MSTM 6022 Case Study 1 Submitted Fresh to Table PDF

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Case Study Analysis #1: Fresh to Table Case Analysis...

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Case Study Analysis #1 : Fresh to Table Case Analysis Heron, Justin Heron Ronald Kalani Memorial University MSTM6022

Contents Executive Summary.........................................................................................................................3 Overview of Situation......................................................................................................................4 Problem Statement...........................................................................................................................5 Analysis...........................................................................................................................................5 Solutions Development....................................................................................................................7 SWOT Analysis............................................................................................................................7 Alternatives......................................................................................................................................8 Alternative 1: Employees placed on a probationary period and restrictions on slack Communications...........................................................................................................................8 Alternative 2: Employees are fired from the company................................................................9 Status Quo....................................................................................................................................9 Proposed Course of Action and Explanation of Rationale..............................................................9 Findings and Managerial Recommendations.................................................................................11 References......................................................................................................................................12 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Executive Summary.............................................3 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Overview of Situation..........................................4 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Problem Statement...............................................5 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Analysis................................................................5 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Solutions Development........................................7 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.SWOT Analysis................................................7 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Alternatives..........................................................8 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Alternative 1: Employees placed on a probationary period and restrictions on slack Communications............................................................8

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Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Alternative 2: Employees are fired from the company ..........................................................................................................................................8 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Status Quo.........................................................9 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Proposed Course of Action and Explanation of Rationale .............................................................................................................................................9 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.Findings and Managerial Recommendations.....11 Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.References..........................................................11

Table 1: SWOT analysis for Fresh to Table Table 2: Pros and Cons of alternative 1 Table 3: Pros and Cons of alternative 2

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Executive Summary

Fresh to Table (FtT) is a relatively new software-as-a-service company serving restaurants with solutions that help minimize waste, maximize freshness, and audit supply chains. FtT had recently terminated their Office Manager for poor performance and inadvertently discovered that

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several other current employees were misusing the office communication tool, Slack, to insult and demean their coworkers. This revelation came as a big surprise to FtT management who prided themselves on developing a strong company culture. FtT must now determine how best to respond to the behavior of the remaining employees and how company policy can be changed to prevent reoccurrence.

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Overview of Situation Fresh to Table (FtT) began as a software-as-a-service startup in Boise, Idaho, to revolutionize the way chefs at luxury hotels and restaurants purchased locally produced foods. Over the following four years, FtT developed a team of over 120 employees with various objectives, including enhancing food quality, enhancing operational efficiency, eliminating waste, optimizing freshness, and boosting safety. Erik Mossberger as its CEO and founder, the firm recruited a workforce with an average age of 26, including Dwayne Fisher, the COO, and Anika Jensen, the VP of Human Resources. Mossberger intended to develop a well-paid, highly engaged, long termand steady staff. because of the employees' young. To ensure that its workers felt appreciated and created a happy work atmosphere, FtT offered both standard benefits and lifestyle-oriented perks. FtT wanted its staff to behave as "hospitality agents" within the office in exchange for providing such fantastic benefits. Expectations connected with this notion included going out of their way to greet customers, treat coworkers with respect, and respond to customer crises with an "all hands-on deck" attitude. However, not all staff relished the added strain, despite their enthusiasm for their jobs and FtT (Mukunda & Holtom, 2017). The case examines the consequences of having workers who disagree with the company's core principles and engage in unethical behavior that affecteds their work, and and the work and sentiments of others, and the company's reputation. Hillary Showalter was FtT's first office manager and receptionist, and she initially excelled at her job. at first. However, she eventually developed unprofessional habits over time. After remedial measures neutralization wereas attempted, she continued to make mistakes, including posting inappropriate comments on social media, leaving the only option to fire her. Showalter continued to act unprofessionally after her termination, even threatening the company. After reviewing Showalter's work, it was discovered that she, with three other employees and of which two of them had recently been promoted, were using Slack in an unprofessional manner. Slack, the company's internal communication technology, was used to take advantage of FtT, criticizing those who worked with her. This revelation caused Mossberger to reconsider his organization's fundamental beliefs, his belief that

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the organization was a close-knit community, the organization's use of technology, and what he couldcan/should do about the other culpable workers (Mukunda & Holtom, 2017).

