群体行为与决策
五年前，我开始在Petroco公司的加油站里当服务员。
在那里有两名完全不同的管理者。第一个是Maria Theresa，在我去那家公司之前已经在那里工作了几个月了，直到在五月中旬她被调离了那里。第二个管理者是Vincent MacMurdo，在那时接手一直到我离开那个加油站。两位管理者都有学士学位和一些管理经验。他们被指派到这个特殊的加油站是因为他们在以前工作中的出色表现，因为高的销售额使得加油站成为了一个能让管理者证明自己能力的地方。然而，尽管他们两个有些相同的管理能力，但这两个管理者还是有很大的不同。
Maria在不违反规范的情况下，放弃操作手册的规定。她寻找能够建立一种同事间的友谊，而不是把注意力放在各种规范上。她希望能够忽视各种规定的想法被许多人欣赏，所以她想要在同事间建立友谊的努力取得了极大的成功。
这种建立友谊的感觉通过四个渠道传播：在职员之间，在职员和Maria之间，在职员和顾客之间。而当每天工作时在职员之间，Maria和区域执行官之间的交流是用一种特殊的方法。比如说，在四月的某一天，当我的电池跳电而我们修理时，我们使其它汽车的电子系统短路了。当时实在晚上工作人员较少的时候，他们放弃了修理。而在白天换班之后，日间工作人员修理了短路，开始打电话和在违反规定的情况下去了废旧汽车场。最后他们换了一个耐用的电池，新的电路系统也被连接好了。
第二个传播友谊的渠道是在职员和Maria之间，这个渠道的成功大多数要归因于Maria对职员们的关心。她经常在早上很早的时候到办公室，带着咖啡和油炸圈饼给职员，或者在晚上带上匹萨给上夜班的员工。当Maria需要一个额外的人员的时候，Maria在员
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工身上的努力就获得了回报。一个事实可以证明员工的忠诚，当Maria急需人手时，有许多员工自愿在工作8个小时之后在为她工作8小时。
第三个传播友谊的渠道是在员工和顾客之间。也有一个事实可以说明这一点。有一次一对夫妇的汽车在离加油站1/4英里的地方突然没有汽油了。他们请求使用一下加油站里面的付费电话。让顾客用加油站里的付费电话是明令禁止的，因为内部的安全很重要。然而，我们让他们用了电话，还把他们的车从1/4英里外推进了加油站。这使得我们获得了15美元的小费，也赢得了各方面的赞扬。有趣的是，我们的这些行为都违反了Petroco公司的规定，规定指出，禁止员工在没有得到上级允许的情况下离开加油站。
最后一个友谊是通过Maria、职员和区域执行官之间的特殊关系表现出来的。这个区域执行官时一个MBA，他致力于加强公司的各种规章制度。他定期停车在马路对面，对员工进行监视。然而，我们总是在他的“突然检查”到来之前，知道他要来了。这是有因为Maria与其它经理之间建立的预警系统。所以在执行官来的时候我们总是做好自己的本分，严格遵循Petroco公司的规定，而在他走了之后，我们就变成“常态”。自然，执行官也知道发生了什么事，但是因为Maria总是刷新销售记录，他也不再追究。
为了她能在离家近的地方工作，她离开了原来的加油站。Vincent成为了我们下一任主管。
Vincent总是按章办事，并且努力的建立个人责任制。新官上任就把一个员工开除了，就因为他在三天的工作中损失了2美元。当那个被激怒的员工想知道Vincent到底在想什么的时候，Vincent让他去看操作手册。手册上明确规定了这样的员工应该被开除。在Vincent上任的两周里，有3位员工因为这样的错误而被开除。当员工抗议说Maria从未这样做过时，Vincent说他并不是容易说话的Maria。
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规章制度的执行蔓延到每一个角落，基本上改变了员工原来的做事方式。以前一个工作团队有四个员工组成，一个人对一个加油管负责，还有一个是机动的。在这种安排下，这个机动的员工可以自由的去帮助需要帮助的员工，而且空闲的员工也可以帮助繁忙的员工。所有的可以帮忙的工作就是抽汽油、擦玻璃窗，核实汽油和收钱，然后在第一时间把受到的钱交给负责那根管道的那个员工。
Vincent决意打破了这种系统，他认为如果那个帮助的人把钱藏了起来，那么被帮助的人就会因为别人的过失而被开除。然而，他的这个指示没有被采纳，员工们仍然相信彼此。最后，Vincent下了一个规定：谁要是替别人收钱就会被开除。在这样的系统下，每一个员工越来越坚守自己的岗位，专注于打扫而不是帮助他人了。在这种情况下，个人责任制建立起来了。
然而，主要的改变是在员工、管理者和区域执行官的关系上。一个显而易见的影响是区域的执行官比以前更加频繁的出现在员工周围，而且他要来的消息也没有再预先传到过员工的耳朵里。因此，他的监督行动开始有了回报，这使得他更加多的实施监督工作。
这导致的结果是，员工没有更多的时间来关注顾客。比如说，我被强令不准往启动的汽车里面加汽油，这激怒了许多人。当顾客告诉我他们的车无法在启动时，我就必须越过他们，并且回答说，这违反了公司的规定。有一次，当一个顾客无法发动他的汽车时，Vince不仅拒绝让他使用电话，而且让他自己叫了拖车。
强调不仅是员工对Maria建立的体系的破坏有一定的反应，这一点很重要。顾客也有所反应，首先是抱怨，其次就不在来光顾了。到了这个时候，奇怪的事情发生了。比如说，在我拒绝往一个顾客的无铅汽油桶里加汽油时，他突然发动了汽车，从我身边开走了。然后，类似的事情又发生了，一个女职员因为一个顾客“没有看到她”而受伤了。之后，员
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工受伤的事情时时常发生，还有女职员偷了几百美元后走了。
另外，在Vince到达加油站的两个月之后，几个重大的糟糕的商业事件发生了。首先，加油站的销售量大幅度下降。其次，尽管Vince严格的执行Petroco公司的规定，但是错误还是频频发生。第三，区域执行官对Vince说，员工对顾客的服务远在公司的标准之下。面对这越来越多的问题和员工显而易见的敌意，Vince和区域执行官最后决定，开除所有拥护Maria体系的员工。随着一个一个的员工被开除，只剩下两个原来的员工了。
