What is Susan's dilemma?

Susan is faced with the dilemma of say something now and get fired (ie: accomplish little but do what's right) or put up with what is happening in an effort to change it when you are in a position of power. Susan's risk evaluation based on priorities - provides justification for her actions Risk of being ostracized and/or losing her job | -----------------------------------------------------------| Risk of allowing people to continue stealing and becoming part of the problem She has to stand by while no one does anything to correct the problem that she knows is wrong. As a result, of poor management she is left with a decision to make. While her intentions are good she is not sure what is the most effective route to take to accomplishing her goals while still keeping the position. There is an element of self interest in this case, as with many ethical dilemmas. Susan could approach the co-workers and demand that they stop, this would turn the group against her and eventually be forced from her position.

Alternatively, she could wait until she becomes a manager to change the actions but that would require her to "allow" the activity to continue. This creates a significant dilemma because she must sacrifice personal gain for her employer. She attempts to rationalize "allowing" the action as the best route to changing it. This also provides her with a stable job and the justification sheds light on how she weights her priorities. What influences her perceptions and behaviour? She is influenced by management's decision to" ignore" what is happening. She understands that the owners may not be aware but focuses on the positions that have direct authority on the students and workers stealing. While she has no power herself she believes that with a supervisor position she can use some force and change the actions of the group. Therefore, she has rationalized the problem to be a management controlled issue instead of a group norm. She believes that she cannot change the actions of others without the hierarchical authority to do so. It is therefore up to the supervisors to correct the problem and what she believes to be an unsolvable issue until she is in a position to correct the norm. What influences the perceptions and behaviour of the others in the case? Others are influenced by the actions of management. No one has told them to stop and some even support the improper action this creates an environment of groupthink and cohesion that forms a "norm." Because stealing was not cast out from the group as an unacceptable behaviour the group began to accept it. Combined with low wages most employees did not feel a connection to the success of the organization contributing to success of the employee. This created an acceptable environment to "take extra" which after a while became the norm. Managers did not see a value in going against the norm, this would have caused increased tension with the larger group and forced them to make a decision between friends and a job that didn't mean much. With management allowing the group to continue the action it reaffirmed the acceptability and strengthened the norm. A Flow circle (1 leads to 2, 2-3, 3-4, 4-5, 5-1... etc...)

1. Stealing is a benefit we deserve 2. Accepted by management 3. Observation of acceptance continued stealing reaffirms the belief 4. Foundation of group norm and general acceptance

5. Group norm reduces managements desire to counter the action which contributes to general belief (Back to 1) What should Susan do? Susan should follow her instincts. She mentions how she was raised to know right from wrong and that this attitude is wrong. The best course of action would be for her to seek the owners, the ones who have an invested interest in the store making a profit. She should make an effort to convince these people that a restructuring is in place, and removing the really bad apples will assist in reducing costs and limiting theft. If the owners refuse to follow this plan it is likely the business won't stay operational for long. The probability of anyone with the interest of making a profit allowing the employees to continue with this action is low. She will gain the support of the most important player and recognized for solving this largely unknown issue. Her next step after restructuring the number and duties of employees should be to suggest a bonus program based on theft. It is likely, as suggested in the paper that employees do not feel valued and they are "helping themselves" to the products to gain a sense of return. Instead, have the employees buy into a pay structure that focuses on zero-loss. Employees will regain a sense of belonging and feel rewarded for their efforts. This is only possible if the "bad apples" are removed from the picture, downsizing occurs, and the group feels that there is a higher gain to preventing theft then there is from committing the crime. This can also be influenced by having semi-regular and random visits from police officers. Susan needs to apply pressure to the owners so that they will allow her to make some management decisions and to the co-workers to change the norm.

CASE STUDY ON DILEMMA AT DEVILS DEN INTRODUCTION In the case study of the Dilemma at Devils Den, we have a student snack bar Devils Den, which was managed by contract with an external company College Food Services (CFS) that had many organizational challenges that needed to be immediately addressed. An employee Susan realized these challenges. One of the main many problems was the theft that was going on for a long time. The employees were allowing their friends to take free food, and they themselves were also taking food in large quantities when leaving their shifts. The storage room could be easily accessible as it was unlocked all the time. Employees took advantage of this situation to take free freebies from the storage room. The problem here was that there seemed to be a severe divide between the CFS vision for Devils Den and what was happening in real. It clearly looked as if it was the managements fault to convey the vision to its employees. For example, one of the policies of CFS management was that the employees could eat what they wanted during working hours at the snack bar free of charge, but wrong implementation lead to the frequent theft of eatables from the storage room. Another problem that Susan pointed out is that no one paid attention to the behavior of the night shift employees that made a nuisance for morning shift employees, as they had to do all the closings for the previous night. Adding to this the low wages and inconsistent work schedule lowered the morale of employees making the situation extremely toxic. OBJECTIVE The objective is to find out what Susan can do regarding clearing her conscience of the theft occurring at Devils Den by colleagues. There is also an element of self interest involved in the case as Susan does not want to ruin her chances of being promoted to the position of a student manager in the near future by reporting the theft cases to management.