Case Study: All Star Sports Catalog Division

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Case Study: Decision Making at the Top – The All Star Sports Catalog Division August 16, 2010

Case Study: All Star Sports Catalog Division

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All-Star Sports Catalog Division (ASC) participated in a consultant-led study that reviewed the company‟s strategic decision-making process. As Hellings writes in his book of case studies for use by business schools, ASC sought improvement ideas to maximize utilization of successful elements from divisions of its various businesses (Hellings, 2007, p.57). Through application of Organizational Behavior (OB) theories it is possible to understand and explain behavior of ASC employees involved in making key decisions that steer ASC business …show more content…

64-65). As Stuart Levine writes in his book on the fundamentals of success, ASC‟s culture and communication patterns establish a rhythm among its employees that “provides the structure and urgency team members need to stay in step with each other [which] creates energy and momentum, improving productivity, (Levine, 2004, pp. 57-58).” There are challenges, however, to ASC‟s processes that the consultants stressed impact overall team cohesiveness and, at times, creates potential for the senior management team and the subgroups to miss alternatives when analyzing problems. Although Barrett encourages wide participation during meetings his comments, as Hellings illustrates, sometimes inconsistently target specific individuals which creates an environment where staff perceive an inequality of participation (Hellings, 2007, p. 65). This contributes to the consultants‟ findings of three primary concerns of ASC‟s decision-making processes: insufficient debate during group meetings; inconsistent closure on issues of concern; and, inadequate buy-in and commitment from group members on important decisions (Hellings, 2007, p. 66). When