Philippine School of Business Administration – Manila Total Quality Management (Mngt 13) 2nd semester AY 2018 – 2019 Patricia Mae L. Manoguid
Activity: Case Study
Jan. 17, 2019
Lalaine Blasco Divinagracia
GOLDEN PLAZA HOTEL Synopsis
This case is about Golden Plaza hotel which is situated in San Francisco. This case basically revolves around a person named Sandra Wilford who is recently promoted to Golden Plaza hotel as a General Manager of Golden plaza Hotel. She previously working at another hotel named “Denver Hotel”. The working activities of Denver hotel is based on team work. Basically
employees of the hotel form teams to perform their various tasks. As Sandra Wilford was working there in that environment so she was very good in team working and building skills and this was the main of bringing Sandra to Golden Plaza hotel. The previous manager at Golden plaza hotel was struggling with his bad policies and the result of his bad policies was high turnover among the employees and decline in the market share of the hotel. There was an environment to distrust between the management and the employees, the employees were becoming reluctant to act as a team player. The policies of the previous manager were not in the favor of the employees which created distrust and resulted in people running away from team work.
Study Question
What recommendation would you make to her to address the issue?
Analysis
Increase employee involvement
Sandra should increase the involvement of the employees in the work related activities and in decisions to motivate them and to bring them at their best. Employees involvement
will help the employees to find out their best potential and to work with that potential with a more creative way.
Empowering the employees
Sandra must empower the employees to increase their efficiency and productivity. While doing a successful empowerment Sandra must train the illiterate employees which are having the problem of skills like interpersonal and problem solving. She should train these employees to enhance their skills which will automatically result in more productivity of the team and the end result will be the achievement of the quality for the whole organization. Sandra should empower the employees in such a way that an environment of trust is built between employees and the management, as stated in the synopsis there is an issue of distrust between the management and the employees due to false policies of the previous manager. So to eliminate this issue Sandra must empower the employees in such a way that they feel easy with the management and feel easy working in teams. An organization is a whole process in which it i s important that all the involved players should be satisfied so that they will perform at their peak. Sandra can only make them satisfied by building trust. There should be an environment where the information can be shared easily with the trust of being confidential.
Extrinsic and Intrinsic rewards to motivate
Money is not the only motivator in the world we all know that, so Sandra must use both the motivational techniques to enhance to motivation of the employees. She must provide them different types of compensations on the basis of capabilities of the employees and the on the basis of their performance. While talking in terms of non monetary motivation she would give the employees recognition on the basis of their performance and their out of the box capabilities. As stated in the synopsis of the case that people feel that their job is too much demanding to do any additional work. The only way to get these people in teams is to motivate them by both motivational techniques. Both these motivational factors are keys to sustain the individual efforts on track to achieve the quality throughout the organization.
Performance appraisal
As stated in the synopsis of the case, one of the problems in forming teams is that employees have a feeling that if the team fails to perform its work then the responsibility
of the failure would be given to them personally. To eliminate this hurdle in forming the teams Sandra must initiate the performance appraisal for all team members, so by doing this the working capacity of each member would be revealed and it would be easy to judge the performances of all the members. Performance appraisal will also help to provide feedback to the employees that where they are lacking in promoting quality throughout the organization. It will help in giving incentive, increasing salaries and also promoting the employees to higher positions.
The Dysfunctional Manager Synopsis
Christina worked at a retail store in a shopping mall. Her manager made the job quite stressful. She never had the schedule for the next week completed on time, so Christina and other employees were never able to plan adequately. They would say “Well, if the manager doesn’t do her work right, why should I?” When switching shifts that required working with the manager, the manager was usually
texting on the phone, paid little atte ntion to customers, but would not let the employees use their phones while they were working. As a result, most employees used their phones when the m anager was not around and did little selling. The manager also paid little attention to inventory management, resulting in stress between employees and customers, as many items a customer requested c ould not be found even though the computer indicated they wer e available. Work hours were often recor ded incorrectly, resulting in errors in paychecks. Employee turnover was very high and sales were low. After a while, the manager was replaced. The new manager improved inventory control using frequent counts to over 99 percent accuracy; had the schedule completed two weeks ahead of time, took care of paycheck errors to ensure that they were always correct, and showed gratitude to employees for their work. Employees were able to hit reach their quotas more easily and sales increased. Christina noted: “I
was happy to come to work then, which caused me to be happy, friendly, and wanting to do my job more correctly.”
Discussion Question How does Christina’s experience relate to the concepts in this chapter? Thoroughly explain the
implications and relationships to the various theories we described.
