EduNinjaGeneral Diane Pierce decided to use UWP resources to build either a new hospital or a new university campus. Using Maslow's motivation theory, analyse the impact of this decision on both the local population and "the Olive Hats".
Explain how the school could overcome high labour turnover.
Define the following terms:
empowerment (line 35).
Explain how the methods used to motivate employees could have changed when RDM transformed from traditional mass production to highly automated production.
Answer the following question.
Problems are continuing with Enrich drinks. Aran is becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of growth of sales. He always wants to succeed and is driven by the need to get tasks completed. The Enrich part of his life is not a success. He blames the workforce. The workforce does not share his vision. Employees are mainly part-time workers and parents who value jobs that enable them to fit work around school hours. As Aran has become more autocratic in his leadership style, labour turnover has increased. Last month, from a workforce of twelve, one retired and two left for what they called "better jobs".
There are also increasing problems with the quality of Enrich drinks, as batches of Enrich are rejected by the quality control department. Elsie, the manager of the production department, blamed suppliers, saying that Aran had damaged business relations with them due to his impatience. Elsie also blamed Aran for poor stock management. She has proposed total quality management (TQM) as a solution to these problems.
Detox
Accord decided to start the production and marketing of Detox, the green tea drink that helps athletes to relax. Detox proved to be very successful. Encouraged by the success and boosted cash inflow, Kayla is considering producing a range of snack bars based on Enrich and Detox flavours and recipes. Accord would use the Enrich brand name for the snack bars. The market for healthy snack bars is very competitive and dominated by a few large companies who spend large amounts of money on advertising. The market is growing rapidly - some market researchers estimate by 34 % per annum. There are many examples of small businesses entering the market successfully on a small scale. Kayla estimates that the proposal would involve an investment of $ 100000, with forecast net returns of $ 80000 for four years. Aran thinks that the money could be better spent on marketing Enrich drinks.
Define the term labour turnover.
Six months has passed and Medimatters is now ready to launch IBAT. Medimatters will recruit new staff to set up a customer services department. Ahmed has spent some time thinking about the people he would need to recruit. The staff would need to possess IT skills and an understanding of medical issues.
The manufacturer Falit found in India has produced the first batch of 1000 IBAT lenses. Unfortunately, the IBAT lenses were delivered later than expected and some were faulty. As a result, the group is considering whether to make or buy the IBAT lenses. Ahmed has suggested setting up a manufacturing facility using lean production. His calculations are as follows:
- Price paid to manufacturer in India per IBAT lens: $ 50.
- Current number of IBAT lenses purchased per month: 1000.
- Variable cost of making IBAT lenses: $25 (per lens).
- Additional fixed cost of making IBAT lenses per month: $ 20000.
Ahmed considered his role as leader.
- He has consulted widely on a draft business plan and has discussed and agreed the mission and vision statements because he wants to involve everyone.
- The group are all very enthusiastic about IBAT, although some are anxious about the risks involved and have asked for more guidance.
- He spends a lot of time keeping everyone informed of project developments in addition to coordinating all of their efforts.
- Emma has many ideas about expanding into new markets, however, Didi does not agree and has argued with Emma.
- He is prepared to make urgent decisions himself. For example, without consultation he decided that Medimatters should become a private limited company.
With reference to Medimatters, explain two steps in the process of recruitment to the customer services department.
3. Chan Manufacturing (CM)
20 years ago, Chi Chan set up Chan Manufacturing (CM) to produce electrical components on a just-in-time (JIT) basis for car manufacturers.
High quality and quick delivery have increased CM's market share and profit. CM's manual-skilled employees are loyal, productive, motivated and feel secure in their jobs. Employees admire Chi as a leader. Labour turnover at CM is low. Chi is paternalistic. He believes in a top-down approach to management. He cares for the financial welfare of his employees. Employees are paid a basic wage and receive additional financial rewards for working overtime. Proud of CM, employees regularly work harder than expected so that CM always meets client demand, which changes often. Chi and union representatives successfully negotiate pay and work conditions through collective bargaining.
Mei, Chi's daughter, joined CM as Chief Operations Manager. She relies on new business theory to guide her management decisions. Many current workers are approaching retirement age. She wants to restructure CM and use job enlargement, job enrichment and empowerment. Individual employment contracts are to be determined annually based on individual performance appraisal. Some employees do not like the proposal and speed of the change and are becoming demotivated. For the first time, they are considering industrial action (industrial/employee relations methods).
Mei insists that these changes are required, but wants to avoid conflict. She is considering approaches to conflict resolution.
Applying Maslow's theory of needs, explain two reasons why the workers at C M are becoming demotivated.
3. Healthy Nation (HN)
Healthy Nation (HN) is a pharmaceutical organization that used to operate in the public sector, selling its medicines (drugs) to hospitals at very low prices.
With increasing government funding over several years, H N increased the number of employees in its Research and Development Department, which was staffed by scientists, and in the Manufacturing Department. However, both departments were inflexible and inefficient. Resources were significantly under-utilized, and innovation limited.
HN's structure used to be hierarchical, with a very long chain of command and channels of communication. Senior management made the decisions and set the production levels. Consequently, the scientists in the Research and Development Department never developed decision-making skills, and development of new medicines was slow. In 2021, after many years of losses, the government sold H N to a profit-maximizing global pharmaceutical manufacturer, Global Pharma (GP).
To improve productivity, efficiency and flexibility, the management of GP reorganized HN as a shamrock organization by:
- outsourcing the production function to a well-known manufacturer
- retaining the Research and Development Department, along with its scientists and support staff, and employing additional staff when required.
In addition, two major changes were announced:
- Establishing performance-related pay for the scientists based on a new appraisal system to increase productivity levels.
- Using an expensive external company to provide cognitive training to the scientists to develop innovative decision-making and improve teamwork.
These changes have proved to be very unpopular, and the scientists in particular are resisting the changes and the short time frame in which they will be implemented.
Explain one advantage and one disadvantage for G P resulting from the introduction of cognitive training for HN's scientists.
The case study for Henri's MBA contains additional information on TM:
- TM's competitive advantage is achieved through its innovative computerized kanban system. This enables TM to achieve many efficiencies. TM aims to operate on a just-in-time (JIT) basis.
- TM uses many suppliers. TM has taken advantage of China's move towards a market economy and now many of TM's suppliers are located in China. This helps TM to maintain competitive advantage through lower prices, but makes it more difficult to achieve effective quality control. It also outsources production to other low-cost countries. This helps TM to establish new markets and identify new products to develop.
Henri studies the TM case study further. He is outraged by what he reads:
- TM's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) earns 250 times more, per year, than a salesperson.
- Financial rewards for senior management are very high: in addition to shares, they are given profit-related pay, performance-related pay (PRP) and fringe payments (perks).
- Despite being one of the most profitable businesses in the world, most employees at TM have not had a pay rise for three years despite increasing sales.
- Shareholders made significant returns on investments.
Explain two factors that demotivate employees at T M.
Evaluate two alternative methods of non-financial rewards, other than empowerment, that Martin could use at The Imperial.
Additional information
There is no additional information in this paper for Sections A and B.
SECTION C
Answer the compulsory question from this section.