Sharpe BMW car dealership And service center

I.         Introduction: Relevant Case Facts

            The Sharpe BMW is a car dealership firm that thrives mostly like what most dealerships thrive on: car sales and services like maintenance and repairs. The firm has had a recent slump through the years which the company have analyzed to have come from the changing of the leadership in which the firm has had success. The change in the leadership supposedly lowered customer ratings and the profits and revenues of the car dealership firm.

However, recent developments made a sudden turn when the higher levels of management decided that they needed a change in the firm so that they would be able to meet the industry average and if possible, the successful averages that the company has achieved before under the leadership of the previous service manager. Bob Deshane, the service director and direct superior of Tom Dunn, submitted a proposal to the company management that would definitely bring back the time when the CSI, or the customer satisfaction index, that has been plaguing the company. It was traced to be a source of low service quality among the car dealerships in the area.

            Among the problems that need to be resolved with plan, the technicians feel that the plan was a good idea; the only setback of which is the bonus would be so meager in their terms. Adding an additional fact was the comment of their technician that he would be better off doing more warranty works since this would give him more money. The other technician, however, was optimistic about the plan. He commented that the CSI give too much detail and focuses on things that are not really necessary since those items are beyond the control of the technician. He also added that the plan also gave the workers a more than pat on the back acknowledgement that further motivates the workers.

            To add more problem to Tom Dunn’s predicament is that the work given to him detailed that his job’s charges include the objective of increasing the service department’s revenue and to increase the CSI rating of the service department. He realized then that the job given to him is not in conflict with the plan, but would involve the changing of some things that are connected to the service department. His dilemma furthers that the implementation of the plan would not be guaranteed to work and have a good effect and that everyone would be happy. To make things more complicated, he thinks of the possibility of that the plan or the implementation would have a few faults and would have a possibility that it would fail.

II.                Analysis of the Scenario

Since the problem involves the plan and the decision that would have to be considered by the manager, Tom Dunn, the first thing that we have to look at would be the case scenario and the plan’s pros and cons.

The plan has a lot of pros and cons. The positive side of the plan’s implementation would be that the workers would feel that the company appreciates the hard work and their dedication to their work. In addition to that, the company would project the image that they are recognizing the good service that their technicians are working hard to maintain. The possibility of increase in the CSI of workers may result. Another advantage of the plan is the significant monitoring of the management of the employees and their performances. This would give the company a good view on what happens when a specific technician works for a client. This plan also proves to be a good motivator of employees since it would give them an additional earning if they would get the CSI earning up, making the workers realize the true importance of the Index. Furthermore, this would encourage workers to work in a faster rate and with accuracy so that they would achieve high ratings on their CSIs.

However, just like any plan, there are drawbacks in this scenario. First of which is that although the plan recognizes the hard work of their technicians, the plan failed to recognize the fact that the bonus would not be enough to motivate workers. The idea of the bonus was good; but the idea of a small bonus would not be that attractive. Second, the plan seeks to improve the CSI of workers, then why did they not consider that one good motivator of the workers would be in a friendly competition with each other. Whoever achieves the highest rating per end of the month would be given a lump sum bonus. This would surely entice the employees more. The firm considered the satisfactory work as a target but they failed to analyze the case more effectively. The plan also seeks to change the system of the service department. With this, the manager is motivated to achieve an impact in his career.

Now, we have to consider a few theories in human behavior in order for us to achieve our desired recommendation. The plan clearly has a good idea, but the bonus for the workers would not be that much to motivate them Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs(Lindner, 1998), the bonus in the plan satisfies almost all the steps in the completion of the hierarchy; the only step that was not satisfied was the need for self-actualization. According to the theory of Maslow, in order for a person to be motivated completely, he would need not to find the hierarchy satisfied. The plan failed to satisfy the last step since this would lead to a thinking of workers such that they would think that their talent is only valued and appreciated in as much as the bonus is concerned. If the plan needs to increase the CSI, then the need for the motivation of the workers is high, in order for them to do their work efficiently, effectively, and more importantly, in good quality.

The dilemma of the manager is out of the question, as far as the plan is concerned. If Dunn is really concerned in the raising of the CSI ratings, as his charges are concerned, then he should find ways to make the plan work. The plan’s success would not solely depend on the perfection of the plan, but on the manager’s decision and adjustments to make the plan work. A pessimistic approach on the subject would entail nothing more than the success of the plan. If the Tom Dunn would want to make an impact on his career as the service department manager of the firm, then he should think about the basic skills that a leader has. He should be able to think and apply the adjustments needed in case the plan would have a fault. It would not be an excuse that the plan is faulty. What would look bad in his career is his being dependent on the plan, rather than relying on the plan as his guideline and the implementation being based on the objectives of the plan.

III.             Recommendation

The plan has to push through but with slight adjustments of the bonuses. Tom Dunn should make a recommendation to be submitted to the higher management that the bonus should be increased in amount to make the technicians more motivated. Although the increase in bonus would decrease the profit, what’s important is increasing the revenue, which is the cash flow they have. A greater CSI that would be generated by the motivated workers would increase the profits. Moreover, if the recommendation be approved, the final result would be that everyone would be happy; the firm enjoying the higher CSI rating and increased revenue, and the workers would be more motivated to work to have bonuses.

The success of this plan involves the adjustment capabilities of Tom Dunn. If his adjustments would be poor, then the plan would not work properly. If he has good adjustments, however, the endpoint where everyone would be happy would be fully achieved.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

Lindner, J. R. (1998). Understanding Employee Motivation Retrieved November 25, 2006, from http://www.joe.org/joe/1998june/rb3.html