这时，Vince也在寻找一个助手来帮助他来为每个员工制定表格，他要从我们俩个中选，因为我们毕竟是资历最深的员工。另一个留下来的员工是一个高中毕业生，他也不喜欢Vince，也不喜欢为他工作。我的去向也很简单：如果任命了我，我就不用离开公司，如果没选我，我也要离开。
毫无意外的，我最后被开除了。
所以Maria体系终于结束了。
问题讨论
1、你如何描述Maria和Vince的管理风格，以及他们不同的人际关系？ 为什么？
2、请说明Maria和Vince两个不同的管理时期，加油站里员工行为改变的原因。
3、如果你是Petroco公司的高级管理人员，了解了所有的情况，你会做出什么反应？你会改变对加油站管理政策的吗?
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Lecture 5 Group Behavior and Decision Making
The Creation and Destruction of the order of Maria Theresa
Charles V ruled over an empire in which the sun did not set. This created fantastic communications problems for the officials of the Crown in the remote overseas possessions. They were supposed to carry out faithfully the imperial orders reaching them from Madrid, but often they could not, because the directives were issued in crass ignorance of the local situation or arrived weeks if not months after being decreed, by which time they were largely obsolete. In Central America this dilemma led to a very pragmatic solution: ” se obedece pero no se cumple”(One obeys but does not comply). Thanks to this recipe, the Central American possessions flourished, not because but in spite of the imperial orders from the Escorial. Two centuries later this expedient was awarded official recognition under the reign of Empress Maria Theresa through the establishment of the Order of Maria Theresa. With refreshing absurdity it was reserved exclusively for officers who turned the tide of battle by taking matters into their own hands and actively disobeying orders.
Paul Watzlawick
(The Invented Reality)
Five summers ago I began work as a gas station attendant for Petroco, a large petroleum refiner with gas stations located primarily in the Northeast and North
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Central United States. Beginning work during mid-July, I worked in both part-time and full-time capacities until June of the following summer.
During this time there were two different managers. The first, Maria Theresa, had worked there for several months prior to my arrival, and lasted until she requested a transfer in mid-May. The second manager, Vincent MacMurdo, took over at that time and continued after I had left. Both of these managers held a bachelor’s degree and had had some previous managerial experience. They had been assigned to this particular station because they had done an especially good job on their previous hob assignments, and because the high volume of business made the station something of a proving ground for managers on the rise within the company. However, despite sharing a certain managerial competence, the two managers were as different as day and might.
