Assignment task:
Review the company overview and the case study overview in the Final Project Case Study document. Create an outline of the pattern of facts leading up to the case study conflict, including the identification of stakeholders in the conflict. Your outline will help you determine the fact pattern needed to complete Milestone One in Module Three.
Your outline must include these critical elements:
- The pattern of facts leading up to the case study conflict
- Identification of all the stakeholders in the conflict
Company Overview:
ABC Corporation is an electronic device company selling cellular phones and tablets. It is a global company with both sales and service departments. The technology industry is highly competitive, so ABC Corporation focuses on after-sales service levels in order to ensure it has repeat customers. It has eight call centers worldwide and each call center handles a multitude of customer issues. There is an extremely high expectation that the call centers resolve customer issues in a timely fashion and to the customer's satisfaction. The call center managers are focused on ensuring their center is the best and that their center handles the most calls, has the highest-rated customer evaluations, and wins the most recognition for performance. Customer service is at the heart of the ABC Corporation's mission.
Employees:
Thomas is the call center manager and runs a tight ship. Thomas has been recognized for having the most productive unit in the organization year after year. Thomas is very proud of his unit and the recognition it receives and he holds his employees to very high productivity standards. Although customer service is critical to the organization, Thomas does not transfer that same mentality to his employees.
Janet is a call center supervisor, one of 10 in the call center. She has been working for Thomas for some time and follows his lead with respect to managing the center and the employees. She tends to focus on her work, rarely takes a break, and is completely dedicated to the success of the center.
Michael is a customer service representative and has been with ABC Corporation for two years. He likes his job but gets frustrated when others do not work as hard as he does. He is the first to know how hard one has to work to be successful in this call center. The calls come in nonstop, you always have to be polite, and the customers can be very upset at times. He prides himself on not only surviving this environment, but succeeding.
Kathy is also a customer service representative. She has been with ABC Corporation for five years but at this call center for about six months. She enjoys her job but feels like the environment in this call center is competitive and hostile at times. She is always nervous that she will lose her job. Her performance has always been good but she finds success more of a struggle since joining the new call center run by Thomas. Kathy and Kareem became friendly since they started in call center at about the same time.
Kareem was hired as a customer service representative after an interview process that proved he could manage the workload, had a pleasant phone voice, and had a desire to please the customer and represent the company well. Kareem is of Indian descent and is a practicing Muslim. His religion requires that he pray five times a day. This involves a series of movements and recitations from the Quran and there are various standing, bending, and prostrating postures. Kareem worked for ABC Corporation for eight months before being terminated.
Case Study Overview:
Over the duration of Kareem's employment, Kareem's number of calls dropped and he was often missing from his workstation.
Michael noticed Kareem sitting on a mat, talking to himself, and making strange movements with his body often throughout the day. Michael thought this was odd and could not believe how often Kareem was away from his workstation; he reported this to his supervisor, Janet.
Kathy also saw Kareem leaving his workstation but since they were friends, she asked him about it. He told her he was a practicing Muslim and was required to pray five times per day. He also told her that before he prays, he has to wash his hands, face, arms, and feet to be physically pure in order to spiritually pray. She thought this was fascinating.
Janet then began to focus her attention on Kareem's performance and the times he was absent from his desk. She determined it was excessive and spoke with Thomas.
Thomas kept an eye on Kareem's performance closely after discovering the performance deficiencies.
After a few weeks, Thomas made the decision to terminate Kareem's employment for unproductive work time, excessive breaks, and not meeting performance standards.
Kareem was very upset and decided to consult with an attorney as he felt that he was treated unfairly by being terminated.
Kareem's attorney sent a letter to ABC Corporation's employee relations department and you, the ER representative, are tasked with investigating this concern.