Case study report

Contents

Executive summary

Problem identification and analysis

Statement of major problems

Generation and evaluation of alternative solutions

Recommendations

Implementation

Bibliography

Executive summary

Lawton, Langridge, Lypton, and Lawless Solicitors

The company is a large firm consisting of 25 partners, 48 employed solicitors and 80 support staff. As the company has grown it has developed new initiatives to keep, train and develop systems to promote staff. One of its initiatives was to set up the Word Processing Centre (WPC).



The WPC has been in operation for only a few years and the concept behind it was to employ high quality staff that the firm could train and promote to be secretaries for the partners and solicitors. The staff in the WPC are employed to word process the large volumes of legal documents produced by the solicitors, together with their long reports etc. Unfortunately the WPC has not been working as it was hoped.



Those that have been promoted to secretarial positions have not been able to carry out tasks as well as they probably should have, and just as importantly have not shown any forward thinking or initiative. Other staff, still working in the WPC are producing sloppy, substandard work, display a no-care attitude and have no real idea about what the firm is out to achieve. The senior partners having witnessed this first hand through their new secretaries, and complaints from solicitors, now want to know why.

This report will set out to find why. It will do this through firstly identifying the major problems, offer solutions, form recommendations on how to fix the problems and then show how to implement these recommendations. Some of the major problems that the Centre has are that the staff in the WPC are not motivated, they do not seem to enjoy their work for various reasons. They need to be stimulated. They also need to be given more opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns.

Problem identification and analysis

The Lawton, Langbridge, Lypton and Lawless Solicitor firm has many problems that need to be worked through. The problems that have been identified are:

• The staff in the WPC suffer from a lack of job satisfaction. This is shown through a number of behaviours. Firstly, the work that is produced by the staff is of a poor standard. Secondly, the workers find the work they are required to do boring and uninspiring. As satisfaction is linked to motivation, Maslow's hierarchy of needs can provide an insight into this reaction by the workers. Robbins et al. (1997, pp. 535) shows the hierarchy of needs in a way that resembles a pyramid. Maslow stated that within every human there exists five needs. As each need is satisfied the next need higher in the pyramid becomes more dominant. Maslow states that the lowest need for workers is physiological (food, clothing, shelter). Workers then work their way up the pyramid through safety needs (protection from harm), up to social needs (belongingness), then on to esteem needs (self-respect and achievement) before reaching self-actualisation needs which is the highest of all the needs.
  
  
  
  The staff in the WPC are achieving the first three needs but that are not able to reach their esteem needs. Esteem needs are satisfied through internal and external factors. Internal factors such as self-respect, autonomy and achievement and external factors such as status, recognition and attention have not been provided from their boring and repetitive work. Therefore they have not achieved their esteem needs. Having not achieved their esteem needs they cannot achieve their self-actualization needs (Robbins et al., 1997).

• The communication between the management and the staff of the WPC only goes one way. One of the reasons this may have been was that they were not provided with the opportunity to ask questions and learn about the business that they were working in. Carlopio et al., (1997, Chapter 5, pp 231-232) observe that communication has four main attributes. It must be egalitarian, flexible, two-way, and based on an agreement.

  Taking an egalitarian stance is treating the employees as worthwhile, competent and insightful. A manager taking this tact emphasises joint decision making rather than projecting a superior position. The management of this firm appears to be taking the superior position. One worker recently promoted from the WPC feels that the workers are treated like they are in school, with someone constantly watching over them and telling them what to do. Carlopio et al., (1997, pp. 232) discuss the attribute of flexibility in communication. Flexibility in communication is the willingness of the manager to realise and accept that other ideas do exist, and that other individuals apart from themselves may be able to make significant contributions.

  Carlopio et al., (1997, pp. 232) then observe that the result of being egalitarian and flexible in communication is two-way communication. This concept has not been able to evolve in the firm of Lawton, Langbridge, Lypton and Lawless solicitors, since the staff in the WPC are not consulted about any issues at the firm. For example, one reason that may explain errors made in written reports could be that solicitors have not taken the time to explain tasks in enough detail. They assume that the staff in the WPC know exactly what they are doing and hence only need to provide brief notes. Then when mistakes are made they don't provide feedback to address these problems. The same mistakes will then be made time and time again. The only feedback given is in the form of a complaint to a senior partner or Mrs Blakely, the staff supervisor of the WPC.

  

  As no two-way discussion has taken place at the firm, an agreement, the final attribute and by product of discussion, cannot be reached. Having said all this it becomes obvious that communication at the firm is extremely poor.

• The WPC staff know little about the staff above them (Management and Solicitors) and how the firm works. Staff are being left in the dark as to where the firm is trying to go, how it is going to get there, and how the staff in the WPC will help it to get there. As David McClelland states in his three-need theory, all workers have a need for achievement, a need for power and a need for affiliation. In this instance, the workers are not able to satisfy their need for affiliation which means that they are not able to form relationships with the workers around them and so restricting their ability to learn and grow in the firm (Robbins et al., 1997).

