Galaxy Toys Chapter Summaries

Harvard Business Review case, The Nuclear Tube Assembly Room, is an excellent example of how managing and leading a team effectively can make a substantial difference in terms of results and goals achieved, all the while creating new ambitious expectations for workers. This particular case revolves around Ralph Langley, general foreman of the process department at American Radiotronics Corporation. Within the first 24 months of being promoted to general foreman, Langley has swiftly changed the mentality and efficiency of the workers in the nuclear tube assembly room. He has changed their terrible reputation into one of the most

On September 6th, 1971, President Richard Nixon gave the “Address to the Nation on Labor Day.” In this speech, he determines that there is a change in the work environment air. Nixon claims that workers in this developmental time deserve new opportunities to grow within their work. He reached the conclusion that job satisfaction should be a company's main focus. As the work environment evolves, worker satisfaction becomes increasingly more important. Employees have expectations, such as raises, insurance, and paid time off, so if a company is not willing to comply with these new demands, then it will become increasingly difficult to generate decent productivity rates. Nixon defined this word by stating that “Productivity really means getting

The founders of the Lincoln Electric Company left a legacy of an organization culture that promotes high productivity through sound management policies which have stood the test of time. The exponential growth of the company after the death of James F. Lincoln was a direct result of the establishment of a rich culture mix based on values that were widely shared and accepted by the members of the organization. Management empowered employees to become part of the decision making process through the contribution of ideas through the Advisory Board which was elected by the employees from amongst themselves. Reward management systems and all the other artifacts of the Lincoln Electric’s distinguished strong organizational culture will be analyzed in greater detail in this essay.

Basic Underlying Assumptions are the beliefs that employees have about the everyday operation of a company. Chrysler’s employees began to believe that sales, market shares, and the awards were the most important aspect of their company; simply because that was what management kept pushing on them, probably in sales meetings (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). Their employees were so driven to get the quota to become sales person of the month and get a plaque with their name on it, and hung on the wall so everyone could see; that they got blind sided of what was really important (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013). By striving to get this behavior down right, it is hard to begin to change back into what it was supposed to be or something new altogether because it has become a part of these employees belief of how things are to operate (Kinicki, 2013, slide 14).

Organizational Hierarchy Structure- Toys R Us was a decentralized organization, which had a leadership type setting from country to country. This type of structure was difficult because all the leaders from different countries were not communicating effectively. The company knew they had to make some changes to the system, if they wanted to be successful. Therefore, after careful consideration, the company decided to move to a more centralized structure. This change was needed to strengthen their business with regards to their compatibility amongst countries and creating a more efficient workplace in the United States and abroad. In the company’s business in Europe, instead of their being different leaders across the continent, there will

ToyWorld, Inc. was founded in 1973 by David Dunton. Before that, he had been employed as production manager by a large manufacturer of plastic toys. Mr. Dunton and his former assistant, Jack McClintock, established Toy World, Inc. with their savings in 1973. Originally a partnership, the firm was incorporated in1974, with Mr. Dunton taking 75% of the capital stock and Mr. McClintock taking 25%. The latter served as production manager, and Mr. Dunton, as president, was responsible for overall direction of the company’s affairs. After a series of illnesses, Mr. Dunton’s health deteriorated, and he was forced

Organizational theory studies the various variables that influence the behavior of an individual(s) working within an organization, but also, “prescribes how work and workers ought to be organized and attempts to explain the actual consequences of organizational behavior (including individual actions) on work being performed and on the organization itself.” (Milakovich & Gordon, 2013, p.145). Of the many approaches to organizational analysis, Classical Organizational theory has been, even to this day, extremely influential by focusing on more formal concepts such as bureaucracy, rationalization and scientific management. Although, over the decades organizational management has taken on a more human relations approach to getting more productivity out of employees, it is contributors like Max Webber, Fredrick Taylor, and Luther Gulick that laid down the basic foundation organizational theories by recognizing the need for control and procedures.

The twentieth century has brought in a number of management theories which have helped shaped our view of management in the present business environment. These emerging theories have enabled managers to appreciate new patterns of thinking, new ways of organising and new ways of managing organisations and people. Over the years these different theories have enabled the study

There are many barriers to new organizations in the toy industry, making the threat of new entrants low. Lego and other big toy companies like Mattel benefit from economies of scale. An economy of scale is achieved by lower costs through large volume production (Textbook glossary). Economies of scale can occur in many departments within the organization including production, marketing, research and development, and finance. Some manufacturing of Lego products was shifted to Central Europe and Mexico in order to benefit from lower wages and to shorten product supply chains (p. 13 of case). The management of Lego additionally holds expertise on production, distribution and customer needs; which are absent in a new organization. To enter the toy sector a potential entrant needs to calculate the start of production at a level that will give a competitive position and production costs lower than the market.

This paper researched the fact that the Toys “R” Us Company was displaying a weakness in financial related issues due to the lack of proper strategic planning. This made the company susceptible to many threats in the industry’s competitive environment. The research has shown that its main competitors Walmart, Target, and Amazon are functioning successfully in the industry while Toys R Us heads for bankruptcy. This research emphasizes the fact that Toys R Us has not taken steps to strategize its operations properly which resulted in a loss of revenue and opportunities in their environment. If the company does not take steps to better its strategic planning, the company will not

From Figure 1, we know that the critical path is Activity 1-2-5-7-10-13-15. It is because if there is any change of time in the Activities on the critical path, the whole progress time of the project will change. Therefore, we choose to crash the activities on the critical path with the lowest crash cost in order to lower the time used with minimum additional cost. Activity 7 has the lowest crash cost within the Activities on the critical path. So, we choose to crash Activity 7 first.

This report is about the situational analysis of the Toy R US Company. This company is currently facing some drop in sales, possible reasons and potential solutions are provided in this report. All the detailed analysis are given here. Report has suggested that company lost its main perspective which it famous at the first point. This is main outcome of the report. There are many other reasons as well which are causing the decline of the company. There is a lot of room for improvement which can be tackled, implementation plan is also given in this report along with the possible and potential full recommendations. So lets’ start with the report.

The Corporate name, founding date, founding leaders. Toys R Us Inc., founding date was 1948 and the founding leader was Charles P Lazarus. The company, which was originated in Washington D.C. was named Children’s Bargain Town.

In the early 1900’s, some of the first ideas were thrown together to allow an organization to flourish in the upcoming modern era. The first theories were known as scientific and classical management, which focused on three separate theories from Frederick Taylor, Henri Fayol, and Max Weber. The three theories have similar ideology in the fact that organization is driven by management authority, employees only source of motivation is money, and organizations are machinelike with employees making up the parts of the machine (Papa, Daniels, & Spiker, 2008). In the Prophecy Fulfilled case study, Mary Ann (senior auditor) takes on a management role with subordinates similar to that of Weber’s Bureaucratic Theory (Daniels 1987, pp. 77-78).

In today’s competitive landscape, organizations must utilize every resource to its fullest in order to achieve profitability. Peter F. Drucker, who is known as “the founding father of the discipline of management”, informs us that employees are assets, which should be treated as a company’s most valuable resource. The key players involved in utilizing this valuable resource are the managers of a company. Managers have a vital role in a company and the effort they put forth into their tasks and responsibilities will directly affect the success of a company. In Drucker’s book Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (Revised Edition), he explains the role of a company’s management team and the secrets to becoming a great manager.