Introduction  

The purpose of this case study is to identify the organization that arises within the Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant, between management and employees. The issues that are arising within the organization cannot be overlooked. Management needs to take the appropriate actions to solve the situation. By pinpointing the root of the issues, they will give the organization the opportunity to develop an effective approach. It can potentially help the company improve the current plan, simply by implementing a new plan where the team can meet monthly expectations. This study will provide an overview of techniques that will be used by applying the human behavior theories.

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant was a privately-owned company located in Richmond, Indiana where they manufactured mirrors for automobiles and trucks. The plant employed more than 200 employees, which was ran by plant manager Ron Bent and his assistant Joe Haley. In 2005 Ron Bent was forced to lay off 46 employees. By 2007 the administration was faced with a crisis. This is a company that gave their employees incentives and bonuses. At that time, they struggled to give out bonuses under the Scanlon Plan for 7 months. This was a principal were contributions to employee's morale were being lowered, and created a negative work environment. The Scanlon Plan was put into place to boost employee's morale, increasing productivity, etc. Employees became frustrated and felt they were treated unfairly due to these events. A significate change had occurred, the employees signed the deal and it effectively worked a lot better. The communication with management had become much clearer.

This can be viewed as one of the major factors, that crippled upward communication within the company. When you are not being paid the bonuses, they had agreed too. It is hard to sustain a working relationship with management. Employees and managers has to be on the same page to ensure business goes accordingly. This problem is deeper than just communication, it decreases productivity and the company's legacy.

Root Cause Case Study Analysis  

Organizational issues within the Engstrom plant came about due to multiple reasons. Looking at employee satisfaction, lack of trust in management, and an overall decline in productivity and quality in production. These are things that can be looked at as human behavior affecting the overall company. Communication with management can be viewed as a root cause of the issues that have arisen within the company. This is where human behavior can be viewed as a critical part of running a business. All involved in the business should always be able to have a good understanding of what's going on. When people are managed by a bad manager its causes some individuals work productivity to decrease.  

I believe the company had great intentions to make employees happy but some things just did not go as planned. The Scanlon Plan was brought to the Engstrom Auto Plant to provide employees with incentives and monthly bonuses for going above and beyond for the company. Everyone was happy with the Scanlon Plan as it first was introduced but as time went on that was not the case. Over time to plan would fail, employees of the plant became dissatisfied with upper management and the quality of work began to decline. Employees felt management failed to explain The Scanlon Plan to the best of their knowledge.

 Open communication this is the best way to communicate between employees and management.  The Human issue here I would say would have to be the communication. Open communication leads to overall employee satisfaction, organizations will strive the best when an employee can speak to his or her manager with no issue and vice versa. (Troppello 2015)  Poor communication comes from the top and it's very difficult for employees to understand what's going on if the boss is not explaining all details. According to Newstrom a few positive traits in leadership are Inclusion and intentionally. Inclusion is when employees feel like they are respected and treated equal across the company. Employees also have access to opportunities and resources the company has to offer. Intentionally is making the company's goal clear to all employees by the employer. Both of these traits could have helped Engstrom Auto Plant during their decline. The trait that was neglected most I would have to say would be "Inclusion". Employees did not feel respected and they were more so mislead.  

When Engstrom Auto Plant decided to implement a new incentive plan they should have ensured that all details were made fully accessible for all employees to fully understand. I'm sure employees would have appreciated the open communication surrounding their benefits. Employees will feel like employers are misleading them and that will play a role in the productivity (Switch & Shift 2017). Some may not give their all at work if they are unhappy and provide the bare minimum to get by. The lack of trust in management will lead to the organizational issue. The policy's put in place by the company were not explained the best so it caused friction between employees and management.  

At first the employees were given incentives, but as time passed they were no longer rewarded. The employee's performance has changed due to sudden changes and they lost the motivation they once had. To see progress continuous reinforcement is needed in order increase employee motivation. One of the benefits employees had were getting bonuses monthly. As they cut down on the monthly bonuses they felt as if it was not necessary to continue to go above and beyond. Employees struggled to adjust to the changes because they viewed it as a compensation.

We can compare the monetary reward using to motivate Engstrom employees to the equity model, which means the employees want their reward system to be fair Newstroms model reviews the idea of over and under-reward. When an employee is given an incentive for being an over achiever they will continue to work just as hard to demonstrate goal has been met. Providing the employees with extra bonuses monthly helped with productivity, staff morale and work ethic. The model suggests that if an employee is under-rewarded it is possible that it will screw with their work performance.  

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