80.2K

Verified Solution

Link Copied!

urgent Help please!!!

The Savemore Corporation is a chain of four hundred retail supermarkets located primarily in the Northeastern section of the United States. Store 5116 employs over fifty persons, all of whom live within suburban Portage, New York, where this store is located. Wally Shultz served as general manager of store 5116 for six years. Last April he was transferred to another store in the chain. At that time the employees were told by the district manager, Mr. Finnie, that Wally Shultz was being promoted to manage a larger store in another township. Most of the employees seemed unhappy to lose their old manager. Nearly everyone agreed with the opinion that Shultz was a "good guy to work for." As examples of his desirability as a boss the employees told how Wally had frequently belped the arthritic porter with his floor mopping, how he had shut the store five minutes early, each night so that certain employees might catch their busses, of a Christmas party held each year for employees at his own expense, and his general willingness to pitch in. All employees had been on a first-name basis with the manager. About half of them had begun work with the Savemore Corporation when the Portage store was opened. Wally Shultz was replaced by Clark Raymond. Raymond, about twenty-five years old, was a graduate of an Ivy League college and had been with Savemore a little over one year. After completion of his six-month program, he served as manager of one of the chain's smaller stores before being advanced to 5116. In introducing Raymond to the employees, Mr. Finnie stressed his rapid advancement and the profit increase that occurred while Raymond had charge of his last sore. I began my employment in store 5116 in early June. Mr. Raymond was the first person 1 met in the store, and he impressed me as being more intelligent and efficient than the managers 1 had worked for in previous summers at other stores. After a brief conversation concerning our respective colleges, he assigned me to a cash register, and I began my duties as a checker and bagger. In the course of the next month I began to sense that relationships between Raymond and his employees were somewhat strained. This attitude was particularly evident among the older employees of the store, who had worked in store 5116 since its opening. As we all ate our sandwiches together in the cage (an area about twenty feet square in the cellar fenced in by chicken wire, to be used during coffee breaks and lunch hours), I began to question some of the older employees as to why they disliked Mr. Raymond. Laura Morgan, a fellow checker about forty years of age and the mother of two grade-school boys, gave the most specific answers. Her complaints were: 1. Raymond had fired the arthritic porter on the grounds that a porter who "can't mop is no good to the company." 2. Raymond had not employed new help to make up for normal attrition. Because of this, everybody's work load was much heavier than it ever had been before. 3. The new manager made everyone call him "mister... he's unfriendly." 4. Raymond didn't pitch in. Wally Shultz had, according to Laura, helped people when they were behind in their work. She said that Shultz had helped her bag on rushed Friday nights when a long line waited at her checkout booth, but "Raymond wouldn't lift a finger if you were dying." 5. Employees were no longer let out early to catch busses. Because of the relative infrequency of this means of transportation, some employees now arrived at home up to an hour later. 6. "Young Mr. Know-it-all with his fancy degree ... takes all the fun out of this place." Other employees had similar complaints. Gloria, another checker, claimed that, ".. he sends the company nurse to your home every time you call in sick." Margo, a meat wrapper, remarked, "Everyone knows how he's having an affair with that new bookkeeper, he hired to replace Carol when she quit." Pops Devery, head checker who had been with the chain for over ten years, was perhaps the most vehement of the group. He expressed his views in the following manner: "That new guy's a real louse... got a mean streak a mile long. Always trying to cut comers. First it's not enough help, then no overtime, and now come Saturday mornings, we have to use boxes' for the orders 'til the truck arrives. If it wasn't just a year 'til retirement, I'd leave. Things just aren't what they used to be when Wally was around." The last statement was repeated in different forms by many of the other employees. Hearing all this praise of Wally, I was rather surprised when Mr. Finnie dropped the comment to me one morning that Wally had been demoted for inefficiency, and that no one at store 5116 had been told this. It was important that Mr. Shultz save face, Mr. Finnie told me. A few days later, on Saturday of the busy weekend preceding the July Fourth holiday, store 5116 again ran out of paper bags. However, the delivery truck did not arrive at ten o'clock, and by 10:30 the supply of cardboard cartons was also low. Mr. Raymond put in a hurried call to the warehouse. The men there did not