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Karen MacMillan, assistant professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management at the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University, explains her case writing process through the lens of her best-selling Ivey Publishing case, "A Zero Wage Increase Again?" Together with host Matt Quin, they explore the evergreen case in today's context and provide actionable tips for your own case writing and case method journey.
The owner of a large hardware, furniture, and building centre faced a dilemma regarding how to manage the upcoming wage review process. After two consecutive years of frozen wages, employees were impatient for financial progress, but there was no extra money in the budget... read the full case abstract here.
Transcript
Hi, I'm at Quinn. Thanks for joining us for the second episode of Decision Point From Ivy Publishing at the Ivy Business School. Over one three of Canadian organizations pro salaries this year, up from just two percent before the pandemic. This is according to a recent survey published by Human Resource Services Company Brno Chapelle. South of the border. Economist predict that wages will stay stagnant amid sustained uncertainty and financial stress. Today we sit down with author Karen McMillan to revisit her best selling case as zero wage increase again. McMillan is an assistant professor at the Lazarita School of business and economics at will for Laurier University and also teaches at the Ivy business school. During this discussion we unpack how to write and teach cases covering core hr topics in organizational behavior. Topics range from employee motivation, compensation management and organizational justice. Developing a systemic approach to performance management is crucial now more than ever for organizations. So I hope you enjoy our conversation. Are Let's start from the beginning. What prompted you to write this case? Well, this is not a glamorous backstory, Matt, I'm afraid. I was a doctoral student and I wanted to go to a conference to school would pay for my trip if I had something accepted at the conference. I figured it was easier to write a case then to do a whole research projects, so I started looking around for a situation on which to write the case. Necessity is the mother of invention, I guess. The good yeah, well, the good news is the case was accepted of the conference, so I got to go and it actually won the top case award at that conference. That is so cool and and from the publisher side of things, I'm seeing so many really great cases coming out of conferences and what I love to see, especially now in the situation where at with conferences going online, they're starting to tackle some really interesting topics at these conferences and you know, we're participating in a few about female leaders and cases, for example, and and really looking at some important topics. So that's it's a great place for people to think about. Where do I start? I agree, and one of the great things about bringing a case to a conference is you get lots of feedback from other people, and probably people that are different from the ones around you at your school. So you get these perspectives, you get to integrate that into your case and I think it makes for a better case. Yeah, that feedback loop which this which is really cool. I want to talk a bit about the specifics of the case for a little bit here. So the case centers on Mark Coglin and he's the owner of a company called House, hearth and home and it's a hardware furnit building center. Can you talk a little bit about Lema that he's facing, because this is really what it comes down to. We're putting students in the seat and having them go through. So what's the lemon he's facing? The problem mark has is he wants to reward his employees. Money has been tight for a while, so people haven't had a raise for a couple of years now. He figures he can pull together some money, but what should he do with that money? Should he give it to his best people? They deserve it, of course, or should he try to spread it around so everybody gets a little? That seems like it would be fair. Like most managers, Mark just wants to get the biggest bang for his buck to help his business, and situations like that are just as relevant now. Is that when the case was written, as we are going through the code crisis, the ensuing economic crisis for a lot of businesses, small and large, that are going to be facing questions like this, was great for students to be put in the seat. I know that you did some field interviews for planning this. You look through any other two lemons, or was it this particular one that stood out you as the author? Okay, this is the path I've got to follow. Well, you know what happened with this case. I went to lunch with the contact. I had never met him before. I just knew I wanted to write a case for this conference, so I offered to buy him lunch. So we went for lunch and I just asked him for interesting stories. I didn't ask him for a compensation story. I just asked them to start talking about things he experienced at work. So we started talking and this guy was a great manager. He was very thoughtful. He was the type to think through employee issues very carefully. So he told me about a number of different things, but the compensation question seemed pretty compelling. I was an HR director for a number of years and I know this type of problem comes up all the time. You mentioned something really interesting about mark character here and and how great a leader in a manager he is, and you note it in the you know is you know how emotion have the potential to influence decisionmaking process. Can you talk a little bit more about that? And I know you've seen lots of different cases. You'd see this adequately, adequately addressed in cases outside of ob because I know that it's such a tricky part when you get emotion wrapped into it. Well, that's a great question, Matt. I don't know what the answer is, though, to I don't read a lot of cases outside of ob I bet you do, though. Do you see this covered very often? I'd see it more and more and I really appreciate it when it when it comes into play, not only in the case but the teaching note. You know, we're training the next generation of leaders and it's not just one and Zeros or or finance, which is important, but more and more the soft skill, the emotional intelligence side of it. When and whenever I see this, I've got a psych degree background, I get excited. So yeah, authors thinking about writing things in the teaching over the it's kind of interesting and it really is important. Well, I agree. I do think