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In the case study of the Dilemma at Devil’s Den, we have a student snack counter that has many organizational challenges that need to be immediately addressed. The first issue is that the Devil’s Den is a contracted company operated by an external company called College Food Services (CFS). This presents a challenge because there seems to be a severe disconnect here as far as CFS’s vision for the Devil’s Den is concerned. From outside observations, it’s obvious that management failed to clearly convey the vision or the mission.
There seems to be no clear understanding of where the company is headed, what is or is not expected from the employees, no clear boundaries of what acceptable behavior is, no punitive guidelines established etc.
Employee morale is extremely low because of what seems a very toxic work environment and this has contributed to the high turnover rate of employees. Not to mention the low wages and inconsistent work schedule.
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There are major security issues stemming from employees lack of pride in their company and the leadership is in dire need of training, guidance and mentoring. This issue plus financial losses due to theft by customers and employees as well as the current operational environment means that the Devil’s Den cannot possibly survive in the long term without addressing the majority of these issues.
It is clear from the picture that Susan paints that there is a lack execution of strategy processes from the managers.
In relation to competency building, the managers have a clear competitive deficiency. This is shown by the weakness of the skills in being able to even close the store correctly. There is a lack of organization in the Den that is shown by how poorly the inventory is kept as well as how it goes unnoticed that so much food is being stolen. This is a poor reflection on the accounting side as well, since the purchases being made are obviously not aligning with the product being sold. This is showing a liability for CFS since there may very well be competitors in the industry who are ready to come in and replace DFS’s competitive deficiencies with their competencies.
Solutions and recommendations. To begin, in order for a company to have the best chance at market success, its strategy must be based on what the company does well in order to stay competitive. The company may have competencies, core competencies and distinctive competencies. These differ by the extent that the company can perform a valuable activity. A competency is something the company can perform competently. A core competency is an activity that is central to a company’s strategy and competitiveness, and a distinctive competency is something that the company does better than its rivals. In order for the Den to build its competencies, it must first spell out what they are. Their strategy must show what their competencies are, and from there they can build off of these competencies in order to remain competitive.
As far as shaping the culture goes, the night shift at the Devil’s Den is shaping it in the wrong direction. Currently, the culture is such that management is showing the employees that unethical behavior is not only acceptable, but not punishable and truly is the norm of the organization.
Unfortunately, the only seemingly punishable act is disclosing when someone is stealing. Solutions and recommendations. The culture of a company is helped to be established by the mission and the strategy of that business. It is important to integrate the expectations of the workplace within the strategic goals. The more the expectations of a company are clarified to the leaders and then to the employees, the more seriously they will be taken. It is important to show consequences for not following the culture, this way the workers see that it is not optional, but required in order to remain employed by the company.
It is imperative that the Den has a set of strategic goals and a mission that are developed and then taught to the managers so as to incorporate them into the business to help build a company culture that is in line. It is also important that the management and employees are rewarded for following these goals to further encourage the following of them. Policies, procedures and control systems. Management is also performing poorly when it comes to instituting policies and procedures. This is one of the risks involved in outsourcing.
Not only is it potentially difficult to monitor, control and coordinate the activities of a contracted company, it can also be difficult in resolving kindly. It is also be problematic contracting a company because an outside party may lack incentive to make investments specific to the needs of the outsourcing company’s value chain. Presently, the Den does not have well established control systems. The employees and management of the night staff almost seem to be running their own controls and setting their own standards of what is acceptable. There is no punishment being administered to those who are stealing food and money.
Even when an employee was caught by a customer stealing money out of the register there were no consequences for those actions, proving that there are no internal set of controls established to prevent or even to act on such problems. It has also been stated by Susan that the managers were not even good motivators; they did little work themselves and did not show much control over the employees. Also, the managers received authority and responsibility over events occurring during their shifts as managers although they were never taught how or when to enforce them.
Solutions and recommendations. Currently, the Den has no policies or procedures that are being followed. The first thing to do is to create a set of policies and procedures so that it is clear to employees what they are to abide by. These policies and procedures need to complement the company’s mission and strategy in order for them to achieve their strategic goals. In order for the p&p’s to be taken seriously, there should be ample training on them for all levels of employees.
There should also be rules established for when someone does not follow them, possibly being given a warning and then possibly termination if they continue to disobey what has been established. This will also show the employees how important it is to follow these p&p’s are to the business. Rewards and discipline. The management’s reward and discipline system is not effective. Currently the only reward that is offered is when an employee get s a nickel raise each semester of working, and a 15% raise when one becomes a manager. This reward system was not effective as was shown by how difficult it was to hire people at the low age that was being offered and the lack of incentive for pay growth. The low wages and lack of rewards could be a part of the reason as to why the employees don’t have any problems stealing food and money from the Den. The discipline systems are not evident as there are currently no written rules or strict guidelines to be followed. This leaves room for interpretation from employees and managers as to what is acceptable behavior, and obviously they are choosing to do as they please with little to no consideration for the organization.
