Question

THE SUPERMARKET MANAGER

Fred Ferrell is the store manager of the Right-Way Supermarket in Beaumont, a small suburban area of some 1,300 families. The store’s staff consists of a produce manager, a meat manager and butcher, five checkers, four stockers, and a receiving clerk. The store operates six days per week from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Last week Ferrell hired Amy Caldwell to replace the store’s receiving clerk. Since graduating from high school last June, Amy has worked for one other supermarket full-time. She applied for the job at Right-Way to gain new experiences and because the job paid $1 more per hour than she was making at the other store. Amy likes the retail food business and hopes one day to manage a store of her own. She plans to start school again next fall.

After two 10-hour days of training under Mr. Ferrell, Amy felt she knew the operation and procedures well enough to proceed on her own. But Mr. Ferrell thought otherwise. For the rest of Amy’s first week, Mr. Ferrell was looking over Amy’s shoulder on a regular basis. It seemed that Amy couldn’t do anything without Mr. Ferrell’s checking it out for himself. Amy’s tasks included the receipt, inspection, arrangement, and stacking of inventory received from a central supply warehouse owned and operated by the parent company. She was also responsible for the various inventory control procedures and related paperwork.

Over the weekend between her first and second weeks, Amy studied the inventory procedures and records. She roughed out a system for streamlining the handling and felt she had found a way to reduce the amount of paperwork by combining several forms into one and using the computer system to print forms simultaneously. Amy felt if she could sell these proposals to Mr. Ferrell, not only his store, but all stores in the chain, could benefit. After some hasty calculations, she figured that nearly one hour per day would be saved and several hundred dollars in unnecessary forms could be eliminated.

Amy started work at 6:30 a.m. the following Monday, full of enthusiasm. When Mr. Ferrell arrived at 8:00 a.m., Amy was waiting for him at the door, her notes in hand. Before Amy could speak, however, Ferrell asked her what she was doing up front. Amy replied that she had already handled this morning’s deliveries and wanted to talk over a “proposal” with him. Mr. Ferrell pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and began to go over each item on this checklist with Amy. When he got to item 10 on the list, Amy replied that she would take care of that this afternoon. Ferrell told her to take care of it now. Amy tried again to explain that she had some ideas to speed up the receiving operation. Ferrell replied, “You kids are really something else. You’ve been here a week and already you’re running the place. What makes you think you know a better way? The procedures we use come from downtown. That is good enough for me. Now get to those cases out back.

discussion questions for bonus case 10-1

1. What motivational approach is Mr. Ferrell using?
2. Amy has asked your advice. What would you suggest that she do? What are her alternatives?
3. What advice would you have for the general manager of Right-Way’s Supermarket parent corporation?

Answer 1

1. Mr. Ferrell is using the McGregor’s Theory X system of motivation. It states that the ordinary person dislikes work and will try to avoid it if possible and will avoid responsibility, with little motivation. We all know that he was wrong on all points. This theory does work, but only with the kind of individuals who meet the description of not liking work. The motivational approach used by Mr. Ferrell is McGregor’s Theory X of motivational approach on adopting micromanagement style. Micromanager watches their employee closely what they do, telling their sub-ordinate what to do as they manager lack belief in them.

2.As Amy’s proposal is fruitful not only for the organization but for the individual workers also. Her job design proposal could reduce the expense of the business as well as benefit worker on saving hour of time. I would suggest her try to express her idea rather than remaining quiet especially when you are confident with your job design proposal.Conversation with manager could be uncomfortable conversation. At some point there need to be communication with manager so the way you approach towards the manager should consist solution with clear statement with evidence. Acknowledging the manager feeling on agreeing his dissatisfaction, manager may think they both are on the same side. When you get chance to communicate, it not a good idea to jump to your proposal. You can create the work scenario where your idea is implemented. Manager will be not aware on are sharing your proposal as you are having informal conversation with him. This way you can understand the manager’s point of view and work on your idea if some flaws are there.   The timing approach made by Amy was not appropriate. She could have made her proposal on different schedule. While trying every possibility on communicating with manager, manager may show attitude which may discourage you. In this scenario, we should not take it personally, not doing it in the angry way, showing positive attitude help you to gain respect when you show them there is problem

3. Management training is a continuous process and managers who fail to adopt the best motivational strategies need to be identified and given additional training or, if necessary, terminated. You could explain the newest concepts, such as employee empowerment, and the motivational techniques that go with them. Theory Y, for example, is much more appropriate for today’s more motivated and educated workers. . I would have advice the general manager of Right-Way’s Supermarket to change his motivational approach which is McGregor’s Theory X approach, as manager focusing so much on control and allocation of resources and people often fail to provide sense of purpose towards their subordinate.

In this case, Mr. Ferrell didn’t have confidence in Amy’s work even when Amy felt she knew the operation and procedures. At beginning it becomes hard for every manager to trust newly hired employees so observing them frequently on every aspect won’t affect their motivation level. But after the job training, if managers continued their evaluating approach, then employees get demotivated when they sense lack of trust from the management side. As manager, you need to account the feelings for the welfare of co-workers on meeting the business objectives. Employees are one of the most important stakeholders in a business . Job security, health safety, paying more than minimum wage won’t be enough to motivate them. Involving them in some decision making in order to improve efficiency, customer’s service and acknowledging their work is important. On doing so, Mr. Ferrell could adopt non-financial methods of motivation such as job rotation, job enlargement, job enrichment, team working, quality circles, target setting, delegation, empowerment and participation which are likely to be absence on adopting McGregor’s theory X motivation approach.