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CASE STUDY 1

Ms. Priyanka is a store manager of one of the fourteen Hàppy Home Furniture outlets that are 

located at all the major cities in the country. Her staff consists of twelve salespersons and 

support personnel. Each salesperson. is paid commission based on sales. All the salespersons 

are expected to do other tasks, such as assisting the merchandise manager, arranging the 

displays, and handling customer complaints. These tasks, and a few others, are to be shared 

equally among the sales persons. 

The store's sales target is established at the headquarters of the furniture chain. This target is 

divided by the number of salespersons and each is expected to meet his or her personal target 

Mr. Ranjan, is the top salesperson at the outlet. When he misses his sales goal, which seldom 

happens, the store's target is usually not met. Ranjan, however, often does not help in doing the 

common tasks, much to the frustration of the other eleven salespeople, who feel that if they do 

not handle the common tasks, they will be fired.

Recently, Ms. Priyanka noticed that one of her salespeople, Mr. Manish„ made careless errors, 

neglected clients, and did not do his share of the common tasks. When confronted by the store 

manager, he complained about Mr. Ranjan., who, in his opinion, got away with doing almost 

nothing. After this discussion, Ms. Priyanka began to observe the salespersons more closely 

and noticed that most of them neglected their work and were not cooperative. 

The store manager felt that something had to be done. A talk with Mr. Ranjan had little effect. 

Yet, the store needed Ranjan because of his excellent sales record. On the other hand, the 

morale of the other salespersons had begun to deteriorate.

Questions: 

1.    What Should Ms. Priyanka do?

Mr. Priyanka should think about the moral training of sales persons first then think about the following aspects

1. Identify The Different Types Of Ethical Training she Can Include

All quality training begins with a training needs analysis. In the case of ethics training for employees, you might consider focusing on one or more of the following areas:

·         Ethical conduct, both in and out of the office

·         Customer privacy and data protection

·         Company code of ethics

·         Common ethical dilemmas

·         Company culture

·         Customer relations

·         Regulatory and compliance training

·         Diversity training

Keep in mind, too, that ethics training is not a “one and done” solution to a single concrete issue. The goal of different types of ethics training is to teach employees to make good decisions that are consistent with your company’s culture. This may need to be reinforced in a variety of situations over time as her industry changes.

2. Train Employees Where They Are

You know what your employees need, and it’s not a monthly lecture on how to be a good person. You hired them. Chances are good that your employees are already quality humans. So train those humans in the way they want to be trained.

While it’s sometimes good to have a round-table discussion about what ethical behavior is and to role-play tricky situations, sometimes employees just need a quick reminder on a regulation update or changes to laws on compliance. Consider microlearning options to deliver this type of information, just in time and where they need it.

For more extended conversations, both eLearning and instructor-led trainings have their advantages. While eLearning allows employees to complete activities and trainings on their own schedule, supplementing online activities with juicy, in-person conversations provides variety and interactions to clarify often difficult material.

3. Get Your Leadership Involved

Let’s be honest. If your leadership isn’t 100% behind ethics trainings for employees, they may be sending the message that ethics are not very important.

Ethical leaders are committed to working with ethical employees. Chances are good they have some ideas about what they’d like to focus on. Get leadership involved and committed from the very beginning.

4. Consider Incentives

New research suggests that incentives for employees work. Consider offering gift cards, afternoons off, or other small bonuses for employees who go above and beyond and put their training into action.

5. Create Common Goals And Identity

Part of articulating your ethical company culture and getting leadership involved is the journey to creating common goals and a unified company identity. Get really clear about who your company is and what it stands for. It worked for Patagonia, and on the surface they are just selling clothes.

Make your mission statement the driving force behind everything you do and every decision you make. It can be as simple as being the company that always does the right thing, or the one that won’t rest until the customer is satisfied.

6. Make It Fun

We get it. Employee trainings of any kind can be a bit of a slog, and employee pushback can be intense. There are ways to make things more fun, though, even when it comes to serious discussions.

Even though ethics are a serious business, gamification and role-playing can help lighten the mood a bit, or at least get employees thinking in a different way.

7. But, Take It Seriously

Sure, it’s easy to make fun of ethics training for employees – seems like everyone has a ready joke at hand.

