Effective Problem Solving for Car-Maker Growth

The provided assignment requires students to analyze the importance of problem-solving skills in organizations, specifically in the context of the car-making industry. It involves identifying key issues related to growth and sales, utilizing expertise to resolve future problems, and ensuring effective growth by reaching new milestones. The assignment incorporates various problem-solving models and techniques from relevant literature, such as the Six Step Problem Solving Process and Boleman's and Deal's Four Frame Model.

CASE STUDY REPORT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
The case study - Background information...................................................................................1
Problem statement........................................................................................................................2
Problem situation analysis...........................................................................................................4
Problem-solving application........................................................................................................5
Key decision criteria and evaluation of alternatives....................................................................9
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
The present case study is based on the Jaguar land Rover. Under the case study many
problems were recognised such as; reduced sales in China, sudden job cut of announcement,
uncertainty from Brexit, etc. The aim of this case study report is to have in-depth knowledge and
understanding of the problems and their impact (Baker, 2017). The general purpose of the case
study is to analyse;
 Why sudden announcement done by JLR that 4,500 will be cut?
 On what extent it made impact on the employees and on the management of the
company?
 What strategic decision made by JLR to overcome the issues related to this decision?
An in-depth analysis of the strategic decision making process will be done by using
problem solving perspective. The study will also evaluate recognised problem-solving
techniques that will use to unfold potential solutions for the strategic decision making. Lastly,
some essential recommendation will given to the company for future practice and suggest
techniques and tools that would support any problem solving and strategic decision-making for
Jaguar Land Rover in the future.
The case study - Background information
Jaguar Land Rover PLC is a luxury vehicle manufacturer that design, manufacture and
sell high performance passenger cars throughout the world. It is a British multinational industry
and the holding company of Jaguar Land rover Limited. It is a public limited company that
incorporated under the legislation and laws of England and Wales.
The history begun from 1989 when jaguar and Land Rover were acquired by Ford Motor
Corporation. In 1967 Leyland Motor Corporation absorbed the Rover company. In 1980 it was
purchased by British Aerospace and in 1944 the company has owned by BMW and in 2008 Land
Rover was sold to TATA Motors along with Jaguar Cars (Bardach and Patashnik, 2015). JLR is
a part of India's largest auto mobile company, TATA Motors. The brand's strategic approach has
greatly minimised the car's impact on the environment through various technologies such as e-
terrain technology, CO2 offsetting. Their continuous R&D help them to bring innovation in heir
products and services.
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Products served by JLR are Luxury vehicles and sport utility vehicles. Jaguar vehicles
include; Jaguar XF, Jaguar XJ, jaguar XK, Jaguar F-type, Jaguar XE, on the other hand, Land
Rover vehicles include; Land Rover Defender, Land Rover Free-lander, Land Rover Discovery.
Top competitors of the company are Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Lexus, BMW group, Toyota (Barton
and Fieldhouse, 2018). The estimated revenue of the organisation is $25.8 Billion and it have
around 43,224 employees. During their growth and development they mainly invested in My-
croft that develop an AI based voice assistant platform and in Cloud-car that develops a
comprehensive automotive platform that delivers cloud based solution to OEMs. JLR sold a total
of 604019 units in the year end of 31st March 2017. core values mentioned by the industry are;
Integrity, Understanding, Excellence, Unity and Responsibility.
The mission of JLR are;
 We want to deliver more great products, faster than we have ever done before.
 We want to be the leaders in the field of environmental innovation.
 We want to be sure our consumer come first.
Problem statement
In this case study, Jaguar Land Rover announced 4500 jobs will be cut in the UK.
Employees were informed that company which employ 40000 people in the UK needed to cut
costs. Company facing decrease sales in China and slack in demand for diesel cars while
executives have also charged about uncertainties origin by Brexit. In the latest news and updates
from the West Midlands. As per the management structure, the most of roles will be lost office
based. Due to uncertain future, supplier to Jaguar Land Rover are also concerned not just
employees. In order to that, Jaguar Land Rover's diesel dependency. In this context, if they are
going to cut down on the work, so that company is going to lose work. Through this, future does
not see that great at the moment for any of them.
There was also pessimism external the 54 plant new Wolverhampton as employees
beginning their shifts. Jaguar Land Rover has said it plans to invest in electric engine tech at the
plant. In order to that, company has faced many issues as per case study. Therefore, Jaguar Land
Rover needs to confident which will be important portion for future success of company.
