Department of Business Administration

School of Business and Economics

A Case Study on:

Dysfunctional Manager

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of

Operations Management and Total Quality Management

(CBMEC 1)

10:30 A.M. – 12:00 P.M. – TTH – GR450MC – 2nd Semester

Submitted by:

CABALLERO, MYKARYLE T.

Submitted to:

ZENAIDA Z. CONFESOR, MBA-HROM

Instructor
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

High performance work refers to work approaches used to systematically pursue

ever high levels of overall organizational and human performance. A culture of high

performance work leads to optimum results. To create that culture, it must start with the

senior leadership’s commitment to the workforce. Joseph Juran highlighted that one of

the reasons behind Japan’s radical quality achievements are the Japanese Manager’s

utilization of full knowledge and creativity of the entire workforce which indicates that they

have fully implemented high performance workforce management practices. In order to

fully implement this, an organization must understand the principles of workforce

engagement and motivation and design a high performance work system suitable for their

entity.

From a practical perspective, the application of these principles will result to a

more efficient and effective workforce. This study analyzes how the absence of these

principles result to a dysfunctional management and its effect to the workforce and the

productivity of the organization.

The entity is a retail store located in a shopping mall. The manager was not

performing her duties which resulted to the employees doing the same. This study finds

that their former manager has not implemented any high performance work system and

does not apply the principles of workforce engagement and motivation which resulted to

a great dilemma to the workforce and the profitability of the entity.

 FINDINGS

Lack of Performance Management and Leadership

Performance management is an ongoing process of communication between a

supervisor and an employee that occurs throughout the year, in support of accomplishing

the strategic objectives of the organization. The communication process includes

clarifying expectations, setting objectives, identifying goals, providing feedback, and

reviewing results.

It is evident that the management has not been evaluating employee’s

performance. The manager just kept on texting and paying little attention to the

customers. However, she would not let the employees use their phones so as a result,

the employees kept on slacking off when the manager is not around. The manager paid

little attention to inventory management resulting to a stress between the customers and

employees.

Lack of Employee Motivation

Motivation is operationally defined as the inner force that drives individuals to

accomplish personal and organizational goals. To be effective, managers need to

understand what motivates employees within the context of the roles they perform. Of all

the functions a manager performs, motivating employees is arguably the most complex.

This is due, in part, to the fact that what motivates employee’s changes constantly.

(Bowen & Radhakrishna, 1991)

 The existence of the gap between the manager and employees are evident. The

manager does not do her work right so as a result the employees are demotivated to do

their jobs as well. The manager never had the schedule completed on time so employees

were not able to plan adequately. A more formal definition of motivation is an individual’s

response to a felt need thus, some stimulus, or activating event must spur the need to

respond to that stimulus, generating the response itself. In the case given, there is no

activating event that will encourage the employees to get the work done at their own peak

level of efficiency since the manager herself was doing nothing.

 DISCUSSION

The biggest problem the entity has was having a dysfunctional manager. It put a toll

on the entity’s profitability. There is a lack of performance management and leadership

on the part of the manager. The manager was not performing her duties which resulted

to the employees doing the same. There is also lack of employee motivation, there is no

activating event that will encourage the employees to get the work done at their own peak

level of efficiency since the manager herself was doing nothing.

The following are possible solutions for the entity’s problem

Lack of performance management and leadership

Conduct Management Evaluation

Advantages:

This alternative is less costly, they only need the employees and managers to answer an

evaluation sheet. The information that the management will get is first hand. It is also

beneficial for employees to have somewhere they can express their grievances and the

management will know what aspects they need to address.

Disadvantages:

This alternative is very time consuming and the ratings may create feud between the

managers and employees.

Conduct leadership and teamwork trainings

Advantages:

It has a long term effect not only on the employees but also on the managers. The lessons

they learn will be with them forever.

It will help build the relationship that the employees have not only with each other but also

with their Manager.

Disadvantage:

This alternative is very time consuming. Because you really have to set up a time for the

training which may take up to more than one session.

It is very costly, not only do you need to hire an facilitator but you also need to rent a

venue, prepare food and other miscellaneous expenses

Lack of employee Motivation

Employ an Employee Reward System

Advantages:

Employees will be more motivated to do their jobs right. They will strive to do their best in

every task given to them.

Disadvantages:

This may create competition between employees and may somehow affect their

teamwork. It may also be costly.

Provide Employee Benefits

Advantages:

It will motivate employees to try to keep their jobs which will eventually make them work

together for the good of the company.

Disadvantages:

This alternative is very costly. If the company increases their employee benefits it also

increases the employee’s 13 month pay and other costs.

 Conclusion

Having a dysfunctional manager placed the entity at risk. Performance

management and leadership was not evident resulting to employees slacking off and

threatening the entity’s profitability and customer relationship. Performance management

is the process of planning performance, appraising performance, giving its feedback, and

counseling an employee to improve his performance. Performance management is vital

as organizations have to ensure optimum performance of their employees continuously

in order to compete effectively. There is also lack of employee motivation, since the

manger is not doing the job the employees did the same. Employee motivation is a critical

aspect at the workplace which leads to the performance of the department and even the

company. Motivating your employees needs to be a regular routine.

Given these problems, possible solutions stated to address such and improve the

state of the entity by conducting management evaluation even just o or conducting

leadership trainings and providing employee reward system or employee benefits. These

solutions have their own advantages and disadvantages which the entity should weight

in before making a decision.

 Recommendations

The best alternatives for the problems of the entity are conducting leadership and

teamwork trainings and employ employee reward system. The organizations most

valuable asset is its people. If people are demotivated or are not doing their parts it may

result to the organization’s downfall.

In Deming’s 14 points, point 6 is about instituting training. It states that trainings

does not only improve quality and productivity, but it also adds to worker morale, and

demonstrates to co-workers that the company is dedicated in investing in their future.

Point 7 is to institute leadership, he stated that the job of management is leadership and

not supervision. Leadership is about providing guidance to help employees perform better

and encourages teamwork. Employee reward system will encourage employees to do

their job right. Reward systems are central to the Human Resource Management function.

Reward systems have a direct impact (and in most firms the most important one) on the

cost side of the organization's financial statement. They are strategic as they influence

people's attitudes, behavior and performance (Gomez-Mejia et al., 2010). Here we

provide an overview of reward systems and their main components.

 Implementation

Training is one of the key elements of total quality in which many people are

involved, so the success of the implementation depends directly on how well it is done.

To insure the effectiveness of the training the entity should hire professionals. The

objective of the seminar or training is to make employees by active participation during

the training through the use of case materials and team building activities that will bring a

practical understanding to the concepts of leadership and teamwork.

This alternative would most likely cost the company $1,000 for hiring a quality

professional for the seminar, $500 for the venue of the seminar, $1,000 for the food and

$300 for the materials needed for the seminar so only a total cost of $2,800 for a long

term knowledge that would be highly beneficial for the entity.

The entity can give gift certificates to teams of employees who performed the best

during the month. It can be free massage, tokens and other items. This alternative would

most likely cost the company $500 a month.

 Bibliography

Evans, J. R., & Lindsay, W. M. (2012). The management and control of quality.

Andover: Cengage.

Technologies, I. (2019, October 18). Tag: employee reward system. Retrieved from

https://www.idexcel.com/blog/tag/employee-reward-system/

Santos M., Mejia L. (2015). Rewards System [PDF File]. Retrieved April 8, 2020 from

https://www.researchgate.com