Tasty Pretzels is a family owned company located in the Prairies. It was founded in 1960 by Eric Segal who would stack up his Van with packets of the homemade Pretzels and do the rounds of the neighborhood markets to sell his Pretzels. Today, Tasty Pretzels is a $21 million company that is trying to recover the ground it lost to competitors selling healthier options. In the early nineties, Eric handed over the business onto his son, Adam who is currently grooming his daughter, Mary, to succeed him as head of the company. Seven months ago, Mary joined Tasty Pretzels as a salesperson and after six months was quickly promoted to sales manager. Mary recently graduated from a local university having studied Business Administration. Following this, Adam had hired Mary and wanted her to implement strategies that could help change the company's fortunes by regaining lost ground. One of Mary's initial strategies was to introduce a new sales performance management system. As part of this approach, any salesperson who receives a below average performance rating would be required to attend a mandatory coaching session with his/her supervisor. Mary is hoping that these coaching sessions will motivate her employees to increase their sales. Following their low performance in the previous quarter, three salespersons were required to attend the coaching session. Their respective responses to this requirement are as under: 1. Nancy Drew Nancy is a hard worker who takes pride in her work ethic. She has spent a lot of time reading the training material and learning selling techniques, viewing training videos on her own time and accompanying top sales people on their calls. Nancy has no problem asking for advice and doing whatever needs to be done to learn the business. Everyone agrees that Nancy has a cheery attitude and is a real "team player", giving the company 150% at all times. It has been a tough quarter for Nancy due to the downturn in the economy, but she is doing her best to make sales for the company. Nancy doesn't feel that failure to achieve her target during this past quarter is due to lack of effort, but just bad at things will turn-around in the next quarter.1. Nancy Drew Nancy is a hard worker who takes pride in her work ethic. She has spent a lot of time reading the training material and learning selling techniques, viewing training videos on her own time and accompanying top sales people on their calls. Nancy has no problem asking for advice and doing whatever needs to be done to learn the business. Everyone agrees that Nancy has a cheery attitude and is a real "team player", giving the company 150% at all times. It has been a tough quarter for Nancy due to the downturn in the economy, but she is doing her best to make sales for the company. Nancy doesn't feel that failure to achieve her target during this past quarter is due to lack of effort, but just bad luck in the economy. She is hopeful that things will turn-around in the next quarter. Nancy is upset with Mary for having to attend the coaching session because this is the first time in three years that her sales quota has not been met. Although Nancy is willing to do whatever it takes to be successful, she is concerned that the coaching sessions will be held on a Saturday. Doesn't Mary realize that Nancy has to raise three boys by herself and that weekends are an important time for her family? Because Nancy is a dedicated employee she will somehow manage to rearrange the family's schedule. Nancy is now very concerned about how her efforts are being perceived by Mary. After all, she exceeded the sales target from the previous quarter, yet had not received a "thank you" or" good job" for those efforts. The entire experience has left Nancy unmotivated and questioning her future with the company.2. Frank Hardy Frank is happy to have his job at Tasty Pretzels, although he really doesn't like sales work that much. Frank accepted this position because he felt that he wouldn't have to work hard and would have a lot of free time during the day. Frank was sent to coaching mainly because his customer satisfaction reports were low; in fact, they were the lowest in the company. Frank tends to give "canned" presentations and does not listen closely to the customer's needs. Consequently, Frank makes numerous errors in new sales orders, which delays shipments and loses business and goodwill for Tasty Pretzels. Frank doesn't really care since most of his customers do not spend much money and he doesn't think it is worth his while. There has been a recent change in the company commission structure. Instead of selling to the warehouse stores and possibly earning a high commission, Frank is now forced to sell to lower volume convenience stores. In other words, he will have to sell twice as much product to earn the same amount of money. Frank does not think this change in commission is fair and feels that the coaching session will be a waste of time. He feels that the other members of the sales team are getting all of the good leads and that is why they are so successful. Frank doesn't socialize with others in the office and attributes others' success and promotions to "who they know" in the company rather than the fact that they are hard workers. He feels that no matter how much effort is put into the job, he will never be adequately rewarded. 3. Bruce Sheppard For three of the last five years Bruce was the number one salesperson in the division and had hopes of being promoted to sales manager. When Mary joined the company, Bruce worked closely with Adam to help Mary learn all facets of the business. Bruce thought this close relationship with Adam would assure his upcoming promotion to the coveted position of sales manager and was devastated to learn that Mary received the promotion that he thought was his. During the past quarter, there was a noticeable change in Bruce's work habits. It had become commonplace for Bruce to be late for appointments or miss them entirely, not return phone calls or follow up on leads. His sales performance declined dramatically, which resulted in a drastic loss of income. Although Bruce had been dedicated and fiercely loyal to Adam and the company for many years, he is now looking for other employ3. Bruce Sheppard For three of the last five years Bruce was the number one salesperson in the division and had hopes of being promoted to sales manager. When Mary joined the company, Bruce worked closely with Adam to help Mary learn all facets of the business. Bruce thought this close relationship with Adam would assure his upcoming promotion to the coveted position of sales manager and was devastated to learn that Mary received the promotion that he thought was his. During the past quarter, there was a noticeable change in Bruce's work habits. It had become commonplace for Bruce to be late for appointments or miss them entirely, not return phone calls or follow up on leads. His sales performance declined dramatically, which resulted in a drastic loss of income. Although Bruce had been dedicated and fiercely loyal to Adam and the company for many years, he is now looking for other employment. Tasty Pretzels is located in a small community, which leaves Bruce with limited job opportunities. He was, however, offered a position as a sales manager with a competing company in a larger town, but Bruce's wife refuses to leave the area because of her strong family ties. Bruce is bitter and resentful of his current situation and now faces a mandatory coaching session that will be conducted by Mary.Questions*: 1. You have met three employees of Tasty Pretzels. Explain how each employee's situation relates to the Equity Theory. (9 marks) 2. Describe the three needs isolated by Mcclelland (Acquired Needs). How are they related to worker behavior in each situation? (9 marks) 3. Compare and contrast the three relationships of Expectancy Theory. To which employee situation does each apply? (12 marks) Page 1 of 2