Analysis Christina’s experience at the retail store shows the importance of employee engagement,
empowerment and motivation in the productivity and growth of a company. Her behavior approves the theories showing direct relationship between employee engagement and motivation, as elaborated below: • As per the “Job Characteristics Theory”, employees get satisfied and motivated when
their job contains five core character istics including task identity, task variety, skill variety, autonomy, and feedback.
Initially, employees of the retail store were unhappy and dissatisfied due to the problems in work schedule, paychecks, inventory level and poor working environment. After the replacement of previous manager, work environment of the company improved. New manager ensured sufficient availability of inventories. Besides this, he maintained proper scheduling of employees and correct paychecks. He also gave proper recognitions to the employees for their work. It helped to motivate the employees and increased their work satisfaction. Furthermore, I also improved the productivity and sales of the company. • As per the “Acquired Needs Theory”, employees get motivated by the work that helps
to fulfill their needs including the need of affiliation, achievement or power. In the given case, new manager started giving recognition to the employees for their good work. It helped to motivate the employees. Besides this, it also helped to increase t heir productivity level. • As per the “Goal -Setting theory”, employees perform better when they have specified
targets and goals. Furthermore, it helps to motivate them towards achieving their targets. In the given case, earlier employees were unable to meet their sales target in absence of prior information and data. After replacement of the previous manager, new manager used to give prior schedules to the employees. It helped to improve their performance and motivational level. Besides this, it helped them to meet their sales target.
The Hopeful Telecommuter Synopsis
Jennifer Smith was pregnant, and she was happy about it. S he and her husband, Jim, had been planning to start a family for some time. However, she was concerned about her job as a Northeast Zone supply chain manager for health and beauty products for Big Bear Stores. Big Bear was a large, multibillion dollar food store chain that had stores in 47 states. It was a conventionally organized retailer divided into three geographic regions (Atlantic, Mid-American, and Western) w ith 12 zones (4 per region). Zone supply chain managers, such as Jennifer, were t he link between the store managers and their product-line suppliers. Jennifer had been ranked number one in customer and in supplier satisfaction surveys for health and beauty product lines for the last two years. She knew that she was eligible for six months of maternity leave under the federal Family Leave Act, and that the com pany would have to provide a job for her upon her return. What she didn't like was the thought that they did not have to, and probably would not, give her the same job that she was now holding so well.
Jennifer had talked with Jim, at length, about what to do. They agreed that she should approach her regional manager, Sarah Strong, the Zone VP, about the possibility of "telecommuting" to her job after the baby came. Jennifer thought that she could do 85-90 percent of the job at home on her own schedule. A large part of her job consisted of verbal and fax contacts with store managers and suppliers, as well as extensive use of a computer for manipulating databases, preparing spreadsheet reports, and sending and responding to e-mail. The other 10-15 pe rcent of the time, when she had to be in the office for face-to-face meetings or had t o take brief trips, her parents and Jim could keep the baby and cover for her at home. When Jennifer approached Sarah Strong, Sarah was interested, but would not commit her self to supporting Jennifer's request to telecommute. She said that the company had never done that before, and it might pose a number of difficulties. She did say that she would take her request forward to the two VP's who could approve or disapprove it. Both senior managers would have to approve Jennifer's request, however. Sarah asked Jennifer t o prepare some "talking points" concerning the benefits versus the limitations of the arrangement that she could present to the vice president of human resources, and the senior vice president of operations, Sar ah's manager. Sarah also asked Jennifer to prepare a cost estimate, in consultation with the Zone information systems manager. Discussion Questions
1. You are Jennifer. What "talking points" would you prepare to support your case Include both the strengths and limitations telecommuting. Keep in mind the needs of your "customers," the human resources VF as well as Sarah, and the VP of operations. 2. What issues do you think that the VP of human resources might raise/have? What issues do you think the senior VP of operations might raise/have? 3. How does your answer demonstrate t he principles of empowerment? How might it fit the components of the Hackman Oldham Job Characteristics model?
Analysis
1. Advantages: Telecommuting arrangements can help workers realize a general improvement in their personal "quality of life." They avoid long, stressful commutes, thus gaining more time for pleasurable activities and more flexibility for changeable tasks like child and elder care. Many businesses lose workers when those employees undergo significant life changes, such as starting a family or relocating to another region or state because of a spouse's career. Telecommuting is one way in which a business may be able to continue to utilize the services of an otherwise unavailable worker. Business studies and anecdotal evidence both suggest that employees are often much more productive at home, where "drop-in" interruptions and meetings are not distractions. Instead, the t eleworker can focus on the job at hand.
Disadvantages: Direct supervision of teleworkers is not possible. Some people are unable to be productive in at-home work settings, either because of family distractions or their own limited finances.
2.
