Mini Case - Old and New - 7 marks We Build' is a renovation company that specializes in small projects for homes. Norman Lewis is the owner of the company. His lead foreman and second in command is Bryan Jones. There is a small core group of 10 employees who are fulltime and experienced in their trade and have various skills as builders. Unfortunately, over the summer time, the permanent employees like to take their vacation so 'We Build sometimes gets short staffed. 'We Build makes sure that at any given time over the summer time period, only 25% of the permanent staff are away so that 75% are still doing their usual jobs. This has worked to some extent; however, there are times the company feels short staffed on some the more smaller jobs and tasks Last year, Bryan had an idea that over the summer, they could hire some seasonal workers to do the smaller jobs of those who are away. Bryan spoke to Norman and said that maybe they could hire students from the local college during the summer to do some of the tasks. Part of the requirement was that they either should have some building or landscaping experience or be able to know some of the woodworking or electrical work. Last Summer, it did not work so well because the students started and were randomly placed to fill gaps among the teams where the full time employees were away on vacation. There were some challenges and tensions that would arise because the students were not as skilled at the work that the experienced employees were. Added to that, the students would have headphones on while working, taking texting moments or take breaks when they felt like and had a different perspective and attitude about the work. This annoyed some of the older more experienced workers. This year, Bryan thought that he would hire 10 students over the summer but instead of having them integrate into the work that was being done by the older more senior workers, he thought that it might be better to have all the 10 students in one team and separate from the experienced workers who were there and somewhat annoyed by the behaviour of the students. Bryan trained the students and was their liaison so that any questions or problems would be answered by him. A number of the students came back from last year so that the training was not too difficult. He also outlined what they needed to do and was less rigid on breaks and how the work was done, except that things had to be completed with care, quality and on time. As the summer went on the students got very good at their tasks because they were good with technology and also knew that if they would finish early, they could have free time. A healthy rivalry and competition started to emerge between the experienced workers and the students. It was productive and things were working out...for a while. Eventually, the student employees would say how fast they could work and the older employees were slower. It was also not uncommon for the students to head over to where the older employees were working and make comments, which started to make the more experienced employees annoyed. The organization started to see two camps of employees instead of everyone working together. Now, instead of everyone working together and feeling like they were part of We Build', both sides were either making fun of the other side or hiding tools and supplies from the other side so it would slow the other side down. It was starting to get out of hand and the owner, Norman, called Bryan in to his office and said that he thinks that it might be better to not have the two sides and it might be better to just break both sides up and reassign the teams so they were all working together. Bryan thought that this might not be a good idea because he was pretty sure most, if not all, of the students would quit. Bryan has called you for your advice and thoughts on how to resolve this situation a) Take a position on if the teams should be broken up or not and explain why-1 mark b) Apply the four aspects of the management process to this case to show how the integration of the students happened in 'We Build' - 4 marks c) Select one way that you can enhance motivation and apply it to the mini case-2 mark Mini Case - Old and New - 7 marks We Build' is a renovation company that specializes in small projects for homes. Norman Lewis is the owner of the company. His lead foreman and second in command is Bryan Jones. There is a small core group of 10 employees who are fulltime and experienced in their trade and have various skills as builders. Unfortunately, over the summer time, the permanent employees like to take their vacation so 'We Build sometimes gets short staffed. 'We Build makes sure that at any given time over the summer time period, only 25% of the permanent staff are away so that 75% are still doing their usual jobs. This has worked to some extent; however, there are times the company feels short staffed on some the more smaller jobs and tasks Last year, Bryan had an idea that over the summer, they could hire some seasonal workers to do the smaller jobs of those who are away. Bryan spoke to Norman and said that maybe they could hire students from the local college during the summer to do some of the tasks. Part of the requirement was that they either should have some building or landscaping experience or be able to know some of the woodworking or electrical work. Last Summer, it did not work so well because the students started and were randomly placed to fill gaps among the teams where the full time employees were away on vacation. There were some challenges and tensions that would arise because the students were not as skilled at the work that the experienced employees were. Added to that, the students would have headphones on while working, taking texting moments or take breaks when they felt like and had a different perspective and attitude about the work. This annoyed some of the older more experienced workers. This year, Bryan thought that he would hire 10 students over the summer but instead of having them integrate into the work that was being done by the older more senior workers, he thought that it might be better to have all the 10 students in one team and separate from the experienced workers who were there and somewhat annoyed by the behaviour of the students. Bryan trained the students and was their liaison so that any questions or problems would be answered by him. A number of the students came back from last year so that the training was not too difficult. He also outlined what they needed to do and was less rigid on breaks and how the work was done, except that things had to be completed with care, quality and on time. As the summer went on the students got very good at their tasks because they were good with technology and also knew that if they would finish early, they could have free time. A healthy rivalry and competition started to emerge between the experienced workers and the students. It was productive and things were working out...for a while. Eventually, the student employees would say how fast they could work and the older employees were slower. It was also not uncommon for the students to head over to where the older employees were working and make comments, which started to make the more experienced employees annoyed. The organization started to see two camps of employees instead of everyone working together. Now, instead of everyone working together and feeling like they were part of We Build', both sides were either making fun of the other side or hiding tools and supplies from the other side so it would slow the other side down. It was starting to get out of hand and the owner, Norman, called Bryan in to his office and said that he thinks that it might be better to not have the two sides and it might be better to just break both sides up and reassign the teams so they were all working together. Bryan thought that this might not be a good idea because he was pretty sure most, if not all, of the students would quit. Bryan has called you for your advice and thoughts on how to resolve this situation a) Take a position on if the teams should be broken up or not and explain why-1 mark b) Apply the four aspects of the management process to this case to show how the integration of the students happened in 'We Build' - 4 marks c) Select one way that you can enhance motivation and apply it to the mini case-2 mark