Chapter CC, Problem 1CC

Summary Introduction

Case summary:

Morgan-Moe is a major player in the retail industry and has hundreds of store in the upper mid-west. Due to the sharp decline in the manufacturing economy due to which Morgan-Moe has to change its focus to low margin commodities rather than high margin impulse buy. Also there were rumors among the employee and insecurity, which led to the decline in productivity and the motivational factor were lacking.

The Vice president for human relation wanted to introduce a motivational program to re-energize the company’s work force. The major areas to focus were

1. Changing nature of work
2. Diversity and age
3. Goal setting
4. Organizational downsizing
5. Organizational justice

To tackle the situation it came up with 5 options for management system.

Program 1: Traditional Management

Program 2: Share absence and sick leave

Program 3: Share sales and inventory

Program 4: Share information and brain storm

Program 5: Brain storm without sharing information

Based on this program they wanted to analyzed which stores opted for which program and why, the average turnover, weekly profit per month and the staff time cost due to the program.

Characters in the case:

Jean Masterson CEO of the company.

Jim Clauseen, vice president for human relation

Victor author of Man’s Search for Meaning.

Adequate information:

The sharp decline in the manufacturing economy due to which Morgan-Moe has to change its focus to low margin commodities rather than high margin impulse buys.

The five program option for management system.

Program 1: Traditional Management

Program 2: Share absence and sick leave

Program 3: Share sales and inventory

Program 4: Share information and brain storm

Program 5: Brain storm without sharing information

To determine:

The five management system as variables in the experiment. Also to identify the independent and dependent variables and how they are related.

Explanation of Solution

Variables are characteristics or numbers that change as per the situation. There are basically two variables independent and dependent variables. Independent variables as the name suggest are independent and cannot be changes whereas dependent variable changes in response to the independent variable.

So the five management systems which can consider as variable are:

1. Number of stores
2. Wages of the employee
3. Turnover of the company
4. Location of the store
5. The five program option for management system

Out of the five variables above Number of stores, Wages of the employee, Location of the store are independent variables, whereas turnover of the company and the five program option for management system are dependent variables.

Number of stores, Wages of the employee and Location of the store is all decided in the strategic level and once fixed it cannot be changes. Turnover of the company depends on all the factors involved in running the organization. The success of the five program option for management system depends on Number so of the stores and wages of the employee. We can see that 89 stores that are old and were the working age group is older have gone for Program 1. As they have chosen Program 1 the monthly staff time cost is none.

Whereas Program 4, the monthly staff time cost is $3420. This cost is dependent on the number of hours the employee spend working on the program and the wage of the employee.

Conclusion

We can see that the programs chosen by the stores have a pattern. Program 1 are preferred by the oldest and the most economically distress stores, Program 2 and 3 are preferred by the stores located in the urban areas and the work force is younger compared to other stores. Program 4 and 5 are preferred by stores in the rural areas and the work force is older in average.