Questions and Answers of Retail Management

Describe the problem from the perspective of performance criteria. That is, while Randy and James may have different styles, how could you state the issue in terms of criteria?
Examine the resulting pattern of observed performance levels.What diagnoses can you make based on your inspection of the patterns? Are there tasks (or projects or role aspects) that appear easier or
Use the matrices you developed to collect and record performance observations. You could initially enter your narrative performance observations and then translate them into a number scale (as used
Select a work situation and develop your own person by task (or projects or role) matrices. Given the work situation, you should identify the tasks, projects, or role dimensions specific to that
What training might be needed before each source begins making observations? What training might be needed if diagnosis is also decentralized?
Would you have the same person (or people) doing the observation do the diagnosis? In other words, if observation could be decentralized by having other groups participate in the process, should
Most matrix organizations involve a great deal of project-based teamwork. Could you utilize other employees who worked with Developer A in the performance evaluation process? What would the pros and
If Program Manager Y gets poor reviews on “Management Skills,”should that be taken into account for Developer A if Manager Y gives Developer A a poor review? If so, how can the company account
How should the company structure Developer A’s (and thus everyone’s) performance review, considering that he has not worked directly with his boss, Developer A, for six months? They would like to
Jimmy is an employee to whom current and future managers will look as a role model in the company. Over time, it is likely that he will be imitated (if he is not already). Is Jimmy an asset or a
How would you prevent this from happening if you were Jimmy’s manager or the CEO? Use some of the concepts discussed in this chapter.
Success does not go unnoticed for long. Eventually, others in the company catch on to what works and what does not work and they adapt accordingly. What happens to such companies when the other
Every company develops and nurtures a specific culture, whether it is the intended culture or not. The culture ultimately defines the company. What does Jimmy’s secret to success say about the
Companies must constantly embrace change and reinvention, both at a department level and a company-wide level. Those companies that are most flexible and most adaptable have a considerable advantage
How does your answer change based upon the size of the company? How would you answer if you were to choose based upon the size of the company?a. Startup companyb. $3 in revenuec. $100M in revenued.
Is it easier to diagnose causes of poor employee performance in one company versus another? Why?
What are the pros and cons of each (in relation to motivation, effort, and ability)? Make an argument for both.
If you had to choose one, would you rather run, manage, and/or work in:a. Company X: Has extremely poor systems but great employees?b. Company Y: Has well-running systems, but poor employees?Why did
How would you incorporate your answer to question 4 into your performance management process if you were to design it from the ground up?
Now assume that you have inherited this company, and you must evaluate from past performance whether or not an employee’s poor or erratic performance is based upon their abilities (as opposed to a
How will you test or measure the presence or absence of abilities on these specific skills? In other words, how will you be able to determine whether performance is due to ability or not? Can
Given the proper resources, can someone be trained to have charisma? Most would say no. Knowing which abilities can be trained and which cannot (given reasonable resources and time)is imperative to
Imagine that tomorrow you are going to start a company with fifty or more employees. You can determine what the company does and how it operates. Choose one of the key positions/roles within your
It may be more costly for a company to improve system factors than it is for the company to live with them. Costs vary dramatically when looking at them from both short- and long-term viewpoints. In
For each negative factor, list a reason why you think the company may not have already addressed the system factor entirely. Go easy on the sarcasm here and try to put yourself in the shoes of
Which system factors contributed negatively to your particular company or situation? Explain.
Looking at these three different options, would you combine any aspects of the three? If you were the owner of a team, how would you utilize some or all of these techniques to optimize the
In many job positions, coworkers spend far more time with fellow employees than managers do. Ultimately, team members can be the best judge of whether or not someone is working properly or only
Athletes get paid because the fans of the sport pay for the tickets.Thus the fans are the customers of each team, and therefore each athlete. If the customer always comes first, wouldn’t the fans
Choose a specific athlete for a specific sport. Who would you have perform the athlete’s performance evaluation? In other words, who is best to determine the fate of the athlete’s annual
Discuss you findings with the class. Please keep all names of individuals observed anonymous.