  Apart from the week of training at the beginning of their employment, the staff employed to work at the WPC do not receive any additional training. As Peter Critten states (1992, pp. 83-90), it is important for a worker to want to learn and be trained and for them to see training as a continual all-year-round process that can improve skills in areas that need improvement. Likewise it is important for workers to want this of their employees and see it as an opportunity to improve staff and the business. The company, Lawton, Langbridge, Lypton and Lawless, have not been provided any learning opportunities and even Peter Lawless' new secretary stated that all she had learnt at TAFE had been forgotten in the 18 months that she had been at the firm. She learnt nothing except the skills that she was required to do each day so she was always going to find it difficult to move from the job she was doing at the WPC to the secretarial job that she received a promotion to.

• The management at the firm doesn't feel it is necessary to delegate responsibility on to the staff of the WPC. It appears that the management knowingly or unknowingly has prescribed to McGregor's theory X view of a worker (Robbins et al., 1997).

  McGregor stated that managers view their workers in two distinct ways. Firstly there is the negative view, theory X. Under this theory managers hold 4 assumptions: 1) workers dislike work and therefore will attempt to avoid work wherever possible; 2) because of this dislike they must be threatened with punishment to achieve goals; 3) workers will take no initiative and will avoid responsibility wherever possible; 4) workers will possess no ambition and require security above all else. Then there is the positive view, theory Y, the view which the management at the firm do not seem to have taken. Under this theory, the manager also holds four main assumptions. Those assumptions are; 1) workers see work as a natural part of life; 2) workers can be trusted to be self motivated and able to achieve objectives on there own; 3) the average worker seeks responsibility; 4) workers believe that it is not just the responsibility of the managers to make decisions, they too can provide useful input.

  This theory X view held by the partners has restricted the way the staff in the WPC have developed. It has meant that the workers now do not know how to take responsibility or show initiative. The likely reason for this could be the fact that the firm does not promote this sort of forward thinking when the staff begin working at the firm.

Statement of major problems

The study of this case has produced two main problems. The study has found those two main problems to be communication and job satisfaction.

Communication is the essence of good management and the only way to implement good company policy and procedures is through effective communication. One important aspect of effective communication of managers is the extent to which they provide feedback to their employees and the extent to which they offer them opportunities to provide feedback so that the employees feel that they are being supported (Carlopio et al., 1997, p 244). The firm of Lawton, Langridge, Lypton and Lawless do not provide this aspect of communication.

Job satisfaction too is important, as the workers need to feel that work is an enjoyable place that provides some intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. They should be able to take more responsibility and feel that they can be left to deal with situations themselves. No worker likes being watched over the whole time they are working. It is an incredible boost of a worker's self-esteem to be given responsibility and the trust that they can be given a task and not have to be watched over while it is being done.

Generation and evaluation of alternative solutions

Three possible solutions the firm could use to improve communication between staff of all levels have been listed below.

The second major issue that needs to be dealt with is to increase job satisfaction. Some solutions have been provided to solve these issues and they have been listed below.

Recommendations

The major problems that needed to be solved at the firm of Lawton, Langbridge, Lypton and Lawless were communication and a distinct lack of job satisfaction. Recommendations will now be made as to how the firm can combat these problems.

Companies with the highest morale and the least turnover are the ones that keep their people informed about goals and policies and listen to them. Employees should be able to talk, and the senior partners should listen to them (LeBoeuf, 1988, pp 82). In my opinion, the staff at the WPC have no voice in the company at all. This needs to be remedied.

To attack this problem the firm will need to hear the concerns of the staff. It should hold regular meetings with the staff of the WPC and seek to fix problems that arise out of these meetings. The meetings should be held weekly by one of the senior partners and at least one meeting should be attended by all of the partners during the course of a month. As Raymond Smith stated in an interview in Kanter (1990, pp. 79) "partners should be seen to be leading the way and if they are asking everyone to work together they should be seen to be doing the same." Meetings will provide an outlet for the staff of the WPC and make them feel that they are a part of the firm. At the moment they feel they are stuck up on the 35'h floor where no one can see or hear them.

Regular appraisals also should be held. It would be good to hold one every six months however time restraints may not mean that this is possible, so policy should be made that staff receive an appraisal yearly. This will provide direct feedback to all staff and give staff that may not be as open as some their chance to have a voice. Appraisals should be held with both the WPC supervisor and one of the partners.

Lack of job satisfaction has also been identified as a problem. This is reflected through little responsibility given to the workers and little reward also given. As a result of this work standard is poor and no initiative is displayed.



No encouragement is given to staff of the WPC from anyone higher than the WPC supervisor. There is no intrinsic motivation for working to a good standard. If senior partners became more visible to the staff, if they are seen to be socialising and more importantly encouraging the 'workers' then the workers will become more motivated as it doesn't seem as far to the top.



