Soda Can Company is opening up a new store location in sixty days. As Executive Director of Stores, you have to put together a strong team quickly.
You hired Jim Beam to be the Store Manager based on his previous experience and track record with other competitors. You have a new site to open up, and your goal is to start producing as quickly as possible. You had a slight feeling that he was a little full of himself, but you associated it with self-confidence, which you needed this new manager to have since you would not have a lot of time to invest in this location.
Julie Stevens has been one of your top production specialists for two years. You assigned her to Jim and the new store without hesitation. Her proven track record and existing knowledge of the product line would be actively used to get this new store performing within weeks.
You have also taken great steps to recruit other internal employees who have strong performance records. Two or three are new to the company and not so experienced, but their eager attitude and desire to learn and get better will serve them well in this new location.
It has been three weeks since the new store opened and early performance statistics are meeting expectations. It looks like the team is working together well. However, you have had numerous phone calls from Julie Stevens complaining about Jim Beam’s management approach. Among her complaints are comments like, “He exaggerates and tries to bully staff,â or “He does not understand the product line and belittles anyone who asks questions.â Yet he also makes personal statements as if trying to be nice but it seems like he ends up angering people instead. Such as, “Come to my house to watch the big game. I have a brand new 50 inch high definition TV.â Or, “I only shop at designer stores, don’t you?â Even a few of the newer employees have made cautious attempts to ask if Jim’s style is the norm for the Soda Can Company. Questions such as, “Is it acceptable for managers yell in staff meetings?â or “Is it company policy to get defensive when asked questions?â have been coming up frequently.
You are sitting at lunch with your boss, Elizabeth Zone. She has just asked you casually about the new store opening – “How is the new location doing?â You are struggling with how you are going to approach Jim and confront him on his performance so far. You are concerned about the team overall, but you are hesitant to jump in and make changes so early. Could it be possible that Jim will settle down in a few weeks? Could this all just be pressure from the new store opening and working with a new team? Maybe they just need a few more weeks to get to know each other and find their own ways to work well?
Answer the following questions by applying the concepts learned in Chapter 13. Also, conduct literature reviews on the subject of discussion and use to support your case study answers:
Elizabeth is waiting for your response. What do you say?
Elizabeth has years of experience and has offered objective perspectives in the past, and she supports employee development while maintaining good performance on the job. You decide to share your concern about Jim’s early leadership style with her. What do you say?
What are you going to track closely with the new team?
How might you approach Jim about the team’s performance?
What might you say to Julie? To the new employees?
Chapter 14 – Managing People to Perform
Axis Inc. has instituted new “flexibleâ guidelines around appropriate attire, including piercings and tattoos. Along with all her colleagues, Rebecca Que, an Assistant Manager at Axis, received a printed copy of the new standards – and they’re still sitting in the envelope, unread. Included in this piece were a list of resources for her to contact if she had any questions or concerns – and a list of consequences for non-compliance.
Rebecca thinks that these new standards are only for those in Denver at the corporate office. She thinks that for people “out in the worldâ at the stores, style and personal branding are important to the Axis Inc. experience, and her Store Manager seems to agree. Over the weekend, she’s going to get another piercing in her nose, and she is thinking of getting a bold new tattoo on her forearm.
Answer the following questions by applying the concepts learned in Chapter 14. Also, conduct literature reviews on the subject of discussion and use to support your case study answers:
As the District Manager, list how you would manage Rebecca’s performance with the new guidelines using the ACHIEVE model.
