Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant: Motivating in Good Times and Bad

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant is a mirror manufacturing plant that makes mirrors for automobiles and was established in 1948. The company employed a little over 200 employees and was profitable up until the late 1990’s. In 1998 the plant manager resigned because he couldn’t keep up with the new technology the company was trying to use and or the profits. In 1998 the company hired Rob Bent who introduced the Scanlon Plan. Sales then increased up until 2005 and in June of 2006 the company had to lay off 46 employees.

Some of the organizational issues are lack of security from employees, because of the company laying off employees, employees not trusting company, because of a revision of the figures for bonuses in the Scanlon Plan. There are ethical issues here, because the company has not paid out a bonus in over 7 months and bonuses haven't been consistent because of revision of figures, which has caused a lack of motivation with employees and credibility gap (Newstrom, 2015, p.36).

The Scanlon Plan is a proven plan that can work if implemented properly. I believe that Brent should keep the Scanlon Plan, but revise it to offer gainsharing