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ONLY FOR QUESTION 1

QUESTION 1

Question 1 Discuss the ways that Tajuddin and Ahmad should do to handle the plateauing and role conflicts issues faced by Raj. (30 marks) Question 1 Discuss the ways that Tajuddin and Ahmad should do to handle the plateauing and role conflicts issues faced by Raj. (30 marks) Question 2 Training is critical to employees and should be tailored to the needs of different employees. In the case of WONDERPOOL, discuss three (3) training methods and three (3) training topics each for the supervisors and lifeguards. (30 marks) Question 3 Ahmad and Tajuddin have to look for someone to replace Paul. In this context, discuss the recruiting and selecting processes that they should adopt to ensure they will hire a good replacement for Paul. (10 maula) WONDERPOOL SDN BHD: A HUMAN RESOURCE DILEMMA In late June, Ahmad, president of Wonderpool Sdn Bhd, sat in his car outside of the company and thought about the problems currently facing him. Ahmad had just met with Paul Lim, one of his best and most productive supervisors. Paul had just tendered his resignation. He has claimed that he couldn't handle his job anymore. Ahmad had to make a decision quickly if Paul to be replaced. THE COMPANY Wonderpool Sdn Bhd (WONDERPOOL) was considered by its competitors and customers in the business to be one of the most established and best managed commercial swimming pool service companies in Greater Kuala Lumpur area. WONDERPOOL's services involved various seasonal pool requirements for commercial customers, most of which were apartment buildings and hotels with pools. The work included cleaning, painting, filling outdoor pools, supplying lifeguards and pool chemicals. Throughout the year, mechanical maintenance was kept up on pumps and filters at each pool. The most hectic and profitable period was the school holidays and festive seasons when the company also supplied lifeguards for apartment buildings with pools. Commercial swimming pool companies bid on contracts for these apartment pools every early of the year. During the peak seasons such as school holidays and festive seasons, college or high school students were employed to fill the large seasonal increase in demand for lifeguards. THE COMPETITION Competition was significant for the contracts that were bid on every early of the year. Although WONDERPOOL serviced only forty pools, while some other companies serviced over one hundred, Ahmad believed the firm was repeatedly awarded the best contracts due to its long-standing reputation for quality service. With 20 years of experience in this industry, he was convinced that WONDERPOOL's extensive training of lifeguards was the key to recruiting, maintaining and retaining this service business. The best contracts were the ones wherein the superintendents of the buildings complained the least and owners of the buildings paid their contract bills on time, THE ORGANIZATION Ahmad was the president and on the board of directors of WONDERPOOL. Ahmad was primarily responsible for company sales and customer relations. His brother, a lawyer, owned the majority of the shares and was a silent partner. Tajuddin, Ahmad's nephew, was WONDERPOOL's vice president. Tajuddin was in charge of the day-to-day operations at Head Office. This included the management of five division supervisors, the maintenance crew of two employees and bookkeeping. WONDERPOOL split the crews up into divisions based on geographic location. Each division was responsible for seven to nine pools, with one supervisor per division and one lifeguard per pool. Each lifeguard opened his/her pool in the morning, cleaned it, and performed chemical tests to determine whether to add chemicals and, if needed, to add the appropriate chemicals. The lifeguard would then contact Head Office to let Tajuddin know that everything was all right. This process would take about an hour and some lifeguards took advantage of this by showing up late or reporting in from home, not doing the work, and still getting paid. Paul Lim, 20 years of age, had worked for WONDERPOOL the past two years as a lifeguard during university's semester break. Currently, Paul was one of WONDERPOOL's division supervisors. Paul believed that one of the keys to his job as a good supervisor was to keep his lifeguards motivated. He knew it could be very boring for lifeguards to sit by a pool for hours with little to do. Paul's other responsibilities included the scheduling of lifeguards to pools, the training, hiring, and firing of lifeguards, payment schedules, public relations, supply scheduling, and numerous other duties. Ahmad knew that, with the complexity of the job, it took a long time to train and familiarize a supervisor with a specific division, and no one knew Paul's division better than Paul. THE SITUATION In last May, Paul had been promoted to supervisor His ambition and managerial ability were attested to by the building superintendent of the pool at which he worked. Paul's division supervisor had left on short notice and had recommended that WONDERPOOL promote Paul to the position; consequently, based on these recommendations, Paul was filling the empty position. WONDERPOOL Pools had just hired a number of staff from a rival pool service company that, it was rumoured among the supervisors, had been purchased. Many of these people, some much more experienced and older than Paul, worked as lifeguards in Paul's division. This made Paul feel important since he held responsibilities much greater than these other workers. Ahmad told Paul not to pressure the new staff "on the job" because they already knew their responsibilities. Paul had just