Case Facts: Perfect Pizzeria in Southville, deep in southern Illinois, is the chains’ second largest franchise. The headquarters is located in Phoenix, Arizona. Although the business is prospering, it had employee and managerial problems. Each operation had one manager, the managers of each Pizzeria work under an area supervisor. The night managers were chosen for their ability to perform the duties of the regular employees. The employees were mostly college students, with a few high school students performing the less challenging jobs.
Because Perfect Pizzeria was located in an area with few job opportunities, it was relatively easy for it to fill it employees’ quotas. All the employees, with the exception of the manager, were employed part time. The Perfect Pizzeria system is devised so that food, beverage and profits are set up according to a percentage. If the percentage of food unsold or damaged in any way is very low, the manager gets a bonus. If the percentage is high, the manager does not receive a bonus, rather, he or she receives only his or her normal salary.
There is no proper hiring strategy laid down by company as there is no systematic criteria for recruitment. No formalised training for managers. Improper supervision: Employees were not placed under strict supervision specially with night managers. No proper upward and downward communication channels between the management and employees. Inventory calculated at month end only which resulted in improper check and control of inventory.
The employees were axed from the organisation on the basis of their performance. This was not applicable for managers. This led to a feeling of biasness among all. Bonus only for managers and not for employees. Cliques, which are informal groups were formed. When the manager introduced the provision of lie detector, the employees were unhappy which reduced their productivity. High turnover rate due to employees being dissatisfied with the work environment. Deviant Workplace behaviour or counter productive work behaviour in the company. No efforts were made to counter talent retention which led to high turnover.
There were a lot of employees who worked part time and they quit the job due to introduction of new rules & regulations. ?Inability to combat high percentage of waste like occasional bucket of sauce getting spilled or a pizza accidentally burnt. Sometimes wrong-size pizzas were also made. ?Under the supervision of managers there was a decline in productivity. Solution: ?Company should formulate a proper recruitment strategy, which should help them to find the right person at the right job, matching with the companies requirement.
The company needs to dedicate some time in order to build a stronger job profile database and filter out the suitable candidates. According to Mintzberg’s work mechanism theory there should be predetermined set of norms that should be laid to recruit employees. Employees should be kept under supervision. Area Supervisor should keep an eye on Managers who in turn should keep should monitor his subordinates.
This theory is derived from the monitoring concept of Fayolism. A proper communication channel should be framed so that a proper communication link between the top and the bottom ends of organisational pyramid. Mintzberg’s informational role of manager should be enforced.
The manager should also be held responsible along with his team in case of any failure to achieve the target. Both the manager and the team should be accounted for their performance and the policy of salary deduction should be enforced as punishment reinforcement on both the parties. ?Bonus and incentives should be given to employees when they perform well.
The company should also counter deviant workplace behaviour or counter productive work behaviour by making the employees realise that people aren’t just numbers and company is trying to make a difference in their lives. Positive reinforcement is compulsory for the growth and motivation of employees. A proper organisational structure has to be build in order to channelize the growth of employees. The organisation should not be a flat based but be a pyramidal structure where there is enough scope for the employees to improve and grow.
The concept of Talent retention program should also be introduced to avoid high turnover ratio in the company. Categories of employees with different skills and different potential levels (high potential, high value and OK group) should be identified. Efforts should be made by management in order to retain their desired employees. Operant mode of learning should be there. The manager was inefficient to evaluate the problems his subordinates were facing and thereby was unable to ascertain the causes and establish norms of behaviour.
So according to Mintzberg’s managerial roles he was not a good disturbance handler. He lacked the skill of taking decisions that would solve the core problem. Introduction of Lie detectors had an adverse effect on the behaviour of employees. Since behaviour is a result of consequences, the manager had set up a wrong antecedent by putting up a notice to introduce lie detectors in company. This resulted in adverse behavioural changes in employees which had dire consequences on the productivity of the company. The manager should be more careful in choosing the antecedents.
Recommendations
After analysing the problems of Perfect Pizzeria, the following recommendations can be given for improvement and better working of the organisation: A proper organisational structure should be put into practise. Appropriate and well defined organisational goals and objectives should be laid out. Every manager and employee should know what their job is aligned to the guidelines framed by the company. Area supervisor should keep an eye on manager’s performance and even his salary should also be deducted when his team fails.
Recruitment: Objective and goals of the company should be well defined and aligning with company goals. There should be a proper Recruitment Strategy which should formulate stricter norms in order to hire a strong profile employee. Right person at the right job should be appointed to avoid any sort of unstructured employment.
Orientation: Proper induction of employees in company. On the job training should be provided. Assessments of employees on OJT should be done & performance evaluation should be carried out during the regular working hours.
- Incentive and Rewards – When the percentage of unsold/ damaged food wastage was less than all the employee should be given share in the bonus according to their rank. The managers should not be given the whole bonus. This will act as Positive reinforcement for the employee.
- Employee Retention – The organisation should retain their experienced employees by the way of rewards and incentives.
- Fun at work – The Franchise should organise events for the employees to keep the employees entertained and involved in the activities. They will work better if they are happy.