it should be covered. Humans are not always rational, and for a number of reasons, and one is that our emotions can affect our decisions. So I know in the classroom I tell my students to never make a decision when they're feeling strongly about something, either positively or negatively. They have to tame their feelings or or take off their emotion goggles to think clearly. I tell them emotion goggles are kind of like drunk goggles. Maybe you've heard of those. You know where we have we have a few drinks and then we don't see things that clearly. It's the same with emotions. We don't want to make decisions when we're drunk and we don't want to make decisions when we're emotional, otherwise our skill level will probably go down. What a great skill for the the students to practice in an environment of the classroom where safe to practice it, which is cool. Absolutely. Another thing that you talked about, and I'm sure that it's related to this, but I want to make sure we talk about it for those that aren't familiar, is bounded rationality. Can you find it and then bring it into. How does this play out in that in the case, I think we have a basic assumption that we are fairly rational beings, and I mean this. This comes from a strong history of schooling saying we need to break things down and think in a linear way and and take all the components of that might affect a decision and consider them equally rationally. That is the way we should make our decisions. But the research is very clear that we don't always follow those steps. We take shortcuts, we are biased, you know, there are all these reasons why we are not rational and I think we have to acknowledge that our rationality is bounded so that we can take steps to make better decisions and to make decisions that are mindful rather than reactive. M I want to go back to that lunch table where you took mark for lunch. Could he talk about maybe some of those emotions that he was struggling with, because I think that's what put you know, those that are going to use the case or thinking about writing a case. Something like this put them in the seat again. What was he struggling with trying to make this decision? I think he was struggling with justice right just as it end business concerns. So he wants to be fairy. I think this this business owner was an inherently fair person, where he wanted to do the right thing, but he wanted to do right by his employees who deserved it, and he wanted to do right by his employees generally. So what does that mean? Does it mean being equitable? Actually, equity is not always a path to fairness in some cases that we at least have to consider the fact that it might have been more fair to give some people more than others because of their merit. With that, that hug of war between let's treat everybody in a certain way or rewarding certain ones. That's that's really interesting. So you could see him struggling with it as he was handling his appetizer. Yeah, absolutely, he was. As I said, he was a thoughtful man. He still is a thoughtful man, I'm sure, but he thought carefully about what was happening and how he was reacting to it and he expressed that pretty openly. He was a very candid fellow. That really cool and something that when we get to work with a partner in a case like this, we realize how lucky we are to find somebody that is that open with thankful. I'm struggling with something you have you stayed in touch with with mark as he's gone through the decision in the business continues? Actually, I did stay in touch with mark for a while and we wrote another case together, or he was a contact for a case down the line, but unfortunately for me he ended up moving pretty far away and taking on a new he ended up buying a different store, so he he's not as easy to take for lunch anymore. But it's great that you got a second I think that speaks to the experience that he had working working with you. Now let's move from mark and that specific business to the situation. We're sitting here on the twenty eighth of l where the middle of summer here in the middle of Covid when the case was written, many were still recovering from the great recession. For some similarities to what we're going through now. Given what's going on now, you think you're gonna change how you teach this case? Is there anything? Anything you go I'm going to shift slightly how I approach this or work with students on it. I think that the changes that are happening right now with the economy are going to make this case even more relevant than it was last year because, unfortunately, a lot of companies are going to be struggling with the ability to pay their employees in the way they're accustomed to. So I I think that the case will probably be a little bit more what's the word I'm looking for? It might resonate with with students more because they may have seen this themselves by the time they they engage with this case. So I hope that doesn't happen. I hope that we don't see a lot of situations where money is super tight and we're raises don't happen for a while, but I think that's a possibly going to be something we see more often. You know, in these times of uncertainty, I think it it becomes even more important for us to be very careful about what message were sending to our employees, and people take money as a message. So every message that the organization sends to their employees in these uncertain times, I think they're going to be scanned even more carefully than usual by employees. So as money gets tighter, I think it's going to behoove leaders to be very clear, but what they value and what they reward. You know, mindful decisions and careful communication as we go forward in this time of uncertainty are going to be more more important than ever and the students will have the lens because they're going through it with all of us. They're seeing it in the news and in social media and now they're get to play the role of that leader, giving them practice for when they graduate quoute and get those jobs, to be the mindful leader, like he said, moving forth. That's pretty cool that that this case lives on with with new perfective yeah, I hope so. Have there been any challenges or surprises when you've op this case that you go why, I didn't see that coming. You know what's funny that I'm always surprised how fast students suggest that mark should simply fire the underperforming employees, that that's the solution to this case. Wow, and you know what, that is a theme. I don't know if it's just my student, but I find students are very quick to jump to termination as a solution. I do not know why they are so quick to pull the trigger, but that never ceases to amaze