Problem Statement FtT, a four-year-old software company, takes much care of its employees and tries to make itself the best workplace. Employees have several benefits such as bonuses, leaves, and small gifts received on personal occasions to make them believe that the company supports them at every event. It has been identified that despite offering many benefits to employees, some FtT staff of the employees were behaving in appropriatelyusing unethical strategies, by such as discouraging current employees and potential any new employees from working at FtT. The company’s communication software named Slack was being used by disgruntled employees to undermine the as the paramount communication to effect the unethical strategy against company’s core values. Mossberger, Fisher, and Jensen, the company management, met to discuss their options after identifying the employees involved in the unethical slacking act that involved both company employees and non-employees. The management meeting also , involved planning to put restrictions in place to prevent such actions from happening again (Harvard Business School Case Study). FtT management need to delicately balance dealing with the remaining employees who were involved in the ‘Slacker’ activity without irrevocably damaging company morale. Changes to company culture and vision are also likely required as the existing model clearly contributed to the employee problems.

Analysis Fresh to Table is a four-year-old software-as-a-service startup that serves the hotel sector. Mossberger, the business's founder and CEO, felt his firm was founded on close-knit family principles, which may have been an overly optimistic management stylewhich was impossible from the start. The organization demonstrated that they care about theirits employees and are dedicated to creating the most pleapleasantsing working environment. They would provide bonuses, leave, and modest presents at personal events to indicate that they care about their workers' jobs and personal life. However, the company's actions did not reflect its beliefs and

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resulted in a slew of difficulties with employee relationships. Some even believed his insistence on 'loving' FtT was oppressive and overwhelming. Mossberger's dedication to building a stable and engaged team was admirable; nevertheless, it has resulted in a few employees having improper conversations about their employer and coworkers during work hours. Coworkers instinctively chat to one another and form connections because of spending so much time together. Throughout the example, it was demonstrated that professional and personal lives might get interwoven due to emotional decisions, and disputes may emerge because of things blurring the boundary between coworker and friend. Personal life distractions may also impact job performance and lead professional and personal lives to get intertwined. Situations outside of work, such as family or marital problems, might harm job performance. Throughout the case study, several factors resulted in considerable disagreements. Poor leadership styles, for example, notably with Mossberger. He acted in ways inconsistent with the company's core values, such asand mainly when he advertised Showalter’s the job on Craigslist before terminating her.'s List, there was indication that of much stress among the personnel. FtT was a corporation that recruited primarily a lot of younger employeespeople, with a median age of 26. Because they had to work long and stressful hours, each employee had a poor work-life balance. Even outside of their official office hours, they are expected to work and answer emails. One of the slack comments in Eexhibit 3 stated that their inbox email was full and that they couldn’t handle the volume of emails. 'simply cannot handle.' Another person revealed that they were obligated to attend a Happy Hour and were trying to avoid it. According to Mukunda & Holtom, 2017, Eeveryone requires a healthy work-life balance, not just young adults. Although Mossberger emphasizes the need for a healthy work-life balance, it was not offered to his staff as stated. Good health, relationships, and general productivity help in achieving a good work-life balance. When an employee is stressed and overworked, his or her physical and mental health may be affecteddistorted. Another sourcecause of contention , in this case, was communication. Miscommunication can be caused by the Slack communication channel, excessive policies, and the leaders' actions. In the employee's defense, it is possible that they misinterpreted the purpose of the channel and overlooked the regulations about appropriate conversations.limits between their conversations. In the employee's defense, Tthey may have also misread the channel or failed to distinguish between personal and professional life. The

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company grants its employees the right to use company resources to perform company-related tasks, and grants access rights on the basis of appropriate use. However, this policy prohibits employees from sharing, displaying, or transmitting materials that are believed to cause a hostile work environment, including obscene materials, pornography, and racial defamation and other negative behaviors. The FtT case presents two primary types of conflict: relationship and process. Showalter and the ‘Slackers’ have poor interpersonal relationships with other employees and FtT management in particular [ CITATION Lan19 \l 1033 ][ CITATION Muk17 \l 1033 ]. Likewise, the ‘Slackers’ and Mossberger and Jensen have a process conflict over how FtT should be operating, how employees should be treating clients and how FtT is run in general [ CITATION Lan19 \l 1033 ][ CITATION Muk17 \l 1033 ]. The FtT case demonstrates two primary loci of conflict, Interpersonal and Intragroup. Showalter’s work ideology clashed with Mossberger and Jensen and the ‘Slackers’ as a whole clashed with the FtT management team over company culture and how employees should behave, especially towards clients [ CITATION MST \l 1033 ]. Conflict ingredients demonstrated in the case study include the incompatible values of Showalter and the ‘Slackers’ with FtT’s stated corporate values [ CITATION MST \l 1033 ][ CITATION Muk17 \l 1033 ].

