[SOLVED] The Marlow Construction Case Study
Instructions: Follow the process outlined below to write 2-3 pages in response to the case study information and questions. The first page will record your initial thoughts and answers to some directed questions on the first half of the case, and the final 1-2 pages allow you to reflect on the second part of the case and your own practice of understanding employee needs and motivations. You may use an additional page at the end for a bibliography of sources cited. Introduction: The Marlow Construction case study is designed to provoke thinking around employee motivation and performance with an emphasis on understanding the roles that prior experience and differing perspectives play in individual interpretations of many work situations. This is not your typical case where you are assigned several pages of text with some appendices containing data for analysis and questions to answer about how the business should have responded to a situation. This case information is relatively short, consisting of two one-page summaries of the situation from the perspective of a construction company owner and one of his employees. It is very important for this case that you follow the process here by reading only the first part of the case to start and summarizing your thoughts before moving on to the rest of the case. This isn’t trying to trick you into any answers, but is designed to get you to survey the problem thoughtfully from one position first and then from the other position later– if you read both sections before starting, it will just be harder for you to coalesce your thoughts in response to the first set of questions and the assignment starts to lose its value for you. Admittedly, the case feels somewhat manipulative in presenting one side before the other, and your first reaction to the second part of the case may be that the new information isn’t really fair to be withheld from you in the first half. I agree that no one is probably as dense as Dan Marlow and most of your employees don’t face the same circumstances as Robby Gomez, but the ideas and themes overall should give you a good platform to evaluate your own approach to employee relations, incentives, and motivation. Before you begin take a few moments to consider the following questions. You may want to make notes for yourself, but nothing here is required to be submitted with the assignment. 1. What kinds of incentives motivate you? 2. Do you believe that people are inherently motivated, or do they need to be coaxed into working hard? 3. What kinds of jobs do you find engaging? 4. What gets in the way of you being engaged at work? First read: Marlow Construction (A): Dan Marlow, Founder and President (Links to an external site.) Next write the first page of your case study report, discussing your thoughts at this point. Consider and answer what you feel are the most important questions from this list or other thoughts you might have to understand or help solve Dan Marlow’s problem. What kind of leadership problem do we have here? What types of operational issues are likely being caused at Marlow Construction because of employee turnover and lack of engagement? Is this type of employee problem typical within construction and is it inevitable for the industry? Why would you guess Marlow has these problems and what initial recommendations would you have to improve things for Marlow Construction? When you have one page of answers written to the above questions, next read: https://harvardmagazine.com/2015/05/the-science-of-scarcity (Links to an external site.) and then, Marlow Construction (B): Robby Gomez (Links to an external site.) Now finish the final 1-2 pages of your report giving further insight into the situation and proposing solutions now that you’ve seen the story from a different perspective. What is the situation and what are the problems from Gomez’s point of view? Why would Marlow’s earlier attempts at motivation fall short and what types of incentives would you recommend he consider offering in the future? Are there systematic problems with an employer being ‘too understanding’ of employee problems, and what considerations should be made to ensure organizational performance while also meeting employee needs? Do these considerations change with the economy and unemployment rate? If it is easy to replace employees, is it OK for Marlow to simply cycle through a lot of turnover, or will other organizational issues arise that should be considered? Are there implications from the Science of Scarcity article that shed light on the various perspectives presented in the case? Are you familiar with other concepts or theories, such as Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow, that might aid understanding in this type of situation? In your own leadership, how might you use these insights to design effective systems and motivate employees? Even if you don’t have employees like Robby Gomez, are there implications here that suggest changes in your role as a leader, or are there systems you already practice that help to understated your employees and their motivations? Submission Instructions: Complete and upload the assignment as a Word document with Calibri 11pt font, 1.15 line spacing, and 1 margins, by 23:59 MST Sunday. Proper citations should follow APA format and a source bibliography should be added as an additional separate page at the end.
