About Casino Grande Casino Grande was an older, mid-sized casino hotel, employing approximately 2,000 people, on the boardwalk section of a mid-Atlantic city. Mr. Randolph Jackson was the general manager of Casino Grande and, as such, had the ultimate authority over all departments and functions at the property. He took unusual interest in the human resource activities of the casino/hotel, establishing both personnel policies and office procedure personally. The ordinary interpretation of these policies and procedures, however, was handled by the department managers and section supervisors with consultation available from the employee relations department. Roger Parks was the manager of Casino Grande’s reservations department. He had begun his employment with the casino in 1982 as a night programmer in the accounting department, while he was finishing his B.S. in hotel administration from a prominent eastern university. After graduation, Roger continued to work in accounting for two years; then he requested a transfer to the newly established computer system group, where he worked for another two years before he replaced a section head and, thus, acquired his first truly supervisory experience. In late 1987, Roger obtained an interview for a section manager’s position in the front desk department, and for which he was hired. In 1990, Casino Grande significantly upgraded its computer facilities, including a sophisticated reservations system. Roger was transferred to the reservations unit to take charge of it. When he began to organize this function, he hired Ms. Marshall and two clerks. About a year later, when an opening occurred, Mrs. Kane was hired. In Mr. Parks’s opinion, Ms. Marshall was a technical whiz who got along fairly well with her people. She had a reputation within the reservations group of sometimes being impatient; she kidded her workers a lot and usually got a lot of high-quality work from them, but was considered somewhat lax in enforcing discipline. Mrs. Kane, about 39 years old, had three children of ages 11, 8, and 6. Her husband was a sales trainer with a major manufacturing company and was away from home for extended periods. Mrs. Kane’s mother lived with them, taking care of the children so that Mrs. Kane could work. She was made senior reservations clerk on January 1, 1992, receiving a substantial raise. At that time, Mrs. Kane was told she was doing excellent work but had a quick temper that sometimes disturbed her fellow employees. She was also told that she often disrupted the office by talking too loudly and too often. The position of senior reservationist provided a wage differential over the others and required her coworkers to bring their questions about procedures and assignments to her. All other matters, such as salary and training questions as well as performance appraisals, were handled by Ms. Marshall. Mrs. Kane took her work seriously and expressed resentment toward the indifferent attitude of the younger reservation clerks. She was trying to get ahead financially. She did not like housekeeping or childcare and planned to continue working as long as her mother could look after her children. Mrs. Palumbo was about 28 years old and a college graduate. Her husband was in the Army and had been in the Middle East for two tours after Operation Desert Storm. Mrs. Palumbo lived alone in a small apartment and planned on working only until her husband was posted in the United States. Mrs. Palumbo did a good job as a reservation clerk and got along well with everyone in the department. She also got a raise on January 1, 1992. The office rules at Casino Grande did not permit smoking on the job but allowed personnel to leave the office to do so, although there were no designated smoking spaces. On Monday, August 15, 1992, the following notice was posted on the bulletin board just inside the employees’ entrance to the property: TO: All Casino Grande Office Personnel Some employees have been taking advantage of our company’s coffee break privilege. In order to be fair to those who are being reasonable about going to the cafeteria for coffee, we do not wish to rescind this privilege altogether. We do expect all office employees to start work at 8:00 in the morning, meaning come ready to work, already having had breakfast. There is no excuse for having coffee, therefore, after 8:00 a.m. From now on the following rules will apply to coffee breaks: No one should visit the cafeteria for coffee before 9:30 a.m. Groups from the same department should not take breaks together, since this would disrupt the service provided. No one should stay away from his/her workstation for longer than 15 minutes. It is unnecessary to leave one’s office for coffee or any other beverage more than once a day. These simple rules should be clear to everyone. If, in the future, these rules are ignored, the coffee break privilege will be canceled altogether. Your wholehearted cooperation is expected. R. L. Jackson General Manager

Case Study Analysis

1. List the pros and cons of Mr. Jackson’s decision to post the coffee-break notice. Was it a good management decision? Why or why not?

2. Imagine a scenario where you are Mr. Parks. What do you think you would have done after the conversation with Mr. Jackson? Write a paragraph describing your action plan.

3. Write a paragraph describing Mr. Jackson’s philosophy of human-resources management.

4. List some examples of why the ladies might see the reprimands as unfair or unjust.

5. What is Jackson’s leadership style?