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Kia Allen
CASE 2: REPAIRING JOBS THAT FAIL TO SATISFY
INTRODUCTION
DrainFlow is a major plumbing maintenance firm who specializes in both residential and
commercial services. For decades, DrainFlow has operated around the United States, using their
specialization strategy to stay ahead of its competitors. Although DrainFlow’s specialization
strategy has helped reduce its costs, customer complaints have been rising. Often, the customer
complaints are about response times and costs. Several appointments have been rescheduled due
to the wrong staff members being sent to jobs. Also, some customers have been overcharged due
to more experienced and expensive workers being sent to perform simpler tasks that assistants
could handle. The rising number of complaints has caused many customers to seek services from
a newer competing chain, Lightning Plumber.
Regional manager, Lee Reynaldo, has been analyzing the problems at DrainFlow and has
predicted possible sources. Lee believes that employees are not motivated enough and that the
job design could be contributing to the problems. As a result, Lee has proposed to use cash
rewards to improve performance among employees. She also wants to find new employees who
are a better fit with the company’s new goals. Whether Lee decides to go through with these
proposed solutions or not, a change needs to be in order to help DrainFlow return back to its
highly competitive position within the market.
QUESTIONS
Question 1) Although it’s clear employees are not especially satisfied with their work, do
you think this is a reason for concern? Does research suggest satisfied workers are actually
better at their jobs? Are any other behavioral outcomes associated with job satisfaction?
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Employees who are not especially satisfied with their work tend to be less motivated to
achieve organizational goals. This raises a high concern for the organization, in which
organizational goals may take even longer to accomplish. In this case, employees at DrainFlow
are not motivated and therefore, lack the customer service that they should be providing.
Competitors such as Lightning Plumber offer great customer service in comparison. Lightning
Plumber has also created a more vital and energetic work environment.
Since the early 1900’s, job satisfaction and job performance have been linked together.
Beginning with the Hawthorne studies, happy workers were described as productive workers.
Throughout the years, these findings were challenged and the linkage was proven to be
moderately strong. Research suggests that organizations with more satisfied workers tend to be
more effective than organizations with fewer (Robbins, 2001).
In addition to job performance, there are many more behavioral outcomes associated with
job satisfaction. These associations can be either positive or negative in regards to performance.
An employee’s organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is highly dependent on their level of
job satisfaction. Satisfied employees will go beyond their work expectations simply because they
have positive feelings toward their job. Support by co-workers and positive experiences in the
workplace usually cause employees to engage in OCB. Also, customer satisfaction has been
found to positively contribute to job performance. Satisfied employees have the ability to
increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Currently, DrainFlow is receiving several surveys
reflecting customer dissatisfaction. 40% of the total survey respondents felt that their experience
was not good while 30% of the total survey respondents disclosed that they would use a
competitor the next time they experience a plumbing issue (Robbins, 2001).
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On the contrary, some associations with job satisfaction can result in negative behavioral
outcomes. Absenteeism, turnover, and workplace deviance all have a negative relationship with
job satisfaction. When employees are dissatisfied with work and alternative jobs are available,
they will have high absence rates. However, when few alternative jobs are available, dissatisfied
employees have the same low absence rates as satisfied employees (Robbins, 2001). Similarly,
turnover is a result of alternative job prospects. Employees are influenced by the “pull-push”
mechanism, the luring of the other job and the unattractiveness of the current job. High human
capital, such as high ability, can even influence employees to consider other available
alternatives. Finally, workplace deviance causes withdrawal at work. Employees dislike their
jobs so much that rather than finding the source of the problem, they will control the situation
with different responses. Workplace deviance includes substance abuse, unionization attempts,
and stealing at work.
Question 2) Using job characteristics theory, explain why the present system of job design
may be contributing to employee dissatisfaction. Describe some ways you could help
employees feel more satisfied with their work by redesigning their jobs.
