BUS 815 S2 2018
Patrick Garcia
Part II. Case Study Analysis
A. Format and guidelines
You are to submit your analysis to the case below on or before September 5, 5pm through the link
on iLearn. The iLearn submission link will be available starting August 29. Please submit your analysis
using your ‘lastname_firstname_student number’ as the file name. Your answers should be limited
to 2 pages maximum using Times New Roman, 12 point font, 1.5 line spacing and normal margins
as per Word settings. Include your name and student number in your uploaded analysis.
Please note: Plagiarism will be harshly penalised. You are also not allowed to post the case in any
platform.
B. Citing sources
For this essay, you are not required to provide additional references beyond the textbook and the
lecture. However, you are free to cite peer-reviewed journal articles to supplement your analysis. To
cite material coming from the textbook, provide the page number/s where the information was
found in parentheses at the end of the sentence. For example:
Employees’ overall job performance is not limited to how well they perform their assigned
tasks and duties, as it also includes going “above and beyond” by performing citizenship
behaviors and not engaging in counterproductive behaviors (p. 33).
To cite course material presented in the lecture slides, cite the slide week number. For example:
The MARS model of task performance specifies four major factors that affect whether an
employee performs well: Motivation, Ability, Role Perceptions, and Situational Factors (Week
1).
C. The objective
The overall goal is to demonstrate a strong understanding of the concepts, theories, and models
presented during the first four weeks of the course. As such, it is expected that you are able to
describe the different concepts and theories covered in the course and apply it to explain the main
issues or problems in the case and provide recommendations on how the problem or issue could
have been avoided or resolved. Specifically, your case analysis should include the following:
1. Identify Ricardo’s levels of specific job attitudes and types of work behaviours he performs
now or in the past.
2. Explain why Ricardo is behaving and thinking in these ways.
3. Recommend actions Ricardo’s manager should have taken, or should take now.
Use the three objectives above as headings of your analysis. You are to write an essay in
paragraph form. Bullet point answers will not be accepted.
Aside from applying course concepts and theories to explain the case, your ability to provide
evidence from the case to justify your analysis will also be graded. For example, simply saying that
Ricardo has low levels of commitment is not enough. You need to provide evidence in the case to
justify this particular claim. The following rubric will be used to grade your essay:
Grading
Analyses: 75%
BUS 815 S2 2018
Patrick Garcia
25%: Breadth and extent of course concepts applied
25%: Extent course concepts are explicitly and logically linked to events in the case
25%: Overall depth and sophistication of the analysis
Writing: 25%
10%: Typos, spelling, and grammar
15%: Clarity, efficiency, and organization (including the use of headings and proper citation)
D. The case
Sauder Linings & Seals (SLS) was established in 1966 as a small family-owned US business specializing
in the manufacture of waterproof linings made of plastic composites. In the early years, SLS focused
on products used to retrofit aging showers and bathtubs in residential settings. Within a decade, SLS
achieved considerable revenue growth by expanding their product lines, eventually becoming a
major supplier to several bathroom and hot tub manufacturers, and selling commercial products to
food and beverage clients, including three large breweries.
Ricardo Rodriguez works in Accounts Receivable at SLS, processing payment plans and managing
invoices for client accounts. Ricardo is well suited for this work as he is a careful person and
extremely attentive to detail. While Ricardo is somewhat shy and reserved—even a bit awkward in
some social settings—his job does not require him to interact with clients, nor does his work require
much collaboration with coworkers, and this suits him just fine. Ricardo enjoys having the freedom
to complete his work as he sees fit, and he knows his work matters to SLS as he effectively manages
the flow of much of the company’s revenue. He also believes he’s paid reasonably well and doesn’t
dislike any of his coworkers.
The manager of Accounts Receivable, John Royston, recently told Ricardo that he would be
representing the department as a member of the recently announced CFWT. For Ricardo, the
thought of working closely with people he doesn't even know filled him with anxiety and fear. He
learned that it is better to be cautious than be abused in the end. When he asked his manager why
he was appointed to the CFWT, John replied, “Because you’re the one I picked, and that’s all the
reason you need.”
Being forced to serve on the CFWT upset Ricardo because it compounded an existing problem that
started three months earlier when Ricardo discovered that he received one of the smallest annual
pay raise among the five employees who worked in the same position in his department. This upset
Ricardo because he had the most seniority among his coworkers and he consistently met or
exceeded the performance standards outlined in the employee manual and in his job description. He
couldn't say the same thing for three of his coworkers who are especially sloppy and careless in their
work. Moreover, Ricardo recently heard that customer satisfaction, or delivery times, or something
else was going to be used to calculate the annual pay raise for employees in his department. He
wasn’t sure exactly how or even whether this was true, but the thought of this change angered him
because he rarely interacted with customers, and this reward system would do nothing to motivate
him to work smarter and harder; rather, it would do the opposite.
Ricardo is convinced that John has been “out to get him” from the start. During the rare times when
John is present in the office he seems to take an interest in all of the other employees’ lives but
makes little attempt to connect with Ricardo. Because John performs the annual performance
BUS 815 S2 2018
Patrick Garcia
reviews without ever working closely with his employees, Ricardo questions the basis of John’s
assessment. He is not confident that it’s even ethical for John to perform these reviews without
really taking the time to observe his employees at work. But what can Ricardo do? As he sees it,
John’s the boss and Ricardo’s not.
Ricardo has become increasingly unhappy, but he figures all he can do is to put his head down, and
do the job that is required of him as he has little desire to spend the effort needed to find a new job.
Plus, getting a new job may mean uprooting his entire family to move elsewhere. But unlike in the
past, now when Ricardo is asked to stay late or to cover someone else’s shift he makes up an excuse
and declines. As he told his brother at a family dinner a few weekends ago, “If they want me to do
extra stuff, they need to show me the money.” In cases when he does agree to do something extra,
he finds a way to even things out, such as by taking longer breaks or skipping meetings.
__________________________
© 2015. Case developed by Patrick Garcia, Department of Management, Macquarie University. Please do not
distribute without permission.
Purchase answer to see full
attachment