Evolution of a Manager: Career on the Line

Mike Gibson's head throbbed as he re-read the October report. Although Gibson's specialty oil and vinegar bottling team had high productivity, his personal ratings on an upward feedback appraisal were the lowest of any manager. His second chance as a team manager seemed doomed. Reassigned to lead the bottling and packaging line in a food production facility, members of his team were reprimanded after falsifying quality reports. After the disciplinary incident, the team retaliated and gave Gibson an extremely low rating on an upward feedback appraisal. Although a graduate of a corporate management program and currently an MBA student, he seemed unable to apply the lessons of the classroom to his own work. The handwriting was on the wall--Gibson's career was on the line. Gibson's Career at Athenian and Start-Up of the New Packaging Line The Athenian Italian Products food manufacturing plant was headquartered in northwestern Pennsylvania. Management turnover at Athenian was quite low given its well-known reputation as a people-focused organization. Voluntary turnover had declined significantly since the recession began. Promotion was from within for the most part; turnover among manufacturing workers was similar to other manufacturing plants. Now in his early 30s, Gibson had worked for eight years at Athenian in various minor managerial roles. Gibson's managerial career began with a management trainee program where he spent several 10-month stints in different functional areas. Although Gibson received what he thought were strong performance evaluations, he had never landed a significant line position after the program. He apparently was not on the fast track. He tried to perform well and tried to develop relationships with more senior and influential managers. Due to his innate shyness and passivity, he found networking very stressful and extremely difficult. His peers sometimes told him he was way off base in his efforts. With an undergraduate degree in biology from a Canadian university, Gibson became a production team manager on the Gourmet Packaging team. Seeking to improve his managerial acumen, in the same year he enrolled in an AACSB-accredited, part-time MBA program near his home. About the time Gibson enrolled in graduate school, Athenian made the largest acquisition in its history. A newly acquired packaging line added to the workload of the existing two-line, three-shift, 22-person operation. Mid-level manager Russell Cavendish noticed that Gibson had recently enrolled at his alma mater, and offered him the production team management slot for the new packaging line. Cavendish told Gibson that he appeared to have the right management skills to be successful there. The previous manager had been a marginal performer who retired prior to the acquisition. Although he had no experience with large engineering projects or with start-ups, Gibson agreed to take the challenge. Now he led two existing packaging lines as well as starting the new packaging line. Among Gibson's new subordinates were two male crew leaders in their early 40s, each with more than 20 years of experience; an eight-person crew of seven males and one female, each with an average of 15 years of experience; and a female engineer, Shirley Wainwright, in her early 40s. While Wainwright had 15 years of company experience, she had minimal involvement with projects of the scope of this new line. The project plan called for a 1-year installation with the goal of reaching a capacity of 400 bottles per minute and an efficiency metric of 60%. Wainwright would manage the installation, mechanical troubleshooting, and improvements. Gibson was to ensure the proper training of the new packaging team. After one year, the line achieved the 400 bottles per minute goal, yet the efficiency rating was only 50%. Gibson believed that the root cause of his team's efficiency problems rested with the faulty execution of the new line by Wainwright, the project engineer. …