Case Study: Cincinnati Super Subs

1. What symptom(s) in this case suggest that something has gone wrong?

Drop in Profitability. Below average profitability over the past 18 months that directly
impact on the monthly bonus of the manager and assistant manager. Condition further
worsened five months ago when two managers stop receiving their bonuses due to high
wastages.

High Food Wastage. This is in relation to unsold goods, damaged goods, and
unaccounted food and drinks. This is noticeable through the cases of poor food handling
that leads to drop or spill of food. Other notable incidents include burn heated subs, over
preparation of toppings (compare to demand) and incorrect order preparation.

Unethical Work Practices. This is noticeable through the following two practices:
o Eating and giving away of food. Several employees give some of their friend
generous helpings and also occasionally free soft drinks and chips. Employees
who are not eligible for free meal take advantage of situation when managers are
not around to have free meal. They even justify their unethical action.
o Reluctance of team leader to report malpractices by employees due to fear of
being snubbed by coworkers who happen to attend same college with them.

Staff Turnover. An important symptom in the case study is that 20 percent of the
experienced staff left for other jobs over the next two months. Those employees that
remained discouraged friends from considering jobs at Super Subs. Other noticeable
effect of this turnover is the dampening of fun atmosphere in the workplace. This also
leads to shortage of staff and experience workers.

Ineffective & Unsustainable Corrective Action. The managers in this case study try to
reduce food wastages by tightening the criteria for food allowance. Instead it fails and
leads to high turnover. This eventually cause the managers to spend more time in the
frontline daily operations which is not their core role. Although this improve in the
reduction of wastage but it was a not a sustainable practice. When the manager returns
back to their core role, the food wastages started to increase again that leads to the
managers issuing more stern warning. Unfortunately the warning was ineffective and
unsustainable.

Managers switch focus from their core responsibility. The core responsibilities of the
Super Subs managers are in the purchasing, accounts, hiring and other operations. Due to
the dire situation in their human resource issue, the managers need spend more time
working in frontline process like food processing and training new staff. This possibility
lead to backlog of other managerial work.

2. What are the main causes of this symptoms?

Low Motivation. According to McShane and Glinow (2015) motivation represents the
forces within a person that affect his or her direction, intensity, and persistence of
voluntary behavior. In this case study, it is evident that the motivation of the team leaders
and frontline employees are low and one of the main causes of it is the grievance is poor
pay (in comparison to other places) and food allowance policy. This also led to poor
perception of the organization. One of the key reason for lack of motivation is lack (or
almost none) of employee engagement.

Counterproductive Work Behavior (CWB). The low motivation among the employees
lead to dysfunctional activities in the restaurant. There is no loyalty towards the company.
Employees offers free food or generous helping to their friends One of the symptom is
discouraging their friends from considering jobs at Super Subs. Even the team leaders
choose not report accidental or deliberate wastages. This also led to issue of low value
congruence between the employee and the company.

Lack of Meaningful Interaction (Employee Engagement). In the case study, there is no

evidence of meaningful interaction between the managers and the employees to address
the issue at hand. Instead, the managers only tighten the rules (e.g. food allowance rules).
According to McShane and Glinow (2015), meaningful interaction is founded on the
contact hypothesis, which states that, under certain condition, people who interact with
each other will be less perceptually biased because they have more personal
understanding of the other person and their group. The managers fails to understand the
basic needs of their employees who are majority students. This also leads to lack of
empathy. Sadly, even the Head Office discourages the managers from involving in
frontline work.

No Goal Setting Activity. In the case study, there is no evidence of the restaurants goals
being discussed and shared with the employees. The only indicator (KPI) for the
managers is high wastage that resulted in poor monthly bonus. When there is not goals
being set together with the team leaders and employees, there is not ownership among the
employees. This directly affects and cause a low Effort-to-Performance (E-to-P) and
Performance-to-Outcome (P-to-O) expectancy which directly affects motivation. When
there is no goal setting activities, there is also no attempt to clarify employees role
perceptions.

Fail to generate Positive Emotion at Work. In the case study we notice that the low
motivation, tighten rules and lack of interaction leads to dampening of fun atmosphere
which was once there. The managers fails to realize emotions shapes employees attitudes
and attitudes shapes various forms of work behavior.