Solutions Development. SWOT Analysis The management should have a face-to-face discussion about the issue with the HR team. The employees should be informed that the internal social media channels should be used for constructive discussions only and that any unprofessional conduct will be dealt with seriously in the future by punitive action. To avoid the misuse of internal communications, management must set instructions at the login page, where workers must consent before being permitted to use the

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platform. Apart from that, a person should be assigned to monitor the portal's comments and remove any controversial contentstuff that might be harmful.

Table 1: SWOT analysis for Fresh to Table Strengths -Because of the consent form on the login screen, employees would be extra careful when utilizing the platform.

Weaknesses -Employees would not express their emotions since they believe their activities wereare being monitoredwatched.

Opportunities

Threats

-Excessive monitoring and control may -A forum would be used by the firm where a be a sign of distrust, and workers may constructive conversation may generate new get unhappy because of not being able to ideas and improve the platform's professional express themselves freely. structure. Alternatives Alternative 1: Employees placed on a probationary period and restrictions on slack Communications Table 2: Pros and Cons of alternative 1

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Alternative One Pros

Cons

-Maintain order and productivity, saving resources.

-Possibility that same problem may happen again.

-Improved communication between management and employees.

- Difficult in exercising maintaining company values.

-Opportunity to find the root causes and solve it.

-Disgruntled employees may seek revenge.

Alternative 2: Employees are fired from the company Table 3: Pros and Cons of alternative 2 Alternative 2 Pros

Cons

-Source of conflict is eliminated.

-Hampering of company success.

-Integrity of company values are maintained.

-Origin of stress that may cause more conflict with remaining employees.

- Management correcting their mistakes

-Cause of conflict may not be solved.

Status Quo Continuing to do what they are doing is one of the options for Fresh to Table Company, but this option will not help the company solve the issue of communication and leadership gap.

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The management will have to greatly improve on their implementation of the company core values to be able to provide a conducive work environment for both current and yet to be employees. The case indicates how present and yet to be employees were being discouraged by current employees at FtT. Proposed Course of Action and Explanation of Rationale Mossberger and Jensen should not terminate the three employees, but rather place them on probation or a personal improvement plan (alternative 1), as the company tries to find out the root cause of the issues and put in place corrective actions. The employees may be able to understand their mistakes and think before acting, thus giving them a chance to improve. Personal improvement plan could lead to establishment of improved communication between management and employees, which encourages constructive feedback rather than disruptive conflict. However, if the source of the problem is the employee's internal personality factors, the same problem that happened with Hillary could potentially occur again. If that situation arose, further termination actions would be required. The swift firing of the four workers implicated may cause unrest among other employees, including existing and potential workers who may be outraged or terrified, since it makes FtT appear severe. It contradicts their desire to create a pleasant work atmosphere and advance their careers. Firing these people might negatively influence other employees' productivity since a considerable quantity of work would have to be picked up promptly, adding to their already heavy workload. This is a particularly troubling issue since it relates to the stress these young adults are experiencing and how it interferes with their work-life balance. Finally, recruiting additional personnel would be a significant financial outlay for FtT. They would have to be employed and trained, which would cost the business extra money and time. Another option would be to let the four employees leave the firm after a while, successfully resolving the cause of dispute while maintaining the organization's ideals. This move would create a precedent for future workers, and the organization may get tremendous respect as a result. In this case, however, the disadvantages exceeded the advantages. If these three workers were fired, it would suggest that the lack of communication and the initial sources of conflict had not been appropriately addressed. In addition, if the transition is not seamless, the

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probability of the problem reoccurring is considerable. The remaining employees would be stressed, and there would be increased friction due to the termination. Mossberger and Jensen should have acknowledged workplace tensions. The most common cause of workplace conflict may be leadership style. Employees may be bewildered by different leadership styles, resulting in a variety of conflicts. Dwayne Fisher, for example, was a quiet leader with a conflict-avoidance management style. In the case, he stated, "I sensed something was not quite right." For a long time, this group has been bugging me.' That indicated his failure to act or speak out, which may have prevented the disagreement from becoming violent. Anika Jensen demonstrated a collaborative approach to dispute resolution. When there were complaints, she weighed the employees' concerns as well as Showalter's. Jensen had a high level of empathy, which is critical in a leader. Throughout the case, she has shown compassion and a desire to hear both sides of a story. Erik Mossberger, on the other hand, demonstrated a competitive conflict management strategy by posting an ad for Showalter's employment position before she was told of her departure. Allowing her to depart was the right option, but the manner was incorrect. Mossberger reacted angrily to Showalter's Twitter message, oblivious to the company's long-term repercussions. He also displayed poor communication, impetuous decisionmaking, and the social media situation revealed solid emotional reactions to confrontation. He cannot expect every employee to be cheerful and outgoing all the time...