If you were to talk to the employees (class members) about their performance on these job tasks, what kind of questions would you ask? Create five to ten open-ended questions you would use to get the
For the specific matrices and dimensions that you created in the previous exercise, how could you determine whether the good or poor performance was from people or systems? What would you do to
Review the results from your observation cube for classroom performance in the previous Skill Builder. Looking at the results, do you think poor performance is due to people (the students) or the
Share your spreadsheet design and instructions with the rest of the class.
What were some of the difficulties you had in creating this worksheet? Explain why you found them difficult.
Create detailed instructions on how, when, and where to use your spreadsheet.
Incorporate the Attribution Theory Causal Matrix theory into your spreadsheet. In other words, take the concepts from this matrix, and ensure that these variables can be captured in your spreadsheet
Create a spreadsheet-based observation form that can be used to observe employee performance over the period of one year.Ensure that you can take the theory from the Performance Observation Patterns
Examine the resulting pattern of observed performance levels.a. What diagnoses can you make based on your inspection of the patterns?b. Are there tasks (or projects or role aspects) that appear
Given your responses to items 3 and 4, Peter might have clearer diagnostic information regarding Michael’s performance. What should Peter do with this diagnostic information?
Can the observation cube framework be applied to the situation?Describe.
How could Peter be more sure about Michael’s performance and what causes may be influencing his performance?
Should Peter avoid or somehow cancel Michael’ s upcoming performance review ? Why or why not?
Is Michael performing well in his job? List the evidence that indicates he is performing well and the evidence that indicates he is not.
These same kinds of questions arise in workplace settings:• Why was the project not completed on time?• Was it the team’s fault or the fault of someone on the team?• Was there a problem with
How did Jane get hurt?• Was it Jane’s fault?• Was it her playmates’ fault?• Was it faulty equipment?
Are the four behavior-based criteria mentioned above truly the best for Acme Marketing Co.? How can management better determine what the four best behavior-based criteria are?
A 100 percent commission structure is beneficial for companies because it puts all of the risk onto the employee, making sales payouts a 100 percent variable cost. The tradeoff is that the company
Consistency is a human trait that people look for, either consciously or unconsciously, to determine the integrity and long-term reliability of that person. We are constantly trying to answer the
Salespeople are notoriously motivated by money. As a very general rule, the more opportunity for big money available in the industry and the marketplace, the harder salespeople will work.Of course,
Assume that you are a manager with responsibility for developing performance criteria for your area of an organization. You have included various sources in an attempt to develop performance
Can you think of any other valuable sources the company could use to determine performance criteria? List them here.
Pros and cons for every business decision must be thoroughly evaluated before arriving at a final, and potentially costly, decision. List the pros and cons of obtaining performance criteria from the
Review the two positions below (outside sales rep and implementation project manager). For the two positions, review the six different potential sources that could provide input for the performance
Can you think of any other useful roles to include?
Which two or three roles above do you think would best achieve the goals of management?a. Would you assign the same roles to all technicians or would you pick and choose roles for each technician?b.
Using roles as evaluation criteria can oversimplify performance management in certain circumstances. For example, should leadership be a role for technicians? Can the company really have a room full
How could you use technology to help measure and monitor this operational performance? Is it worth the investment in technology to do this (ROI)? How will you convince your partners?
How will you actually measure the operational level criteria at the Performance Management Grill (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)?Is the extra time to do this worth the potential gains? How will you
Operational criteria are used to actually measure performance.For each conceptual level criteria, list one operational level criteria upon which to base performance (for a total of eight).
Conceptual criteria are the means by which the ultimate criteria can be achieved. For each of the ultimate criteria above, list two conceptual criteria metrics that can be used to evaluate each
As discussed in this chapter, ultimate criteria signal the company values or strategic intent underlying the jobs within that company. Create four ultimate criteria to be used by management and staff
What else must management consider when moving to this type of evaluation system in order to make it, and the technicians, effective?
If you could choose the top four from your list of eight criteria, which would they be and why?