Poor Emotional Intelligence Management. Emotional Intelligence is an important skill

in effective employees. Three dimension of Emotional Intelligence that are lacking
among the managers includes:
o Management of own emotions. Instead of finding out the root cause of high
wastage, the managers continue to punish the employees by tighten the free food
allowance policy. This is a disruptive impulse.
o Awareness of others emotions. The managers fails to seek to understand the
struggle and the challenges of their employees. The managers priority seems to
be focus on their own need that is their bonus. Steven Covey in Habit 5 of The
Seven Habits of Highly Effective People says we need seek first to understand,
then to be understood. The managers fails to understand their employees.
o Management of others emotion. When the manager fail to take time understand
their employees emotions it leads to failure to manage those emotions.

3. What actions should Cincinnati Super Subs managers take to correct these problems?

Proactive Employee Engagement. Employee engagement is the extent to which employees

feel passionate about their jobs, are committed to the organization, and put discretionary
effort into their work. Employee engagement is the employee's emotional and cognitive
motivation, self-efficacy to perform the job, perceived clarity of the organization's vision and
his or her specific role in that vision, and belief that he or she has the resources to get the job
done. (McShane and Glinow, 2015). The managers at Cincinnati Super Subs can engage their
employees through the following ways:
o

Establish Goal Setting Process. Managers motivates employees through goal setting
which clarify their role perceptions by establishing performance objectives (McShane
and Glinow, 2015). To be done right, goals must be SMARTER (Specific,
Measureable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-framed, Exciting and Reviewed). Managers
should include employees in the goal setting process so that they could be One of the
goals could be Increasing revenue (specific) by 20% (measurable) by reducing food
wastage (achievable, relevant) by December 2015 (time-frame). Then the managers
work with the employees on how to achieve the goals and come out with action plan
(Learned Need Theory Need for Achievement) that is tied to an incentive (exciting)
if that action plan is achieved.

Daily Operational Meeting. In this meeting (which can be a 20 minutes session), the
managers can how review with the employees on the operational issues and other
topics. This provides a venue for employees to provide and receive feedbacks. The
managers can also review the goals and track progress.

o Celebrate Success. The managers can introduce small celebration when a goal is
achieved such Zero Drop and Spill Day. This will directly bring back fun to the work
environment. This is basically a concept of using small wins to ignite joy,
engagement, and creativity at work (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011)
o Coaching and Mentoring. Super Subs need to reconsider their policy of
discouraging frontline work by their managers. Managers must be given the
flexibility to engage employee directly at the frontline and to become a role model.
Leadership is the process by which one individual influences the behaviors, attitudes
and thoughts of others (Newton, 2015). Leaders set the direction by helping others
see what lies ahead and rising to the challenges. They see everyones potential and
encourage and inspire those around them. Leading by example is a trait of a true
leader. This is part of Behavior Modeling that will increase self-efficacy.

Improve Compensation Package. One of the major complains in the case study is related to
poor salary (below market) and food allowance policy. According to Abraham Maslow,
people are motivated by unmet needs. Maslow's hierarchy of needs gives a clear
understanding how to motivate employees based on their different level of needs.
o

Review Salary Structure. Salary structures are an important component of effective

compensation programs and help ensure that pay levels for groups of jobs are
competitive externally and equitable internally. One consideration is introducing the
concept of Pay-for-performance that ties an employee's pay to their performance on
the job. Fair and accurate evaluation methods are crucial to a successful pay-for
performance program. This is where goal setting and clear target and tracking them
becomes crucial. This method also can use reward as reinforcement of desire
behaviors. The managers can give reward if the food wastage is reduced. Besides, the
managers should create and enforce punishments for violations.

Standardize Food Allowance Policy. The equity theory suggests that employees
determine feelings of equity by comparing their own outcome/input ratio to the
outcome/input ratio of some other person (McShane and Glinow, 2015). In this case
study, the employees compares their food allowance policy with other friends and
choose to violate the rule when inequity exist. The managers should also consider
procedural justice in their food allowance policy. Instead of changing the rules all the
time due to poor performance, they should consider alternative actions such engaging
the employees rather than punishing. The policy also should be clear and accepted by
all the stakeholders involved.

Other Initiatives. Other initiative that could be carried out by the managers include
Training, establish Performance Dashboard, Job Rotation and variation of workforce (not just
hiring students).

REFERENCES

McShane, S. L. & Von Glinow, M. A. (2015). Organizational Behavior: Emerging Knowledge,

7E. McGraw-Hill
Covey, S. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Viewed on 11 October 2015 from
https://www.stephencovey.com/7habits/7habits-habit5.php
Amabile, T. and Kramer, S. (2011). The Progress Principle. Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy,
Engagement, and Creativity at Work. Harvard Business Review Press, U.S.
Newton, C. (2015). The Importance of Leading by Example. Viewed on 11 October 2015 from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-leading-example-31860.html