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 is 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 attention 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 manager 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 could not
be found even though the computer indicated they were available. Work hours were often recorded
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 characteristics 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 their 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. She 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) with 12 zones (4 per
region).

Zone supply chain managers, such as Jennifer, were the 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 percent of the time, when she had to be in the office
for face-to-face meetings or had to 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 herself 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 to 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, Sarah'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 the 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 teleworker 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.