Hovey and Beard Company

Overview Summary and Background:

Hovey and Beard Co. is a wooden toy manufacturing company which manufactures toys by
transformational process in a chain. The company used traditional methods of
manufacturing toys by hand. Later the company introduced technology to enhance the
production and a mechanical chain of hooks was installed in front of painters sitting area
which carried the toys into heating oven.

Company introduced incentives and learning bonus to the painters to shift them from
manual to mechanical within a specified time span. The installation of machines highly
affected the painting workforce. They raised several issues of discomfort and a few quit the
job. A hired consultant suggested meeting of supervisor and painters. The painters raised
several issues regarding temperature and speed of hooks which was duly fixed as per their
demand. The production increased and the painters began to learn more quickly than the
anticipated time which gave them a lot of extra benefits. But the management was besieged
by the demands of inequity between earnings of painters and other workers. Due to
increasing tensions at the workplace the superintendent revoked the incentives given to the
painters and reversed the change in the speed of hooks. This led a few painters and
supervisor to quit the job.

Issues and Problems:

Problems
a. Lack of job satisfaction
b. Unequal distribution of reward.
c. Conflict between painters, supervisor, engineers and superintendent
d. Unsecure job environment
e. Lack of brain storming.
Causes:
a. Aggressive behavior of superintendent.
b. Unfavorable working conditions
c. Communication Gap

Significance of Problems to subject

The engineers were amongst the main subject which negated to the demands of
painters as they referred it as "resistance". They showed no interest in improving the
ventilation and adjusting the speed of hooks to the painters will as they considered
the speed of chain to be normal. They were irritated by the repeated complaints and
demands of painters and informed the superintendent that expense of corrective
measures would be prohibitively high.

The superintendent was the main cause of conflict and irritation as he reversed the
incentives and the method of working conditions for the painters. The superintendent
always felt reluctant to give in to the demands of painters but he acted on the
suggestions of supervisor. This was a successful act to increase production but the
problem arose when other employees demanded justice in the bonus plan.
Solutions:
The problem of bonus plan can be resolved by introducing a new bonus plan for only
those employees who are skilled and high qualified.

Positive consequences:
This will not affect the high production rate of the company and it will help to retain
and motivate the other employees.

Negative Consequences:

By introducing the reward it will increase the cost and reduce the revenue.

The management shall justify the allowance and bonus plan allocated to the painters
as the working conditions of painters have been changed while other employees are
doing the same job as before. The learning bonus will end automatically after the
anticipated time and shall no longer be bone of contention and the price rate bonus
can be justified as the hard work of painters.

Positive Consequences:
This will help to end the conflict between the employees and management. The
irritation can also be ended in this way if the other employees realize and convince
the justification of the management.

Negative Consequences:
The justification of the management to the employees may not be effective and can
make them furious. It may also lead to quit the job.

Feedback shall be taken from the employees at the end of every month and the
superintendent shall conduct a direct conversation with the employees to end
communication gap.

Positive Consequences:
The management will be well aware of the needs and demands of the employees and
their feedback will be taken as an object of improvement to improve the workplace
environment.
Management will be able to easily highlight and address the core issues and
problems that the employees are facing.

Negative Consequences:
Regular feedback cannot be a healthy exercise as the management may not always
fulfill the demands of the employees. Moreover, the employees upon knowing that
the feedback has been inefficient to address their issues, it can lead to a failure of
this exercise and a communication gap may develop.

Plan of Action:
The superintendent using his autocratic power restored the speed of hooks to
previous level and revoked the learning bonus after being besieged by the demands
of other employees. This caused more trouble at the workplace which led two
painters and supervisor to quit. After this, the production stopped again.

The aim is to restart the production unit and the plan of action is as follows:
We have planned to restart the production unit by recruiting the painters and the
supervisor who had quit the job earlier. The company will hire them again and shall
promise them to initiate the production on the previous working conditions. Under
these terms, the painters shall not be given the learning bonus. As in the new
working conditions, the production will increase which will benefit the painters in
price rate bonus. In order to address the reward issue and bonus, other employees of
the workplace shall be persuaded to continue their task on the previous rate however
these employees will get the monthly benefit of some additional revenue generated
through the increased production be added to their monthly wages. The consultant
will be a permanent office bearer.

We had to start the production as soon as possible to uplift the production graph of
the company so we figured it as the best plan of action.

Possible Consequences:
The possible consequences can be in the favor of the company as the plan of action
and solution is friendly to both the employees and the company. The strategy may
prove to be effective in the future as it is a friendly environment creating strategy.

Theory Application:
1) Behavior modification

The behavior modification Antecedents Behavior Consequences: The ABC

theory or Behavior modification is applicable here as the management used it to
consult and seeing the future consequences decided to accept the demands of
the painters.

2) Equity theory
Equity theory comprises of reward method Over Reward Equity Equity Under
Reward Equity: The reward allocation method shall be determined on the basis of
Equity. There was a misconception regarding reward allocation among other
employees which need to be justified on the basis of performance.

3) Reinforcement Theory
Reinforcement theory states that if an individual gets positive feedback about his
work then he repeats his actions again and again and got better results. This can
be applied on the employees other than painters who were feeling left out when
the painters were getting all the perks and appreciation.