me. That's really, really interesting. Might it have something to do with that they've never been in the in the position of sitting across from somebody having happy to give that very talenting new that? It sounds great in theory. I think you're a hundred percent right. As students think that it's a simple solution and that when you fire somebody all the problems that that were happening with that person go away and it's it's not the case, of course, and so I do try to make or have a bit of a conversation around that point. I know it's not covered in the teaching note, but to to explore that a little bit to say yeah, once you're sitting across from somebody, it's hard and it should be hard. But what else do you do? You hit pause on the case, you you take that path. What other ways to you challenge the students when they come with this type of a solution? Is asking other questions? You role play. What else happened in the classroom when you hit this? Well, that's a good question. I think that sometimes we have. It depends a lot on the context, of course, and if we have time. But but I am definitely about taking a side step and entering a new pasture, so entering a new conversation if it seems to be something that will fit well, and I will happily take out something to make that happen, because it's organic and because it's coming from the students themselves. This is why case teaching is so exciting, because you can respond in the moment, if, if it presents itself, and I think I think it's smart to to open yourself up to that possibility and not to stick to that case plan, because the students are the ones that need to tell us where, where we should go, being being open those suggestions and being willing to take a different path and relaxing maybe a little bit on the the tching node or that path, that they're really just suggestions, are guides, not rules. Absolutely, and what I would expect to see is, I mean, this case is used around the world. This is I don't mind saying, Matt, it's thrilling to me to see how many people use this case in countries that I'll never get to visit. So my case gets to go where I don't get to and if I expect that every one of those instructors will interpret this case and use this case in different ways it and that's that's great. They should use it in a way that that makes sense for their learning objectives that they're trying to hit and for their particular students. And every time I teach the case it's a different experience for me to do. What we could do, you know, try to take advantage of the podcast and, you know, easy access to emails that if there's anybody listening that's use the case and they've had different experiences with student solutions or some interesting challenges that come up, I'd encourage them to send us an email at. I'd be publishing. You could out our website for that and then, Karen, I'll share with you if we if we hear from anybody, because it would be cool to see the different perspectives as you cross different continents, different regions. So let's do that. Let's open it up to some of the listeners. Gaudy, I think that's an amazing ideam at. I would love to hear from people who have who have found different things to to leverage in this case, because we can make that teaching note even stronger or we can change the case even perhaps a little bit and focus on some things more than others if that seems to be of value. So please, yes, if you have things that have worked for you or that you've you'd like to to see explored or would suggest other people explore, police, send those in. That's that's cool. Let's do it. And so I know we've talked a bit about the speaking note and about the case and using the case, but I'd like to open it up now for your advice to the listeners, for new case writers. What did the experience of teaching? That's you've meant in a great relationship with this, with the subject in mark. What other advice might you have for new writers, the things to do or things to avoid? Okay, well, I think I would suggest that if you want to write a case, you should write a case that you would want to use. It should speak to you. You can't try and write cases for other people. You should think about something that would that would make you excited to get into the classroom. The story doesn't have to be world stopping. It doesn't like look up this case. This is a pretty this is a pretty tame situation, but but it has some tensions and I think that's what we want in a good case is we want people in the room to split into sides and be ready to argue for their side. Debate is is wonderful because it makes students think through their ideas. They get to practice persuading, they get to jump into learning. So so build some disagreement into your case and I think that makes it more engaging. I'd also suggest, if you're writing a case, is put as much time into your teaching note as you do your case. Find find a teaching note that you love and that you found really useful and copy that, because the teaching note is, I think, critical to a case. If you're writing a case, you know there is there's no instructor in the world who has ever said, Oh, I have so much free time to prep for class, what am I going to do with all my free time? No, they are all saying I need something that I can run with tomorrow, and that's what a teaching note should do. It allows you to jump into the classroom with a logical plan that actually works. Yeah, I love that, this jumping right in. You know, use that teaching out, jump in and then, like you said, as you're getting more comfortable as a user of the case, then you can start making it your own and getting the feedback and taking different dimensions or different viewpoints. But I really one thing I want to reinforce is, you know, think about using it yourself, using it in your classroom, and that's the safe space that our students them hast out ideas, who back up their ideas, and also the place for them to say, HMM, maybe I was wrong, I'm gonna take the different perspective. That's great when that happens. Parents, thank you very much for taking the time to be with us today, for writing the cases and being open to that process of how did it work for you, the different angles that you've seen. So thank you very much for always being willing to work with us and sharing your different ideas. Oh, thank you so much for inviting me today, Matt. I had a lot of fun talking to you. Great. You soon. Okay, by now. If you enjoyed today's episode, subscribe to Decision Point on spotify or wherever you listen to be sure to check out the show notes for links to cases, resources and more. have any feedback, send us an email at cases at IV DOTCA.