Case Report

On
Dilemma at Devils Den

Submitted to
Dr. S Khan

Submitted by : Group - 5
Aayush Shrivastava (2011005)
Adarsh Kamath (2011012)
Aditya Vikram Singh (2011019)
Akshay Shukla (2011026)
Anchal Jain (2011033)
Anshul Garg (2011040)
Ashish Singh (2011047)
 INTRODUCTION

Susan a business student at Mt Eagle College is working part time inside her campus snack bar
THE DEVILS DEN which is managed by contract with an external company COLLEGE FOOD
SERVICE (CFS)

Student employees involved are those who worked at night shifts and on the weekends.
They are students at the college and are under supervision of another student, who held the
position of manager. There was approx 30 student employees and 6 student mangers employed
by CFS to supervise the DEN. During the day time CFS employed full time managers (non
students). Student managers are previous employees chosen by other student managers and
they received no formal training or written rules beyond what they had already learned working
there.

After working for a semester Susan became upset with some of happenings i.e. many
employees were allowing their friends to take free food, employees themselves were also taking
food in large quantities when leaving their shifts (against the policies). Employees and
customers were taking advantage of situation whereby they could steal food almost whenever
they wanted. Reasons behind these problems were employees wages were low, easy access to
unlock storage room door and inventory was poorly controlled also weak supervision by
student managers and no written rules or strict guidelines.

On other hand management thus far had not reported significant loss, also no corrective
steps were taken to watch for theft and prevent it. It also did not threaten employees with job
loss nor did they provide employees with supervision.

Susan was exasperated at the state of affairs and wanted to correct the wrong doings but
she was unsure whether the management would do anything about it . Talking with employees
was useless as they abuse rules themselves or clearly aware of what was going on but ignore it.
It was very difficult for Susan, because she wanted to become a student manager next semester
and did not want to create any negative waves that might prevent from doing so. So she is
unsure of what to do in the meanwhile to clear her conscience and also not to jeopardise her
future prospects as a prospective manager
 BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS OF CASE

This case primarily deals with ethics and personal values system and how it affects ones
reaction. It also depicts the behavioural influences of punishments and inefficiencies of the
working organisation.

Susan is a student employee at Devils Den which is managed by College Food Service (CFS) and
she is in dilemma between choosing right and wrong based on her values and ethics.

She is aware about the food thefts going on in the snack bar which is against her values and
needed to be stopped. But at the same time she has also in her mind some negative
consequences on her desires for becoming the student manager in next semester .

Dilemma of values (content and strengths) ,the clash of what is required to be done at
the workplace at the expense of the righteous approach according to her values and the
consequences if the protagonist is willing to accept.
The protagonist is torn between whether to be an anonymous whistle blower or wait for
the time until she becomes a manager to clean up the irregularities as she fears that
whistle blowing upfront would hamper in her pursuit of becoming manager and she
would be frowned upon by her peers and senior.
The organization did not have a strong work culture as well as a framework rules and
regulations for the well being and proper functioning, consequently rules were being
flouted.
There was no proper remuneration and incentives as well as scrutiny for the
wrongdoers ,no precedent in the form of punishment had been set so far so the work
force were in their comfort zone.
Managerial inefficiencies and failure to motivate the team and employee at the devils
den.

The case throws up a set of alternatives that Susan has on how to clear her conscience and solve
the dilemma she faces.

OBJECTIVE
Objective of the case: is to solve the under mentioned problems in DEVILS DEN

The unprofessional behavior of the employees at the Den were in they were allowing
their friends to take away food for free
The breaking of norms of the organization by taking food home , i.e. outside the work
place when they were not allowed to
The incompetent behavior of the management which was ignoring the deeds of the
DENs employees
Ultimately to make the organization come out of all losses n work in profits

SOLUTIONS
1. Susan decides to keep silent and lets the present scenario as it is and waits until she
becomes the manager to clean up the house.
2. Susan decides to approach college food services and make them aware of the
discrepancies and tries to persuade them to look into the matter because if ignored it
could tarnish the image of CFS as a brand if the devils den irregularities brought to
light.
3. Susan tries to convince Mack and Bill to take initiative and work as managers to heal the
situation by taking charge of their responsibilities and working to stop the irregularities.
4. Susan takes to convince all the wrongdoers not through direct confrontational talk but
indirect hinting to have their ethics in place and work within the rules of their
workplace and make it a better palce.
 BEST SOLUTION

Susan waits until she becomes the manager by working efficiently and gaining the respect of her
peers and seniors, during this time she notices all the inefficiencies and makes a blue print of
the corrective measures needed to be taken and also draws up a financial outline on how to
improve the working and correct the ever piling financial losses.

The other responsibility as a prospective manager that she will have to execute would be to
improve the work culture of the devils den wherein the work force would be formally trained
and made aware of their work responsibilities. A proper ethics framework would be drawn for
the workplace and the workforce needs to be inculcated and motivated to follow these ethics

She would be drawing a financial plan and presenting it to CFS with the aim of added
remuneration and perks for the employee so that they are motivated and attracted to the job
and also present the benefits of a clean and healthy workplace with motivated employees to the
CFS. The retention and efficiency will in turn add to the brand value of CFS.

A rule book pertaining to ethics discipline and expected code of conduct and regulations inside
the workplace would be made. Actions against wrong doers would be taken promptly and
objectively. At the other side of the coin efficient workers would be appropriately rewarded with
perks and prizes

In the mean while she needs to try and reduce the working inefficiencies by aligning with like-
minded individuals like Bill and Mack to try indirectly reducing the rampant theft by general and
indirect actions or persuasion devoid of strong effrontery and conflict.
 MANAGERIAL LEARNING

From this given case, Dilemma at Devils Den, we see the various problems the protagonist
Susan observes and tackles in her temporary employment at the Devils Den, a campus snack
bar.

We notice the different work behaviours, their ethical implications, responses to rewards,
punishments and different views on whats wrong and whats right. In this case, mistakes are
being made on multiple levels of the hierarchy right from the student crew, the student
managers, the parent company and its administration. We should point out the initial and the
most common faults seen here which are common in all the levels of the organization:

Negligence

Ignorance

Succumbing to peer pressure/mob psychology (lack of independent thinking)

Fear of personal losses over pride of organizational gains

Passing the buck

Major faults on the part of the franchise on the local level were even against the very core
human values. These were:

Cheating

Theft

Stealing

Trespassing

Prevention, Correction, Control measures:

It is of primacy that such situations should not arise in an organization at any level or any
employee wherever. It is because of such issues unresolved and unattained that lead to
corruption and negative growth of economies at micro and macro levels.

In Conclusion, a Manager could review this case to notice and learn the following:
Importance of Formal training

Importance of Governance and control

Tardiness

Corrective measures

Proper communication

Proper motivation Accountability, responsibility and their relationship

An effective business is an efficient one