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Comprehensive Case Notes Page
Comprehensive Case
Notes
Comprehensive cases are designed to include critical thinking, applying concepts and
techniques from many topics spread throughout the textbook. Responses to these
throughout the book.
Case 1: Managing Motivation in a difficult Economy
Case 2: Repairing Jobs that Fail to Satisfy
Case 3: Building a Coalition
Case 4: Boundaryless Organizations
Case 5: The Stress of Caring
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Comprehensive Case Notes Page
Case 1
Managing Motivation in a difficult
Economy
Learning Goals
Major Topic Areas
Changing nature of work
Diversity and age
Goal setting
Organizational downsizing
Organizational justice
The Scenario
used to be the company’s bread and butter. The firm has had to close quite a few
locations, reversing its expansion plans for the first time since it incorporated.
Being that this is uncharted territory for the company, Jim Claussen, vice president
for human relations, had been struggling with how to address the issue
with employees. As the company’s fortunes worsened, he could see that employees
rumors and gossip have spread like wildfire among remaining employees. A few
angry blogs developed by laid-o: employees, like IHateMorganMoe.blogspot.com,
have made the morale and public relations picture even worse.
Morgan-Moe is changing in other ways as well. The average age of its workforce is
increasing rapidly. A couple of factors have contributed to this shift. First,
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Comprehensive Case Notes Page
or executive ranks.
These older workers have been a great asset to the company in troubled times, but
they are especially likely to leave if things get bad. If these older workers start
to leave the company, taking their hard-earned experience with them, it seems likely
that Morgan-Moe will sink deeper toward bankruptcy.
The System
way to triumph over adversity, really stuck with Claussen. He thought he might be
able to apply its lessons to his workforce. He proposed the idea of a new direction for
management to the company’s executive committee, and they reluctantly agreed to
try his suggestions.
Over the last 6 months, stores throughout the company have used a performance
The HR team came up with five options for the management system. Corporate
allowed individual managers to choose the option they thought would work best with
their employees so that managers wouldn’t feel too much like a rapid change was
being forced on them. Program I is opting out of the new idea, continuing to stay the
course and providing employees with little to no information or opportunities for
Programs II and III. Managers communicate it in weekly brainstorming sessions,
during which employees try to determine what they can do better in the future and
make suggestions for improving store performance. Program V keeps the idea of
brainstorming but doesn’t provide employees with information about their behavior
or company profits.
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Comprehensive Case Notes Page
Letting them know what’s going on and giving them ways to change things keeps
them involved.”
Betty Alvarez couldn’t disagree more. She selected Program I. “I would rather have
don’t have to know about everyone else. It creates unnecessary tension.”
This is somewhat similar to Cindy Ang’s reason for picking Program V. “When we have
our brainstorming meetings, I learn what they [the employees] think is most
pressing, not what some spreadsheet says. It gives me a better feel for what’s going
on in my store. Numbers count, of course, but they don’t tell you everything. I was
performing well.”
Results to Date
Claussen is convinced the most elaborate procedure (Program IV) is the most
effective, but not everyone in the executive committee is won over by his advocacy.
Although they have supported the test implementation of the system because it
appears to have relatively low costs, others on the committee want to see results.
spend working on the program multiplied by their wage rate. Estimates of turnover,
profit, and sta: time are collected per store. Profit and turnover data include means
and standard deviations across locations; profit is net of the monthly time cost.
Turnover information refers to the percentage of employees who either quit or are
terminated in a month.
especially where the workforce is older on average.
Progra
m
Methods # of
Store
s
Average
Turnover
Weekly
Pro"t per
Month
Monthly Staf
Cost Time
Program 1 Traditional
Management
83 Mean=30%
SD=10%
Mean=$5,700
SD=$3,000
None
Program 2 Share absence and
sick leave
27 Mean=23%
SD=14%
Mean=$7,000
SD=$5,800
$1,960
Program 3 Share sales and
inventory
35 Mean=37%
SD=20%
Mean=$11,000
SD=$2,700
$2,440
Program 4 Share information 67 Mean=17% Mean=$13,000 $3,420
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and brainstorm SD=1020 SD=$3,400
Program 5 Brainstorm without
sharing information
87 Mean=21%
SD=12%
Mean=$14,000
SD=$2,400
$2,750
Your Assignment
When you write, make sure you touch on the following points:
CC-1. Consider the five management systems as variables in an experiment. Identify
the independent and dependent variables and explain how they are related to
one another.
CC-2. Based on the discussion of independent and dependent variables in the
conclusions at all?
CC-6. Does the fact that managers are selecting the specific program to use
(including Program I, which continues the status quo) affect the inferences you
can draw about program success?
