Alisha Bhandari and Laxar Industries

Alisha Bhandari, vice president of operations at a successful and well-respected global supplier of paints, coatings, specialty materials, and optical products, had watched during her ten years at the company a subtle disintegration of workplace culture. Her own observations, coupled with a recent employee survey, had revealed an overall mindset of complacency, lack of motivation, inflexibility, and a general malaise and unwillingness to be flexible to new ideas in the company. Some managers admitted to being fearful of suggesting changes and a distaste for deviating from the normal routine or even considering embracing anything innovative. Bhandari had also noticed greater stress and tension in various departments, and believed that this was already affecting company performance. She worried that the more motivated employees might be lured away by competitors and general malaise would grow larger and more problematic. For the sake of workplace efficiency, employee mental health, and the future success of the company, Bhandari knew that things needed to change, but she was uncertain what steps to take and strategies to put into place. Excerpt UVA-E-0466 Sept. 29, 2020 Alisha Bhandari and Laxar Industries Despite the sunny late-May afternoon, Alisha Bhandari left her office with a nagging headache. Vice president of operations at Laxar Industries (Laxar)—a global supplier of paints, coatings, specialty materials, and optical products—she had an all-day meeting the next day with senior management to discuss declining morale and attitudes at the company. In an effort to take the workplace temperature, the company had conducted an anonymous survey of its 1,000-plus managers the past fall, in 2018, and the recently reported results had been less than stellar. The overall mindset revealed in the survey results was one of complacency, lack of motivation, inflexibility, and a general malaise and unwillingness to be flexible to new ideas. Some managers admitted to being fearful of suggesting changes and a distaste for deviating from the normal routine or even considering embracing anything innovative. Bhandari was not surprised. She had been with Laxar for 10 years, rising through the ranks, and had watched a subtle disintegration of the culture in that time. There was tension in many of the departments, resentments over lack of promotion or opportunity, and a general listlessness that she thought would ultimately harm the company. Several talented executives had left, citing an increasingly moribund workplace and work ethic, and had gone to Laxar's competitors. The company CEO had tasked Bhandari with leading a group of senior management members to come up with ways to address the negative mindset and growing lack of motivation that seemed to pervade management at Laxar. While Bhandari remembered, when she first joined the company, that there were a few unmotivated managers, it was nothing like it apparently was now. She had noticed greater stress and tension in various departments, and she firmly believed that this was already affecting company performance. She had also spent the last several months attending operational meetings of the various departments, and what she saw—along with conversations she'd had with many employees—had just confirmed what the survey had revealed. Laxar Industries . . .