Currently, DrainFlow’s job design is contributing to employee dissatisfaction. Not only
are they lacking organization, they are lacking coordination and the proper knowledge. The
2,000-employee firm is divided by four basic job categories: plumbers, plumber’s assistants,
order processors, and billing representatives. All job categories are dependent on another job
category to perform at their most efficient level. Under the job characteristics model (JCM), the
jobs at DrainFlow can be described by five core job dimensions: skill variety, task identity, task
significance, autonomy, and feedback. Plumber’s and plumber’s assistants both reflect high
scores of task identity, task significance, and feedback. Both jobs require completion of a piece
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of work and are significant in the living or working conditions of customers. They also tend to
generate customer feedback upon completion. Plumber’s and plumber’s assistants must tend to
all of their assigned jobs. However, just because they are assigned to a job, they may not be able
to solve the problem. For example, when the wrong employee is sent to a job that is too complex
for them, the job must be rescheduled. By sending the wrong employee, the customer and
employee have wasted their time and in most cases, the customer declines further contact with
DrainFlow. Employees are then having to deal with customer complaints on the spot and are
having to explain that they are not in control of making appointments. Employees are
overwhelmed not only with performing their job but also providing customer service. Similarly,
the wrong employee sent to a job can affect the rates the customer has to pay. A highly skilled
plumber sent to perform an easy task like snake a drain results in a hefty bill.
Although the existing job design at DrainFlow seems quite simple and straight-forward,
employees have become frustrated with having to perform duties outside of their job description.
As mentioned before, the lack of coordination and knowledge has led to employee
dissatisfaction. Employees in all four job categories are not working together to gain a better
understanding of others skills and the proper knowledge of typical plumbing requests. If I were
given the opportunity to help employees feel more satisfied, I would redesign their jobs using
two distinct methods. Through job rotation, I would periodically shift an employee from one task
to another. I would most likely use this method on plumber’s and plumber’s assistants, where
they would take on the duties of an order processor. This could benefit DrainFlow because
plumber’s and plumber’s assistants already have the knowledge related to plumbing and know
exactly who to assign to each job. The rotation of jobs reduces boredom and increases motivation
in employees (Robbins, 2001). I would also expand jobs through job enrichment. This method
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increases the degree to which the worker controls planning, execution, and the evaluation of
work (Robbins, 2001). I believe all job categories would find this motivational and will lead to
greater job satisfaction. Job enrichment allows employees to have more freedom and
responsibility so that they can assess and correct their own performance (Robbins, 2001). I
would enrich the jobs by implementing the JCM within each guideline. Hopefully though these
two methods, the employees at DrainFlow would understand the meaningfulness of their work
and how customer satisfaction affects an employee’s job satisfaction.
Question 3) Lee has a somewhat vague idea about how to implement the cash rewards
system. Describe some of the specific ways you would make the reward system work better,
based on the case.
Based on the case, I believe a cash rewards system would help motivate employees and
will ultimately improve their performance. So far, Lee has developed a plan for how she would
like to implement the reward system. She has determined a few ways on how to measure job
performance and how the rewards are to be given to each job category. However, she has not
determined how to reward the billing representatives, the amount of the cash rewards, and how
often the cash rewards will be distributed.
I would improve this reward system by creating a number of guidelines. First, this reward
system should be done on a monthly basis. I believe this time frame allows billing
representatives to collect just enough information to determine customer satisfaction and job
performance. Also, employees will have the opportunity to make any changes and improvements
to redeem themselves before the end of the month. The cash rewards will be given based on the
information collected in surveys by the billing representatives. For the plumber’s and plumber’s
assistants to be eligible they must receive no complaints and all jobs must be handled promptly.
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Order processors will be rewarded for every 20 successful calls and billing representatives will
be rewarded on the number of completed surveys they receive. The cash rewards will be
distributed individually where as a category-wide distribution will result in slackers and only a
few employees working hard. This will motivate employees even more to work harder to satisfy
customers.
