Jane Taylor’s new job was not turning out as happily as she had hoped after her successful interview nine months earlier. Her previous position was as a production controller in a large pharmaceutical company where she had responsibility for some thirty production staff and four supervisors, all women.

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Formative Assignment Case Study Jane Taylor’s new job was not turning out as happily as she had hoped after her successful interview nine months earlier. Her previous position was as a production controller in a large pharmaceutical company where she had responsibility for some thirty production staff and four supervisors, all women. Everything then had worked smoothly — staff knew what they had to do, rarely questioned any instructions or changes in routines, respected their supervisors and usually achieved their group production bonuses. Her own production manager had been an experienced older man, who put her under no pressure unless production targets were not being achieved. It had all been remarkably easy to manage. In putting herself forward for the new job, Jane had wanted to find an extra challenge at work, and to make use of her academic and professional training, which had earned her a very good first degree in chemistry and part-qualification for her professional pharmaceutical qualification. However, in her new post Jane was distinctly uneasy. Although still a young woman of barely thirty years of age, she had been promoted to take charge of a product development unit composed mainly of research-orientated chemists and