Maria, for her part, deliberately operated in ways, which circumvented the regulations, laid down in the operations manuals. Instead of focusing on the letter of the law and enforcing orthodoxy, she sought instead to forge a sense of comradery and friendship. Her willingness to bend or disregard the rules was greatly appreciated, by both others, and myself and as a result her attempt to forge a sense of comradery was largely successful.
This sense of comradery was expressed through four channels: among the crew members, between the crew and Maria Theresa, between the crew and the customers, and in a peculiar way, between the crew, Maria and the district manager, The expression of the crew’s comrader manifested itself during every work day,
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during which one crew member always helped out another, whether by “jumping” a dead battery, doing a little auto repair, or just running over to the Golden Arches for coffee. For example, during one January day my battery died of natural causes and when we attempted to jump it, we shorted the other car’s electrical system. Where a lesser crew night at that stage have given up, the day crew instead rallied and repaired the short and began making phone calls and illegal trips to the junkyard. The results were soon 1) a used but serviceable battery and 2) the necessary electrical parts and wired. In time, the favors were returned.
The second channel of comradety-between the crew and Maria-existed and prospered largely due to Maria’s readily apparent concern foe the crew. She would often show up early in the morning with coffee and donuts for the morning crew or late in the evening with pizza for the evening crew. Her extra efforts on the crew’s behalf were reciprocated whenever Maria needed an extra body because a crewmember could not make his/her allotted shift. An indication of the loyalty, which we felt for Maria, is given by the fact that crewmembers would frequently volunteer to work another eight hour shift if Maria was going to be short. (The extent of this willing sacrifice can perhaps only be appreciated by those having spent 16 hours standing on concrete!)
The third channel of comradery, between crew members and customers, is perhaps best illustrated by the time a couple’s car ran out of gas and sputtered to a stop about 1/4 mile from the station. When they asked to borrow the telephone we refused permission-letting a customer use the pay phone inside the station was expressly forbidden, since the safe was inside. 1 However, as we did so, we also
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offered to push their car the 1/4 mile uphill to the station. In what was soon to be an oft repeated story, the result was that we were generously rewarded for our efforts with a $15.00 tip and a standing ovation from the several cars waiting patiently in the parking lot. The coup de grace came when the manager of the neighboring McDonals’s sent over a complimentary round of cokes as a sign of approval. Interestingly, such behavior was completely against Petroco rules, which forbade employees to leave the station without managerial approval. Maria-who was not there at the time-gushed with superlatives when she eventually heard the story.
The final expression of comradery came about through the peculiar relationship between Maria, the crew and the district manager. The district manager was a well groomed M.B.A, devoted to enforcing the rules and regulations. One way he did so was to periodically spy on the crew members by parking in the shopping center across the road. However, we always knew he was coming before he “unexpectedly arrived’ because of Maria’s early warning system that she had established with other managers. While Mr. Bond was in our midst we were always on model behavior, following Petroco guidelines to the letter; after he left the station we returned to “normal.” naturally, the district manager knew something was going on, but because Maria consistently set new all-time-sales-records. While simultaneously maintaining average “shortages,” he never investigated thoroughly. The crew, having a low tolerance of spies, was not about to inform him otherwise.
* * *
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During the month of April, Maria began contemplating a move to a smaller station closer to her home in Connecticut. Although our particular station offered her greater prestige, she had begun to miss the community of her family and friends. When an opportunity to move arose in mid-May, Maria initially refused, to the crew’s delight. Eventually, however, she reconsidered and accepted the opportunity to manage closer to home. We were an aggrieved crew which greeted Vincent MacMurdo.
Vince, for his part, operated by the book in a no-nonsense attempt to establish discipline and order. Where Maria fostered comradery, Vince deliberately attempted to foster individual accountability. That a new manager had arrived was quickly driven home to the crew when a crewmember was fired for being $2 short for 3 days’ work. When an irate crewmember demanded to know what the hell Vince thought he was doing, Vince responded by reading from the operations manual. Quoth he, ”An employee shall be fired if s/he is $10 short for the month; or is $5 short for the week; or is $1 short for 2 days; or is $.75 short for 1 day. “During the first two weeks of Vince’s tenure, 3 people were fired for coming up short. When the crew protested that Maria had never done it that way, Vince responded by saying he was not Maria-the crew readily agreed!