Solutions and recommendations. A reward system in a business has to be effective enough to be seen by those who are receiving it, as a reward. For instance, if a reward is given to an employee by means of a nickel raise every 3 months, and yet the employee does not see this as a reward there is something amiss. The rewards should be based on performance outcomes that are directly linked to good strategy execution and targeted strategic and financial objectives. Performance payoffs should be at least 10-12 percent of base salary to have much impact.
In order to have a more attractive incentive, it should be around 20 percent. These incentives should be available to all levels of workers in order to have the motivational properties that it intends. It is important that the reward is given based on fair objectives that are attainable for an individual or group. A reward can be a good component of a discipline system. As opposed to taking things away from employees, I recommend having a reward based discipline system that complements the strategy execution goals.
Of course, there comes a point where if the rules are not being followed, disciplinary action should be taken. Sometimes this action comes in the form of a warning first, and then termination depending on the severity of the action. Ethical leadership. The management is failing in their performance of ethical leadership. Currently, there is no sign of ethical leadership when the managers themselves are stealing and condoning stealing food and money from the organization. It was frowned upon to try to take action against unethical behavior, which leads to a lack of leadership in ethical behavior.
This is the contrary to what makes an ethical leader and organization. The subordinates are affected by their leader’s actions, and the leaders in this case are only setting the precedence for unethical behavior. Solutions and recommendations. Tolerating unethical conduct not only can damage a company’s reputation but can also result in a wide array of other pricey consequences. A company may start to see loss of employee morale, a higher degree of employee cynicism, high employee turnover and negative effects on employee productivity.
These are just some of the less visible costs that can be related to lack of ethics in a company. Ethical conduct should start from the top of a company. In order for a company to set an expectation of its ethical principle, the CEO should be aware of and conduct themselves in that kind of a manner. It is clear that there are a lack of ethical guidelines set out for the workers at the Den. The difficulty may lay in the fact that the Den is a contracted company from CFS. It can be challenging to relate a set of ethics across a business that is geographically set apart.
In this case, it is imperative that CFS has a system setup that instructs and enforces ethical standards. It seems that there may have been a break in the communication from the headquarters of CFS, and this particular division of it. At this point, it may be a good idea for CFS to pull every employee from its locations in for an initial training session on the company’s code of conduct, as well as continual training to make sure that it is being followed and improved upon. It is also important for there to be consequences for not following the code of conduct in a business. If there are no consequences, there is no real reason for workers to follow it to begin with.
Susan’s dilemma is that she sees the problems that are occurring, but fears for her own job and well-being so she does not disclose her observations to anyone who is in a position to change them. Susan seems to not steal because she is influenced by what may considered ethical universalism. This is the principal of right and wrong that transcends culture, society, and religion. Susan has been taught that it is wrong to take what is not rightfully yours.
She sees others performing acts that are not right, however there is no incentive for her to do what is right. In fact, there is an incentive for Susan not tell anyone what is going on or else she may lose what is valuable to her; her job and the chance for a promotion that will help her build experience. The Devil’s Den employees seem to be influenced by what they can gain in the short term. They are able to access large portions of food at no cost to them, money from the register with no consequences, and the power of becoming a manager despite the other actions.
The problem with the Susan’s lack of action is that she is guilty by association. She knows what is right, but is also choosing not to disclose it for her own gain. In my opinion, she is no better than the people who are actually taking from the organization. If the school were to find out what was taking place at the Den they may just stop contracting to CFS altogether and use a rival firm or a substitute product as explained in Porter’s five forces model of competition. If this were the case Susan would be let go of, and not gain her experience anyways. It is also possible that the workers who were stealing could all be punished by the law if the school sees fit. Thus far, Susan is being influenced by the behavior of the other workers by wanting to associate with them even though they are acting unethically.
Susan should take action in this case. She should begin with talking to the full-time manager who was employed by CFS. If this person chooses to do nothing about the situation, Susan should contact someone in the HR department at CFS and explain the problem. If she is afraid that this will reflect poorly on her, then it could be done anonymously through an email or letter. If no further action is taken after those options are exhausted, I would recommend Susan to quit this job and look for another. Ultimately the experience that she is looking for from this job may have quite the opposite effect. If it is discovered that she knew about the behavior and did nothing, she may be fired anyways. If Susan truly sees the actions being taken by the students to be unethical, then she should not associate with that type of behavior.
Dilemma at Devil's Den Company. (2020, Jun 01). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/dilemma-at-devils-den-company-essay
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