Introduction TO OB CASE Study AND Questions(1)-1 PDF

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INTRODUCTION TO OB: CASE STUDY Birmingham Fitness Gym (BFGym) is a medium-sized gym that is very popular among the residents of Birmingham City Centre. The gym has an excellent location right at the heart of the city and is reputable for its friendly staff and amiable atmosphere. The gym consists of a main workout room along with a studio where designated courses take place. The gym used to have a breakout room for staff but this has recently been converted into another training space as the number of customers increased from 200 to 540 subscribers. In total, the gym employs 50 people, distributed among management, personal trainers, class instructors, administrators, and cleaners. Overall, BFGym has a clear operating structure. Management, consisting of former trainers, puts down a schedule of classes and sessions to be taught and cascades it down to its trainers. So far, customers seem to enjoy coming to the gym primarily because of the professional services that it provides and management was assured that the gym was being effectively managed with satisfied customers and engaged workforce. Strolling around the gym one day, Kate, the head of BFGym, was surprised to have overheard several of the employees talk about quitting their jobs. Knowing how crucial her employees are for the effective functioning of the gym, Kate took the remarks seriously and decided to look further into the issue. She wanted to gain more information in an attempt to keep her staff from quitting. After all, turnover costs are high and Kate did not want to disrupt the atmosphere at the gym. She started off by talking directly to the employees and found out several issues among the class instructors that need to be addressed. Philip, a 32-year-old class instructor, has been working in BFGym for the past 4 years. Philip is a spinning instructor and while he enjoys teaching and interacting with others, he reported being very bored and ‘un-inspired’ for having been assigned the same spinning class for the past year. He also complained that the attrition rate in the classes is quite high which deters him from forming effective instructor-trainee relationships. Philip was also upset with the new changes at the gym – particularly in changing the trainers’ breakout room to a 2 workout room. He felt that this massively affected the amount of quality social interaction that he gets. At many points during the day, he felt drained and out of energy. Another class instructor, Jane, is an enthusiastic Physical Education graduate who just enrolled in a master’s program in Sport Pedagogy. When she joined BFGym, Jane was under the impression that she will take on personal training sessions and have leverage into setting up training programs and classes. Much to her dismay, Jane was assigned to a schedule with a fixed routine where she has back to back classes. When expressing her desire to change some of the exercises, management did not approve under the pretence that customers did not complain with the current offerings and thus, they did not see a need for change. Jane felt stagnated. Jo, another fitness instructor who has been at BFGym for the past 5 years, has mostly enjoyed a satisfactory career path at the gym. Being someone who prefers working with few people at a time, she has, for the large part, done personal training sessions. However, due to an increase in customer demands for classes, Jo was recently assigned classes instead of her one-

