Establishing Work Standards at Sweet Stuff Bakery

Laura Schulz has operated Laura's Sweet Stuff Bakery for the past 5 years. By 5:00 a.m. every weekday morning, customers are dropping in both to enjoy the cozy smells and to purchase fresh warm donuts and other goodies to enjoy with their coffee before going to work. After 5 years of this schedule where she began baking by 3:00 a.m., Schultz is very tired.

Schultz has decided to hire an apprentice baker and a cashier to provide early morning counter help. She knows that she must stop treating her bakery as an extension of herself and begin operating a business. She has a friend with an MBA who told her to establish a performance measurement system so that she can tell whether her two new employees are good employees or not.

It all seems so complicated. Schultz has contacted the local Business School Co-op Program and asked for advice. Your professor assigned you to answer Schultzs questions for 20 percent of your grade. When you meet with Schulz, she tells you that she will need you to explain with examples related to her bakery "because I'm not good at theory."

Answer each of the following questions as you provide a consultant response for Shultz:

1. Describe performance, and how does this term relate to Schultzs employees work standards?
2. Discuss two measurement systems Schultz can use to establish standards of performance in the baker

Other chapter topic questions:

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of collecting performance information from supervisors, peers, self and customers? How might a 360 degree performance appraisal address some of these identified challenges?
2. What are the psychological mechanisms that lead to performance appraisal rating inflation and deflation and how what countermeasures can be employed to control for them?