However, if your goal is for employees to represent your company with respect and consideration, functioning as a team where everyone is appreciated, supported, and heard, you need to take this type of training seriously. Give it the time, space, and resources it needs to be done well.

CASE STUDY 2

MR. Ketan Parekh had worked his way up through the technical arm of ANC Company to 

become chief Engineer and the General Manager of the Avionics Division. He was an important 

inventor and innovator, in basic frequency-modulated continuous wave (FM-CW) Doppler 

radar technology. This Fm-cw technology gave Avionics a world leadership position in Doppler 

radar equipment design and production, All Avionics equipment design were state of the art at 

the time of their design, a result of the importance research and development engineering for 

the department's future. 

As the division grew and Avionics's success with Doppler systems brought large increases in 

sales, Mr. Ketan's preoccupations became considerably more managerially than technical. He 

began to reassess some of his own thinking about organizations. The organization appeared 

too weak, both structurally and managerially, to cope with the increasing complexity of his division's activities. Mr. Ketan was finding it impossible to cope with the number of major 

decisions that had to be made. Six major programs and several minor ones were in different 

stages of design and/or production. All had different customers, sometimes in different 

countries. Every program's product although they were all Doppler radar systems, was 

significantly different from every other one, particularly in its technology. Nevertheless the 

programs had to share manufacturing facilities, major items of capital equipment, and 

specialized functions. Mr. Ketan felt he had to find some way to force the whole decision 

process down to some level below his own.

Question: 

1.    What is the principal problem with ANC's existing organizational Structure?

A company with a strong organizational structure benefits from improved communication, a well-defined hierarchy and the ability to create a unified company message. As efficient as organizational structure can be, it can also create problems that can lead to loss of productivity and internal conflict. In order to maintain a robust company framework, you need to be able to identify issues within an organizational structure and deal with them as they occur.

Principal problem with ANC’s existing organizational structure are

Changes Brought on by New Management

If there have not been changes in management for many years, then the company will start to settle into a way of doing things that is efficient and comfortable for the existing management team. Changes in management, for whatever reason, can put a strain on the organizational structure of an organization. The new manager, or managers, may be unfamiliar with the way the organizational structure has been run for years and try to put a new spin on how things should be run. There is an adjustment period for employees and other managers.

Effective Communication Keeps a Business Running Smoothly

Effective communication is required to keep an organizational structure running smoothly. Without communication, new ideas and processes can get confused. Managers may begin to redouble efforts in an attempt to claim certain parts of a process as their own.

This is why executive communication to the rest of the company is critical to the success of any organizational structure. If departments are not clear on precisely what their responsibilities are, then the ensuing confusion can slow production down.

Communication About Company Goals

When upper management creates departmental goals for the rest of the company without first consulting with the managers of those departments, the company runs the risk of not making its goals. In order for an organizational structure to be effective, goal-making needs to be a two-way process. When upper management does not seek the input of the rest of the company to create company goals, then resentment can set in and morale begins to drop.

CASE STUDY 3

Mr. Sachin, the Sales manager of the Blue Ridge Furniture Company, had just completed a two-

week trip auditing customer accounts and prospective accounts in the southern states. His 

primary intention was to do follow-up work on prospective accounts contacted by sales staff 

members during the past six months. Prospective clients were usually furniture dealers or 

large department stores with furniture departments. 

To his amazement, Mr. Sachin discovered that almost all the so-called prospective accounts 

were fictitious. The people had obviously turned in falsely documented field reports and 

expense statements. Company salespeople had actually called upon 3 of 22 reported furniture 

stores or department stores. Thus. Mr. Sachin summarized that salespeople had falsely claimed 

approximately 85 percent of the goodwill contacts. Further study showed that all salespeople 

had followed this general practice and that not one had a clean record.

M r. Sachin decided that immediate action was mandatory although the salespeople were 

experienced senior individuals. Angry as he was, he would have preferred, firing them. But 

he was responsible for sales and realized that replacing the staff would seriously cripple the 

sales program for the coming year.

Questions

1. As Mr. Sachin, what would you do now to resolve the problem of the false 

reports? (10)

As Mr. Sachin to resolve the problem of the false reports follow the following

1.Only send email to customers who have opted to receive them. Encourage them to sign up through some kind of promotion or newsletter.

