At 22 years of age, Mr. Polk believed that money would solve all his problems. To CFSB’s Control Management System, such belief would pose a major challenge in the control of Mr. Polk’s behavior while working in the company. One of the main functions of a Control Management System is to motivate employees to make decisions and take actions that are consistent with the organizational objectives. The control system must, therefore, guide the employees to focus all their energy towards accomplishing the organization’s goals despite the fact that they may be tempted to make decisions or take actions that favor their needs. In our case scenario, however, Mr. Polk’s ambitions seem to have been overtaken by greed. In his quest to make more money for himself and become even richer, Mr. Polk might engage in fraudulent activities thereby putting the reputation of the company at risk. It would, therefore, depend on how stringent the Management Control System of CFSB is in taming such behavior and aligning the likes of Mr. Polk to the company’s mission and vision.
Employers have an obligation to help employees who abuse drugs and alcohol. Whenever employees engage in such activities, this is bound to affect their performance negatively while at the same time putting the organization for which they work on the losing side. It is the duty of every employer to ensure quality standard of living for all employees. One of the main functions of a Control Management System is to evaluate the results of operations based on employee performance and at the same time allow employee to operate without questioning every decision that they make. The organization’s Management Control System should, therefore, provide a mechanism that rewards good effort and punishes bad behavior so as to keep the employees aligned to the organization’s mission and vision and contribute positively towards the organizations goals. The Control System should seek to exercise permanent control in the entire organization but in a way that is consistent with the decentralized scheme of the organization. Such a characteristic of the Control System translates to autonomy with control whereby employees can work effectively with minimal supervision. In the process, employees with drugs and alcohol problems get assistance to deal with such problems.
While he was at the Bank of America, Mr. Polk was sharp and hardworking and by the end of the first year, he was rewarded with a bonus amounting to $40000. His dedication, ambition and continuous hard work saw him move up the ladder and later landed a job at Citibank where they paid him $1.75 million dollars per year for two years. He later received promotion. Clearly, Mr. Polk got rewarded with incentives for his efforts thus boosting his morale to work even harder and strive to be among the top. Control Management Systems in any organizations should also have mechanisms for performance assessment in meeting the organizational objectives and reward administration. Employees who work hard should receive rewards in form of incentives and promotions. Such rewards in a Control System seek to motivate the employees and enforce positive behavior to ensure that they behave in ways that will help to attain the organizational goals. Once the employees show good behavior, it is important that the Control System has the characteristic to reinforce such behavior ensuring repetition over and again. In this way, an organization can continue to run for the foreseeable future.
According to Mr. Polk, power means the ability to do what you want without the fear of not having the money to do it. At one instance, he was able to affect the behavior of other people, for instance having his broker book restaurants for him. In our case scenario, since he was smart and successful, it was another person’s job to make him happy. He considered himself a force with which to reckon. Envy, on the other hand, made Mr. Polk become even more ambitious. He looked upon people who were able to make more money than him and always liked to be like them. For instance, he was fascinated at the way Senators would visit billionaires in their offices. Such envy gave him the urge to work harder to achieve more. On the other hand, Mr. Polk’s employers’ view of power was quite different. There were plenty of injustices including rampant poverty. They were wealth addicts creating a huge discrepancy between the rich and the poor and almost wiping out of the middle class. Their envy was for employees to keep working for them as they paid the meager remunerations while they made away with the big salaries. When Mr. Polk decided to leave, they tempted him with even more money to try and make him stay but he left.
Regulations might be better for the system as a whole but not for the company. Regulations measures are, usually, put in place to ensure favorable working environments for employees. For instance, regulations exist that dictate the minimum wage that employees of a particular work class should earn. In such a scenario, the companies have to cooperate and pay the salaries depending on what is defined by law. For companies that do not make huge profits, a substantial amount goes to the huge wage bills and, as a result, they may be forced to downsize. Taxation policies are also regulations that determine the success of the company. An increase in corporate tax on the profits of a company has the same effect of increased costs in the business. Regulations also demand that there should be no discrimination of employees with disability. As such, it is a requirement for all organizations to afford an enabling environment to all employees regardless of their status. If it means adding more infrastructures to facilitate flexibility in terms of movement, the organization must meet such costs. Government regulations could also mean dictating fair competition between different organizations thus limiting activities that would prove to be unfair to other organizations.
Wealth addiction is a real phenomenon as exhibited in our case scenario. It comes about due to the urge to accumulate plenty of wealth more than one can spend. The situation mostly accelerates when an individual is a fan of luxurious things and hangs around people who like to belong to an elite status. In our case scenario, Mr. Polk’s urge to accumulate wealth started when he received his first bonus of $40000. The urge later grew to the point that making $1.5 million dollars was no longer a big deal for him. Clearly, this is a real phenomenon as the amount can prove to be a fortune to an ordinary citizen. The fact that one can make so much money and not see it as a big deal means the person is addicted to wealth. It is a dangerous position to be in since the most important things in life do not matter anymore to such a person. Such type of addiction can lead to psychological trauma if one cannot control the urge. For Mr. Polk, he was lucky enough the he never let it get the best out of him. He realized this early and made an exit from the disease of the rich. People suffering from wealth addiction should get out as early as possible. If not, wealth addiction could have some devastating effects.
Wealth addiction as a phenomenon can pose serious challenges in the design of a Management Control System. A Control System should be for the sole purpose of keeping employees aligned to the organizations mission and work towards positive contribution towards the organizations goals. As such, it should have a way evaluate and reward hardworking employees who consistently keep achieving milestones in attaining organizations goals. For small organizations, employees who are addicted to wealth may outgrow the ability of the organization to maintain hefty rewards. The main reason is that organization may not make as many profits to offer handsome perks to such employees. Large organizations may be able to keep up granting hefty bonuses to such employees. However, such employees may enter into dubious means of earning their keep in order to keep increasing the bonuses. The challenge in the design of a Management Control System in such a case would be to gather feedback to ensure smooth running of the operations while at the same time providing an enabling environment where employees can go about their duties without questioning every decision that they make. The employees should, therefore, have the opportunity to make decisions towards the fulfillment of the organizations objectives without the distraction of making the decisions for their own selfish gains.
In my opinion, Mr. Polk Views hold across all types of companies and all cultures and not just valid for the Wall Street culture. In the modern day world, the society is hooked on money. People are always working hard to make end meet. Wealth addiction starts when a person starts making money and accumulating it. In our case scenario, it is clear that Mr. Polk’s childhood was way below the average compared to most people. His ambition and hard work saw him get his first $40000 bonus. Such can happen to any employee from any company and across all cultures. If they are ambitious enough and put in extra effort, they are bound to get bonuses some even bigger than that of Mr. Polk. The Management Control System also plays a major role in molding the behavior of such employees while still young. If proper Management Control Systems are in place coupled with a good organizational culture, statistics wealth addicts will decline. If, however, the Control Systems are not stringent enough, the situation is likely to get out of hand more so if the organizational culture’s main driver is money without thoroughly looking into the operations behind generation of such money.
