Draper Manufacturing Case Study Essay Example

justify;">The increasing costs of oil and petroleum were also affecting the company’s ability to offer the competitive pricing to their customers. The price of a barrel of oil was over $100 that was affecting the operation of the company and the shipping of materials. The oil is used to ship the finished product but is also used in the production of the mattress components such as the polyesters, thread and foam. A product called TDI that is used to produce the major component of the foam was also limited due to hurricanes and storms in the Gulf of Mexico.

• How would the culture audit help Draper Manufacturing assess its diversity issues?
• What questions do you suggest be included in the cultural audit?

The cultural audit would help Draper Manufacturing tremendously because of the many different cultures working in the organization along with the management team. The audit would also set up the ability for Draper Manufacturing to use the diversity within the organization to their advantage. The audit with being able to better anticipate and respond to the needs of the market. An increase in the problem solving of the team should also come out of the audit.

Questions that can be used during the cultural audit include:

• Are the employees of the company compensated appropriately?
• Is the salary of the employees competitive with other like manufacturers?
• Are there enough team workers to efficiently run the organization? Are the benefits provided for the employees comparable to the company’s competitors?
• Are there policies or programs in place to demonstrate the Drape
  

Manufacturers appreciates the work of the employees?

The shipping and receiving and human resources manager must have very stressful jobs within the Drape Manufacturing organization. The shipping and receiving manager must deal with trying to keep up with shipments with two employees short that had retired and not been replaced. The sales manager of the company expects the shipping and receiving team to keep up with the productivity they once had with more employees.

The shipping and receiving team must also deal with issues of raising costs per shipment. The human resources manager is in charge of putting together the appropriate team. Due to the many different cultures that Draper Manufacturing employees, racial diversity is high and can cause many issues with the team members.

• If you were Ted Hanrahan, what suggestions would you make to Draper’s managers to help them move toward successfully managing diversity issues?

Diversity tools and techniques use the employee’s talents for competitive advantages.

If I were in Ted’s position, I would suggest that Draper Manufacturing evaluate the corporate culture that is defined by the values, beliefs and norms that the members of the organization share. The organization would have to take five steps to determine the needs required to improve

the company. The first and most important would be to uncover the diversity issues within the organization. The next step would be to strengthen the commitment of the management team to the organization. Education of training programs and enforcement of the training programs is a critical part of keeping the organization on track.