HRM742 A7W

Written Assignment 1
40 Marks (25% of the overall grade for the course)

For Written Assignment 1, the five (5) topics to be covered, and subjected to
analysis are:

1. Decision Making (How decisions are made and communicated).

2. Job Design (Use of job design principles to impact employee motivation and
employee engagement).
3. Work Groups/Teams (The existence of group or teams in the organization and their
effectiveness).
4. Equity (Specific issues related to perceived fairness in the organization).
5. Power, Influence and Motivation (The types of power used by key leaders at
Horvath Foods and how they impact and influence employee behaviour and
motivation).

Each topic is worth 8 marks with the mark allocation as follows:

1. Describe the current situation for each topic at Horvath Foods. (2 marks)

Ans: The current situation is as follows:

a. Decision Making - Presently, Horvath Foods is in limbo, with the Canadian
owner who was the sole decision taker having left the organization, and the
new owner working from a distance. However, since there is no CEO presently,
the VP of Operations will be responsible for decision making along with the
other exec team members.

b. Job Design - This is non-existent at present. With no job descriptions, job

evaluation processes, performance management, no benefits, no compensatory
increases and no succession planning, employees are not in a position to grow
or to earn more. The organization has no policies related to Employment Equity
or Pay Equity. Employees are also fearful of organizing a union due to possible
job loss.

c. Work Groups/ teams - At present, employees work directly within their

respective teams. Inter-functional growth is not present with no clear internal
growth paths available for employees. There is no presence of any union as
well at present.
 d. Equity - Presently, there are unfair practices in play. Employees were
promoted if the owner liked them and their performance. There is no
succession planning in place, no demographics tracking and no data
management. This is compounded by the fact that pay increases were
inconsistent across the organization, leading to disparate pay for similar roles.

e. Power, Influence & Motivation - Presently, with the original owner having sold
the organization, there has been a minor power shift to the executive team.
This is temporary until a new CEO can be appointed. Since the exec team has
matched the old owner’s working style, the expectations are the same and
motivation is extremely low - due to the sale, due to inconsistent practises and
a fear of what comes next.

2. Analyze the effectiveness of their approach i.e. how it helps or hinders. (2

marks)

Ans: The present approach may have suited the old owner, as it matched his working
style and he retained decision-making capabilities. At this time, such actions helped
the CEO by allowing him to retain a stronghold over the company’s operations,
employee growth and expansion. While the expansion was successful, employees were
left with minimal growth opportunities, no pay equity, negligible benefits and a
pervasive fear of losing their jobs. The working world has changed and employees
need benefits, growth opportunities and their voice to be heard - unless this is done,
present practises may either cause walkouts or the introduction of unions into the mix
and an increase in employee dissatisfaction. Also, earlier, employees used to trust the
management in dealing fairly with them. With increased knowledge of labour laws,
the presence of social media and increased awareness of Human Rights, employees
are now in a strong position to demand their rights as employees. If they do not get
these rights, they may very well opt for legal action against the organization, which
may hurt the organization’s reputation as well as market standing.

3. Make recommendations on how Horvath Foods can improve. (2 marks)

Ans: Horvath Foods is uniquely positioned to improve its existing processes. With the
new owner preferring to leave things as-is for the moment, the exec team has the
capacity to change a lot of internal processes to improve. Some recommendations for
improvement are:
 a. Introduce policies on all standard employment labour law requirements, Pay
Equity, Career progression and Succession planning to start off with
b. Introduce a robust complaints resolution process with clear guidelines where
employees at any level can raise complaints on a confidential basis and have no
fear of reprisal.
c. Introduce varied benefits for employees across all levels of employment
d. Introduce rewards and recognition programs to recognize the service provided
by long term employees as well as reward well-performing employees
e. Make changes to processes to introduce work-life balance - 12 to 14-hour
workdays are not legally allowed and no employee should need to work such
hours.
f. Work on setting compensation bands for all employees to ensure pay equity
across levels, and build that into a Career Progression Process to help ensure
well-deserving candidates are amply rewarded during promotions

While these are initial changes, care must be taken to ensure that when the new
owner decides to introduce American conservative business culture and southern
values to the organization, these are done taking into account the history of the
organization and the Canadian pride among its staff. Overwriting it may destroy the
pride employees have in the organization.

4. Link your recommendations to specific OB theories/concepts. (2 marks)

Ans: The present model at Horvath is a Bureaucratic model, where rigidity and
impersonal relationships are present with a lack of co-ordination and interpersonal
communication. For this to change, the above changes which are based on the below
organizational behaviour theories and concepts must be introduced:
a. Scientific Management
i. Replacing existing verbal processes with scientific methods
ii. Harmony in group action
iii. Cooperation
iv. Maximum output and development of workers
b. Process Management theory
i. Technical
ii. Commercial
iii. Financial
iv. Security
v. Accounting
vi. Managerial
c. General principles of Management
 i. Division of Labour
ii. Equality of authority and responsibility
iii. Discipline
iv. Pay equity
d. Maslow’s needs hierarchy theory
e. Learned Needs theory
f. Four-drive Theory
g. Behavioural theory
h. Attribution Theory
i. Expectancy theory of Motivation
j. Social Cognitive Theory
k. Equity Theory

While this may not be a complete list, most of the theories can be applied in
conjunction with other theories to implement the recommended steps.