ETHICS CASE STUDY

QUESTION 4 (25 MARKS: 45 MINUTES)

A. Mutiara Company (MC) is a Penang based supplier for playground equipment and park
amenities. The company has grown since 1980 from small company into one of the best
known brands in playground equipment in Malaysia with 20 branches across the country.
The company policy is to ensure that the playground products are competitive in the
market, varied in designs, high quality and safety standard with excellent after sales
services. Currently, the company products are ISO certified and meet an international
safety requirements. The company has an annual turnover of RM40 million and employs
1,500 staff including a centralized Sales and Marketing Department in the head office.

The New Sales and Marketing Team

A new Sales and Marketing manager has been appointed at head office, who is responsible
to meet a new sales target. He will focus on key areas such as strategy, staff, information
technology, promotion and training. Currently, the Sales and Marketing manager has
recruited the new team members.

The new team is headed by Mr. Halim, who is an experienced and has a professional
certification in marketing. He has worked across the public and private sectors for the last
ten years. He needs to absorb quickly the information about the sales and marketing issues
within MC. He is used to working independently on projects and previous colleagues have
described him as ‘professional but quiet and he does not find it easy mixing with others’.

Sara and Ahmad are the two new Sales and Marketing assistants. Ahmad is an enthusiastic
recruit who has taken up of the sales marketing assistant roles straight from college. He is
keen to make an impression but lacks work experience, although he did hold a part time
job at a local fast food outlet while at college. He is already enjoying working at MC and
has made good friends with his new colleague, Sara. However, Ahmad has found it difficult
to communicate to Mr. Halim, as they seem to have little in common.

Sara joined MC as a Sales and Marketing assistant after recently leaving school. She did
quite well at school but wanted to earn her own money and gain a professional qualification
while working. Sara is outward going and very direct in her approach to life and work. She
is a hard worker and quick to learn and hence has a very inquisitive nature which has caused
problems with Ahmad who like to focus on his own work.

The Sales and Marketing Manager’s Role

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has requested that Mr. Halim needs to spend time
finding out about the business as a whole to be able to contribute to the business plan which
is to be re-written next year.
The CEO has asked the sales and marketing team to focus on customer satisfaction.
Currently, there are no analysis on customer profitability, satisfaction and retention as
company’s information systems focus on other functions and not sales and marketing.

Mr. Halim has been asked to secure a national agreement to supply playground equipment
and park amenities for the government new housing project. Looking at the different
background of his team, Mr. Halim is worry of not be able to meet the target set by the
CEO. He has to think ways to build a strong teamwork spirit between himself, Sara and
Ahmad.

REQUIRED:

(a) Discuss THREE (3) possible actions that Mr. Halim needs to take in order to
achieve the best results from the team.

(5 Marks)

(b) Analyse the main approaches to motivation that can be deployed by Mr. Halim to
address team problems and get the most out of the new team based on each of the
following theories:

(i) Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory;

(5 Marks)

(ii) Locke’s goal setting theory.

(5 Marks)