(Stage 2 Business students)Assessment
Wheeler Motor Services Ltd
You are a management consultant and Mr Richard Wheeler has approached you on behalf of Wheeler Motor Services Ltd for consultation and advice.
Attached is the Wheeler Motor Services Ltd case study. You are required to respond to the following in the format of an essay which includes the following three elements.
• Explain how the psychological contract can be integrated into Wheeler Motor Services Limited considering the significant amount of negative feedback from staff and the challenges that management are facing? (30 marks).
• Describe the types of communication mechanisms that can be adopted by both leaders – Steven Wheeler and Peter Jones, to help ensure a better understanding and co-ordination not only between themselves but also with all of the employees? (30 marks).
• Considering the events that have happened in Wheeler Motor Services Limited, discuss the importance of conducting appraisals and rewarding employee performance on a regular basis, and providing possible solutions for retaining employees using the above processes? (40 marks).
The essay needs to contain the following format.
• Introduction.
• Body (definitions of relevant terms to be provided, appropriate theories or concepts or models including diagrams to be integrated and applied to case with considerable level of logical reasoning and analysis).
• Conclusion with Recommendations and
• Bibliography / Reference list.
Word count is 3000 words.
The essay content should reflect logical and analytical application of theories or concepts or models to the case. More details on this will be discussed by the lecturer in the class.
The essay file needs to be submitted via ICP Turnitin in Week 7, no later than 16.00hrs on Friday 11th March 2016 of this semester. This deadline cannot be changed in any circumstance.
All the content in the course work needs to be electronically typed and NOT handwritten. Otherwise, it will NOT be assessed. You need to put all your assignment files through the Turnitin process.
You must follow ICP In house style guidelines. The font should be of Times New Roman with size 12. Headings can be of size 14. Page margins should be of Top 2.54 cms, Bottom 2.54 cms, Left 2.54 cms and Right 2.54 cms. Line spacing should be 1.5 cms.
Important note to students:
Please see the case study and marking criteria given on the next page.
Wheeler Motor Services Limited
Richard Wheeler, a passionate business entrepreneur decided to set up a motor services company based in Southampton, Hampshire in 1969 by pooling the money from his savings and obtaining loans from his very close friends. He had worked in the “RAC Motor Company” located in Southampton as a service engineer for 6 years before setting up his own business.
Even though in 1969 Wheeler Motor Services Ltd. was considered a “start-up” business, within 12 months’ of operating, it had turned into s a well-established business with a good level of profits. Wheeler Motor Services Ltd. sold spare parts and repairs for “light motor vehicles.” A good majority of the customers from RAC Motor Company had moved to Wheeler Motor Services, because of the ethics and honesty, commitment to work and the exceptionally high quality of service offered by Richard Wheeler and his staff, made the move worthwhile The spare parts sold by his company for example, were 100% genuine vehicle manufacturers parts with long term durability and warranty.
Twelve people were working as a team with Richard Wheeler under his inspirational leadership during the first year but after forty six years’ in business (2015), the team has grown into 97 employees, with two further service/garage branches, one set up in Portsmouth and the other in Fareham. In December 2015, Richard Wheeler decided to take a well-earned rest and handed the leadership to Peter Jones the most senior member of the team in terms of age and experience, having stayed and worked with the company, since its inception in 1969.
Richard Wheeler’s son Steve Wheeler had graduated from Birmingham City University with a BSc (Hons) degree in Automotive Engineering and joined the company in 2011 with a senior role in the business looking into the operational areas of the company. He has been designated as Special Executive and Peter Jones was asked by Richard Wheeler to act as a mentor to Steve Wheeler, guiding him on all the aspects related to the company.
In December 2014, Steve Wheeler was designated as Executive Director by Richard
Wheeler and was advised to help Peter Jones in dealing with company affairs. From the moment Peter Jones had been appointed as the Managing Director for Wheeler Motor Services Ltd in December 2014, after just 6 months the team of employees had split into two informal groups, one of new and young generation employees favouring Steve Wheeler and other, very senior and older generation employees, in support of Peter Jones
Steve Wheeler had always wanted Peter Jones to introduce and implement a performance appraisal programme process to maintain and improve the motivation levels of employees and also for rewarding talent as a part of a staff retention strategy. However, Peter Jones was not inclined to do so, stating that it can affect the employees morale, particularly those of the senior members of staff who may feel threatened by the younger staff, being de-motivated and fearful and ultimately leave the company. As a result, a lot of conflict happened frequently within the company with a high level of disagreement on several occasions over issues between Peter Jones and Steve Wheeler.
