Should the General Manager Be Fired

Description

In September 2008, the CEO of Rainbow Group, a Chinese group of companies specializing in environmental protection services, was in Beijing, China, thinking about his experience that evening. A few hours ago, eight senior executives from Rainbow Group’s subsidiary in Hangzhou had come to Beijing requesting that the CEO fire their general manager, who had been appointed by the CEO only six months ago. This manager had taken control of the Hangzhou subsidiary with ambitious efforts to implement lean management and better cost control, but had met resistance from the other managers. The CEO was reviewing this appointment and thinking hard. What was the problem? What should he do?

Learning Objective

This case is suitable for advanced undergraduate and MBA/EMBA students. It is intended for use in the personnel selection portion of a human resource management course, or in a portion dealing with organizational culture or leadership in an organizational behaviour course. The case provides students with the opportunity to learn how to make personnel selection decisions based on person/job fit, especially for key positions in organizations. The decision makers need to consider the following questions before finding the best candidate: ·What are the requirements for the target position? ·Which requirements are critical? ·Which requirements are not as important and can be compromised?

Keywords

China Job analysis Leadership Personnel Selection Team building