Question

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Rita is head cocktail server at a high-volume singles bar that serves both food and drinks. She has CASE STUDY: "They Like It the Way It Is" responsibility for a large staff of part-timers, most of whom she worked with as a server before she was promoted. They are a lively bunch who regard themselves more as independent entrepreneurs doing business at this particular place than as loyal employees. Most of them pay little attention to rules, but they are all high-volume performers, and that, she figures, is what matters. She looks the other way and lets them get away with a lot. Yesterday, her boss, Sam, who was recently hired to manage the entire operation, called Rita in for "a little talk." He offered her a cup of coffee, paused a moment, and then plunged in. "I want you to be aware that the discipline in your part of this operation does not measure up to standard and is causing a great deal of trouble," he said. "The servers and kitchen staff are required to follow rules and are disciplined when rules are broken. They resent it when they see a cocktail server carry a drink into the employee lounge, have a cigarette with a customer, wear flashy jewelry, come in late and leave early, and take it for granted that the servers will cover for them. I'm sure you can understand how they feel." "I don't see that their feelings are my problem," says Rita. "I think they are," says Sam, "and I am asking you to begin enforcing the hours of work and the smoking and drinking rules, for starters. How you do it is pretty much up to you, although I will be glad to help you work things out. I suggest we meet again tomorrow to discuss your plan and set some improvement goals." Rita is astonished. "Listen, Sam," she says, "any one of my people could get a job anywhere else in town in five minutes, and I could, too. Improvement goals! They like it the way it is!" "I know," says Sam. "But nobody else does. In fact, it has become a major problem that even customers have noticed, and its effect on the other employees could affect business. Think it over, and we'll talk again tomorrow." Rita's first reaction is defiance and anger, but she senses that it won't do her any good. She would rather stay here than change jobs. She is proud of being a supervisor, the money here is the best in town, and it's a fun place. Her next reaction is panic. How in the world can she make her people toe the line? Case Study Questions 1. What common mistake has Rita been making? What effects has it had? 2. Do you agree that high-volume sales are more important than enforcing rules? Defend your answer. 3. Is it workable to have different standards of discipline in different departments? Why or why not? 4. What is your opinion of Sam's approach to the problem? How well did he handle the inter view? What risks is he taking?

Answer 1

1)

Common mistake that Rita does is she perform her job probably as a head of cocktail server. Rita is responsible to let the employees follow to the rules and be disciplined. If them make mistake that will be her responsibility to remind them but Rita did not care when most of them pay little attention to rules about being on time, observing break times, wearing flashy jewellery, smoking and drinking during working time. For example, workers should wash their hand probably before starting their work because it may contain bacteria on their hand that we cannot see using our eye. It is extremely important to care of hygiene and sanitation in the workplace. Rita realized that but she ignored their bad attitudes because they are high volume performers. Besides that, Rita even contradict and disobey her boss while her boss asked her to train the staff to become more discipline. From that situation, it may affect her job performance because the boss may see Rita cannot handle the small matters. Rita and the workers had affected the business with this working attitude. They leave a bad impression to the customer by holding cigarette while working, customers might not revisit to the bar and this will affect the reputation and the profit of the bar. In addition, customer will also spread their dissatisfaction in the bar by telling their friends or spread through social media such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This will bring a strong negative impact to the bar. Furthermore, Rita and the workers did not respect their job and their boss, they might lost their job by this working attitude.

2)

I am totally disagreed with the statement high-volume sales are more important than enforcing rules. Business sales is important than other things in businessman or businesswomen mindset because they think how to make more money every day. A work place without rules will bring out problems especially in hygiene and sanitation. Customers would not reattend to a dirty place that make them uncomfortable and disgusting. By enforcing the rules, the employees will be more discipline in work, be a good worker, be punctual, follow the rules and they also can perform well. From their good performance them will be able to attract more customers and gain more profit to the company because of the good services that the employees show to the customer. An excellent service that provide by the worker will leave a good experience and impression to the customer and most probably they will revisit to the same place. Most customers more pay attention to the services that they get than the price. They would likely to pay a higher price as long as service is excellent. Moreover, the worker will learn from their mistake and improve from time to time by enforcing rules. Employer should make it clear that penalty will give to the worker that are unable to follow the rules such as warning letter or so on. From that, the employee will follow the rules and perform better by throw away their bad habit. From good personality and performance, they can attract new customer and gain more regular customer. Subsequently, the profit for company will be increased.

3)

I sit workable to have different standards of discipline in different departments. The Discipline Standard sets out the minimum requirements of equity and probity that must be complied with in relation to the discipline process. Employees should be treated with equitably by having different discipline standard in different departments. This is because the job scope of every department is different, the employees cannot be judged by the same standards while they are from different departments. For example, the job of an employee from purchasing department is to survey and search for the good quality and reasonable price of the ingredients, they might need to go out and socialize with the potential supplier during working hour instead of sitting in the office facing the computer as other employee in different department. If using same standards of discipline in different departments, people will blame that employees from purchasing department always go out during working hour and the related employee will face discipline issue but in fact he is doing his job. In this case, it is not fair to take disciplinary action to the specific employee. Furthermore, employees from purchasing department would need to claim their spending from the company while they go out during working hour for research and socializing with supplier, the spending of purchasing department definitely will more than other departments. So, the employer cannot use the same standard to judge the employee from purchasing department with other department such as accounting department because employees from accounting department will stay in the office during working hour.

The disciplinary action is to improve employee job performance, the form of discipline status should be dependent upon the nature of the problem. If the same discipline standard applied in different departments, the employee will feel unfair with the judgement while every department have different responsibility. This will not improve their job performance but demotivated them to perform well. In a nutshell, having different standards of discipline in different departments is more suitable and equal for the employees.

4)

Sam was recently employed to manage the entire operation, he found out the discipline problem of the employees in a short period although he was newly employed. After that, Sam take a good move when he found the problems of the cocktail server. Sam was smart, he asked Rita to control the employees because he knew that the employees will listen to Rita as they have been working together for a long time. He did not blame Rita by not taking her responsibility to control the employees as she is a head cocktail server. He gives Rita a chance and talk nicely to her instead of giving order like a boss usually did, because he respects his employee. However, Rita disobey and did not respect Sam by contradict him. For all this, Sam still believe that Rita can control the employees. He ordered her to enforce the hours of work, the smoking and drinking rules even Rita intimidate him that her and her employees can quit the job on the spot and find a better one in town within 5 minutes.

Sam did not fire Rita for her bad attitude but gives her a chance to think about what he had said instead of forcing her to follow his order. He asks his employee to change their working attitude but did not fire them immediately. He knew that they have discipline problems but they can bring benefits to the bar as they have regular customers and working experiences as a server. It was better to have an experienced worker than recruit and train a new server. At the same time, he was taking the risk that Rita will not listening to him and resign with her part-timers. If Rita and the rest of the cocktail servers resigned together, he will be in a big trouble as nobody serve the customer and he could not find server to work immediately in a short time. Moreover, he might lost the regular customers because they might follow Rita and the servers to another bar and this will affect the performance of the business.

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