Anand is the Head of the Purchase and Production department at a cement company. He has four subordinates -Maria, Purchase Manager, managing and overseeing raw material purchases, Ajit, the Purchase Officer who carries out purchase orders and supplies, Savio, the Production Manager who manages and supervises the production processes, and Ashwini, the Production Officer responsible for executing the production process. During the course of production, Ashwini gets crucial information about the likely increase in the price of sand (raw material). She passes his urgent information to Ajit so that Ajit can purchase sand accordingly. Instead of the following the long route of is scalar chain, Ashwini directly passes this information to Ajit by constructing a "gang plank".

(i) Has Ashwini taken the right action? Explain how?

(ii) Explain which principle of Fayol does this case relate to?

(iii) What is a gang plank?

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Solution

(i) Ashwini took the right action plan. Ashwini formed a gang plank where she temporarily connected with Ajit to warn him about the price increase. Accordingly, Ajit can take suitable actions to negotiate better pricing with the sand supplier and avoid any delay or wastage in obtaining raw materials.

(ii) The case relates to the scalar chain principle which implies that a single, uninterrupted chain of authority should extend from the top level to the lower level of the organisation. This means that the line of authority and communication flows from superiors or foremans to the subordinates.

(iii) Gang plank is a temporary arrangement between two subordinates in different departments to facilitate quick and easy communication as shown in the figure below.

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