 2.Make the unsubscribe option prominent. Too often recipients hit the spam button simply to get off the list. Make it easy by offering an unsubscribe option that can be found easily. Our G-Lock EasyMail7 email marketing software provides you with a ready to use unsubscribe link. You can merge it into the message with just two mouse clicks. And after each email campaign, you can use the Bounce Handler in G-Lock EasyMail7 to process unsubscribe requests as well as bounce messages.

 3.Never buy a list. These are typically inaccurate and filled with old or defunct email addresses. Save your money!

 4. Be true to the expectations of your recipients. If you promise them a weekly newsletter and then start adding promotional emails into the mix, you are asking for recipients to hit the spam button. Keep those lists separate.

 5. Create professional-looking emails. Use clean and well-designed templates or hire a designer and do it right. People do not respond to poorly conceived and executed email messages. Do not try to game the system by using "Fwd" or "Re" to trick filters into believing your message continues a prior conversation. In G-Lock EasyMail7, there is a rich Templates Store with professionally created responsive email designs that you can install and use on the fly to create your email newsletters.

 6. Include certain important elements in emails. These include a "from" address, a physical address and a strong brand presence.

 7. Contact interested subscribers immediately. Do not sit on your growing list for weeks at a time. People are busy. If you wait too long, they may not remember they once had an interest in your products. This could make your first message wind up in the spam filter. Timeliness pays off.

 8. Create a confirmed opt-in option. Confirmed opt-in has become the most common way to get a subscriber. Users sign up with their email address online and then receive a confirmation link in an email. If they click on the subscription link, it's a done deal. Finally, spam-check services exist to allow you to see if your email message will avoid filters. Use them wisely. Email campaigns require a lot of work, and you don't want it to go to waste because the messages end up caught by spam filters.

CASE STUDY 5

Preeti was promoted three months ago from reservations supervisor to front-desk manager for 

Regency Hotel, an independent, 330-room hostelry. She enjoys her new management 

responsibilities and is pleased that the occupancy rate averaged 94 percent last month, way 

above the industry average. But at times she feels stressed by the confusion of managing all 

front-end operations of the hotel, from reservations and cashiering to the bell desk and 

concierge. She feels most at home handling the reservation function, a task she always enjoyed 

as a trainee because she likes to help people. About once a week the staff in the reservation 

function overbooks rooms, usually because of incomplete scans of conference sales files. 

Customers with reservations w,0110 arrive late are upset when they have to be referred 1, 

nearby hotels. Whenever overbooking occurs, Ms. eti takes over direct control of the 

reservations operation herself, often personally handling reservations for two or three days 

until order seems to return. 

But sometimes while Ms. Preeti is off focusing on the reservations task, other problems arise. 

On five days last month, clerks at the reception desk checked in every "walk-in" who appeared 

without reservations. They assumed there would be ample no-shows among those holding 

reservations. On one occasion, Regency ended up oversold by 24 rooms. Mr. Alex, the hotel 

general manager, is concerned about Ms. Preeti's development into her new management 

position. He knows Ms. Preeti is proud of the high occupancy levels (which mean greater 

profits) and doesn't want to destroy that pride. However, he sees her as more interested in individual staff tasks (such as making reservations) than in the complexities of managing, 

training, and motivating her staff. He has talked with Ms. Preeti about balancing her activities 

as a manager. Alex emphasized that she needs to make sure her staff knows the systems and 

guidelines and be firm with employees who continue to check in guests when the hotel 

obviously will be overbooked. He plans to meet with her in a three-month performance review 

to see if he can shift her motivational expectations about the job. 

Question: 

1. Do Ms. Preeti's problems seem to be the result of her lack of motivational immaturity or of her lack of motivational attention to her people? 

Yes. It will lead to lack of motivational immaturity for Ms. Preeti.

A drop in staff motivation can become contagious if the cause is not identified and addressed. Management needs to be conscious of employee motivation, and that means being able to identify the factors that cause a lack of motivation in the workplace. Become familiar with the factors that can degrade staff motivation and design plans to combat these productivity killers.