The implementation of rule and order extended well past the area of shortages, fundamentally altering the way in which the crew operated. Previously the work crew had consisted of four attendants, one responsible for each inland of gas pumps (three in all), and one floating assistant. Under this arrangement, the assistant was free to help wherever needed and the other attendants, if they were
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free, also helped out. Those helping out would pump gas, wipe windows, check oil and collect the money for the person being helped, and would then give the money to the person assigned to the island at the earliest convenience.
Vince deliberately destroyed the system, arguing that if the “helpers” decided to pocket the money, then the person being helped would be fired for someone else’s theft. However, his initial instructions to cease and desist were ignored, as the crewmembers insisted on trusting one another. Eventually, however, Vince laid down the law: anyone collecting money for anyone else would be fired. When a new employee was actually fired for collecting money, the “helper” system ceased. In its place a system emerged where each attendant strayed less and less from his/her “own” island, attending to cleaning and sweeping instead of “helping.” In this way, individual accountability was implemented.
However, the main change was in the relationship between the manager, crew and district manager. Where Maria had worked with, but around, the Petroco’s rules, Vince adopted them as his own. An immediately noticeable effect was that the district manager was around much more than formerly, and most importantly, his pending arrival was not announced to the crew. Thus, his spying missions, began to pay off, which only encouraged him to make even more spying missions, as he was beginning to uncover, the sins he had long suspected.
One result of this was a reversal of the crew’s long standing concern to help customers. For instance, I began to rigorously enforce the injunction about not pumping gas into running cars (which infuriated people). Although they might
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plead that their battery was dying, I held the company line. When they told me that if their car did not start, then I would have to jump them, I responded that it was against company policy. One time when a customer could not get his car started, Vince not only refused to let him use the phone, but called a tow truck himself.
It is important to emphasize that it was not only the crew who reacted to the destruction of the order of Maria Theresa. Customers also reacted, at first by complaining, and the by never returning. About this time strange things began to happen. For example, one night after I refused to pump regular gas into an unleaded tank, the driver of the van I had been arguing with suddenly gunned his engine-and narrowly missed me as (leaped out of the way. Then, even as the story was making the rounds, a woman crewmember was tun over and injured by a customer who “didn’t see her.” “Accidents” like these just continued to happen, first, several crew members were hurt moving boxes of pump parts’ second, another employee suffered an injury that kept her out of work several months, and third, another crew member was suddenly out on workman’s compensation after getting hit by a car door. Then when the bottom had apparently been reached, a woman crewmember simultaneously quit and stole several hundred dollars while leaving.
* * *
The Saturday Night Massacre
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In addition to this accident spree, during Vince’s first two months at the station, several major, negative business events occurred. First, the sales volume of the station sharply declined. Second, despite Vince’s rigorous application of Petroco’s shortage policy, shortages reached mew heights, And third, the district manager reported to Vince that crew service to customers was well below petroco’s standards. Confronted with these blossoming problems. Confronted with these blossoming problems and obvious crew hostility (one crewmember he had fired had promised to come back and “discuss” it further) Vince and the district manager settled on a final solution: fire the Order of Maria Theresa. And one by one, the crew was fired, until there were only two of the Order left.
At this time Vince was looking for an assistant to help him keep tabs on the crew, and the choice came down to the two of us, as we were by far the most experienced crew members. The other remaining member was a local high school graduate who, although disliking Vince (his description: ”the east end of a west bound horse”), was nevertheless willing to work for him. My position 3was simple: if nominated I will not run, if elected I will no serve.
Unsurprisingly, I was eventually fired.
So ended the Order of Maria Theresa.
Discussion Questions
1.
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How would you characterize
Maria’s and Vince’s managerial style and their differnet personal relationships? Why?
2. Please give the reasons of
behavior changing of the service station-Maria’s or Vince’s members?
3. If you were a senior
executive with Petroco and learned the full details of the case, how would you respond? Would you try to change company policy on the management of service stations?
**SOOUCE: This case was contributed by Brian Duke, who is currently working toward a n M.S. in accounting at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, use by permission.
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