Written Assignment #1 Ch. 1

Management Decision

Purpose 

Making decisions is part of every manager’s job. To
give you practice at managerial decision making, each chapter contains a
Management Decision assignment focused on a particular decision. You’ll need to
decide what to do in the given situation and then answer several questions to
explain your choices.  Make sure your
answers are in a paper format which expands on each idea.  Use APA format. 

MANAGING COMPANY PERKS

You’re in charge of a great company, and you love
going to work every day. Why wouldn’t you? Your employees get to do work they
enjoy because you give them freedom to be creative and let them use whatever
software and tools work best for them to be productive. Best of all, though, is
being the person who gives out the perks. Your employees are happy overall
because they can use flextime and the company daycare, and the insurance and
retirement benefits are excellent—onsite access to basic health care doesn’t
hurt, either. What’s more, they can get a healthy lunch for free in the company
cafeteria or a massage when they’re stressed out, and you’ve made a
company-owned four-bedroom beach house available to employees to use on
vacations. When things were going really well, you got to hand each employee
$1000 in cold hard cash as a bonus.

But the economic downturn
has hurt your company. You’re not exactly in danger of bankruptcy, but the
number of new clients decreased steadily during the last quarter and you’re
having a hard time matching employees’ contributions to their retirement funds.
It’s your job to figure out how to streamline the company’s expenses and see it
through the tough times. Every job has its downsides, but you dread this one.
You’re proud of your employees and want to keep them happy and productive. The
last thing you want to be is the bad guy who takes away all the perks.

So you come in to work early
and shut your office door, determined to buy yourself some time to think
through how to handle this difficult situation. You know that morale is
important if you want your employees to be productive and loyal, and these
perks are a real morale booster. You know that employees are going to be upset
if you take something away. On the other hand, they might not be so
upset if they have some say in the process. You’re also worried about how to
even break the news that cuts are needed. Will employees worry about the health
of the company and the security of their jobs? That would certainly be a
productivity-killer. As you think about what perks to cut and what perks to
keep, you’re very aware that some—like health insurance and onsite daycare—are
critical for some employees and would really affect their well-being at work,
while others—like access to the company BMW for business trips—are more like
icing on the cake. So you’re relieved to have some start at sorting out the
wheat from the chaff.

But this situation has also
made you think more seriously about perks in general. You recognize that perks
are generally a great thing for employees and for the company. But have you
created a culture of entitlement by giving them to everyone and not directly
linking at least some of them to performance? Maybe you can view this difficult
situation as an opportunity not just to trim the fat but to actually make your
perks system work better for you.

You have to make cuts. But
what cuts do you make that will keep your bottom line in the black and
keep your employees happy?

Source:C. Pentilla, “Employee Benefits in Today’s Economy,” Entrepreneur,
January 2009, 51-55.

Questions

1.  How is this decision
emblematic of your job as a manager and your transition into that position?

2.  What do you think is the
best way to break the news that some perks will have to be cut without causing
undue alarm among your employees?

3.  How do you give employees a
say in the process of deciding what gets cut? How much of a say do they get?
What kind of employee feedback would be most helpful to you in making a
decision?

4.  What cuts would you make?
Would you replace some perks with less-expensive perks? Would you restructure
the perks system to link some to performance? Come up with a new (hypothetical)
perks package for your employees. Explain your decisions.

Grading
Rubric

Organization
of the paper (flows, includes all necessary information)  5

Explanation
of results (thorough explanation of answers which utilizes the book, other
resources, stories, etc.)      10

APA, grammar, punctuation    5