Hovey and Beard Company

1. Hovey and Beard Company

2. Protégé Brian Cohen Paul Jepsen Kateri Nguyen Megan Stiegelmar Yance Yu

3. Company Overview The Hovey and Beard Company manufacture many different type of wooden toys. The toys begin in the wood stages, they are cut, sanded, and partially assembled, dipped in shellac and sent to the painting room which is where this case begins.

4. How was the painters’ job score on the core job characteristics before and after the changes were made?

5. Core Job Characteristics Skill Variety • The degree to which a job includes a variety of different activities and involves the use of a number of different skills and talents

6. Core Job Characteristics Task Identity • The degree to which the job requires completion of a “whole” and identifiable piece of work, one that involves doing a job from beginning to end with a visible outcome.

7. Core Job Characteristics Task Significance • The degree to which the job is important and involves a meaningful contribution to the organization or society in general.

8. Core Job Characteristics Autonomy • The degree to which the job gives the employee substantial freedom, independence, and discretion in scheduling the work and determining the procedures used in carrying it out

9. Core Job Characteristics Job feedback • The degree to which carrying out the work activities provides direct and clear information to the employee regarding how well the job has been done.

10. How can the positive impact of the job redesign be explained? • Job enrichment • Increases job content by giving workers more responsibility for planning and evaluating duties

11. Was the learning bonus handled properly in this case? How can its motivational impact be explained? What alternative approaches could have been taken with similar motivational results

12. The learning bonus was not handled properly. • Loss of morale • Loss of income 6 months into position • Alternative approaches: • Job enlargement: Increases task variety by adding new tasks of similar difficulty to a job. • Job rotation: Increases task variety by shifting workers among jobs involving tasks of similar difficulty.

13. How do you explain the situation described in the last paragraph of the case? How could this outcome have been avoided by appropriate managerial actions?

14. Superintendent Supervisor Engineer • Situation was not handled appropriately. • Superintendent, the Supervisor and the Engineers should have a meeting to set goals for each department in order to obtain the productivity the painters obtained • Frequent meetings to uphold morale