know the whereabouts of the truck but promised to get an emergency supply of bags to us around noon. By eleven o'clock, there were no more containers of any type available, and Mr. Raymond reluctantly locked the doors to all further customers. The twenty checkers and packers remained in their respective booth, chatting among themselves. After a few minutes, Mr. Raymond requested that they all retire to the cellar cage because he had a few words for them. As soon as the group was seated on the wooden benches in the chicken wire enclosed area, Mr. Raymond began to speak, his back to the cellar stairs. In what appeared to be an 1. The tnuck from the company warchouse brings merchandise for sale and store supplies nonmally: arrived at ten o'clock Saturday momings. Frequently, the stock of large paper bags would be temporarily depleted. It was then necessary to pack orders in cardboerd cartons until the truck was unloaded. angered tone, he began, "I'm out for myself first, Savemore second, the customer third, and you last. The inefficiency in this store has amazed me from the moment I arrived bere..." At about this time I noticed Mr. Finnie, the district manager, standing at the head of the cellar stairs. It was not surprising to see him at this time because he usually made three or four unannounced visits to the store each week as part of his regular supervisory procedure. Mr. Raymond, his back turned, had not observed Finnie's entrance. Mr. Raymond continued, "Contrary to what seems to be the opinion of many of you, the Savemore Corporation is not running a social club here. We're in business for just one thing... to make money. One way that we lose money is by closing the store on Saturday morning at eleven o'clock. Another way that we lose money is by using a 60 pound paper bag to do the job of a 20-pound bag. A 60-pound bag costs us over 2 cents apiece; a 20-pound costs less than a penny. So when you sell a couple of quarts of milk or a loaf of bread, don't use the big bags. Why do you think we have four different sizes anyway? There's no great intelligence or effort required to pick the right size. So do it. This store wouldn't be closed right now if you'd used your common sense. We started out this week with enough bags to last 'til Monday .... and they would have lasted 'til Monday if you'd only used your brains. This kind of thing doesn't look good for the store, and it doesn't look good for me. Some of you have been bagging for over five years ... and you ought'a be able to do it right by now ...." Mr. Raymond paused and then said, "I trust I've made myself clear on this point." The cage was silent for a moment, and then Pops Devery, the head checker, spoke up; "Just one thing, Mis-tuh Raymond. Things were running pretty well before you came around. When Wally was here we never ran out'a bags. The customers never complained about overloaded bags or the bottoms falling out before you got here. What're you gonna tell somebody when they ask for a couple of extra bags to use in garbage cans? What're you gonna tell somebody when they want their groceries in a bag, and not a box? You gonna tell them the manager's too damn cheap to give 'em bags? Is that what you're gonna tell em? No sir, things were never like this when Wally Shultz was around. We never had to apologize for a cheap manager who didn't order enough then. What'ta you got to say to that, Mis-tuh Raymond?" Mr. Raymond, his tone more emphatic, began again. "I've got just one thing to say to that, Mr. Devery, and that's this: store 5116 never did much better than break even when Shultz was in charge here. I've shown a profit better than the best he ever hit in six years every week since I've been here. You can check that fact in the book upstairs any time you want. If you don't like the way I'm running things around here, there's nobody begging you to stay ..." At this point, Pops Devery interrupted and, looking up the stairs at the district manager, asked, "What about that, Mr. Finnic? You've been around here as long as I have. You told us how Wally got promoted 'cause he was such a good boss. Supposin' you tell this young fellar here what a good manager is really like? How about that, Mr. Finnie?" A rather surprised Mr. Raymond turned around to look up the stairs at Mr. Finnie. The manager of store 5116 and his checkers and packers waited for Mr. Finnie's answer. Please answer the following questions regarding the case: 1. What is the change being implemented? 2. Why is the change being implemented? 3. What is Raymond's role in the change process? 4. What is Mr. Finnie's role in the change process? 5. What is Wally's role in the change process? 6. What was the culture like under Wally? 7. How did the culture change under Raymond? 8. How did Raymond do it? 9. Who is responsible for this messy situation? 10. What should each of them have done differently? 11. Knowing what you know now about Organizational Behavior, what should Mr Finnie's answer be? 12. Knowing what you know now about Organizational Behavior, how would you repair the organizational culture

Answer & Explanation Solved by verified expert

See Answer