A summer employee notices bad feelings developing among employees of a branch of City National Bank due to the behaviors of Marilyn, a new employee. