...Nakelya Moragne November 10, 2013 MMGT 5590-QI Organizational Behavior 1. Discuss how the principles of job design and reinforcement theory apply to the performance problems at the Hovey and Beard Company. The Hovey and Beard Company manufactured a variety of wooden toys. Years before the toys where painted by hand, and each employee worked with a given toy until completed. Since there was such a high demand for the toys, operation changed and the painters set in a line by endless chain of hooks. By the second month of the training period, problems began to brew. The painters learned more slowly than anticipated, and it began to look as if production would stabilize far below what was planned. Many of the painters complained that the hooks moved to fast, and a lot of the hooks where going by empty. Painters blamed the engineers for the fast moving hooks; claiming they had the rates set wrong. Some of the painters quit and had to be replaced with new ones; this further aggravated the learning problem. One of the painters worked for the company the longest, so the other painters appointed him/her to address the issues to the supervisor. The complaints were that the job was messy, the hooks moved to fast, and the incentive pay was not correctly calculated, and it was too hot working close to the drying oven. It was fortunate for the painters that they had a supervisor that was concerned about his/her employees and addressed their issues to the best of his/her ability...
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...1. Discuss how the principles of job design and reinforcement theory apply to the performance problems at the Hovey and Beard Company. According to Ivancevich “Job Design is the process by which managers decide individual job tasks and authority” (p.150), furthermore managers decide about the content, responsibility and duties of the job. Managers have the power to determine the method of doing the job; additionally they are able to expect a certain level of relationships between all co-workers, subordinates etc. The advantage of designing a job is that interest people get the information about the qualifications which are required as well as the reward for doing the job. The most important part of designing a job is to design it properly and in detail in order to find the right person, therefore an increase of productivity or profitability can be one of the benefits. Beyond the job design theory Ivancevich describes in his book “Organizational behavior and management” the reinforcement theory (p.286). Regarding Thomson Gale “Reinforcement theory is the process of shaping behavior by controlling the consequences of the behavior” (Encyclopedia of Management). At this the desired or unwanted behavior will be influenced by either reinforcment or punishment. Reading case 6.1 “The Hovey and Beard Company” apparently the workers get a learning bonus to keep the learning process effective, but within six months the bonus will decrease and finally not exist anymore. This method...
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...Discuss how the principles of job design and reinforcement theory apply to the performance problems at the Hovey and Beard Company. Job design is defined as the process of specifying task and duties to individuals within an organization. In terms of Hovey and Beard Company there were several known issues dealing with performance within the company. The supervisors recognized that there was a problem within the organization, the painters complained that the hooks moved to fast, that there was poor ventilation in the work room, the job was messy, and the incentive pay was not correctly calculated. They recognized the needs of the employees and they made accommodations to appease them by purchasing fans to circulate the air in the work room and installing a control knob to adjust the speed of the belt. By doing so they fulfilled the needs of their employees and in-turn production increased significantly. Hovey and Beard Company used reinforcement theory by offering a group bonus plan. It stated that the painters would receive a learning bonus for the first six months and afterwards they could earn a group bonus if they exceeded production standards. This was meant to influence the behavior of the employees to increase production. 2. Analyze the performance problems using the "performance diagnosis model" in Chapter 7. In analyzing the performance of Hovey and Beard Company this is what I came up with in relation to the diagnosis model: * Do both the boss and subordinate...
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...the principles of job design and reinforcement theory apply to the performance problems at the Hovey and Beard Company. Hovey and Beard Company was a production company where painters were experiencing the various problems. New painters learned at a slower pace (making the other painters lose money on rewards per piece) the assembly line hooks moved too fast, and painters blamed management were some principals of job design exhibited at the Hovey and Beard Company. Incentive pay wasn’t adequate for workers and it was too hot working so close to the drying ovens. One painter, who worked with the company the longest, was appointed by other painters to address their concerns with the supervisor. The supervisor listened and worked closely with painters to address their concerns, he also worked well and incorporated the goal setting theory with the painters. Changing the work design of the painters work station, and management, used a positive reinforcement theory to make the painters part of the solution. Management installed fans, a timer on the hook device: fast, medium and slow, allowing the workers to choose the time of day to change the speed. Managers kept the incentives going with the learning bonus and the per piece reward. Also, there were updated meetings being held to keep everyone on the same page. Production was 50% higher, other employees felt the inequity in the company. They were skilled labors and not making as much money as the painters with this management stopped...
