Clark At Slade Company Case Summary

The clocking problem
Despite apparent success of Slade Company, the manufacturer faces problems in the plating department. The production Manager, Ralph Porter, is concerned about dishonesty among employees, abusing the clocking system for logging in the work hours. The typical workweek in the department is 60 hours, with the first 40 hours paid on a straight time basis while additional hours were paid 50% higher (100% higher for week-end work). Classic days are worked from 7.00 to 7.00 pm. Since the supervisors left around 5.00, an employee could stay late and punch-out for everyone. And this is exactly what is happening within the main company groups. How can this be possible?

The causes
To understand the causes of the problem, we first
However Clark's group does not have Sarto's strong bounds, even if to my sense it aspires to. Aside from these two groups, we observe small groups without any clear organization. I would classify them as neutral (women group) or followers. Aside from this group, two outsiders, Pearson and Herman, distinguish by their atypical behaviour. Pearson is a hardworking individual, respected by all. Herman rather acts like a free rider, with a low productivity. He does not follow any of the group's typical behaviour, and often leaves work as soon as his cousin, the supervisor, leaves. This "bad apple" results in the demotivation of the other
A higher degree of moral awareness is required: the employees don't know they face an ethical dilemma; they just rely on the social group consensus to guide their behaviour without engaging in a moral judgment process. This reliance also implies a social pressure on the group members: if one initiates a moral judgment process, and start to think that the clocking system is morally wrong, it will be difficult for him to act differently than his team. It would compromise the solidarity system, the leader of the team, the group itself. Even outside the groups, it is hard to report bad behaviours as one risks retaliation from the co-workers. It is easier in this case to comply, justifying the behaviour by displacement and diffusion of responsibility (I just follow the leader of the group, and anyway, everybody is doing it).
The clocking problem can be attributed to the fact that the incentive system is low, and the supervisor not present after 5. We know that the reward system is one of the best ways to communicate to the employees what the company expects from them. In our case, the company obviously lacks both an efficient reward and punishment