Exam Practice Questions with Case Study Analysis for True Veg

This document contains exam practice questions with a case study analysis for True Veg. It includes a SWOT analysis, primary and secondary problems, two motivational theories, key recommendations, two types of perception or decision-making errors, and two contingency situational leadership frameworks.

Exam practice questions

CONTENTS
QUESTION – 1..........................................................................................................................1
Swot analysis for True Veg....................................................................................................1
QUESTION – 2..........................................................................................................................1
Primary problems evident in the case.....................................................................................1
QUESTION– 3...........................................................................................................................1
Secondary problems evident in the case.................................................................................1
QUESTION– 4...........................................................................................................................2
Defining and applying two motivational theories..................................................................2
QUESTION– 5...........................................................................................................................4
Key recommendations for fixing the identified problems......................................................4
QUESTION– 6...........................................................................................................................5
Defining and applying two types of perception or decision-making errors...........................5
QUESTION– 7...........................................................................................................................5
Applying two contingency situational leadership frameworks..............................................5
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................6

QUESTION – 1
Swot analysis for True Veg
Strengths  Experience of more then 30 years
 Highly skilled new foreign workers
 Strong position in the Perth market
Weaknesses  Does not have cost advantage like other large competitors
 Not able to manage own workforce
Opportunities  Cutting cost
 Motivating and retaining existing foreign workers for achieving
competitive edge
Threats  High level of competition from the large Eastern growers
 Resignation of long-standing workers of the company
 New foreign workers who are highly skilled are dissatisfied
QUESTION – 2
Primary problems evident in the case
Some of the primary problems being identified in the case are as follows:
 Ethically questionable tactics to compete – The large eastern growers are adopting
unlawful tactics for competing in the market. For example, exploiting the temporary
visa holders and offering pay rates as low as $2.50 an hour.
 Undercutting of the prices by the competitors – The larger easter growers were
undercutting the prices of the company which impacted their profit margins (Guest,
2017).
 Resigning of the long-standing worker – One of the long-standing workers of the
company left the company due to too much control of the newly appointed workers.
QUESTION– 3
Secondary problems evident in the case
Some of the secondary problems being evident in the case are as follows:
 Dissatisfaction among the workers – Most of the workers were dissatisfied because of
the newly appointed head of operation that is Neil.
 Less payment – New foreign workers were angry due to less payment
 Workers were treated poorly – New head of operations does not treat their employees
well.
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 Unskilled workers – Most of the old workers does not have the required skills.
 Conflicts among the workers – There were large number of conflicts being boiled up
over the working environment (Ferguson and Reio, 2017).
 Quality issue – The issues related to quality was the major concern
 Recruitment – Appointing old experienced workers costing more to the company
 Lack of motivation – Workers were not motivated to carry out efficient work
QUESTION– 4
Defining and applying two motivational theories
Equity theory
This theory focuses on the fair balance between each and every employee in regards
with their inputs such as hard work, skill level, acceptance and outputs such as salary,
benefits and other intangibles. If there is a fair balance between inputs and outputs than a
strong and productive association with the workers can be maintained. It is also important to
understand what is input and output as per this theory.
Figure 1: Equity theory
(Lim, 2020).
Talking in relation with input, it includes the number of hours the employees has
worked, personal sacrifices being made, commitment and enthusiasm being shown,
accountabilities and roles being played by the workers etc. On the other hand, output
typically involves the result being received by an individual such as salary, promotion, stock
options, bonus, recognition, pension etc. Considering this, as it is quite evidence from the
case that the foreign workers were being paid less for their inputs. The new head of the
operations continued to overload them in spite of knowing that they are already working
more. Due to this, they are highly dissatisfied and demotivated. In addition to this, based on
the equity theory, the actions and motivations of the workers at the company needs to be
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directed through fairness and since, there is a discrepancy in the fairness at the workplace in
True Veg, all the workers are not contended and they are not producing demanded efforts and
results. This has also resulted in reduced level of production and quality issues paved the way
in the company. Thus, it is essential for Ture Veg to work on the imbalance existing between
the input and output of the workers and make ensure that each and every employee gets equal
pay for their equal inputs.
Alderfer’s ERG theory of motivation
This theory is being developed by C. P. Alderfer, an American psychologist. As per
this theory, fundamentally humans have three core kinds of requirements that is existence,
relatedness and growth. Existence needs is related with the fundamental requirement for
living such as the physiological needs. Relatedness is concern with maintenance of good
association with the workers, family, friends and so forth. Further, the growth need explains
the intrinsic desire of the human for the personal development. According to the theory, all
these three needs are scalar and each and every one has a blend of them, however generally
one is dominant. Further, the blend along with the strength of the requirements of the
individual helps in shaping their motivation and behaviour in the workplace.
Figure 2: Alderfer’s ERG theory of motivation
(Alderfer’s ERG theory of motivation, 2022).
