preview

A Manager 's Ethical Dilemma

Better Essays

A Manager’s Ethical Dilemma Sears, Roebuck, and Co. began as a farm supplies company that expanded into the markets of retail, insurance, real estate, securities, and credit cards. Though they had a “long history of high earnings” (Trevino, 2011, p. 297), competitors were flooding the market, driving Sear’s share down. Their solution was an incentive plan that backfired on them, eventually causing millions of dollars lost and the loss of parts of its business. Background As mentioned earlier Sears, Roebuck, and Co. was a farm supplies company that branched out into other types of businesses due to “changes in American society” (Trevino, 2011, p. 297). They had great success until the 80’s when competitors began to do better than them. Sear’s plan was to replace hourly wages and quotas in their automotive centers with a new commission based pay system. This included both mechanics and service advisors. Because commissions were now driving sales based on potentially unneeded work being pushed, Sears was accused of “violating the state’s (California) Auto Repair Act” (Trevino, 2011, p. 298). The CEO took blame and vowed to have commission based on customer satisfaction rather than the type of work being done. Though this eliminated the commission for the service advisors, the mechanics still had it. In 1992 a sears mechanic sent a letter to Senator Richard Bryan revealing that the commission based incentive program was basically still happening since the mechanics were

Get Access