Thomas Motor Co.

After the closure of Turner Trucks workshop, because of economic downturn, competition and decline in customers, Ralph Turner was jobless. He found a job at Thomas Motor Co. at a low salary as there were no other alternatives available. Robbins, the workshop foreman, perceived that Ralph was happy with this because he felt lucky to have found the job. The major issue in this case is the temperamental behaviour of Ralph. Some examples of his explosive behaviour are; complaining about the workshop being very dirty, shouting at his colleagues to switch off the radio, and complaining about Richards.

The various causes and their consequent effect that has led to this conclusion being; low salary leading to feeling of inequity, always being left out of coffee break although he hurried through his work made him feel estranged. Finally, the strong bond between Robbins and the mechanic team, made it difficult for Ralph to adapt with them. Because of all these causes, his behaviour deteriorated from being unfriendly to being rude. He became inattentive leading to a mistake while repairing one of the trucks. Ralph started spying on the others while at work on his father’s trucks. Things came to a head when he insisted on working on Turner’s trucks by himself and expressed his distrust in the other mechanics. This caused the other mechanics to alienate him. Due to the increased work load, another mistake was committed which could have possibly led to a truck driver meeting with an accident. The behaviour of Ralph affected the morale and cohesiveness of the men. This led Robbins and John Thomas to the dilemma of whether to fire Ralph. Keeping the following theoretical analysis in mind, possible solutions with supporting theories have been suggested to solve this problem.

The first is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. According to Maslow human need consists of lower order needs (social, safety and physiological requirements) and higher order needs (self-actualization and