The important thing to remember about rumors is that they are not always wrong. Some rumors have basis in fact, but that does not make them good for employee morale. An employee that hears a rumor that she may be laid off experiences an instant drop in motivation. To deal with the problem of rumors in the workplace, it is important for management to share important information with the staff in a timely manner. This helps employees to feel confident that management will address rumors and encourages staff members to wait on information from the company before acting on a rumor.

Employees are motivated to succeed at jobs for which they feel prepared and properly trained. Before moving an employee into a position of greater responsibility or before allowing any changes to an employee's job duties, be certain that employee has had the training needed to get started. Putting an employee in a position where she feels she has inadequate job skills will erode the employee's confidence and stifle any motivation to succeed.

Employees are not motivated by the notion that their hard work will make company owners and executives rich, organizational change consultant Paul Levesque writes on the Entrepreneur website. The more internalized a company's goals sound, the less motivated employees are to fulfill those goals. The company needs to focus on the customer and give employees a chance to feel as though it has done something substantial to help the customer. For example, develop a referral program that encourages customers that have recently purchased products to recommend other people that your sales professionals can call on. The company and sales staff benefit from the increase in business, but the sales staff also gets to see the appreciation of past clients in the form of potential new business.

Employees that are overworked are likely to lose motivation regardless of how much overtime pay they are receiving. If you know a period is coming where extra hours will need to be worked, develop a schedule in advance and give your employees ample warning so they can make preparations in their personal life. Make sure the staff schedule still allows employees to spend time with their families and get away from the stress of working too much.

The best-known theory of motivation is probably Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. He pro­posed that people are motivated by a predictable five-step hierarchy of needs. According to Maslow, most individu­als are not consciously aware of these needs; yet we all supposedly proceed up the hierarchy of needs, one level at a time.

The highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy involves self-realization needs. These reflect our desires to realize our full potential. It is the need “to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.” It is related to self-concept. It gives self-fulfillment. It requires continuous self-development. It is rarely fulfilled.

After describing these five classes, Maslow separated these five needs into higher and lower levels. Physiological and safety needs were described as lower-order needs, and social, esteem, and self-actualization needs were called as higher-order needs. This difference was made to emphasize that the higher-order needs are satisfied inter­nally, whereas lower-order needs are mainly satisfied externally.

According to this theory, people attempt to satisfy their physiological needs first. Until these needs are not satisfied, they dominate behaviour. When physiological needs are reasonably well-satisfied, the next category of safety needs become active and dominant demanding satisfaction. This process continues up to the top rung of the ladder of human needs. These needs are interdepen­dent and overlapping.

Maslow says that a higher-order need arises only when a lower-level need is completely satisfied. Only unsatisfied needs motivate behaviour. A man gets motivation only when he is deprived of or threatened with deprivation of some need. A satisfied need ceases to be a motivator. 

CASE STUDY 7

Dabur is among the top five FMCG companies in India and is positioned successfully on the

specialist herbal platform. Dabur has proven its expertise in the fields of health care, personal care,

home care and foods. The company was founded by Dr. S. K. Burman in 1884 as small pharmacy in 

Calcutta (now Kolkata), India. And is now led by his great grandson Vivek C. Burman, who is the 

Chairman of Dabur India Limited and the senior most representative of the Burman family in the 

company. The company headquarter is in Ghaziabad, India, near the Indian capital New Delhi, 

where it is registered. The company has over 12 manufacturing units in India and abroad. The 

international facilities are located in Nepal, Dubai, Bangladesh, Egypt and Nigeria. S.K. Burman, the 

founder of Dabur, was trained as a physician. His mission was to provide effective and affordable 

cure for ordinary people in far-flung villages. Soon, he started preparing natural remedies based on 

Ayurveda for diseases such as Cholera, Plague and Malaria. Due to his cheap and effective remedies, 

he became to be known as ‘Daktar’ (Indian izedversion of ‘doctor’). And that is how his venture 

Dabur got its name—derived from Daktar Burman. The company faces stiff competition from many 

multinational and domestic companies. In the Branded and Packaged Food and Beverages segment 

major companies that are active include Hindustan Lever, Nestle, Cadbury and Dabur. In case of 

Ayurvedic medicines and products, the major competitors are Baidyanath, Vicco, Jhandu, Himani 

and other pharmaceutical companies.

