Rio Grande Supply Company Case Study
RIO GRANDE SUPPLY CO.
A Case Analysis Report for Management Dynamics
RO90234
Professor Efren Laxamana
Ateneo Graduate School of Business
070610 Revisions
RECOGNITION OF DECISION REQUIREMENT
FACTS OF THE CASE:
• Jasper Hennings, president of Rio Grande Supply Co., knew that a company’s top executives are responsible for determining an organization’s corporate culture. He was proud of the culture of the Texas-based wholesale plumbing supply company. His management team espoused and lived the values: integrity, honesty, and respect.
• The company’s internet policy only allows use for business-related activity. However, Hennings vetoed the provision that management can review and access anything the employees created, stored, sent, or received via company equipment. The company, though, reserved the right to take disciplinary action, that includes possible termination, and to press criminal charges if an employee was found to have violated the policy.
• Chief of Operations, Henry Darger, had fired a female employee for having accessed a colleague’s e-mail. While in Hennings office, the female worker said, “Just ask Darger what he’s up to when he shuts his office door.” The female worker hurled a threat to hire a lawyer.
• Hennings confronted Darger regarding the female employee’s implication. Darger wept and confessed that ever since a nephew committed suicide and a business venture that he and his wife put up failed, he had been seeking escape by accessing explicit adult pornography sites.
• Hennings asked Darger to take the rest of the day off to think things over while he himself ponders the steps that he would need to take. On the one hand, Darger’s immediate dismissal of the female worker was hypocritical when Darger, the person tasked to uphold policies, was logging on to porn sites. On the other hand, Hennings knew that employees regularly use the Internet for personal use. The company had turned a blind
A Case Analysis Report for Management Dynamics
RO90234
Professor Efren Laxamana
Ateneo Graduate School of Business
070610 Revisions
RECOGNITION OF DECISION REQUIREMENT
FACTS OF THE CASE:
• Jasper Hennings, president of Rio Grande Supply Co., knew that a company’s top executives are responsible for determining an organization’s corporate culture. He was proud of the culture of the Texas-based wholesale plumbing supply company. His management team espoused and lived the values: integrity, honesty, and respect.
• The company’s internet policy only allows use for business-related activity. However, Hennings vetoed the provision that management can review and access anything the employees created, stored, sent, or received via company equipment. The company, though, reserved the right to take disciplinary action, that includes possible termination, and to press criminal charges if an employee was found to have violated the policy.
• Chief of Operations, Henry Darger, had fired a female employee for having accessed a colleague’s e-mail. While in Hennings office, the female worker said, “Just ask Darger what he’s up to when he shuts his office door.” The female worker hurled a threat to hire a lawyer.
• Hennings confronted Darger regarding the female employee’s implication. Darger wept and confessed that ever since a nephew committed suicide and a business venture that he and his wife put up failed, he had been seeking escape by accessing explicit adult pornography sites.
• Hennings asked Darger to take the rest of the day off to think things over while he himself ponders the steps that he would need to take. On the one hand, Darger’s immediate dismissal of the female worker was hypocritical when Darger, the person tasked to uphold policies, was logging on to porn sites. On the other hand, Hennings knew that employees regularly use the Internet for personal use. The company had turned a blind