Peter Jones wanted to mainly consolidate the business while Steve Wheeler wanted to expand it further by entering into other related businesses like buying and selling second hand cars, taking up a franchise or dealership of a car manufacturing company or other motor vehicle related initiatives. Peter Jones believed that the core strengths of the company need to be leveraged to a greater extent to generate more business rather than risking entry into other related businesses as the outcome would be uncertain after investing a considerable amount of money into it and he was also afraid that the company might be losing its core competitiveness by having its concentration distracted into additional businesses. However, Steve Wheeler believed that understanding and building on the opportunities with appropriate risk contingency measures, is very much needed for taking the business to the next level. Moreover, he felt that Peter Jones is trying to corner him within the organisation.
Peter Jones always wanted to keep the employees happy and motivated and believed in loyalty, long term relationships, experience and trust; whereas Steve Wheeler felt that a younger talent pool is needed and that if necessary, the best interests of the company could be served by introducing a performance appraisal process, firing existing employees and hiring
new ones and that would need to be done to control costs, bring in creative ideas and to ensure growth.
Few of the employees who have been loyal to the company have left after the leadership transition has happened within the company due to fears of losing their job at any time as they believed there is no proper co-ordination and understanding between Peter Jones and Steve Wheeler in running the business. Other employees are also not happy with the developments and the business has slowly started losing its past glory as the employees are not motivated enough to work.
At a recent meeting of the Light Vehicle Maintenance Technician Managers Group, attended by 4 Managers and Supervisors from each of the businesses in Southampton, Fareham and Portsmouth, staff (all but three were male) were able to informally discuss and voice the concerns they have about the direction in which the business seems to be heading.
It had become apparent that some staff that had been recently employed including technicians and engineers had left the company before completing a year’s service. It was rumoured that they had left because of lack of information and communications: no support being given to improve their knowledge and qualifications; no records being kept of staff absences, holiday taken or accrued; and being managed by “two bosses at the same time.” As there is no Human Resource Department within the business, Richard Wheeler depended on his managers and supervisors to provide personnel advice. This has put a strain on the areas where those staff were working to meet their financial targets as well as complaints being received from customers about the quality of the work being carried out and the delivery of serviced vehicles to the customer being a day or more late. One customer was threatening to make a claim for vehicle hire costs because the delivery of a serviced vehicle was two days behind schedule.
In addition, due to the variations in weather, staff were having to take more time away from work because of sickness and family issues putting a strain on the staff still working “normal” hours. “I don’t mind occasionally working extra hours” was stated by one of the managers, but “working an extra 3 hours a day, every day of the week and covering for holidays taken by the workers is putting a real strain on my marriage.” “I am not receiving any extra pay or days off in lieu for the extra I have worked and I, like many of us, seem to be reporting to two bosses. I am seriously considering applying for a senior management post at Testwood Motors in Chichester, we just do not know what is going on.”
Richard Wheeler is now aware of the issues and the disagreements taking place arising from conversations with some of his very close friends and wanted to take immediate action to have everything back on track as he always believed employees are vital assets for the company. Richard Wheeler’s close colleagues have suggested to him that he split the company into different business units and then handover leadership of the different parts individually to Peter Jones and his son Steve, so as to ensure a better focus and growth of the business again.
As he recognises a decision needs to be taken sooner rather than later, Richard Wheeler has come to you asking for advice.
Marking criteria
Mark
Introduction
Mentioned brief background and stated clear objectives of essay. 10
Body
Explained and used good level of theories or models or concepts showing research besides application to the case study.
50
Organised into paragraphs with each paragraph linked in a meaningful way to those that precede and follow it.
Appropriate images or diagrams have been used in relevance to the topic discussed wherever applicable.
Analysis, integration and logical interpretation of the information provided.
Conclusion and / or Recommendations 15
Reminded what the essay is meant to do.
Provided an answer to the title and reminded on how the answer has been reached.
Clear and practical recommendations given closely applicable to case
Reference list 10
Good and wide range of references used.
List of references used in the essay have been provided in Harvard APA format with in-text citations reflected in main body.
Overall structure 15
Good general format and continuous flow of the essay.
No spelling mistakes.
Correct grammar used.
Academic style of writing demonstrated.
Complied with ICP in-house style of formatting.
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