The Scenario
Joseph and Krystal are part of your social group. They joinedMissile’s Financial Services together as middle managers. Each ofthem reports to a different senior manager. These managers reportto the Managing Director. Once a month after payday you all try tohave lunch together.
Joseph is very distressed. ‘I’ve had an awful week and thismorning was the worst!’ He recounts what happen between himself andNicholas his manager.
‘Nicholas and I were to meet with a new supplier to finalize acontract. I have been dealing with the supplier all this time andwe just needed to finalize the costing. We had reached an agreementabout the cost both of us were comfortable with it. All week I havebeen trying to get Nicholas to look at the contract and agree thefigures etc. We really need this guy’s company they are fast, agood price point for us and willing to customize the stationary forsuch a small company. Anyway, Nicholas was always too busy to meet,I emailed him the contract and my teams thoughts on how we shouldproceed hoping he would read it.’
‘Anyway we met with the supplier this morning. We are goingthrough the contract, the next thing I know Nicky says. ‘This won’twork for us, the cost is too high, where did these calculationscome from?’ ‘If the floor had opened up and swallowed me I couldhave not been more embarrassed, I mean I spent three weeks workingon it with accounting and legal! Joseph shaking his head continued,‘he just took over the conversation, I mean we got the contractsigned but in the end all that happened was that the figures wererearranged we still end up paying the same.’ ‘I am tired of thisfoolishness, he stays locked in his office on his cell everydayonly God knows what he does in there.’
Krystal’s problem was very different but she was equallyworried. Yesterday she attended a meeting with her manager and themanaging director himself. She is the manager for one of thelocations. The MD had called because he received the third quarterresults and he was concerned that the new business loans and newcustomers targets have not been met for the third quarter in a row.In fact, the third quarter results were worst that the secondquarter. The MD asked Krystal what remedial action she has takenover the time period.
Krystal has not been idle. She spoke with her colleagues whoalso manage other locations and they gave her some tips. Shetherefore proceeded to do the following. She has reorganized thetasks across the staff and given everybody new targets, which hadbeen emailed to them. She had also brought in a sales trainer togive the staff a pep talk on meeting new people and how toconfidently start conversations with strangers, finding salesprospects and marketing loan services. She had also intended to adda target that would require the loans officers to give a minimum oftwo monthly financial talk organized by them as well as each wouldvisit two organizations to drum up business by introducing thecompany and its produces during staff meetings. Shirley confirmedthat Krystal had emailed her about this some two weeks ago and shehad signed off on it and suggested that Krystal have a meeting withthe staff to discuss. To this point Krystal had not done thelatter.
Krystal told her lunch partners that her manager Shirley, andthe MD were concerned about her communication style. Further, theysuggested that this was perhaps the reason why the initiatives werenot appear to be working for Krystal or Missile FinancialServices.
The MD had just received the results of the annual staffattitude survey. Krystal received acceptable grades from her staffon her one to one communication style. However only 1 of thetargeted three 3 general staff meetings had been held. Staffsatisfaction in her location also lagged behind that of the other 6locations and did not meet the minimum 60%.
Shirley and MD are of the opinion that a programme of activitiesneeds to be developed to bring the targets back on track. Theythink that a general staff meeting in Krystal’s shop is a firststep and they promise her that they will be in attendance to giveKrystal support.
1. If you were in Joseph’s shoes how would you have handled hismanager’s behaviour prior to the meeting with the representativefrom the other company? As a group, discuss the pros and cons ofthe various ideas that the members of the group generated. From thepros and cons outlined by the members of the group, submit what thegroup considered as 2 each major pros and cons, along with anexplanation of how the decision was arrived at.
2. How would you propose that Krystal organize the general staffmeeting? Propose an agenda for the meeting.
3. Based on your study of change management, communication andleadership, provide Krystal, with a communication plan that willsupport her efforts to make changes.