on-one training sessions. Having to interact with large groups of people proves energy consuming to Jo; she found herself completely drained after giving classes where she often has to shout to make herself heard. Moreover, while enjoying a lot of autonomy when being a personal trainer, she now has to go by the agreed upon classes set by management who often do amendments without consulting the instructors. For example, Jo was quite upset when they decreased the duration of one of her classes from 45 minutes to 30 minutes. On the other hand, Robin, another class instructor at the gym, reports feeling satisfied with his work. While he mentions that the class routines can be boring at times and that having more leverage would be good, he says that he makes ends meet with his current role and that this is what matters most. He was not thinking of leaving. Finally, Nick, an experienced trainer who just relocated from Nottingham to Birmingham appeared to be generally satisfied until he started noticing that he is being left with the classes that other trainers do not want to do – particularly those over the weekends and early in the mornings on weekdays. He started feeling that he is being unfairly treated and 3 that probably his colleagues are taking advantage that he is new in town. Kate noted these viewpoints and wondered how to address these complaints. One of her main objectives is to keep the gym smoothly running and ensure customer satisfaction. She knew very well that to realize her objectives, she needs to have a motivated workforce. One of the ways in which she set out doing so was asking her staff members to come up with solutions to their problems. Kate thought that by gaining ownership to potential solutions, she will have the gym ‘back on track’. Kate summoned the 5 trainers to a meeting where she tasked them with presenting their solutions in a week’s time, at the upcoming management meeting. Group Meeting: Philip, Jo, and Nick, Jane, and Robin Three days prior to the management meeting, Philip asked the rest of his group members to meet up to discuss potential solutions. While they all did not find it ideal to hold the meeting after working hours, they had no choice given the full schedule they had at the gym. Being dominant as he is, Philip instantly assumes the leadership position to organise the task at hand. He kicks off the meeting by asking group members for their desired solutions. As everyone tries to contribute, Nick’s input is somehow discarded. Although Nick felt bad during the meeting, he refrained from voicing his opinion. Nick felt that he did not belong to the group; the remaining members have known each other for quite some time and felt left out. He remained silent for the rest of the meeting. While Philip noticed that Nick was not contributing anymore, he felt he had neither the time nor the energy to deal with the issue and left things as they were. On the other hand, Robin and Jo did not really have much to bring to the table. Whatever Philip suggested, they adopted. Throughout the meeting, they appeared agitated and wanted to get it done with. They thought that they have already had a long and tiring day at the gym and would just want to make it home to their families by dinner time. Philip was quite unhappy with Robin’s and Jo’s attitude – he also wanted to go home but felt responsible for finishing the task at hand. When Philip confronted Robin and Jo that they are being negative

and impeding the group’s progress, both parties exchanged some harsh accusations that were only settled down when Jane interfered. The main contributor in the group meeting was Jane. Being enthusiastic as she is, she actively tried to come up with creative solutions to their problems. She not only considered her own preferences but was also keen on giving suggestions that would benefit the other trainers. The rest of the team members respected Jane for her ideas and for her initiative. Jane was generally bothered with the strict structure at the gym and jumped at the opportunity of providing suggestions and being heard. Philip was very pleased with Jane’s input; he took her points on board and displayed them in the group presentation. COURSEWORK REQUIREMENT You are required to write a 1500-word essay (+/- 10%, excluding references, tables, figures, and appendices) analysing some of the OB issues at BFGym. Please answer one question from the follow: 1. What is the dominant culture at BFGym? Based on what you learnt on culture, what would a more suitable culture be and why? 2. In light of leadership theories, analyse the leadership of Kate and Philip. Compare and contrast their leadership styles. What recommendations would you give them to be better leaders? 3. With respect to power, how do Philip and Jane differ in their sources of power? What recommendations would you give them to gain better influence with 1) their group members and 2) the management team? 4. Analyse the organisational context within both micro and macro-economic factors. What types of interventions could be employed given the stage of development of the organisational life cycle in order to offset, delay or mitigate a pathway of decline? Layout 1. Use font 12 2. Double line space the essay 3. APA or Harvard referencing HOW TO ANSWER 1. Start with an overall introduction that sets the tone of the essay 2. Select the topic that you are most comfortable with and you feel you know the most about 3. Always, ALWAYS, answer the questions in light of theory/OB concepts/evidence – this is an academic essay and not an essay on your personal opinion 4. Use resources that are credible and reliable – for example, never cite Wikipedia, tutornotes.com, businessballs.com… and the likes in an academic essay. When you want to

support your argument, go on scholar.google.com (or Aston’s Smart Search) and find evidence there 5. Be critical in your approach – evaluate actions from the case and use theory and evidence to support your critical appraisal. You are also invited to appraise the used theories 6. Do not restate what is in the case. You can use examples from the case to support your point but make sure you use the word count to analyse and answer the question in relation to OB theories 7. Have an overall conclusion to the essay 8. Use proper citations – either APA or Harvard referencing 9. Proof read your essay prior to submission. Make sure the essay flows and is logical in structure...