one customer. At FMC Green River, where there are several products being produced and over 1,150 employees, trying to incorporate small teams when the need arises will work but some restrictions may have to be applied. I would suspect more division of labor and command groups would be better suited due to the possible impact of a decision by one team, which may significantly influence another part of the organization.

First of all there are many types of work groups. "Formal - A group established by management to help the organization achieve it goals." (George & Jones 2005). "Informal - A group that emerges naturally when individuals perceive that membership in a group will help them achieve their goals or meets their needs." (George & Jones 2005). Formal has command group, task force, team, and self-managed work team. Informal has friendship group and interest groups. Now with Aberdeen and Green River they would have to using a different work group because they have different amount of employees at each of the companies.

Aberdeen only has 100 employees so they would more in likely us an informal work group. They would be able to use formal work group, they would have less people in each group. Green River has 1,150 so they would go with more of the formal work group. The reason for this is because with the amount of places and people they have they would be easier to break to and each supervisor has so many employees under them to make sure they are doing here job right. Also so they all make sure there employees are running the lines are working together to get the job done.

Second, clear leadership at Aberdeen with the exception of the CEO could be a little difficult to grasp on whom is in charge. Within the groups, the positive input from each member and close working relationships have almost made it possible to do away with leaders. It appears at Aberdeen the leaders naturally create an initiating structure in that the leader of the group is simply to keep the group focused in one direction and be responsible for creating the reports and also have to authority to reward positive behavior or reprimand via counseling substandard performance.

FMC Green River will have many different processes in place throughout the company to produce several different products. If the processes can be broken down and placed into a division of labor, then I think within that specific task of workers, informal groups may be created but it would not be something FMC Green River should count on. I like the idea of employee's being able to freely point out an area of concern or a possible solution to a situation. If this type of atmosphere is created at Green River, then self managed work teams would be ideal to solve some of the problems in the processes. Overall, due to the numerous plant responsibilities at Green River, command groups will be required to be in place. From time to time, it may be required for Green River to create task forces to accomplish specific task but it should be kept to an absolute minimum. The use of task forces appears to have a negative impact on the working environment. Reason is, people that are responsible for their area's or processes will feel as though management has disregarded their input or questions their ability

The goal of Green River as well as all the other companies will be to have each employee working continuously at their peak ability. It will be important for Green River to establish working group structures that allow each individual to be an important part of the decision making process and be held responsible. Aberdeen has a slight advantage in this area in that the team members are well known to each other and the atmosphere is goal oriented. As with Green River, with a large number of employees turnover rate will be higher which means the group members will not have as strong bonds to each other. Effective leadership will be more important at Green River. Formal leadership needs to be better defined at Green River. Rewarding positive behavior will be the same as Aberdeen as will as implementing the required reprimands. A cohesive structure can be achieved at Green River by implementing a clearly defined task structure with the flexibility of its workers to recommend changes in the processes.

Then thirdly we have communication. "Communication -the sharing of information between