Crêpes Parfait

Crêpes Parfait in Quincy is based in in Western Illinois. It is the third largest franchise
of the chain in the United States, with its headquarters based located in Chicago,
Illinois. The business is doing well, however, Crêpes Parfait has employee and
managerial issues.

Each operation consists of one manager, an assistant manager, and it also has 2–5-
night managers, with the managers of each Creperie reporting to an area supervisor.
In terms of being a manager or becoming a trainee manager, there are neither
systematic criteria (e.g. college education) for getting hired nor a formalised training
period for the manager. Recent data shows that the managers tend to be relatively
young (aged 24 to 27 years) and come from the ranks of night managers or assistant
managers, or both. Night managers get selected for their ability to perform the
duties of the regular employees and assistant managers are expected to work a two-
hour shift during lunch time five days a week to obtain knowledge about
management and bookkeeping. Those next managers-to-be remained at that level
unless they indicated their interest in investing in the business.

Crêpes Parfait mostly employs college students, with a few high school students
performing the less challenging jobs. Given that Crêpes Parfait is situated in an area
with few employment opportunities, it had no difficulties filling its employee quotas.
All employees apart from the manager worked on a part-time basis and for minimum
wage.

The Crêpes Parfait system operates on a percentage basis of (food and beverage)
costs and profits. Given a very low percentage of food unsold or damaged, the
manager gets a bonus, whereas given a high percentage, the manager only receives
the normal salary but no bonus. There are many ways in which the percentage can
fluctuate – for example wrong toppings are put on a Crêpe, the Crêpe gets
accidentally burned, or extra ingredients are put on the Crêpe for employees’ friends
for free. Since the manager cannot be in the store24 hours a day, some employees
make up for their pay cheques by helping themselves to food. Occasional nibbles by
16 to 18 employees throughout the day at the meal table also raise the percentage
figure.

When an employee mistake occurs or a Crêpe gets burned, the expense comes out
of the salary from the individual making the Crêpe. However, because of peer
pressure, the night manager seldom writes up a bill for the erring employee. Instead,
the Crêpes Parfait establishment takes the loss, and the mistake goes undetected -
until the end of the month when the inventory is taken and the manager finds out
that the percentage is high, making him/her lose the bonus. In this situation, the
manager engaged in retaliatory measures. While previously employees were each
entitled to a free Crêpe and all the soft drinks they could drink for every six hours of
work, the manager increased this figure from 6 to 12 hours of work. The employees
who were given these 6-hour benefits for a long time were upset and thus took
advantage of the situation in the absence of the manager or the assistant manager.
Although the night manager was theoretically in control of the operation in the
evenings, the night manager did not command the respect that the manager or
assistant manager did. That was because this individual was similar in age or even
younger than the other employees and received the pay of a regular employees.

Thus, apathy grew within the Creperie. There seemed to be a further separation
between the manager and his employees, who started out to be a closely knit team.
The manager did not engage in any action believing that the problem would solve
itself – with either dissatisfied employees leaving or content employees adhering to
the new regulations. A rush of employee dismissals indeed occurred and while the
manager was able to easily fill the vacancies with new employees, the loss of key
staff was costly to the business. Given the large turnover, the manager realized that
it was critical to for him to spend more time in the restaurant, supervising staff and
sometimes taking the place of less experienced employees – although this in
violation of the franchise regulation, according to which a manager would act as a
supervisor and not participate in the actual food preparation. Employees were not
placed under strict supervision with the manager working alongside them. The
operation no longer worked smoothly because of the differences between the
remaining experienced workers and the manager concerning the way in which a
particular function should be performed.

During the two-month period of the manager working in the franchise, the
percentage had returned to the previous low level, and the manager received a
bonus each month. He concluded that his problems had been resolved, returned to
his office with his employees in charge of the entire operation and believed that
conditions would remain the same given that the new personnel had been properly
trained. However almost immediately, after the manager returned to his supervisory
role, the percentage began to rise as the newly trained personnel became influenced
by the other staff members. As a result, the manager took the bolder step to cut out
any benefits that the employees had-no free Crêpes or drinks. Given the poor
prospects on the job market, the majority of employees were forced to stay.

To alleviate the rising percentage problem and maintain his bonus, the manager
further placed a notice on the bulletin board, stating that if the percentage remained
at a high level, cameras would be installed to observe employees during work. If any
employee was caught taking or purposefully wasting food or drinks, they would be
terminated immediately. However, this action did not lead to the desired effect as
the staff know that all would be found guilty if cameras were to be installed and that
all staff would have to be dismissed, leaving the manager in a worse situation than
before.

Even prior to the calculation of the following month’s percentage, the manager was
aware that it would be high as one of the night managers had informed him about
the employees’ feelings regarding the notice on the bulletin board. What he did not
know though was that the percentage would be the highest ever. This is the
situation that you are faced with as a consultant with expertise in the field of
organisational psychology.
YOUR TASK

You are required to write a paper of no more than 2000 words (exclusive of
references and appendix) – no exceptions made. For this assignment you will
present and analyze the issues detailed in the above mini-case – particularly building
on your knowledge of motivation theories and work engagement, job design and
employee attitudes. Following a brief introduction, your paper should contain the
following sections and should be supported by evidence from the course materials,
academic literature, and professional publications. Please use either APA or Harvard
referencing style for your paper.

 Introduction (~100 words)

 Diagnosis of the main issues that the Creperie experiences with particular
focus on motivation/job design theories (~1200 words)
 Recommendations to introduce evidence-based changes that increase
motivation of staff in the organization and help address the issues. What
could you do without spending money? (~700 words)
 References (include peer-reviewed journal articles)

Your online submission must be uploaded to Loop before midnight on April,

Wednesday 5th 2023. You will lose 5 marks from your awarded mark for the first
week or part of the first week that your paper is LATE. Thus, if your overall awarded
mark is 60%, you will receive only receive 55% if the assessment is handed in a week
late. After that time, no papers will be accepted, and you need to do the re-sit
during the summer.