Busm 4185 - Intro to Managment

RMIT University Vietnam

BUSM 4185 – Introduction to Management

A2

Introduction

Pizza2go can be considered one of the most successful culinary companies in Vietnam. After 10 years from its first launch, the firm has achieved an admirable generated total revenue of 202,747,000,000VND thanks to its powerful franchise system. However, a recently published article on work experience at Pzza2go has raised significant concerns about the company’s hostile working environment. This essay aims to address the violation of particular human rights in the context on Human Relations theory and propose some possible practical recommendations for the company to stand in a long term.

The article shows a conflict between the company CEO and staffs’ reports. Mrs. Nguyen – CEO of Pizza2go claimed that she “uses encouragement and training programs to engage and motivate staff”. Additionally, she often takes the team on an educational trip in USA as an annual reward. On the other hand, what Mr. Long – Pizza2go store manager shared about his working experience is terribly negatively different. He claimed there was no money made up for a productive working day and he “was very nervous and afraid of working in the stores” as he would be shouted at if the sales were not qualified. It is doubted that what has been shown to the society is a picture-perfect portrait made up to cover a poor reality. Hostility and lack of support are found to be a part of the company’s culture, with offensive languages are thrown and violent behaviors are exhibited towards each other resulting in the intolerance among the staffs.

Analysis

Since the company head office earns profits from the sales generated by franchisees, it is expected that more stores in the firm’s network will be established, leading to a company’s model in which franchisees’ increasing sales are prioritized but their profits are dismissed. Not stopping there, whenever “the store is not profitable franchisees are held to blame for bad business management”. This somewhat reflects that Scientific Management is followed by the company and the way the method was applied “locked people into managerial boxes with its chain of command model, a true chain around people’s creativity” (Savage 1998).  It is undeniable that Pizza2go has performed well laying on the method mentioned proved by a desirable revenue it has made; however, the franchisees themselves are neglected and suffer from work pressure due to the company’s strictness. With this regime, Pizza2go’s human management is obviously in jeopardy, which is due to the absence of Human Relations theory in management.

Summarily, the focal point of Pizza2go is all on upmost productivity, even though that means sacrificing employees’ basic social needs. It is widely known that the top priority of a company is to maximize their output, but the question here is, is there any other way to curtail the extravagant price at which the job satisfaction among staffs is being paid.

Application

The resolution to this quandary is to apply Human Relations theory. Although it is not the building, it is an important foundation in taking control in the human organization (Drucker 1954). While Taylorism genuinely takes quantifiable productivity results over human factor, Mayoism appears to give prominence to workers’ centrality in the workplace: “that humans are not merely the egoistic, utilitarian economic animal of mainstream economics and Scientific management, but they have other, (high-level) psycho-social needs and their social relationships at work play an important role in their productivity” (Bruce & Nylan 2011).

In order to fix the gap, the core problem of the company must be identified, in this case it is because the firm has paid too much attention on the number of pizzas sold resulting in the imbalance between tasks and labor force. Mr Long reported that he had to work almost 60 hours per week, but his payslips told a different story as the company would face penalties for labor exploitation. Hence, there is an urgent need for top managers to show recognition and appreciation towards their subordinates and eliminate overloaded working status. To employees, recognition has become a goodness in itself: the basis for a sense of self-admiration (Cast & Bruke 2002) or self-worth (Crocker & Wolfe 2001) and as such, an ultimate right of working. Workload is a chance for the employees to experience and get closer to success, however, when this pressure becomes exorbitant it leaves negative impacts. (Semmer, 2007). 

On the other hand, attractive menus, savory food, over 50 domestic retail stores and admirable revenues are the achievements that any start-ups or new enterprises would dream for, and these upshots, indisputably, are constituted by Pizza2go’s management strategy. Hence, it is objective that the company is all to blame. Workers’ failure to meet the goal set by their managers, and consequently, resulting in their job insecurity, could originate from lack of communication between workers and manager. Such missing could be briefly reasoned that when the company’s scale had gone uncontrollably large, there would be a division between employers’ and employees’ prevailed relationships resulting in the refusion to communicate (Bruce & Nyland 2011).

Recommendations

Pizza2go would soon be faced with human resource crisis if they refuse to change their working style. To save the situation, the firm is given a suggestion on making their employees feel valued and happy. This would require the mangers’ understanding, sympathy and patience for their employees. What Pizza2go should preferably take into consideration is that workload should be reduced due to the guarantee for workers’ work-life balance. They also need to give employees opportunities to compensate for their shortcomings and promote their personal life. In-N-Out can be noticed as an ideal working environment as they have the best payment and offer both full-time and part-time employees with comprehensive dental, vision and mental check. Can Van Fleet, the Vice President of Planning and Development of In-N-Out said “It is equally important to treat our associates (the way workers called at In-N-Out) well and maintain that positive working environment in all of our restaurants”. This has shown a great contrast in work philosophy to Pizza2go. In-N-Out was listed as Glassdoor’s annual Best Places to Work rankings top ten and Lynsi Torres, the president and owner of In-N-Out Burger, was recognized as US youngest billionaire at only 30 years old. (Bloomberg 2013). In-N-Out is a convincing proof for the probability in balancing between workers’ and organization’s interest.

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