Nsc Minerals Case Study
NSC Minerals is an ever expanding company which supplies Canada and some parts of the United States with many of the Highway De-icers, Livestock Feed Supplements, Hide Curing, Drilling Muds, Water Softening, Road Stabilization, and Industrial Applications used throughout the year. There are two office locations, one in Calgary and the head in Saskatoon. There are also four plant locations: Vanscoy, Fort Saskatchewan, Rocanville and the Delisle Rail Site. To begin, I will discuss how the method of departmentalization is used throughout the company. NSC Minerals is split into the 6 common functional departments which are sales, accounting, production, human resources, information systems and marketing. Through
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these departments, the company is able to have those who are highly qualified in specific areas to work in the appropriate departments, thus helping the company to work more efficiently. NSC Minerals also works under geographical departmentalization; although there are only two offices, the head located in Saskatoon and the Western office located in Calgary, each office is responsible for certain areas. The Calgary office is responsible for Western Canada and the head office for the rest of Canada and parts of the United States. I suppose we could also say that they work under matrix departmentalization as to successfully run both functional and geographical departmentalization are used. Although it is said that this form of departmentalization can cause confusion and conflict, this is not so within NSC Minerals. Departmentalization has proved to be successful in the everyday running of NSC Minerals, it helps the people within the company to specialize in areas of their expertise, and through the highly skilled management, the employees and management have avoided some of the pitfalls of matrix departmentalization. The organizational chart attached shows the chain of command within NSC Minerals. The Vice President reports only to the President of the company, then there are five people who report to the VP of the company most of whom have a few people who in turn report to them. Although NSC Minerals can fall under matrix departmentalization in which employees generally report to two bosses, they do run under the unity of command in which each manager has two or three people who report directly to them. Throughout the company, line and staff authority is used to properly ensure that everything is running as smoothly as possible.
Many of the plant workers are given tasks that they have to do in order to ensure that each customer gets their product as soon as possible. However, in the offices, the approach used is staff authority as there are many different tasks which need to be accomplished, therefore many of the lower levels of staff are advised on what needs to be done first in order to keep the offices running as smoothly as possible. The delegation of authority within this company can be defined as decentralization as many of the employees who are closest to the problem which has been raised are given the authorization to make the decisions necessary to solve the problem. Through this approach NSC has encouraged the development of the capabilities of its employees in all departments, which in turn has lead to much faster decision making as well as customers being highly
satisfied. The job design of this company is composed of job specialization, job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment. The company uses all these designs to ensure the abilities and skills the employees possess are fully put to use as well as to ensure everyone enjoys their work. As job specialization can sometimes get boring for employees due to the repetition of the duties, the company ensures that some rotation is used so that the employees have a greater variety of tasks to do as well as the opportunity to use some of the different skills they may possess. By rotating the jobs the employees may also be able to discover new skills which will benefit both the company and the person. As the company gets busier during the winter months jobs are enlarged. Everyone takes on many more tasks which fall under the particular job that they perform and the management ensure that all the employees are given additional time to complete the tasks to ensure that people don’t start getting stressed out over the extra work. Also another thing that management does to ensure people are happy over the extra work is give the employees some authority to make decisions about what they feel should be their priority to get done. This process is called job enrichment and is very effective as it gives workers a little bit of independence in the workplace too make good decisions on the way they feel is best to approach their tasks. In conclusion, NSC Minerals has and continues to prove that the organization of the company is very effective in ensuring all employees and customers are happy. Based on my personal experience, I would recommend that NSC Minerals continues to operate the way they have been since they opened for business in 1988. NSC Minerals is one of the few smaller companies that adapts well to new approaches available to mangers to operate their company, this adaptation has led to them to be a successful business and an enjoyable place to work in. The management and employees work together as a team. This company shows that teams can be a good to a company, as long as everyone is able to communicate and work well together.
To the management at NSC Minerals the staff are more like family not just employees.
these departments, the company is able to have those who are highly qualified in specific areas to work in the appropriate departments, thus helping the company to work more efficiently. NSC Minerals also works under geographical departmentalization; although there are only two offices, the head located in Saskatoon and the Western office located in Calgary, each office is responsible for certain areas. The Calgary office is responsible for Western Canada and the head office for the rest of Canada and parts of the United States. I suppose we could also say that they work under matrix departmentalization as to successfully run both functional and geographical departmentalization are used. Although it is said that this form of departmentalization can cause confusion and conflict, this is not so within NSC Minerals. Departmentalization has proved to be successful in the everyday running of NSC Minerals, it helps the people within the company to specialize in areas of their expertise, and through the highly skilled management, the employees and management have avoided some of the pitfalls of matrix departmentalization. The organizational chart attached shows the chain of command within NSC Minerals. The Vice President reports only to the President of the company, then there are five people who report to the VP of the company most of whom have a few people who in turn report to them. Although NSC Minerals can fall under matrix departmentalization in which employees generally report to two bosses, they do run under the unity of command in which each manager has two or three people who report directly to them. Throughout the company, line and staff authority is used to properly ensure that everything is running as smoothly as possible.
Many of the plant workers are given tasks that they have to do in order to ensure that each customer gets their product as soon as possible. However, in the offices, the approach used is staff authority as there are many different tasks which need to be accomplished, therefore many of the lower levels of staff are advised on what needs to be done first in order to keep the offices running as smoothly as possible. The delegation of authority within this company can be defined as decentralization as many of the employees who are closest to the problem which has been raised are given the authorization to make the decisions necessary to solve the problem. Through this approach NSC has encouraged the development of the capabilities of its employees in all departments, which in turn has lead to much faster decision making as well as customers being highly
satisfied. The job design of this company is composed of job specialization, job rotation, job enlargement and job enrichment. The company uses all these designs to ensure the abilities and skills the employees possess are fully put to use as well as to ensure everyone enjoys their work. As job specialization can sometimes get boring for employees due to the repetition of the duties, the company ensures that some rotation is used so that the employees have a greater variety of tasks to do as well as the opportunity to use some of the different skills they may possess. By rotating the jobs the employees may also be able to discover new skills which will benefit both the company and the person. As the company gets busier during the winter months jobs are enlarged. Everyone takes on many more tasks which fall under the particular job that they perform and the management ensure that all the employees are given additional time to complete the tasks to ensure that people don’t start getting stressed out over the extra work. Also another thing that management does to ensure people are happy over the extra work is give the employees some authority to make decisions about what they feel should be their priority to get done. This process is called job enrichment and is very effective as it gives workers a little bit of independence in the workplace too make good decisions on the way they feel is best to approach their tasks. In conclusion, NSC Minerals has and continues to prove that the organization of the company is very effective in ensuring all employees and customers are happy. Based on my personal experience, I would recommend that NSC Minerals continues to operate the way they have been since they opened for business in 1988. NSC Minerals is one of the few smaller companies that adapts well to new approaches available to mangers to operate their company, this adaptation has led to them to be a successful business and an enjoyable place to work in. The management and employees work together as a team. This company shows that teams can be a good to a company, as long as everyone is able to communicate and work well together.
To the management at NSC Minerals the staff are more like family not just employees.