1. Gerald Mahoney’s attitude and performance dramatically changed after a few months on the job. What type of training should Mahoney have immediately received from John Timmson that might have avoided this?

Gerald should have received some type of on-the-job training that goes over ever piece of detail that needs to be attended to. John left everything up to Gerald then eventually got upset when business was not being taken care of. The reason for on-the-job training, is because John can use the opportunity of OJT to really teach Gerald how he wants the store ran, and what transactions he want done on a daily basis.

2. Assuming Timmson keeps Mahoney as the store manager, what would be the steps he institutes in the training …show more content…
I believe that the most effective way to correct some of Mahoney’s more problematic behaviors would be to use positive reinforcement to do so. In Mahoney’s case we feel that even Timmson just verbally praising Mahoney could result in more frequent desirable behavior out of Mahoney. On top of the verbal praise, Timmson could also use incentives, such as paid time off, or overtime wages as positive reinforcement for Mahoney’s desirable behavior. The pros of using positive reinforcement that it is the most effective way to improve job performance and desirable behavior, however it would also add costs to Timmson’s pay roll, which would begin to add up over time. Also, if the store does not continue to have good business and the only way for Timmson to keep the store open was to cut costs, then Mahoney’s pay would most likely be the first thing to be cut, possibly resulting in undesirable behavior and lower job performance.

5. Look at Exhibit 7-3, “Skills and Training Methods.” What are some of the appropriate training techniques that Timmson might use to increase Mahoney’s KSAs?

We believe that the best way to improve Mahoney’s KSAs is to use the case observational method. Our reasoning for this stems from an article written by Martin Gannon where he introduces the training method called the case observational method, a method based off of sensitivity training. Gannon goes on to explain the case