Moss and Mcadams Accounting Firm

There was a legitimate conflict that arose from conflicting agendas and responsibilities. The Springfield project was clearly a higher priority than the Johnsonville audit and Sands should have told Palmer, that although he is valuable to the audit, he would be more successful for the Springfield project. Palmer could have pulled another resource to take Olds place or hire a contractor to fill in the time when Olds would not be available. Olds was caught in a stressful situation where he was working in an environment in which he was being told to do two different tasks and had two different agendas by two different managers. This all led to infighting over Olds being shared across both projects and the two managers competing over for one resource. Palmer and Crosby were only concerned about their respective projects and Crosby knew what his end game was all along. Palmer was not clever enough to outwit Crosby and therefor he lost out on Olds.

Grant Thornton, LLP is the accounting firm that was hired by the First National Bank of Keystone to complete an outside audit. After being found negligent in their performance of the Keystone Audit, Thornton appealed the final decision and order from the Comptroller of the Currency that required the firm to pay $300,000 in civil penalties for reckless failure to meet the Generally Accepted Auditing Standards ("GAAS"). Grant Thornton also appealed the Comptroller 's cease and desist order that mandated that the firm would need to comply with several principles whenever they audit depository institutions.

This would not only be advantageous for the employer but also the employee since it would result in higher wages. Due to this, the worker’s level of motivation and drive to do better would escalate leading to overall productivity of the organization (Salimath and Jones, 2011, p.88).

As a result Dr Brownlow decided he needed to develop his senior staff by sending them on a training course, he chose Brenda Frame and Judith Smythe for this training. Richard believed the problems lie not with his style of management but by the lack of leadership and management by Brenda Frame and Judith Smythe. Brenda and Judith implemented there ideas but Richard and Fred Windows were negative about it saying that it was just a fad as they had been on these courses and knew more about management and leadership and gained nothing from the courses. Brenda who normally would issue instruction as a manager does, turned herself into a leader my taking on board other ideas from her colleagues and creating working parties to make the working of her department run more efficiently and smoothly. She included Richards’s project staff into her working groups but he was unhappy about this even after Brenda protested and Richard adamantly refused to yield on this matter. Also at the start of the year Richard decided to off load several tasks to his three projects team leaders Ian Campbell, Carole Devlin and Joanne Cassidy. Richard only believed that Carole had the necessary experience and commitment to take on the extra work load issued and he did not consult his other staff nor did he explain the job role that it entailed.

Mr. Patterson was also unable to lead his team because he was capable of communication with them in a manner that could obtain desired responses. According to Williams (2007), “The more aware and sensitive you can become to how other people react, the more you will be able to steer this response you get from others” (p.8).

Resolution to this problem between Saunders and Martin would be difficult. It is clear that Saunders is aware of Martin’s prowess, skill and knowledge for the job and is potentially threatening to Saunders’ position in the company. In problems such as these, communication is an important aspect. As far as I see it, resolution is not going to happen between these two very different people. One or the other would have to quit or lose his job. Options could be discussed between the two or other parties could become involved such as the stockholders who may have a share of votes in the matter and could decide for the company which man would take the company further or promote their company more successfully.

Explain how you would respond if you were Peter at the end of the case.

This case shows how hard it is for two people to work together for a common goal and vision when they are not on the same page; if Scott trusted and had confidence in Peterson they could succeed as a team

Many different techniques exist to intrinsically motivate employees(Walker, 2008). Some include: job enlargement, job rotation, and job enrichment. As noted earlier, job satisfaction among employees is important for a company to attain, thus, the use of techniques that boost intrinsic motivation is key. However, the employees were happy because they were paid well. The flip side to that is those older employees are closes to retirement, and have no intrinsic motivation. They are not motivated in sharing to new ways in doing things for the organization, such as saving money and hiring new clientele as suggested by Hubres in her memo. Therefore, it has been suggested by Willis that James and Counts work together to develop a retirement package for senior employees in the division without any immediate replacement for retirees. This would be a start in saving money for the division.

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant is facing an internal crisis which primarily is a motivational problem. Ron Bent, the manager, and Joe Haley the assistant has seen workplace culture and productivity decline over the years. Ron joined the company when it was going through a similar issue in the past. He came and implemented an employee incentive program which is general across the United States. The incentive program called Scanlon Plan was originally very effective in employee motivation and increasing productivity at Engstrom, but it is now failing.

A successful motivational program recognizes these factors and combines awards, recognition, and peer pressure. To even further maximize full potential, managers should personalize these incentives based on the employee’s interests, hobbies, and recreational activities (Boe, 2011). This is consistent with the ERG theory developed by Clayton

Carter Racing and NASA examples discussed in the class taught us the value of the voice of dissension. While Stevens acts like the character of Tom from Carter Racing, Jack Bryant from Personnel Audit team would have been the voice of Paul. Carter should have included him on the team and listened to his experiences while talking to the employees and their managers. After all, his “on-the-ground” experience and intuition gained through the audit process was more likely to reveal the real situation than PAS or the brief audit reports. Just as NASA, after the Challenger Disaster instituted a rule that a launch could be vetoed by anyone in the team, including Jack in the conversation would have served as an antidote to overconfidence bias that would otherwise creep in.

“While Mangers complain about lack of motivation in their workers, they might as well consider the possibility that the reward systems they’ve installed are paying off for the opposite”.

Ellen and Jack were both initially appointed as the co-manager to the SI project, however, from the organizational structure perspective, the power was not equally distributed between the two participants: Jack clearly had much more commanding authority than Ellen. With Andrew involved in a distance manner and

Lastly, employees like every other person seek recognition and appreciation. Therefore, they should be appreciated when they perform exuberantly in their jobs. One needs to clearly convey how an employee’s performance contributed to organizational results. By appreciating them, you are motivating them to do better. Monetary rewards in the form of year-end bonuses are also always a great way to improve the morale of the employees. I believe, that Mr.Hussey after considering the above motivational factors, should then take the final decision, as to how the work could be performed in the best possible manner.