(Canhoto and Dibb, 2016). Through these problems, there are different macro and micro factors
which involves cutting sales, ineffective operation, high diesel dependency, management
structure and so on. The six-step problem solving process is recommended to the company here.
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This is going to allow the company to reach new growth and ensure that the present situation is
being handled properly.
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(Source: The Six Step Problem-solving Model, 2017)
Problem situation analysis
In the case study, Jaguar Land Rover identify the problem which is 4500 jobs cut out
through many reasons like slack in demand for diesel cars and sales cuts down in China. Also,
company has charged about the uncertainties reasoned by Brexit. Most will be in office roles as
JLR wants simply its management structure, the cuts come on top of 1500 jobs cuts last years.
With these issues, company faced uncertainties in the future. After announced cuts by JLR which
includes 6.9% to 411875 sales fell as marketing conditions in China and Europe devolved. Sales
slacked by 11.4% to 35955 in December. In relation to that, government ministers want to wake
up and beginning doing more to help car employees of the UK. Selected company plans
voluntary repetitiveness strategy which is to aid handle the latest round of job cuts. Due to Brexit
uncertainties, eventually take its toll on the representation of the United Kingdom as per stable
and competitive base for international producers. Selected organization more certainty across
Brexit in relation to constant investing in operation their United Kingdom.
In order to that, Jaguar Land Rover is one of the most heavily exposed car market to
continue confusion consumer about the wisdom of buying diesel car in the aftermath of VW
emissions scandal. In relation to that, lay off come amid business insiders have called perfect
storm. This involves slowdown in Chinese sales, slack in diesel sales and concern about
competitiveness UK post Brexit (Herrera, Jaguar Land Rover Ltd, 2019). The relationship
among JLR and its Chinese sales network have also been strained as dealer have demanded
better terms and publicity incentives.
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Illustration 1: Six Step Problem Solving Process

As per the problem situation, it can be seen that both JLR and its employees have to face
critical issues. In order to ensure that the organisation does not gets impacted by the current
scenario in which it has to lose a set of employees which are effective in terms of taking the
organisation further and helping it in reaching new growth and development. It is important that
JLR makes use of effective strategies here to make decisions which can help the organisation to
tackle the situation of cutting around 4,500 jobs. In order to deal with this, it is essential for the
company to make use of micro-foundations approach (Liou, Chao and Yang, 2016). Under this,
the company can identify the behaviour of its employees after sharing them the news of their
removal from the company. It can allow the management of the company to create an empathetic
understanding towards its employees and would allow them to make them understand why it is
important for the company to cut them and most importantly what they can do in order to deal
with this situation.
Another effective approach which the management of company can make use of in this
situation is “Cognitive Approach”. The cognitive approach plays an important role while making
decisions for the organisation and its growth as well. Under this, the management of the
company can interview the employees which they want to cut and can understand their particular
thinking. This is going to allow them to come at more specific terms in order to ensure better
growth and development (Mathijsen, 2016). Along with it, this will help the company to ensure
that the employees which are going to leave under these circumstances will not feel bad and it
will not leave them with any financial backdrops.
Both of these approaches the micro-foundations and the cognitive approach helps in
decision-making and problem-solving by clearing out the complexities of the situation. While
solving a problem or making a required decision, it is important to simplify the process first. The
micro-foundation simplifies the process and cognitive approaches eliminates the complexity of
the situation. It is going to help out the company in reaching new growth and ensure that its
image and reputations is not being affected while cutting off its employees on large scale.
Problem-solving application
In order to solve the problem of employee cut-off and ensure that the process does not
harms the reputation of the company, JLR is going to make use of two problem-solving tools
which are Six Step problem-solving model and Bolman and Deals' Four-Frame model. Below
explored is the usage of the model under the specific situation respectively:
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Six Step problem-solving model
 STEP 1 - Defining the problem: It is important for the company to define the problem
at first, in order to reach to a particular solution. The identified problem of the company
from the above case study is in what manner it should deal with the employee cut-off
without jeopardising the reputation and the growth and development of the company.
 STEP 2: Determining the root cause of the problem: Here, in this step the JLR is
going to identify the root cause of the problem and what are the causes behind the
occurrence of the problem (Schoenfeld and Sloane, 2016). The above case study explains
that root cause of the problem is its sales which are less and it is making the company to
cut-off its employees on large scale which is its secondary problem that now it requires to
deal with first-hand.
