EXERCISE 2 Case study: Managing a seven-day dairy You are the owner and manager of a successful seven-day dairy. Your shop is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. A lot of university students live in the area and the shop is on a busy road with constant vehicle and foot traffic. Your busiest times are from 8 to 10 a.m., 12 noon to 1.30 p.m., 3 to 6 p.m., and then from 8.30 p.m until you shut at 10 p.m. One person can manage the shop by themselves, but there are times when customers have to wait for a while when it is busy. Your current staff are: Joan: permanent, works from 8.30 a.m. to 5p.m.; her hourly rate is $10.80. Gill: permanent, works from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Monday to Friday, and from 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, hourly rate is $12.80 because of the unsocial hours. You also employ four part-time students who fill in the other hours and work when it is busy. Students are paid $9.35 per hour and $10.20 for unsocial hours. Your weekly net return varies between $1700 and $2400 (depending upon the time of year and whether or not students are about). Your rent and outgoings are low at $200 per week, as you live in the same building as the shop. The situation You are exhausted because of the extra hours that you are working to help out at the busy times. Attention to the management basics has been slipping and sometimes items are out of stock because you haven't had time to regularly go to the wholesalers and purchase them. The other worrying thing is that university exams are coming up soon and two of the students who work part-time have already asked you if they can reduce their hours of work over the exam period. You are not happy about this, as the exam period is busy with increased sales of snack food, cigarettes and other convenience items! At the moment, three of your part-timers (Janet, Troy and Elsie) are consistently arriving at work late. None of them have offered any reason for being late, and it is causing a problem because the permanent staff members have to stay longer at work to provide cover. The late-comers say they like their jobs and are happy with their hours of work, and you don't want to dock their wages because you are afraid that they might leave. You have been doing some reading about organisational behaviour and you think that a behaviour modification program would be the most effective solution. Questions 1 What management problems are occurring here? 2 What other motivation theories might be used to understand the problem of lateness at work? 3 Outline a behaviour modification scheme to encourage attendance at work. Be sure to identify a specific behaviour, an appropriate reinforcement and a reinforcement schedule