Case Study Scenario - Sunshine Advertising
You are a manager in a lucrative advertising company and have a team of 15 staff members but at the moment two of them are working closely with you to complete some very important jobs.
Work Tasks:
Pretty Boutique is a key client who has asked your company to prepare a brochure and some advertisements for their fashion showcase. Today is Monday, and the draft brochure has been prepared and presented to the Boutique for their approval.
The fashion show is scheduled for Wednesday in two week’s time.
Pretty Boutique advises you of a problem. They inform you that the venue has to be changed as it is not big enough for their showcase. Yourealise that the brochure and advertisements will need to be changed which will take at least 2-3 hours to fix and you will need Joshua to help you.
You are also working on a very special project for Movers and Shakers and although you still have three weeks to finish, you feel there is another solid week’s work left for you to do.
You also have your normal management tasks to complete.
Staff jobs:
Currently, you have two staff working with you and their normal tasks are:
Staff workload:
Grace arrives late to work very upset. You asked her what her workload was like for the day and she bursts into tears. She said that she is not up-to-date and still has the following outstanding tasks on her ‘to do’ list. These tasks are in addition to her normal day-to-day work. She needs to:
• Book a rental car for you to pick up in Melbourne next Monday
• Organise the travel arrangements and accommodation in Melbourne for you and the two sales representatives
• Prepare the PowerPoint presentation for you to present at a Conference next week
• Complete last month’s stationery order.
It is obvious that Grace is behind with her work and you need to arrange for someone to help her.
You check with Joshua and find out that he is up-to-date with his tasks, but he tells you that the graphic designing staff are snowed under with work and have asked him to help out longer than the usual three hours a week which is allocated to graphic designing in his normal workload.
He mentions to you that Grace has separated from her husband and is distressed. This has interfered with her normal efficient work performance and she is behind with her work.
The Director of the company has indicated in a recent email that no staff members are allowed to do any overtime.
You are now faced with the dilemma of how you will deal with this situation.
Task 1:
Using the table format below:
• Make a list of Grace and Joshua’s work in one team table.
• Prioritise these work tasks for the next week using the “URG-IMP” system of prioritising by importance and urgency.
Sample layout:
Task 2:
Using the information from the table in Task 1 prepare three (3) work schedules for the following staff for next week showing the team priorities and resource availability:
1. Manager (yourself)
2. Grace
3. Joshua
Create your schedule using software such as Microsoft Outlook, Word or Excel. Alternatively you can use the sample calendar below.
Task 3:
A professional development plan is an important toolfor assisting staff to identify the necessary skills and knowledge required to meet their personal goals and the organisations business needs.
Using the professional development template on the OLS website:
• Prepare a professional development plan for Grace addressing the areas you would like her to improve.
• Be sure to include a range of self-development activities for Grace.
Task 4:
Professional networks assist employees to enhance their skills, knowledge and professional relationships. These may include professional associations, online networks or workplace committees.
• Identify two (2) networks that Grace could participate in to enhance her knowledge, skills and work relationships. These networks may be a combination of internal, external, formal or informal.
• Describe how each of these networks could assist Grace to enhance her skills.