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...increase at the turn of the 20th century. Jobs continue to become more complex and specialized, so there is an increased need for educated, motivated employees (Encarnacion, unknown). Job deigns main purpose is to increase motivation and productivity. Increased productivity can take on many forms, quality and quantity improvements, reduced operation costs, or reduced turnover and training costs(Encarnacion, unknown). In regards to question one in the Hovey and Beard Company Case, I feel that the process of painting the wooden toys should have been simplified. The employees were performing too many tasks to keep up with the conveyer system. The painters had to take a toy from a nearby tray, position it in a jig, spray on the color and then hang the toy on a passing hook. If the process were simplified to where the toys were already in position to be painted, this would eliminate some steps in the process and essentially increase production. Another way to help the performance problems at the Hovey and Beard Company is the Reinforcement Theory. The Reinforcement Theory pretty much states that a person can be motivated by its consequences. So depending on if those consequences are positive or negative, you can change someone’s motivation. Many employees have different motivation reasons so if you understand what motivates someone; you can understand how to get them to increase their productivity at a lower cost or no cost or all. There are four primary approaches to...
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...Introduction Scientific Management tries to increase productivity by increasing efficiency and wages of the workers. It finds out the best method for performing each job. It selects employees by using Scientific Selection Procedures. It provides Scientific Training and Development to the employees. It believes in having a close co-operation between management and employees. It uses Division of Labour. It tries to produce maximum output by fixing Performance Standards for each job and by having a Differential Piece-Rate System for payment of wages. Frederick W. Taylor was one of the most influential management theorists and is widely acclaimed as the ‘father of scientific management’. According to Northcraft and Neale (1990, p.41), “Scientific management took its name from the careful and systematic observational techniques it used to design jobs and arrange work for the rank-and-file factory worker”. Principles of Scientific Management The techniques, contributions and general principles of Scientific Management Theory are as follows:- 1. Performance Standards F.W. Taylor found out that there were no scientific performance standards. No one knew exactly how much work a worker should do in one hour or in one day. The work was fixed assuming rule of thumb or the amount of work done by an average worker. Taylor introduced Time and Motion Studies to fix performance standards. He fixed performance standards for time, cost, and quality of work, which lead to uniformity of work...
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...Hovey and Beard Summary of Facts Hovey and Beard is a company that manufactures a variety of wooden toys, like animals and pull toys. In the beginning the process was completed when the painters painted the toys by hand. Then the process changed to a production line, by having the toys hung on hooks and going through that line. Since the finished product ended with the painters and the process was new to them, the company tried to add an incentive for those employees. The painters were paid a base salary plus a training bonus that would increase over a six month period. By this time they should be fully trained and able to make the quota required. Unfortunately, the painters appeared to learn slower than expected. Causing the company to take time to fill the painter’s position with a competent staff. The painters were concerned about a few issues that affected their ability to work, like the ventilation and the speed of the toy hooks. Ultimately these issues were resolved by suggestions from the painters. The result of these changes was he increase in production by 30-50%. But like a story we all know too well, every good thing comes to an end. The management started receiving horrible complaints about the painters’ pay. With the increase in production, this created an increase in their pay because of the incentives. Different departments were complaining how unfair it was for the painters to make such mush more money than them. Sadly, due to this the management...
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...Case5 Subhash Sane was the Senior Manager-Retail Operations of a very established hyper mart. It was a Monday afternoon as he stood by the glass door at his office watching people coming in and leaving the store. It was a Monday and there were not too many people other than those who wait for the weekend rush to ebb before they stepped into the store for their week-long groceries He could see one young girl at the footwear section for ladies struggling to decide which pair to buy.| It seemed that she wanted to buy one pair and could not decide which one of the two to buy. Subhash could see her trying one out, walking to the mirror and repeating the same with the other pair. Finally, after the customer service representative of that section had a small conversation with her, the girl happily marched to the till with one pair. Subhash walked back to his chair wondering how similar this incidence was to the situation he was in. He had interviewed three candidates in the last three days for the position of customer service representative. The three candidates did fulfill the basic requirements of the job and did seem to fulfill all the requirements mentioned in the job description. But he could not decide which one to select. There was no way he could try all the candidates out to choose like the girl did with her footwear! And then an idea struck him—'If someone could help that girl decide, I could also do with the advice from someone'. He sat in his chair and called his friend Meera...