 STEP 3: Developing alternative solutions: After defining and determining its root
cause, it is important for the company to develop the alternative solutions for the problem
being faced. As per the problem, the alternative solutions which can be used here to make
the employee understand the present situation of the company and make them a offer to
rejoin the organisation once it is back on track. The another alternative solution is to help
the employees in getting another job which pays the same amount of money. These
solutions would allow the employees to feel safe and secure and ensure that the
organisations reputation is safe and secure.
 STEP 4: Selecting a solution: It is important for the company to select a particular
solution in order to deal with the problem identified. Selecting a single solution can help
the company to deal with the problem effectively.
 STEP 5: Implementation: This is one of the most important step. After the task of
selecting a solution is done, the company is going to implement the solution. While
implementing the management of the company will hold a meeting, and after everyone's
approval the selected solution is going to be implemented. This would help the company
to reach to a certain result, that can either be successful or failure for JLR. It depends on
the outcome of the implementation and its effectiveness as well.
 STEP 6: Evaluating the outcome: This is the essential step to measure the effectiveness
of the outcome of the solution of the company. It can help the company to reach new
growth and development and ensure that desired growth is being achieved from the set
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solution (Tripathy, McGordon and Low, 2018). If the results are positive, it is a win
situation for the company and it can move further in understanding in what manner the
sales of its cars can be maintained in order to reach new growth and ensure that such
situations of employee cut-off does not occur again.
Justification: The usage of Six step problem-solving model has proven very effective in
terms of solving problems related to business and organisational situations. Along with it, this
tool is simple and eliminates complexity. This can help JLR to effectively deal with the present
situation and maintain its market reputation as well.
Advantages: The advantage of this model is that it is simple, easy to use and eliminates
arising complexities.
Disadvantages: Its disadvantages are that is a slow process and requires a stretched
timeline to ensure set growth and success.
Boleman and Deal's Four-Frame Model
This model allows the management of the organisation to deal with the problem with four
effective perspectives (structural, human resource, political, symbolic) known as “frames”. These
frames allow the organisation to ensure that effective growth and development is taking place
and achieve better success from finding a particular solution to the problem. Below explained is
the usage of this model in context of the situation of JLR:
 Frame 1 – Structural: Under this frame, firstly the management is going to identify
what changes it needs to make in order to ensure that the employee removal can be
successfully done (Van Aken and Berends, 2018). This can particularly help the
organisation in ensuring that how its structure needs to adapt in such way that employee
removal does not harms the organisation internal situation and it can keep functioning in
the same way which it is working right now. It might now help the organisation in
dealing with the discarding employee situation but would help in making important
changes for the process. Frame 2 - Human Resource: Under this frame, JLR will ensure the efficiency of its
Human resource is at peak in order to ensure the removal of the employees take place
effectively. The management of the organisation is going to set up its human resource
team in such manner that the employees are going to provide with the necessary required
support and would be helped if needed.
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(Source: Boleman's and Deal's Four Frame Model, 2017)
 Frame 3 - Political: Under political framework, the organisation is going to make sure
that its political atmosphere is as such that it's leadership and management is supporting
the employees which are going to leave the organisation. It is going to be done by
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Illustration 2: Boleman's and Deal's Four Frame Model

allowing them to re-join the organisation once it’s on track or providing them with a
different job.
 Frame 4 - Symbolic: It is one of the most effective approach in solving the problem. The
employees which are made to leave the organisation can be provided with a symbolic
representation (Zhao, 2017). This means that they will be provided with an award,
recognition letter, or a certificate, so that they are not going to find it hard to look for a
new job or join another company. Also, this would help the company in saving its
reputation and ensuring better growth.
Justification: The usage of Boleman and Deal's Four-Frame model would allow the
organisation to maintain its reputation which is its core requirement. This can help the
organisation to reach new growth and ensure new development is taking place effectively.
Advantages: The advantage of this model that it is effective in the situation of crisis and
can help the organisation to deal with the problem faced with less efforts.
Disadvantages: The disadvantage of this model is that it requires major planning,
evaluations, changes, strategies and team building approaches. This sometimes make the
organisation fail from the result which it seeks to achieve.
