Page

$1$

of $2$

Making Tough Decisions

Listed below are your notes on the performance of eight managers who work for

you. Working alone, recommend salary increases for eight managers who have

just completed their first year with the company and are now to be considered

for their first annual raise. Keep in mind that you may be setting precedents

and that you need to keep salary costs down. However, there are no formal com$-$

pany restrictions on the kind of raises you can give. Indicate the sizes of the

raises that you would like to give each manager by writing a percentage next to

each name.

Assume that all of the eight managers entered the company at

the same salary, say $$30,000,$ which gives a total salary expense of $$240,000.$ If

upper management has allowed a salary raise pool of $10$ percent of the current

salary expenses, then you as the manager have $$24,000$ to give out as raises.

You must then suggest salaries for the different managers.

$1.\_\_\_\_\%$ Abraham McGowan. Abe is not, as far as you can tell, a good performer. You have checked your view with others,

and they do not feel that he is effective either. However, you happen to know he has one of the toughest workgroups to

manage. His subordinates have low skill levels, and the work is dirty and hard. If you lose him, you are not sure whom you

could find to replace him.

$2.\_\_\_\_\%$ Benjy Berger. Benjy is single and seems to live the life of a carefree bachelor. In general, you feel that his job

performance is not up to par, and some of his $$goofs$$ are well known to his fellow employees.

$3.\_\_\_\_\%$ Clyde Clod. You consider Clyde to be one of your best subordinates. However, it is obvious that other people do not

consider him to be an effective manager. Clyde has married a rich wife, and as far as you know, he does not need additional

money.

$4.\_\_\_\_\%$ David Doodle. You happen to know from your personal relationship with $$Doodles$$ that he badly needs more money

because of certain personal problems he is having. As far as you are concerned, he also happens to be one of the best of your

subordinates. For some reason, your enthusiasm is not shared by your other subordinates, and you have heard them make

joking remarks about his performance.

$5.\_\_\_\_\%$ Ellie Ellesberg. Ellie has been very successful so far in the tasks she has undertaken. You are particularly impressed by

this because she has a hard job. She needs money more than many of the other people, and you are sure that they respect her

because of her good performance.

$6.\_\_\_\_\%$ Fred Foster. Fred has turned out to be a very pleasant surprise to you. He has done an excellent job, and it is generally

accepted among the others that he is one of the best people at the company. This surprises you because he is constantly

frivolous and does not seem to care very much about money and promotion.

$7.\_\_\_\_\%$ Greta Goslow. Your opinion is that Greta is just not cutting the mustard. Surprisingly enough, however, when you

check to see how others feel about her, you discover that her work is very highly regarded. You also know that she badly

needs a raise. She was recently widowed and is finding it extremely difficult to support her household and her young family of

four.

$8.\_\_\_\_\%$ Harry Hummer. You know Harry personally, and he just seems to squander his money continually. He has a fairly

easy job assignment, and your view is that he does not do it particularly well. You are, therefore, quite surprised to find that

several of the other new managers think that he is the best of the new group. After you have made the assignments for the

eight people, you will have a chance to discuss them either in groups or in the larger class.

Follow$-$up Questions

$1.$ Is there a clear difference between the highest and lowest performer? Why or why not?

$2.$ Did you notice differences in the types of information that you had avail$-$

able to make the raise decisions? How did you use the different sources of information?

$3.$ In what ways did your assignment of raises reflect different views of motivation?