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...ejemplos como mínimo).6. Repita el punto 5 pero con situaciones que manifiesten el empleo de un pensamientoo enfoque sistémico (tres ejemplos como mínimo).7. Para cada uno de los textos que se adjuntan, identificar:a) El problema (u oportunidad).b) La situación o contexto del problema.c) La solución hallada (y el análisis de sus consecuencias positivas y negativas)d) El tipo de pensamiento usado. Justificar esta respuesta. Nota: los textos fueron extraídos de la edición 1998 de “Dinámica para Sistemas y Organizaciones” de la UTN. Pág 2 de 6 Facultad de Ingeniería U N LP A M S ISTEMAS O RGANIZACIONALES I Trabajo Práctico 1HOVEY AND BEARD COMPANY Texto extraído del libro: Administración contemporánea – David H. Hampton La Hovey and Beard Company es una fábrica de juguetes de madera, de diversasclases: animales de madera, juguetes de tracción y otros parecidos. Una parte delproceso...
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...University of redlands school of business MGMT 631: Management and organizational theory Instructor: Elijah Levy, Ph.D. Email: elijah_levy@redlands.edu thelevylaunch@yahoo.com Cell number: 562-2230-3334 I have been teaching at University of Redlands since 1992 in the school of business—teaching in the undergraduate and graduate MBA and Masters of Arts in Management program (MAM). My doctorate degree is in clinical psychology and I am an interdisciplinary thinker—enjoying the synthesis of philosophy, psychology, sociology and comparative religion to theorize about human behavior. I am the director of Founders Outreach, a nonprofit agency providing psychosocial/psychiatric rehabilitation services to mentally ill residents residing at Founders House of Hope. In addition, I am the director of The Levy Launch a center providing corporate education, management training, strategy consultation and start-up support and training to nonprofit agencies. I have written two books-- one on intercultural awareness titled You, Me and Them in addition to a book of poetry titled Crisis in Meaning, and with a colleague, directed/produced a documentary on mental illness titled Beyond the Shadow of Mental Illness and a documentary on my Veterans Legacy Project group. If you anticipate being absent from class, please make arrangements to contact me to submit assignments. CLASS SCHEDULE: March 5, 12, 19, 26 April 2, 9, 16, 23 Tuesdays...
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...CROSSROADS When I read the first draft of this manuscript it provided a genuine " aha" experience. I felt that "tempered radicalism" was a concept that had been waiting to be invented. Meyerson and Scully, in my view, have grasped an important idea and have written about it in a careful and an illuminating way. It's one of those papers, I suspect; that some people will react to by thinking: "I wish I had written that!" Further, I can see others I know well in the field as fitting'the description of the tempered radical, at least in some circumstances and at different times. The reviewers, while suggesting changes, as reviewers do, were also very taken with the paper. It is intellectually interesting, and evocative. It provides us with a perspective on organizational issues that is typically glossed. It opens an arena for organizational analysis that is missed in r most theoretical frameworks. Tempered radicals, Meyerson and Scully argue, are individuals who identify with and are committed to their organizations and also to a cause, community or ideology that is fundamentally different from, and possibly at odds with, the dominant culture of their organization. Their radicalism stimulates them to challenge the status quo. Their temperedness reflects the way they have been toughened by challenges, angered by what they see as injustices or ineffectiveness, and inclined to seek moderation in their interactions with members closer to the centre of organizational values and orientations...
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...than forty interviews with Jobs conducted over two years—as well as interviews with more than a hundred family members, friends, adversaries, competitors, and colleagues—Walter Isaacson has written a riveting story of the roller-coaster life and searingly intense personality of a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. At a time when America is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness and applied imagination. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology. He built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. Although Jobs cooperated with this book, he asked for no control over what was written nor even the right to read it before it was published. He put nothing offlimits. He encouraged the people he knew to speak honestly. And Jobs speaks candidly, sometimes brutally so, about the people he worked with and competed against. His friends, foes, and colleagues provide an unvarnished view of the passions, perfectionism, obsessions, artistry, devilry, and compulsion for control that shaped his approach to business and the innovative products that resulted. Driven by demons, Jobs could drive those around him to fury and despair. But his personality and products were...
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...The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn By Mark Twain Download free eBooks of classic literature, books and novels at Planet eBook. Subscribe to our free eBooks blog and email newsletter. NOTICE P ERSONS attempting to find a motive in this narra- tive will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR, Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn EXPLANATORY I N this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect; the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect; the ordinary ‘Pike County’ dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a hap- hazard fashion, or by guesswork; but painstakingly, and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech. I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding. THE AUTHOR. Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Scene: The Mississippi Valley Time: Forty to fifty years ago The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapter I Y OU don’t know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told...
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