DILEMMA AT DEVIL’S DEN
Devils Den faces a dilemma. Susan is a finance major who works part-time at Devil’s Den, a snack bar, managed under a contract with the College Food Services (CFS). The snack bar runs two shifts; the morning shift is managed and controlled by full-time employees, while the night shift is run by students, who work under the supervision of another student, who holds the position of manager. There are approx. 30 student employees and 6 student mangers employed by CFS to supervise Devil’s Den. Student managers are previous employees chosen by other student managers, have no formal training, or have any binding with Devil’s Den for their actions. When Susan joined Devil’s Den, she was appalled by the state of affairs and wanted to correct them. However, she was unsure whether the management would do anything about it. She found that talking to the employees would be useless, as they abused rules and would ignore her. She has aspirations to become a student manager during the next semester and didn’t want to create a negative image of herself. While the day shift is manned by employees of Devil’s Den and is managed professionally, the night shifts, where students run the snack bar is what is worrying Susan. She is worried by the attitude and behavior of the student members and their managers running the night shifts.
The factor that has caused concerns for Susan is the lackadaisical attitude of the students and managers running the night shifts. The time she spent at Devil’s Den was enough for Susan to gauge the unethical practices of the student employees and managers of the night shift. She saw that student employees working the night shifts were indulging in thefts. Since Devil’s Den had a contract with the CFS, these employees were taking advantage of this by taking food after their shift and giving it to their friends as freebies. Susan’s colleagues too took large quantities of freebies, and no one ever checked the storage room, which remained unlocked all the time. The snack bar was being looted, and while seemed to know what was going on, they didn’t seem to mind as they benefited from this approach. Student managers showed no responsibility during their shift, and the widespread thefts didn’t seem to be a threat of a job loss. While those working in night shift did nothing, the morning shift was obliged to, and had to do all the night closing duties in the morning. This was unfair and highly unethical. She was in a dilemma whether to report this to the management, which could, she thought, hamper her chance of getting the job in the next semester.
It would be hard to analyze the strengths of Devil’s Den. It had a policy that encouraged students to take up responsibility of managing a business on their own. Students could benefit from experiencing and understanding managerial practices by working in a professional work environment. The management didn’t have to pay much to students to run the business at night.
Weaknesses were plenty; no managerial responsibility, high turnover, low wages, no food restrictions, unethical corporate culture, poor work conditions, and lack of written policies and procedures, so essential for an organization’s success.
As a snack bar that operates inside the college campus, Devil’s Den has a lot of opportunities to enhance their profits. Unlike the morning shift, when the bar is run by full-time employees, the night shifts, if run professionally, can bring in huge revenue in the form of referral sales. However, for that, the management would need to take corrective steps to weed out unethical practices.
Threats remain in the form of the callous attitude of student employees and student managers. There is easy access to the storage room, there is no inventory control, there is fear that they could lose customers if they were reported, and managers lacked responsibility. Unless the management of Devil’s Den rectifies its mismanagement issues, the snack bar will end up in a financial mess, and close its operations. In addition to the monetary losses, Devil’s Den is overridden by brazen theft, resulting in high turnover, lost productivity, and difficulty in retaining talent. CFS, the private company that manages this and other college snack bars, face the threat of losing their reputation.
Most of the problems facing Devil’s are the result of poor working conditions. The day manager at CFS can least afford to be scrupulous when hiring employees because of the low-pay and working odd-hours. Investing in a professional team will offset many of the intangible costs the company is experiencing. To overcome the problems faced by Devil’s Den, CFS must address the needs of their employees. This includes better work environment and pay. Students who are selected must be made to undergo training before they can become a manager. As managers, they should follow and practice ethical behavior, and punish those who indulge in unethical practices, and reward those for their consistency.
Managers must be trained to follow company rules, and made accountable for stores and supplies. All activities must be recorded and shown to the morning shift manager during hand-over. There has to be proper records to show the flow of food provided to employees as freebies. The management must understand that student employees lack the motivation to work or perform to company norms, and so, must introduce motivational programs. It would be hard for just one or two student employees to motivate or involve the others in ethical practices, and so, it is imperative that Devil’s Den’s management introduces periodic training programs to encourage them to perform their duties better.
As for Susan, having spoken to Mack with little success, she should take the matter to the next level and discuss it with the day manager.
References:
Dilemma at Devil's Den, http://www.researchomatic.com/dilemma-at-devils-den- 327.html#buytopicstep