purchased a motorcycle, at Jack's request, to help him travel around his division to visit the pools daily Paul, although concerned at first about the expense, agreed it was the best decision. Everything started out well but problems soon developed during the peak seasons. Paul wasn't always sure that the lifeguards were listening to him when he suggested methods for cleaning a pool or instructed them how to use the filters. One new lifeguard, Michael, was especially troublesome. He had no previous experience and appeared ill equipped at doing manual labour. Paul felt compelled to come in at the start of the summer to give Michael some much-needed help, even though it interfered with his regular morning rounds of visiting all the pools to look for trouble spots. He spent many hours teaching him how to use the pumps and how to vacuum both his pool and a neighbouring pool across the road. This extra pool was to be cleaned in the hour before he began his regular duty so he was paid time-and-a-half for that hour. Michael consistently complained about the other pool. He believed that it was not his responsibility, and whenever Paul visited Michael, his pool was clean but the other pool was always either dirty or cloudy from lack of chemicals. Before the peak season started, Paul asked Tajuddin to see if WONDERPOOL could afford to hire someone else for the maintenance of the second pool. If so, Paul would be happy to recruit someone. A week later, Ahmad called Paul: Ahmad: "I hear you're having problems with Michael." Paul: "Yeah boss, he won't come in, in the mornings, and clean both pools. I'm afraid it's not working out. He knows what to do." Ahmad: "No problem, I've hired a teenager to clean the other pool. I told him to report to you at the building pool tomorrow morning. He's only 16 years old, but he's smart Train him and everything will be fine." Paul: "Sounds good. Oh, by the way, how do you like the way I've been running my division?" Ahmad: "Oh, haven't I told you? You're one of the best supervisors I have. Keep up the good work." Two weeks later, the building superintendent of Michael's pools phoned Paul after work: Superintendent: "I've told your boss to fire that kid. I don't want a 16-year-old doing a lifeguard's work. I don't care how good he is, I'm paying money for an experienced person." Paul called Ahmad: Ahmad: "Sorry Paul, you'll have to go back to the old system and fire the lad tomorrow morning. Tell Michael to come in early again until we can come up with a solution." A week later, Paul received a message from Tajuddin that the superintendent at Michael's pool had complained once again. Paul rode to the location to find out the source of the complaint from the superintendent: Superintendent: "I looked in the filter room this morning and I found that the pump was left on but all the valves were closed. You could've damaged a RM15,000 filter pump! Get your act together or you're going to lose our contract!" Paul confronted Michael about the superintendent's observations: Michael: "I wouldn't make that mistake-you trained me yourself. I've spent a week training one of the teenagers who lives here how to clean it, so that I wouldn't have to. He's older than the last one. I thought it would be all right." Paul spoke to the 18-year-old in question and, as suspected, he had vacuumed the pool that morning but he had forgotten to open the valves. Paul marched back to Michael and exploded: Paul: "I'd fire you if I could, but I haven't got anyone to replace you, nor have I got the time to train someone. You're incompetent and nave. Shape up and do both pools as you should!" With that, Paul hopped on his motorcycle. He was furious; he had two hours to deliver this week's pay checks around his division and he felt personally responsible for Michael's problem. On the way home that evening, a car pulled out in front of Paul at an intersection. Paul swerved and crashed. The motorcycle was destroyed but Paul received only a few scrapes. Although Paul's injuries would not keep him from doing his work, he had still tendered his resignation. Ahmad thought that Paul believed he was responsible for Michael's poor work and that he had become extremely frustrated. Ahmad realized that, with the holiday workload at its peak, he had little time for long-term planning. Ahmad also realized that not only Michael, the other lifeguards were having serious issues, especially in performing their daily task and dealing with customers. Most of the lifeguards only performed their daily job without much commitment. There are complaints from the customers on bad attitudes during work. There were also cases of work negligence such as misplaced of equipment, chemicals and detergents; and some even involved in heaty arguments with the residents of the apartments. Some supervisors seem to have problem control the lifeguards under their supervision. The Maintenance Crew The problem did not end with Paul. Raj, one of two maintenance crew under Tajuddin's responsibility also showed some attitude issues for the past two months. The co-worker complained that Raj had frequently apply leave or even missing without proper explanation. He looked troubled whenever at work. This had caused much problem for the other maintenance. crew as he has to cover for Raj's job. Raj is a father of two boys, and to Tajuddin's understanding, he had recently divorced. He held the same post since he joined the company ten years ago. He used to be a committed and experience worker. It is only recently that he showed some issue of plateauing. Question 1 Discuss the ways that Tajuddin and Ahmad should do to handle the plateauing and role conflicts issues faced by Raj. (30 marks)