Key decision criteria and evaluation of alternatives
As per the above evaluations, it can be seen that the organisation can face new growth
and development only if the present situations is handled with best efforts. In order to do this, a
key decision criteria is required. The best approaches in order to solve the problem is to make
use of Six step problem solving model. The effectiveness of the model can be seen above. It can
help the company to ensure that its reputation is safe while it is dealing with the employee
surplus situation (Baker, 2017). Along with it, the organisation will be having an easy at hand
method to deal with such problems. It is important for the organisation to ensure that effective
growth and development is taking place even while it is dealing from this difficult situation. It is
only by using an effective approach where creative thinking and cognitive abilities are brought
into existence altogether such problems can be solved. Also, it can provide the organisation with
a new opportunity to ensure better growth and development. While speaking about alternative
methods, the organisation can make use of Boleman's and Deal's Four Frame Model, as seen
above this approach is also effective and save a lot of time for JLR.
PUGH Matrix
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This matrix aids define which items or possible solutions are more essential or better than
other. It is applied after capturing voice of the consumers. This PUGh matrix allows single
person and team which involves compare various concept, make powerful alternatives concepts
from weak conception and arrive optimal conception which can be hybrid or variant of the best
of the other (PUGH MATRIX, 2017).
Recommendation
In order to deal with the present scenario, it is important for the company to ensure that
the employees which it needs besides the ones which it is cutting off should not leave the
organisation from that impact (Bardach and Patashnik, 2015). It is important the organisation
makes use of appropriate strategies in order to deal with this situations, these strategies include
raising the employees’ salaries, providing them with extra benefits, and making use of training
and development to retain them. Also, it is strongly recommended to JLR that while using
problem-solving approaches it makes use of an agencies and consultations services which can
help it in dealing with the problems effectively (Canhoto and Dibb, 2016). It is important for the
organisation to ensure that problems are being solved appropriately and growth is being achieved
in the required situations.
CONCLUSION
In today's competitive environment, it has become difficult for car makers across the
world to maintain a good reputation and ensure that effective growth and development is taking
place. From the above evaluations, it has been seen as JLR needs to make use of effective
solutions such as Six step problem solving model and Boleman's and Deal's Four Frame Model
to solve its situation of employee cut-off. Also, from the above evaluations, it is concluded that
the organisation requires to make use of expertise in order to solve future problems and ensure
effective growth is taking place. These all efforts are going to help the organisation in reaching
set growth and ensure that better sales are being achieved. Being a car-maker, effective sales are
one of its major requirements and it could help the organisation to reach new growth and ensure
new development.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Baker, R., 2017. Problem-solving. In Agile UX Storytelling (pp. 107-116). Apress, Berkeley,
CA.
Bardach, E. and Patashnik, E. M., 2015. A practical guide for policy analysis: The eightfold path
to more effective problem solving. CQ press.
Barton, D. C. and Fieldhouse, J. D., 2018. Vehicle Structures and Materials. In Automotive
Chassis Engineering (pp. 215-254). Springer, Cham.
Canhoto, A. I. and Dibb, S., 2016. Unpacking the interplay between organisational factors and
the economic environment in the creation of consumer vulnerability. Journal of Marketing
Management. 32(3-4). pp.335-356.
Herrera, J., Jaguar Land Rover Ltd, 2019. Estimator and method. U.S. Patent Application
16/023,365.
Liou, R. S., Chao, M. C. H. and Yang, M., 2016. Emerging economies and institutional quality:
Assessing the differential effects of institutional distances on ownership strategy. Journal
of World Business. 51(4). pp.600-611.
Mathijsen, D., 2016. Thermoplastic composites keep gaining momentum in the automotive
industry. Reinforced Plastics. 60(6). pp.408-412.
Schoenfeld, A. H. and Sloane, A. H., 2016. Mathematical thinking and problem solving.
Routledge.
Tripathy, Y., McGordon, A. and Low, C., 2018. A New Consideration for Validating Battery
Performance at Low Ambient Temperatures. Energies. 11(9). p.2439.
Van Aken, J. E. and Berends, H., 2018. Problem solving in organizations. Cambridge University
Press.
Zhao, X., 2017. Ethnicity in Car Purchase Decisions. Journal of Marketing Management, 5(2),
pp.1-14.
Online
Boleman's and Deal's Four Frame Model. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.accipio.com/eleadership/mod/wiki/view.php?id=1666/>
Six step problem solving model. 2017. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.free-
management-ebooks.com/news/six-step-problem-solving-model//>
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PUGH MATRIX, 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.isixsigma.com/dictionary/pugh-matrix/>.
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