Six months ago, Bradley Metals was on the verge of closing when its former American parent company was going to close its Canadian operations. A buyer came forward and kept the plant open, but made changes that the employees didn’t like but agreed to in order to keep their jobs. Previously the employees received substantial production bonuses that the new owner eliminated. To some extent, the employees were thankful that they still had jobs. Under the new owners, overtime is available so previously speedy and accurate work has slowed down to a level that just meets timed quotas so that overtime can them be worked. There are numerous other abuses such as working quickly and then “slacking off”, lying about machine jams, sleeping on the night shift and long breaks. Employees who disagree with these behaviours do not report them for fear of reprisal.

1. List the outward manifestations, in terms of organizational performance and/or employee behaviour that indicate that organizational results could be improved.

2. Use motivation and job design theories to explore the causes of the negative employee behaviour mentioned in the case.

3. Use the model that outlines the conditions and processes for team effectiveness to explain the developments in this case.

4. Use the guidelines for ethical decision making to explore the ethics of the decisions made by the new owners and the employees since the takeover.

5. If you were to manage this company, what steps would you take to improve the situation?