Looking back at Lee’s initial idea, I would not classify the rewards as small, moderate, or
large. There is no basis to measure how big the reward should be. Therefore, all rewards will be
of the same amount, whether it is a $50 bonus or a $100 bonus per employee. I believe as long
as everyone is doing their best and are making an effort to improve customer satisfaction, they
should be presented with an incentive to do even better.
Question 4) Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using financial incentives in a
program of this nature. What, if any, potential problems might arise if people are given
money for achieving customer satisfaction goals? What other types of incentives might be
considered?
Financial incentives may result in both advantages and disadvantages. The main
advantage of financial incentives is that they are highly motivational. A program of this nature
would benefit from financial incentives because they would be striving to meet short-term goals.
Research suggests that financial incentives may be more motivating in the short term rather than
the long-term. In addition, financial incentives challenge employees and make them set higher
goals for themselves. This then improves performance and subsequently customer satisfaction.
Some disadvantages of financial incentives include the loss of organizational focus. Employees
may not be able to concentrate on organizational goals and tend to focus more on receiving the
cash reward. For organizations, they will incur higher compensation costs to account for the
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additional bonuses. Finally, financial incentives increase competitiveness within the workplace
and takes away from competing outside the organization.
Given these disadvantages, potential problems may arise if people are given money for
achieving customer satisfaction goals. Organizations could start losing more and more money if
employees are constantly meeting satisfaction goals. Although meeting these goals are pertinent,
giving money as an incentive becomes costly. Also, employees may put pressure on customers
by always requesting feedback. I feel that feedback should be given at one’s ease. To prevent
these possible problems and any additional problems from happening, other types of incentives
could replace the form of money. Organizations can use a variety of employee recognition
programs that are either private or widely publicized. For example, DrainFlow’s regional
managers could announce employee accomplishments or even create a visible employee
recognition wall for everyone to see. These are both inexpensive ways to recognize employee
performance and to motivate other employees. Furthermore, organizations could recognize
employees by giving them rewards of some value. For instance, one month DrianFlow could
decide to make the reward a free pair of movie tickets. This method allows management to be
more creative with their incentives and leaves employees excited about their potential reward.
Question 5) Create a specific plan to assess whether the reward system is working. What
are the dependent variables that should change if the system works? How will you go about
measuring success?
As regional manager of DrainFlow, Lee Reynaldo should evaluate the customer surveys
on a weekly basis. It is important that she is aware of the progress of the employees and the
feedback from their customers. After roughly 3 months of implementing the reward system, Lee
should assess which individual employees and specific job categories are receiving the most
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rewards. She should continue with this evaluation for every 3 months. By keeping track of the
employees and job categories that value this reward system, she can see how effective the system
actually is. This will also help her decide whether the reward system is working for everyone at
DrainFlow or just within specific job categories. Lee can then decide if she wants to keep the
reward system, make changes, or get rid of the reward system all together.
If the reward system is perceived to work, productivity and job satisfaction are expected
to increase. Employees will view this reward system as another goal they must reach and when
they do reach it, they become much more satisfied with their job. Also, absenteeism and turnover
rates are expected to decrease. Employees will be even more motivated to come to work and
increase their chances of earning the cash reward. They will value their job titles and are most
likely not to leave their organization. However, turnover could benefit DrainFlow if
underperforming employees leave the organization and can be replaced by someone with the
proper skills and that are interested in meeting the organization’s goals. Consequently, the
success of the reward system will be based on positive customer feedback. DrainFlow will be
much more successful if customers are satisfied with their services. Customer satisfaction results
in returning customers and possibly new referrals. The customer feedback will be gathered from
surveys and will be kept on record. The surveys will measure the success of the employee
meeting its goals by customers using a scale. The scale to rate the employee will be from 1 to 5,
1 being unsatisfactory and 5 being satisfactory. The customers will be able to rate them on a
number of things and can leave additional comments if they please.
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Question 6) What types of hiring recommendations would you make to find people better
suited for these jobs? Which Big Five personality traits would be useful for the customer
service responsibilities and emotional labor?