Taking into account the current case of True Veg company, the owner of the farm
Stanley Donaldson desired to cut the cost through changing his approach towards recruitment
and management of human resource. He was convinced by the attractive packages being
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given by the business consultant for lower labour costs and has ignored the demands of
building and managing his own workforce. The long-standing old workers were only kept for
the urgent need and their requirements related to power, affiliation and achievement was
completely ignored by him. On the other hand, even the new foreign and backpackers’
workers being employed by the company were also paid very less according to the hours
being worked by them. According to the theory, when the lower needs are being fulfilled,
they occupy less focus of the workers, however the higher requirements tend to become more
significant, the more being pursued by the employees. further, employees can be motivated
by multiple levels of requirements at the same time and that the level which is more
significant to them can alter with the passage of time. Therefore, it is important on the part of
the owner and the head of operations to realize that the old and new workers have high level
of growth and relatedness requirement.
QUESTION– 5
Key recommendations for fixing the identified problems
 Performance based rewards – It is important that the management should plan
performance-based rewards for their workers which implies that each and every
employee will be rewards as per the output and performance being done.
 Structuring the team – For overcoming the resistance against change, it is crucial that
effective structuring of the team should be done. It is suggested that after
communicating the change initiative, Neil should have considered the strengths and
weaknesses for each team members and must have delegated accountabilities
accordingly.
 Training and development for new workers – Effective development and training
programs should be planned for the new recruited employees.
 Resolving conflicts quickly – In addition to above, for overcoming the resistance of
change among the employees, it is significant that conflicts must be resolved quickly
as well as effectively (Bühler and et.al, 2018).
 Listening to the problem – Other than this, for the purpose of fixing the main issues
being faced in the case company, it is important that the head of operations and other
managers should listen to the issues or both new and old workers effectively.
Listening to their issues and resolving them helps in sensing a feeling of
belongingness among the workers which in turn makes them encouraged.
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QUESTION– 6
Defining and applying two types of perception or decision-making errors
Two types of perception and decision-making errors that might contribute to the
present problems in the case are being elaborated below: Halo effect – It is being referred as the tendency of an individual to misjudge people
by focusing only on the single behaviour, trait or aspect (López‐Cotarelo, 2018). In
other words, one trait of a thing or an individual is being considered for the overall
judgement. Taking into account the example of case, the owner of the True Veg i.e.,
Stanley Donaldson believed blindly on the business in relation with managing their
workers who have managed workforce management for his larger competitors.
Further, he was also attracted by one single idea of the business about lower labour
costs that he ignored all other aspects and trusted them. Escalation of commitment – This is being referred as the tendency of the individuals
to continue to consider what has proven to be negative course of action. As in the
case, Neil was unwilling to admit that he was wrong and continued to exploit the old
workers in spite of their complaints. Further, he dismissed all the grievances and even
overloaded the new foreign employee as well.
QUESTION– 7
Applying two contingency situational leadership frameworks
Path goal theory
According to this theory, the behaviour of the leader is being influenced by
performance, motivation as well as satisfaction of the workers. Further, it also claims that an
individual will perform in a specified manner on the basis of the expectation of a needed
result. The effective leaders offer a clear path to the workers for achieving the desired
objectives and also helps in removing and issue or obstacle (Northouse, 2016). Based on this
theory, it can be said that it is important that the managers and leaders in the case company
should offered effective direction and guidance to the workers that helps in encouraging them
and must support them in reaching their desired goals.
Fiedler’s contingency model
According to this theory, there is not a single best style for leadership. Instead, the
leadership style is considered to be best when it aligns with the situation at hand effectively.
In addition to this, a right leader needs to be selected for the selected job on the basis of the
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skills set and needs of the situation. in the current case, Neil was appointed as the head of
operations because the employee in charged resigned from the job (Farndale and Paauwe,
2018). He didn’t manage and changed his style of leading as per the situation and there were
too many clashes that came out eventually.
REFERENCES
Books and journals
Baptista, J.A., Formigoni, A., Silva, S., Stettiner, C. and Novais, R., 2021. Analysis of the
Theory of Acquired Needs from McClelland as a Means of Work Satisfaction. Timor
Leste Journal of Business and Management. 3(2). pp.54-59.
Bühler, M., Vollstädt-Klein, S., Kobiella, A., Budde, H., Reed, L.J., Braus, D.F., Büchel, C.
and Smolka, M.N., 2018. Nicotine dependence is characterized by disordered reward
processing in a network driving motivation. Biological psychiatry, 67(8), pp.745-752.
Farndale, E. and Paauwe, J., 2018. SHRM and context: why firms want to be as different as
legitimately possible. Journal of Organisational Effectiveness: People and
Performance, 5(3), pp.202-210.
Ferguson, K.L. and Reio, T.G., 2017. Human resource management systems and firm
performance. Journal of Management Development, 29(5), pp.471-494.
Guest, D.E., 2017. Human resource management and employee wellbeing: towards a new
analytical framework. Human Resource Management Journal, 22(1), pp.22-38.
Lim, W.M., 2020. An equity theory perspective of online group buying. Journal of Retailing
and Consumer Services. 54.
López‐Cotarelo, J., 2018. Line managers and HRM: a managerial discretion perspective.
Human Resource Management Journal, 28(2), pp.55-71.
Northouse, P.G., 2016. Leadership: Theory and Practice. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Alderfer’s ERG theory of motivation. 2022. [Online]. Available through:
<https://worldofwork.io/2019/02/alderfers-erg-theory-of-motivation/
#:~:text=Alderfer's%20ERG%20Theory%20of%20Motivation%20states%20that
%20individuals%20can%20be,them%20can%20change%20over%20time>.
[Accessed on 27thJuly 2022].
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