If you had to use only outcome- or behavior-based criteria, which would you choose and why?
Outcome-based criteria can be used to boost performance, but they can also encourage employees to “game” the system for outcomes not conducive to the benefit of the company (note the banking
Outcome-based performance management criteria are often sought after because of the lure of transparency and objectivity in measuring them. However, this is not always the case. Outcome-based
In the current system, technicians are evaluated upon only one dimension: Number of repairs. Technically, management has“spared” themselves the need to evaluate technicians, expecting the 100
Suppose this values-based method is used in companies regardless of their size and their need to change rapidly. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using this values-based method over more
Which do you think is better for operationalizing values:outcomes or behaviors? Why?
Apply the CIT to the set of values you generated in item 1 and develop behaviorally based rating scales.
Choose a position that you may be familiar with in the company.It can be any position, from CEO to cafeteria worker. Identify potential outcome criteria for the position based upon the values.
Choose a company that you admire or respect. Perform an Internet search or use other means to find the stated core values of the company. Write down the core values below.
Roles are often more about process than outcomes (although outcomes may still be relevant). For each role, consider whether the role is unidimensional or multidimensional. For example, the role of
Are there outcome criteria that might be useful to assess the performance in the various roles? If so, identify them.
Choose the job position of an employee at your favorite fast-food restaurant. Identify three or four key roles that the employee might play in this organization.
Which do you think is better for optimizing values in this instance: outcomes or behaviors? Why?
Grade your politician based upon your rating scales for each dimension. Share the results with other members of the group.a. How do the different members of the group score the politician?b. Do the
Use the CIT to develop both behavior-and outcome-based rating scales. Create both outcome- and performance-based criteria for each of these values for this politician’s position based upon your
As a group, choose one well-known politician in your area(president, governor, mayor, etc). Next, imagine that you were a founding father of the United States. Use the first four mandates above
It is important for most companies to capture customer satisfaction as a performance dimension for their employees. In this scenario, who would be considered the “customer?”a. If it is the
Who will be responsible for observing and evaluating the college professor for performance. Hint: Do you want the proverbial“roosters running the henhouse”?
Which do you think is better for measuring college professor classroom performance: behaviors or outcomes? Why?
Are there results-based criteria you would recommend for assessing the classroom performance of college professors?Describe.
What type of performance dimensions and rating scales are typically used to assess professor performance? Are there any advantages/disadvantages to the behavioral approach? Describe.
Consider the position of professor in a college classroom. Apply the CIT to generate behavioral-based rating scales. Share with the group the dimensions and behavioral anchors your team generated.
Generate behaviorally anchored ratings scales. Using the effectiveness values for the behavioral incidents that survived your CIT, select incidents to anchor rating scales for each dimension. Make
Continue with the remaining steps of the CIT.
Generate incidents for each dimension. You can use the five categories provided on the worksheets, or use a larger number of categories (e.g., seven), if you want to and feel you can make finer
Examine the “job dimensions” provided for the “job position” of a pet dog (or other pet animal) and use or adapt them, or generate your own set that might be more specific to the dog or
Sometimes it costs more to fix a problem than it does to manage around it. What would be the extra costs of including and/or enforcing these criteria in the job description, assuming they are not
In your opinion, do you think these descriptions are part of the person’s duties already?a. If so, why might the employee not be following their job duties? What could be missing in the company
For each duty, list whether it is behavior based or outcome based(or is it a personality trait?).
Write down five job duties that you feel were missing from this employee’s job description. Write the job duties as if they had been written by the customer. Be as specific as possible. An example
How would you manage this situation? For example, if the CEO of Great Grocery hired you as a consultant, what would you recommend?
Performance can effectively be managed as behaviors or results.However, an abrupt shift from one to the other is a shift in the culture of the organization. Did Great Grocery do a good job of
Do you agree with Randall that the problems at Great Grocery are just growing pains?
Do you think the CEO made the appropriate decision in replacing Allen with Randall? Why or why not?
How do we know whether our efforts to increase innovativeness have really had an impact?

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