Considering the problems with current employees at DrainFlow, there needs to be a few
changes to find people who are better suited for these jobs. All job categories should go through
a similar interview process but, interviews should be standardized within each job category. This
allows the general manager to better understand how qualified a person is for the specific job.
They must have the ability to perform all of the tasks required of that position. Although a
candidate may seem qualified for a job, they should still go through a 2-week training session.
This should make the general manager along with any regional managers at DrainFlow to have
more confidence in their employee’s performance. The sessions will cover basic knowledge
pertinent to the job category, organizational behavior, customer service, and a brief overview of
other contributing jobs at DrainFlow. In addition, personality tests should be part of the hiring
process. Personality traits allow managers to better understand how an individual will behave in
certain situations and how well they can interact with others. Both aspects are key components
when working at DrainFlow.
In my opinion, all Big Five personality traits would be useful for the customer service
responsibilities and emotional labor. Customer service responsibilities mostly reflect the
extraversion and conscientiousness dimensions. The extraversion dimension describes someone
who is sociable while the conscientiousness dimension describes someone as responsible and
organized (Robbins, 2001). Customer service interacts with customers constantly and need to
know how to properly communicate with them. They are depended upon to handle any issues a
customer may have. Similarly, emotional labor mostly reflects the extraversion and emotional
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stability dimensions. All employees at DrainFlow engage in emotional labor, a situation in which
an employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at
work (Robbins, 2001). To be more of an extrovert, employees must know how to deal with
customers; whether it’s through phone orders, at an actual job appointment, or through billing.
The emotional stability dimension characterizes someone who is calm, self-confident, and
secure. All employees at DrainFlow need to have these qualities to maintain job satisfaction. An
employee will be better satisfied with their job if they stay positive in regards to their
performance and understand their contribution to the organization.
INTEGRATION OF CONCEPTS
In addition to the job characteristics model (JCM), many more models and theories can
be applied to the DrainFlow case study. The JCM proposed that any job can be described in
terms of five core job dimensions (Robbins, 2001). Accordingly, the jobs at DrainFlow reflected
skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback. In regards to the proposed
solutions at DrainFlow, the goal of improving employee performance and customer satisfaction
reflects the goal-setting theory. Under the goal-setting theory, specific and difficult goals with
feedback lead to higher performance (Robbins, 2001). If DrainFlow integrates the reward
system, it would encourage employees to set higher goals to achieve such bonus. Also, the
retrieval of these bonuses depends on the level of customer satisfaction gathered from customer
feedback. According to the goal-setting theory, challenging goals help employees focus and
work harder to attain them (Robbins, 2001). With the help of an incentive, employees are
persistent in trying to attain their goals.
Another concept displayed at DrainFlow is the expectancy theory. The expectancy theory
suggests that the strength and tendency for someone to act in a certain way depends on the
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strength of an expectation that will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of
that outcome to the individual (Robbins, 2001). Keeping the reward system in mind, employees
will more than likely improve their performance based on the cash reward they expect to receive.
Compared to other types of rewards, this cash reward system seems very plausible by employees
because of the chance to receive an additional amount of money. If the reward were something
of lesser value, the outcome is less attractive to the employee and they are not motivated to
improve their performance. The expectancy theory focuses on three relationships: effortperformance relationship, performance-reward relationship, and rewards-personal goals
relationship (Robbins, 2001). If employees at DrainFlow give their maximum effort, the effortperformance relationship suggests that they will improve their individual performance and will
be appraised for doing so. The performance-reward relationship suggests that employees will
perform at certain levels that they feel will lead them to receiving organizational rewards. In this
case, the organizational rewards are the cash rewards. Finally, the rewards-personal goals
relationship suggest that DrainFlow employees will have so much satisfaction from the
organizational rewards that they will create more personal goals that also result in attractive
rewards. Not only have the employees set their own individual goals or needs, they have even
determined what the potential rewards might be.
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REFERENCES
Robbins, Stephen P. Organizational Behavior. 14th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall,
2001. Print.