Case study 1: Tony selects a style

Tony had learned a lot from Jerry and he knew that he could always turn to his mentor for help and
advice, even though Jerry would now be in charge of a region on the other side of the state. He liked
Jerry’s style of managementfocused on the people who work in the restaurant as well as keeping the
bosses happy by turning in good numbers. As Jerry always said, “You can’t run the place on your
own, Tonyif you don’t have good people in your restaurant; you won’t be able to take care of your
customers. Without good people, you won’t produce good food or happy diners, so take the time to
hire the right employees, and when you find them, take good care of them so that they’ll stay with
you.” Tony believed in that approachhe had heard too many other unit managers complain about how
hard it was to find good staffbut he also realized that a successful future with Taco Barn required you
to turn in profitable numbers for your unit. In other words, if Dawn wasn’t happy with his weekly
numberssales, food cost, and labor cost—it wouldn’t matter how happy his people were. Tony also
realized that if he were to move on in the future and become a regional manager like Jerry and Dawn,
he had to make a name for himself within the organization. It didn’t take him long to decide that
being a popular manager with his staff wasn’t going to be enough to get it done. He had to take care
of the numbers, and if he could fi nd a way to squeeze more profi t out of his restaurant by increasing
sales and reducing costs, then he would really be on his way. Sure, the employees might miss the old
days with Jerry, but they would appreciate Tony’s new approach and maybe even respect him as a
mentor who could help them build a future with Taco Barn.

QUESTIONS

1. Tony appears to have chosen a management style. How would you categorize that style based on
the information in this chapter?

2. Is Tony right in thinking that better numbers will bring him more attention? Why or why not?

3. Do you think the Taco Barn employees will like the new Tony? Why or why not?

4. How would you advise Tony in this situation? What approach do you think he should follow?
Why?
 Case study 2: Carter Sporting Goods Pty, Ltd

Carter Sporting Goods is a medium to large-size wholesale supplier of a wide range of

sports equipment located in Auckland, New Zealand. Carter’s major markets are
largely in the Asia Pacific region, which includes New Zealand and Australia and most
of the ASEAN (South East Asian Nations) Group of trading countries.

The product line is quite large to accommodate the range of sports played in the region,
both amateur and professional. It consists of balls, bats, gloves, protective gear such as
pads and headwear, shoes and uniforms for the various sports. The range would cover
all of the forms of football such as soccer, rugby, Australian rules, together with
basketball, netball, cricket, field hockey, athletics, baseball, bowls and some golf
equipment. Carter has decided to create a new senior management position of Regional
Relations Manager that is designed to facilitate better working relationships with major
suppliers as well as major retail customers. As such, the position will require a high-
level knowledge of retail marketing and procurement as well as the ability to travel
frequently.

The human resource manager, Chris Chan, has been delegated the responsibility by the
CEO to develop appropriate recruitment and selection criteria to begin the search for a
suitable pool of candidates. This is a challenging assignment for several reasons. First,
the position of regional relations manager has never existed before and needs to
combine high-level skills from different disciplines. In addition, there is a need for
sensitivity as the position needs to fit comfortably with the positions of marketing
manager and logistics manager, which are at the same level and could feel uneasy
about the appointment.
 Questions
1. List five personal attributes and five professional ones that you would include in the
recruitment and selection criteria for this position.
2. What educational qualifications would you require?

3. What recruitment channels would be appropriate to attract candidates to apply for

this position?

4. Using information in the chapter, what selection techniques would be appropriate to

include in the selection process?
5. Is there an alternative title that would better suit this position?
Case study 3: Trouble with new recruits

Peter Harvey and several other software engineers, all of whom had been with Sunwrite Software for
over five years, requested a grievance meeting with Dale Fisher, the human resources manager for
Sunwrite. The men and women all held master’s degrees in software engineering from prestigious
universities and were considered to be very solid performers on the job.

Dale Fisher took this grievance complaint seriously as he knew well that well qualified software
engineers are hard to come by and equally hard to retain. The average turnover rate in the software
industry was known to be somewhere about 20 per cent per annum and engineers with good
qualifications were a highly mobile group. Before the meeting, Dale reviewed the latest performance
management reviews of each member of the grievance group and all reports were positive and each
was considered to be promotable. Peter Harvey acted as a spokesperson for the group and said the
group wanted to discuss wage compression and equity in relation to parity with new recruits, with
little on-the-job experience, who were getting about the same remuneration as the more experienced,
proven performers. Dale reflected on the fact that he had recently used substantial sign-on bonuses of
around $20,000 in lieu of longer-term contracts to attract the talent Sunwrite needed. He also realized
that these sign-on bonuses had not been available to the groups that were complaining. Sign-on
bonuses had become a fairly common method of recruitment in recent years in the intensively
competitive software industry. Dale also realized that the pay secrecy policy he had introduced was
not working. His dilemma now was to find a way to rectify the problem with his longer serving, high-
performance group while still being competitive in the external recruitment market.

Questions

1. What are some alternatives that Dale Fisher could use to rectify the anomaly between the two
groups?

2. Explain how wage compression occurs.

3. Do pay secrecy policies really work? if not, explain why.