The case study, Dilemma at Devil’s Den, presents us with numerous organizational challenges. The foundation of the case is on ethics, morality, and individual’s system and the manner in which it impacts on his/her perceptions and behaviors. The structure of the case study looks at the impacts of rewards and disciplinary actions towards employee behavior. The organization’s workers and their friends steal food and other valuables from the organization, and there is no management to supervise the night shift workers.
There are numerous challenges faced by Susan and other employees during the night shift. These include the fact that the manager does not pay attention to the actions and behaviors of employees who conduct night shift duties. Most of the workers and students take advantage of the situation to steal foodstuffs from the store and snack bar and give them to friends. The food store stays opened throughout the shift leading to the theft of food by the employees. The management does not pay attention to the occurrences during the shift as depicted when Susan reports theft by students to the manager. The manager’s response is slow and ineffective.
The Devil’s Den’s management structure is poor, has no experience and management skills. The management fails to instill better organizational culture in the workforce. They also fail to establish better control system within the firm as evidenced by the act of all employees getting access to the food store, and lack of a system to ensure that the store is under lock at all times, and someone gets assigned responsibility for the store.
The organization has also failed to establish a system of rewarding honest and hardworking employees and punishing dishonest and lazy employees (Price, 2007). The management, therefore, fails to depict ethical leadership to the employees.
Susan is a moral and ethical individual who is uncomfortable with her work environment. She faces a dilemma of doing what is right by halting the issuing of food by other workers to students without payment, and the fear of negative repercussions in case she takes such an action.
The management’s decision to disregard what happens within the firm influences Susan’s behavior and perceptions. Although she comprehends that the organization’s owners are not aware of the happenings, she prefers to concentrate on the dishonest employees and students. Susan believes that she can only make a change in the organization if she becomes a supervisor. She believes that in order to change the actions of the workers, she must get to the supervisory level of management. On the other hand, the action of the management negatively influences the behavior and perceptions of the other employees as no manager has stood against the vices (Shepard, 2010).
Though Susan tries to put across her grievances to the management, they ignore her, and, therefore, Susan should seek a solution to the challenges. She should seek an appointment with the day shift manager and see if he can address her grievances. Even though she has the option of being a whistle blower, she risks losing her job. She also fears being frowned at by others. Telling on the dishonest workmates would make her feel uncomfortable at work. The other available option is writing a cost/benefit analysis on retaining the hard working, honest, dedicated and talented employees in preference to the dishonest one, and presenting it to the management.
References:
Price, A. (2007). Human Resource Management in a Business Context. Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.: Cengage Learning EMEA.
Shepard, G. (2010). How to Manage Problem Employees: A Step-by-Step Guide for Turning Difficult Employees into High Performers. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.