THEME ONE: What is the manager’s perspective of leadership? How does it differ from the leader’s perspective? Managers focus on process, procedure, and implementation of the organization’s purpose. Their perspective is on getting the job done and keeping stability. The leader is about change and moving the people toward the vision. The area of overlap comes in terms of the need to use “soft or people skills” to get their job done yet even there a difference in perspective is seen. The manager motivates while the leader empowers.
- Role of manager when leading (e.g. teams and problem solving)
- Communication skills especially when implementing change. Rapidity in the 21st century should be emphasized.
- Keeping employees motivated towards getting the tasks done in a timely, efficient and quality driven way. (challenge in the 21st century)
THEME TWO:
Assume that you are the manager of the northern branch of the Laurel City bowling alleys. The owner, Jill Espy, has 4 other bowling alleys around town. As an example, the average employee assigned to the concession stand of all the Laurel City bowling alleys lasts about 3 years. However, in your branch, the average employee lasts only 8 months. Jill is concerned about this significant discrepancy and wants to know your explanation for the difference, and what you can do to correct the problem. Training new employees is costly to the company, and this high level of employee turnover is costing her money that could be better spent elsewhere.
You have tried talking with your current concession staff and have learned that pay and scheduling may have some effect on the turnover rate. However, one person indicated that many of them do not know how to handle difficult customers. This can make them not want to come to work.
Questions—From your reading and consideration of this week’s materials (for ex., for a manager’s need to guide his/her employees toward accomplishing key goals), how would you as the manager work to solve the problem described above ?
In your response, please consider and address (*within the indicated length guideline) such Management concepts/theories as Motivation techniques, effective communication, guiding work groups & teams, mentoring, and other concepts or ideas from your reading to develop a positive “solution” to this problem. In the process of preparing your response, you should feel free to think “outside of the box” (so to speak). In doing this, students could consider resources that would typically be available to the manager that might be helpful in this process (including resources within the organization and perhaps some potential resources outside of it).
THEME THREE:
In the article that follows (provided by the Course Developers) as well as in several of the Week 7 materials, the balanced score card is discussed. (For ex., see http://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/the_balanced_scorecard.htm )
You are the manager of the northern branch of the Laurel City bowling alleys. The owner, Jill Espy, has 4 other bowling alleys around town. The average employee assigned to the concession stands of all the Laurel City bowling alleys lasts 3 years. However, in your branch the average employee lasts only 8 months. Jill is concerned about this huge discrepancy and wants to know your explanation for the difference, and what you can do to correct the problem. Training new employees is costly to the company, and this high turnover is costing her money that could be better spent elsewhere.
Questions—
In your response, please explain/discuss how the use of a balanced score card perspective could help the manager to measure and possibly improve his/her concerns/problems with the high level of employee turnover. In your response, you should also try to be reasonably specific in your comments as you think about the manager’s problem(s) using the balanced scorecard framework, and how using this perspective can potentially effectively address (or “fix) the employee turnover problem that the manager has in the branch.
More specifically, for the Management function of control, please consider the perspective of a manager seeking to effectively control the work-related activities of a group of employees from a distance. For example, this could be for a “virtual” organization that does not have standard physical locations (such as a large office building where most/all of the employees would work). As you consider the relevant Week 7 materials and any outside sources that you choose to identify/use, please address the following concern. That is, how could a manager be assured of and effectively measure the work that is performed when the employees involved are a significant distance away from the manager (for ex., in Europe & the manager is in the U.S.) ?
