Management

Your assignment response should be submitted in a single document with the response for each case clearly and separately delineated within the same document. Your responses to each question within the case should also be clearly numbered. The minimum word count for this assignment is 750.

Please keep the following in mind about your assignment response:

• Before you submit your assignment response, ensure that it includes the appropriate number and types of citations and references, presented in the appropriate format.
• Your submission will receive a Turnitin similarity score which must meet the required less than 20% threshold. This may take minutes, several hours and possibly up to 24 hours depending on Turnitin’s queue length so please ensure that you complete your submission within enough time to edit it and received a revised score prior to the due date. 
• If your score is greater than the 20% threshold, please redo your response and resubmit it here again. You will be able to edit and resubmit your response as many times as necessary until the deadline. Submissions that exceed the 20% threshold after the deadline on Sunday night at 11.55pm CST will not be graded.
• If you opt to reference the course text, this does NOT count as an external reference but is a reference that is internal to the course. It should be cited appropriately.
• Within this course, Wikipedia and other open source sites are NOT considered reputable sources.  Webster’s dictionary and other online dictionaries WILL NOT be counted as a valid external reference.
• Be sure to place a header “References” above your list of references to reduce the likelihood that Turnitin will include those items in your similarity score. 
• More detail is better than less. Be thorough in your responses and ensure that your submission reflects sufficient depth, analysis, and critical thinking consistent with a graduate-level business course. Look beyond the words provided in the case to assess what may have led to the situation presented and possible unidentified consequences.
  

ASSIGNMENT

To fully address this case assignment, please read and analyze the assigned case. Your responses should be numbered and provide the following:

 1.      Summarize the key OB issues in the case relative to this week’s material (at least 2 key issues MUST be identified). Be sure to speak in OB language, using appropriate terminology to identify the concepts and issues you identify.

2.      Clearly link the key issues in the case back to relevant and specific course material covered. Be specific by identifying specific instances and scenarios in the case which demonstrate the OB issues and concepts identified. Explain how they are reflective of those specific OB issues.

3.      Make at least one recommendation(s) of how each of the key issues you identified should be handled at the organizational level of the case’s main character. Justify the merit of each of your recommendations and be sure to include your rationale for why you expect them to be effective in addressing the issues.

4.      Propose at least one executive or corporate level intervention for any one of your key issues to recommend how upper management can also play a part in addressing that issue. This response should be different from any of the recommendations offered in #3. Be sure to clearly identify which OB issue your organization level/executive level intervention is meant to address and how the intervention would be of benefit.

Case 1  – Huge Benefits; Little Understanding or Use

The Velma Company designs and manufactures high-tech communications equipment. The firm is a world-class supplier, and its three largest customers are Fortune 50 firms. Velma also has major clients in China and the European Union. Over the last five years, the company’s sales have tripled, and the biggest challenge it faces is hiring and retaining state-of-the-art people. In particular, there are two groups that are critical to the company’s success. One is the design people who are responsible for developing new products that are more efficient and price competitive than those currently on the market. The other is the manufacturing people who build the equipment.

In an effort to attract and keep outstanding design people, Velma has a very attractive benefits package. All of their health insurance premiums and medical expenses are covered (no copay or deductibles). The company contributes 10 percent of their annual income toward a retirement program, and these funds are vested within 24 months. So a new design person who is earning $75,000 annually will have $7,500 put into a retirement fund by the company, and the individual can make additional personal contributions. Each year all designers are given 100 shares of stock (the current sales price is $22) and an option to buy another 100 shares (the current stock price is $25 and this option is good for 10 years or as long as the person works for the firm, whichever comes first).

The manufacturing people are on a pay-for-performance plan. Each individual is paid $7 for each unit he or she produces, and the average worker can turn out three units an hour. There is weekend work for anyone who wants it, but the rate per unit does not change. In addition, the company gives all of the manufacturing people free health insurance and covers all medical expenses.

Another benefit is that everyone in the company is eligible for five personal days a year, and the company will pay for any unused days. Velma also has a large daycare facility that is free for all employees, and there is a state-of-the-art wellness center located on the premises.

Last year the company’s turnover was 9 percent, and the firm would like to reduce it by 50 percent this year. One proposed strategy is to strengthen the benefits package even more and make it so attractive that no one will want to, or could afford to, leave. Some top managers privately are concerned that the firm is already doing way too much for these employees and are troubled by the fact that exit interviews with designers who left in the last year indicated that many of them were unaware of the benefits they were receiving. For example, most of the designers who have gone elsewhere reported that they were attracted to the stock offered them, yet they did not exercise the options to buy additional shares of Velma stock because they were not sure what the financial benefits were to them. The manufacturing people who left reported that $7 per unit was acceptable, although a higher rate would have resulted in their remaining with the firm. The manufacturing people also liked the stock that the company gave them, but were somewhat confused about the options they held.

Both groups—designers and manufacturing personnel—seemed pleased with the contribution that the company made to their retirement program, but most of them did not put any additional personal contributions into their retirement fund. When asked why, the majority of them were unaware that this could be done on a before-tax basis, thus temporarily shielding the contributions from taxes and making it easier to build a nest egg for the future. Finally, all of those who left said that they liked the child care benefit, although most of them did not have young children so they did not use it, and they thought the wellness center was also a good idea but they were so busy working that they admitted to never using the facilities.

 

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