Dilemma at Devil’s Den
Overview
Dilemma at Devil’s Den records the observations of unethical behavior and general poor strategy execution
at a university snack bar by a part-time student employee. At the time of the case, the student employee
was a 21 year old junior with a concentration in finance. She originally started working at the Den in
order to earn some extra spending money and had been working there for one semester when she became upset
with some of the happenings. The Den was managed by contract with an external company, College Food
Services (CFS). What bothered her was that many employees were allowing their friends to take free food, and
the employees themselves were also taking food in large quantities when leaving their shifts. The policy was that
employees could eat whatever they liked free of charge while they were working, but it had become common for
employees to leave with food and not to be charged for their snacks while off duty as well.
Suggestions for Using the Case
This 2-1/2 page case is a sure winner that will fit nicely almost anywhere else in your case series on strategy
execution. Almost all students will be able to identify with the first person account of the sloppy management
of the campus snack bar. The case also involves personal ethics issues related to the rampant employee theft
at Devil’s Den, which some students may have experienced in part-time jobs. Also, students may identify with
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The case also raises questions of a business-level ethics and management’s responsibility for creating or allowing
a climate that tolerates at best, and encourages at worst, illegal, criminal or unethical behavior. It is the view of the
case writer and the authors that organizations which encourage, or tolerate, behavior that is generally considered
illegal or unethical are themselves unethical and such seems to be the case for the College Food Service.
This case is an excellent candidate for a leadoff case for your strategy execution module, following your lectures
and coverage of Chapters 10-12. It is a particularly good first case to assign as a follow-on to the material in
Chapter 12. But, in truth, the Devil’s Den case will fit most anywhere in your case assignment grouping where
strategy execution and corporate culture are highlighted—the short length of the case makes it ideal for use
What to Tell Students in Preparing the Dilemma at Devil’s Den Case for Class. To give students
guidance in what to do and think about in preparing the Devil’s Den case for class discussion, we strongly
providing class members with one or more of the suggested assignment questions that are presented in the next
section of this TN and urge that they prepare answers to these questions prior to coming to class.
To facilitate your use of assignment questions and making them available to students, we have posted a
file of the Assignment Questions contained in this teaching note in the Instructors Resource Center of
the Connect Library (There is a set of assignment questions posted for each of the 32 cases included in the
22nd Edition.)
Suggested Assignment Questions for an Oral Team Presentation or Written Case Analysis.
Because of students’ easy identification with the circumstances portrayed in the Devil’s Den case, its simplicity,
and its illustration of multiple strategy implementation and business ethics issues, we’ve found it to be a good
choice for a short written assignment. The short nature of the case also makes it particularly suitable for an in-
class written assignment. Our recommended assignment question is:
Assignment Questions
1. What problems has Susan identified with the night shift operations of the Devil’s Den? How well does the
management team perform such strategy execution processes as competency building, shaping the culture,
instituting policies and procedures, establishing control systems, developing reward and discipline systems,
and exhibiting ethical leadership?
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Teaching Outline and Analysis
1. What problems has Susan identified with the night shift operations of the Devil’s Den? How
well does the management team perform such strategy execution processes as competency
building, shaping the culture, instituting policies and procedures, establishing control
systems, developing reward and discipline systems, and exhibiting ethical leadership?
You may wish to categorize the problems Susan has observed under the headings used in Chapter 10’s
introduction of the components of the strategy execution process. We have categorized the problems using
the following categories.
Organization building
n The work that is to be done in the cafeteria is low skilled, tedious and not challenging.
n The persons who tend to get hired are either freshmen or sophomores who want to earn some spending
money.
Organizational culture
n The employees have regularly taken food off the premises, both for their own purposes and to give to
friends. They continue to do so.
n Friends and customers frequently take food from Devil’s Den without paying for it.
Policies and procedures
n Employees of CFS who work in Devil’s Den are allowed to eat on the job without charge.
n There are no written rules or policies stating what behavior are permissible and what is not.
Installing control systems
n Food in the storage area, as elsewhere, is easily accessible to everybody since the storage area is not
locked.
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Rewards and discipline
n The Devil’s Den requires night work and weekend work.
n Pay at the Devil’s Den for student workers and student managers is low.
Exercising strong leadership
n Supervision on all shifts is inattentive although there is no evidence of food being taken off the premises
without payment for it either by student employees, student managers, customers or friends on the day
shift, when the CFS manager is present.
2. What is Susan’s dilemma? What seems to influence her perceptions and behavior? What
seems to influence the perceptions and behaviors of other Devil’s Den employees?
What is Susan’s dilemma?
Susan is caught between a wish to do what she thinks is right, that is, take some steps to stop food being
taken off the premises without payment for it, and the fear of negative consequences if she takes some action
What influences Susan’s perceptions and behavior?
Susan’s values are that it is wrong to take food off the premises without paying for it when this is not stated
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What influences the perceptions and behavior of the others in the case?
The practices have apparently been going on for some time. Why do they persist? They persist because:
there is easy access to the food stuffs, there is poor inventory control, the practice is widely known because
3. What should Susan do about her dilemma?
Of course Susan may not be alone in the dilemma that she has. Others may feel the same way. One way
of looking at it is to examine Susan’s belief that tattling will indeed have negative consequences. Some
research on whistleblowers supports this belief. For instance, in the New York Times (February 22, 1987)
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Epilogue
We have nothing to report about the outcome of Susan’s decision regarding her dilemma or an update on the
management practices at the Devil’s Den.