Sample Solution
toward the cease of March 2004, the world bore witness to by now familiar scenes of blood-letting from Iraq. pictures captured in this event with the aid of an partner Press journalist (Mascolo, 2006) showed Iraqis celebrating the killing of foreigners. Emaciated and infrequently recognisable, their bodies hung over the bridge they had just a moment in the past tried to move. some 30 miles west of Baghdad, the notoriously stressed metropolis of Fallujah formed the backdrop to the ambush in which, it emerged from later reports, two of those killed in addition to the surviving men had been all American nationals who had been tasked with escorting the transportation of foodstuff. once they fell into the entice, all 4 have been sitting of their vehicle. Following gunfire they incurred the wrath of insurgents eager to are seeking revenge on whom they noticed as unwelcome occupiers with the aid of torching their automobile (Scahill, 2006). of them managed to escape in time however the different two, it appears, could not retreat, either due to the fact they have been already heavily injured or were already useless. Even to this present day the best instances of what actually had befell continue to be unclear, and it’ll likely stay so. What is obvious, however, is that none of them â either the dead or the survivors â had been bona fide soldiers running in uniform. Belonging neither to the usa navy nor to every other military of the âcoalition of the inclinedâ stationed in Iraq, all 4 were, to all felony intents and purposes, âciviliansâ, who had, at the least because it seemed to start with, the gross misfortune of being at the incorrect location at the incorrect time. but on nearer inspection one may want to determine that all 4 of them have been employees of Blackwater, a private security organisation situated in Moyock, North Carolina (www.blackwaterusa.com). founded most effective 11 years earlier to the incident, Blackwater symbolizes the boom of a brand new and booming area of the military economic system, which entrusts personal agencies with obligations that had formerly been preserved for the nation. referring to the method of deregulation, which had made this feasible, the founding father of Blackwater, Erik Prince, defined through manner of comparison that, âwe’re seeking to do for countrywide security what Fed Ex did for the postal provider. Fed Exâ, he went on to mention in an interview with the Weekly general, âdid a number of the equal offerings the postal service did, higher, less expensive, smarter, and faster by way of innovating [which] the private quarter can do much more correctlyâ (quoted in Hemingway, 2006). What his business enterprise turned into doing, he claimed, was not anything varied and, in truth, in the national interest too, considering his employees would shop the yankee ratepayers a substa>
toward the cease of March 2004, the world bore witness to by now familiar scenes of blood-letting from Iraq. pictures captured in this event with the aid of an partner Press journalist (Mascolo, 2006) showed Iraqis celebrating the killing of foreigners. Emaciated and infrequently recognisable, their bodies hung over the bridge they had just a moment in the past tried to move. some 30 miles west of Baghdad, the notoriously stressed metropolis of Fallujah formed the backdrop to the ambush in which, it emerged from later reports, two of those killed in addition to the surviving men had been all American nationals who had been tasked with escorting the transportation of foodstuff. once they fell into the entice, all 4 have been sitting of their vehicle. Following gunfire they incurred the wrath of insurgents eager to are seeking revenge on whom they noticed as unwelcome occupiers with the aid of torching their automobile (Scahill, 2006). of them managed to escape in time however the different two, it appears, could not retreat, either due to the fact they have been already heavily injured or were already useless. Even to this present day the best instances of what actually had befell continue to be unclear, and it’ll likely stay so. What is obvious, however, is that none of them â either the dead or the survivors â had been bona fide soldiers running in uniform. Belonging neither to the usa navy nor to every other military of the âcoalition of the inclinedâ stationed in Iraq, all 4 were, to all felony intents and purposes, âciviliansâ, who had, at the least because it seemed to start with, the gross misfortune of being at the incorrect location at the incorrect time. but on nearer inspection one may want to determine that all 4 of them have been employees of Blackwater, a private security organisation situated in Moyock, North Carolina (www.blackwaterusa.com). founded most effective 11 years earlier to the incident, Blackwater symbolizes the boom of a brand new and booming area of the military economic system, which entrusts personal agencies with obligations that had formerly been preserved for the nation. referring to the method of deregulation, which had made this feasible, the founding father of Blackwater, Erik Prince, defined through manner of comparison that, âwe’re seeking to do for countrywide security what Fed Ex did for the postal provider. Fed Exâ, he went on to mention in an interview with the Weekly general, âdid a number of the equal offerings the postal service did, higher, less expensive, smarter, and faster by way of innovating [which] the private quarter can do much more correctlyâ (quoted in Hemingway, 2006). What his business enterprise turned into doing, he claimed, was not anything varied and, in truth, in the national interest too, considering his employees would shop the yankee ratepayers a substa>