Vision statement of Dabur says that the company is “dedicated to the health and wellbeing of every 

household”. The objective is to “significantly accelerate profitable growth by providing comfort to 

others”. For achieving this objective Dabur aims to:

· Focus on growing core brands across categories, reaching out to new geographies, within 

and outside India, and improve operational efficiencies by leveraging technology.

· Be the preferred company to meet the health and personal grooming needs of target 

consumers with safe, efficacious, natural solutions by synthesizing deep knowledge of 

Ayurveda and herbs with modern science.

· Be a professionally managed employer of choice, attracting, developing and retaining 

quality personnel.

· Be responsible citizen with a commitment to environmental protection.

· Provide superior returns, relative to our peer group, to our shareholders.

Chairman of the company

Vivek C. Burman joined Dabur in 1954 after completing his graduation in Business Administration 

from the USA. In 1986 he was appointed as the Managing Director of Dabur and in 1998 he took 

over as Chairman of the Company. 

Under Vivek Burman’s leadership, Dabur has grown and evolved as a multi-crore business house 

with a diverse product portfolio and a marketing network that traverses the whole of India and 

more than 50 countries across the world. As a strong and positive leader, Vivek C. Burman had

motivated employees of Dabur to “do better than their best”—a credo that gives Dabur its status as 

India’s most trusted nature-based products company.

Leading brands

More than 300 diverse products in the FMCG, Healthcare and Ayurveda segments are in the product 

line of Dabur. List of products of the company include very successful brands like Vatika, Anmol, 

Hajmola, Dabur Amla Chyawanprash, Dabur Honey and Lal Dant Manjan with turnover of Rs.100 

crores each.

Strategic positioning of Dabur Honey as food product, lead to market leadership with over 40% 

market share in branded honey market; Dabur Chyawanprash is the largest selling Ayurvedic 

medicine with over 65% market share. Dabur is a leader in herbal digestives with 90% market 

share. Hajmola tablets are in command with 75% market share of digestive tablets category. Dabur

Lal Tail tops baby massage oil market with 35% of total share.

CHD (Consumer Health Division), dealing with classical Ayurvedic medicines, has more than 250 

products sold through prescription as well as over the counter. Proprietary Ayurvedic medicines 

developed by Dabur include Nature Care Isabgol, Madhuvaani and Trifgol.

However, some of the subsidiary units of Dabur have proved to be low margin business; like Dabur 

Finance Limited. The international units are also operating on low profit margin. The company also 

produces several “me – too” products. At the same time the company is very popular in the rural 

segment.

Questions

1.                     What is the objective of Dabur? Is it profit maximisation or growth maximisation? Discuss.

Objectives are:

·      Focus on growing core brands across categories, reaching out to new geographies, within and outside India, and improve operational efficiencies by leveraging technology.

·      Be the preferred company to meet the health and personal grooming needs of target consumers with safe, efficacious, natural solutions by synthesising deep knowledge of ayurveda and herbs with modern science.

·      Be a professionally managed employer of choice, attracting, developing and retaining quality personnel.

·      Be responsible citizens with a commitment to environmental protection.

·      Provide superior returns, relative to our peer group, to our shareholders.

It is a Growth Maximisation.

Profit maximization is traditional objective of a firm. Sales maximization objective is explained by Prof. Boumal. On similar lines, Prof. Marris has developed another alternative growth maximization model in recent years. It is a common factor to observe that each firm aims at maximizing its growth rate as this goal would answer many of the objectives of a firm.

Marris points out that a firm has to maximize its balanced growth rate over a period of time.
Marris assumes that the ownership and control of the firm is in the hands of two groups of people, i.e. owner and managers. He further points out that both of them have two distinctive goals. Managers have a utility function in which the amount of salary, status, position, power, prestige and security of job etc are the most import variable where as in case of are more concerned about the size of output, volume of profits, market shares and sales maximization.
Utility function of the manager and that the owner are expressed in the following manner-
Uo= f [size of output, market share, volume of profit, capital, public esteem etc.]
Um= f [salaries, power, status, prestige, job security etc.]
In view of Marris the realization of these two functions would depend on the size of the firm.