Also the company needs to integrate the staff into the firm a lot more. The staff need to know more about the firm and how it works. This could be done by giving them tasks that management don't have time to do, or that can provide learning opportunities for them. It can also be done through providing training. Computer training, time management, and organisational management would benefit the staff. This training would benefit both the individual and the company.

Implementation

To implement these solutions will not require a huge outlay of funds. It will require written policy so that the staff of the WPC can see that changes have been made. Staff as well as partners and solicitors should be involved in the writing up of policy.



Firstly a staff meeting should be held. Everyone who works at the WPC should be in attendance, partners too should be there. This meeting will outline the changes that are going to be made. It will be at this meeting that the dates for the weekly meetings will be set and also an announcement of who will head these meetings. The senior partner, in consultation with the WPC supervisor will write up an agenda for these meetings.



The WPC supervisor will then set dates for each staff member's appraisal. A date for each employer will reinforce that the company is making changes and that it wants to hear the opinions of the staff right away.



Training could be provided either internally or externally. Courses that focus on computer skills, management skills, and organisational skills would be a good start for the employees. Training is essential so that skills already leant at TAFE or other schooling do not wane. The cost of the training should be built into, but on top of, staff salary.

Bibliography

Andrewartha, G., Armstrong, H. & Carlopio, J. (1997). Developing management skills. South Melbourne: Longman.



Bergmann, R., Robbins, S.P. & Stagg, I. (1997). Management. Prentice Hall Australia

Critten, P. (1993). Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Kanter, R. M. (1990). On the frontiers of management. Henry Holt and Co.

LeBoeuf, M. (1988). How to motivate people. Letchworth, Hertfordshire: The Garden City Press.

Unnecessary repetition of case material

The manager reading the report is usually the person who commissions the report (case study). As he or she is familiar with the problems being identified, there is no need to repeat background details from the case such as the facilities offered by the firm, number of personnel, etc.

Outline these briefly here

In the Executive Summary in a report or case study, state 1) the purpose of the report, 2) the main problems identified, 3) your recommendations and the expected outcomes. Key aspects of the case should be very briefly summarised. Length should be no more than half a page to a page. A good example of an executive summary can be found in Cindy's report.

Write all authors' names the first time

When citing a source for the first time, write all the authors' names, e.g. Robbins, Bergmann and Stagg (1997, p. 535). For a second or third reference to the same authors, use the "et al." form, eg. Robbins et al. (1997).

A very good section overall, but where is 'Leadership'?

Theory has been very well integrated throughout the Problem Identification section. Each writer's concepts has been briefly introduced by outlining them and these ideas have then been linked to evidence from the case study. The section on Carlopio et al. in regard to two-way communication is particularly well done.

Leadership as a concept, however, is not covered in this section, but is an essential element in the problem situation.

Refer to Skills for Writing in Management - Problem Identification for advice on how to incorporate and discuss theory in your writing.

"Motivation", not job satisfaction!

"Job satisfaction" is an aspect of motivation but it cannot substitute for the whole concept. Recognising the differences between the everyday meanings of a word and the more specialised academic meanings is part of the learning task in this subject.

Improve headings and formatting

The Alternative Solutions section needs to be crisp and precise, so:

1. Ensure headings are quite clear. Specify who is responsible for performing an action and whom the action affects (e.g. a heading like "Regular Appraisals" does not tell the reader who is to be appraised). Formatting could also be improved by using major headings such as "Solutions for Improving Communication" and "Solutions for Improving Motivation" rather than "Job Satisfaction".
2. Organise supporting points as bullets under the subheadings of "Advantages" and "Disadvantages".

For advice on writing subheadings, refer to Skills for Writing in Management - Recommendations.

Lacks theoretical justification.

It's a pity to throw away marks just because you are near the end! All recommendations should be equally covered which means providing the relevant theoretical discussion for each recommendation.

Very vague. Practical steps are missing!

The Implementation section needs to make the maximum impact in the most effective way. The best way of doing this is to table the relevant information, focusing on the practical steps needed. Use headings such as Who? What ? When? Where? How much? Clear headings are essential so the reader can follow the advice.

As this section is a summary of the changes that need to be made in the problem situation, avoid any vague wording of implementation goals. Instead, make them as specific and as concise as possible, with no wasted words.

The Implementation section in Cindy's assignment provides a good example.

Referencing problems

Carlopio, J., Andrewartha, G. & Armstrong, H. (1997). Developing management skills. South Melbourne: Longman.

Primary author to be listed first.

Robbins, S.P., Bergman, R. & Stagg, I. (1997). Management. Sydney: Prentice Hall.

Primary author to be listed first, place of publication should be the city and be listed before the publisher.

In APA Style this is called References.

Add missing title information in italics.

Add missing place of publication.

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