Case Study:
Instructions: Read the following case study and answer the questions that follow.
Nancy Johnson had been appointed head of the Budgeting department one year ago. She had been working in one aspect or another of this area for the last six years. As a result of her hard work and attentiveness to budget matters, she reached this management position.
The Budget department played an essential role in monitoring the costs and income of the company and in preparing the budgets for the various departments. Because accurate budgeting was so crucial to effective company management, the Budget department had been given the additional assignment of preparing selected budget specialists. These trainees tended to be ambitious recent college graduates; they expected the budget work experience to be the pathway into the more prestigious Auditing Department.
Nancy managed under the assumption that by keeping her office door "open," her employees would bring any problems to her attention. As a result, she stayed in her office and seldom met with the trainees. Instead, busy with many other tasks, she would glance over the budget reports they submitted and return them to her secretary. The specialists, young and eager to learn, were expecting some feedback on how well they had produced the reports so that they could learn enough for their future auditing tasks. Nancy felt she was too busy and did not add any commentary to the reports.
The reports often contained many errors, which the trainees would be expected to make but which Nancy's quick review did not catch. The department heads throughout the organization who received the erroneous reports would complain directly to the trainee who prepared them. Over time, relations between the department heads and the trainees deteriorated.
The trainees who worked in the same office area easily shared their frustrations about the work and Nancy. The situation became adversarial: Us (the trainees) vs. them (Nancy), and since she made no effort to hear from them, they made no effort to speak. Likewise, dissatisfaction with Nancy's department spread among department managers.
The pressures of poor budget work and disgruntled employees continued to build until Nancy's boss talked to her one day, demanding to know what had gone wrong. Shaken by the news and unable to answer the questions, Nancy wondered what she should do now.
Respond the following:
1. Given the communication patterns between her, her staff, and other department heads, describe the communication issues within the organization and how they might be resolved.
2. Who would you recognize as Nancy's customers?
3. How would you describe the type of service that Nancy is giving her customers?
4. Her job required her to wear two different hats: that of a producer and that of a trainer. Describe her methods for managing both of these responsibilities
5. Explain, how adequately did she have controls in place for managing both the production and training of her staff?
6. Describe how Nancy's assumption about employees' problems affected her management practices.
7. Identify three (3) controls she needs to put in place to manage the production and training functions more effectively.
8. Identify three (3) steps she should take to improve her training and coaching responsibilities.
9. Are there any ethical issues that need to be considered?
10. What kind of conflict exists between herself and her staff?
11. Suggest two (2) ways to resolve these kinds of conflicts.
12. What should Nancy do now, after her boss' lecture about dealing with the situation at hand?