CC-7. What are the advantages of randomly assigning different conditions to the
stores instead of using this self-selection process?
research into goal setting and motivation. Based on your textbook, how well
has he done? Which parts of the program appear to fit well with research
evidence on goal setting? What parts would you change to get more
substantial improvements in employee motivation?
CC-10. Describe the feelings employees might have when these systems are
Case Discussion
The fact finding on the seven issues listed would appear in the report in the
“background section” of the body in the optional format. Facts drawn from the
research on these topics should be placed in the “Analysis Section.” Conclusions
about these discussion questions will be in the “Recommendation Section” along with
any recommendations for change in the current operations or structures.
executive committee.
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When students discuss the case assignment, here are some suggestions regarding
perspectives students should gather on each of the steps listed above.
one another.
Suggested discussion: The five programs that are identified in the chart
above are:
a. Program I is opting out of the new idea, continuing to stay the course
and providing employees with little to no information or opportunities
for participation.
determine what they can do better in the future and make suggestions
for improving store performance.
e. Program V keeps the idea of brainstorming but doesn’t provide
employees with information about their behavior or company profits.
These are independent variables input to the research as store category of
dependent variable to help the company determine what contributes to
employees’ satisfaction or turnover. Lastly, all independent variables can be
entered to the research with a dependent variable of store performance
measured as profitability, return on investment, or some other measure of
productivity.
Suggested discussion: The response to this discussion will vary depending
on a student’s opinions, innovation, and creativity. It may also be dependent
on a student’s having taken a course in research methodology. The suggestion
above about using job satisfaction and an independent variable to determine
the effect on turnover is an example of the type of additional data mining
CC-3. Look over the data and decide which method of management appears most
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Comprehensive Case Notes Page
effective in generating revenues and reducing turnover, and why. Which
methods appear least effective, and why?
of least effective.
CC-4. Are there any concerns you have about this data?
Suggested discussion:
Responses to this question will vary by student. In general, students should
recognize the potential for validity error, issues related to generalizability,
methodology, and so on.
conclusions at all?
Suggested discussion:
Yes. The number of stores in each subsample ranges from 27 to 87. This type
of variability in the (n) for each Program could introduce validity errors into
the results.
CC-6. Does the fact that managers are selecting the specific program to use
can draw about program success?
Suggested discussion:
Yes. A sample of convenience resulting from managers self-selecting styles
creates biases in the data that must be indentified. If the programs were
assigned at random to stores in equal distribution, the results would be more
generalizable with confidence to the entire research population.
Suggested discussion:
The primary advantage is the results being more generalizable to the entire
population of stores.
CC-8. How does the changing nature of the workforce and the economy, described
in your textbook and in the case, affect your conclusions about how to
manage retail employees? Does the participation of a more experienced
individualize the factors for motivation to apply to each worker. Times of
economic hardship probably affect this because of the reduction in resources
available to build programs, although turnover is likely to decrease because of
the scarcity of jobs for employees to go to.
CC-9 Claussen essentially designed the program on his own, with very little
substantial improvements in employee motivation?
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Suggested discussion: He has done fairly well in creating programs that
include many of the concepts in goal-setting theory. Since he used a book
Goal-setting theory specifically suggests:
1. If factors like ability and acceptance of the goals are held constant, we can
also state that the more difficult the goal, the higher the level of
performance.
a. Why are people motivated by difficult goals?
i. Challenging goals get our attention and thus tend to help us focus.
attain them.
iii. When goals are difficult, people persist in trying to attain them.
iv. difficult goals lead us to discover strategies that help us perform
the job or task more effectively
b. People will do better when they get feedback on how well they are
progressing toward their goals. Self-generated feedback is more
powerful a motivator than externally generated feedback.
acceptance.
ii. If people participate in goal setting, they are more likely to accept
even a difficult goal than if they are arbitrarily assigned it by their
boss.
iii. If participation isn’t used, then the individual assigning the goal
needs to clearly explain its purpose and importance.
a. Five reasons why individuals may resist change are:
i. Habit: Life is complex, to cope with having to make hundreds of
decisions everyday, we all rely on habits or programmed responses.
ii. Security: People with a high need for security are likely to resist
change because it threatens their feelings of safety.
uncertainty for the known.
v. Selective information processing: Individuals shape their world
through their perceptions. Once they have created this world, it
resists change.
Communication is an essential part of implementation. Not just
communicating to pass information, but communicating to ensure the
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Comprehensive Case Notes Page
receivers. This trust can be fostered through the concepts in the
Organizational Justice model that is part of Equity theory. Contributing to
employees’ perceptions about Distributive Justice, Procedural Justice, and
they can believe in.
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