Eighth edition Administrative office management An IntroductionZane K. Quible Ph.D.

Mary Brown, the supervisor of the word processing center inDelta Corporation in San Antonio, recently retired because of herage. During the years she had been supervisor, various managersfelt that Brown should be dismissed because of her laxness insupervising the ten employees in the center. Because she reachingretirement age, however she was not dismissed. The employees wereoften late to work, took longer breaks that was permissible, tookadvantage of the corporation in terms of sick days, and so forth.Mary was repeatedly asked to be stricter in her supervisoryefforts, but no noticeable changes were ever made. When thequalifications for the replacement for Mary brown were developed,the decision was made that the new supervisor should be moreauthoritarian and should require the employees in the wordprocessing center to conform with existing company policy. Thereplacement, Annabell Jackson, was hired primarily because of herauthoritarian characteristics. All of her former employers who werecontacted regarding Jackson’s performance mentioned herauthoritarian personality. Because of the laxness of brown and thehope that Jackson could improve the situation, she was offered thejob. As the administrative office manager, you are aware that thefirst day Jackson is on the job will probably determine whether ornot the employees in the word processing center will cooperate withher. Thus, you feel a necessity to discuss several things with herbefore her first day on the job.

Outline the approach you believe Jackson should take in winningthe respect and cooperation of the employees in the word processingcenter.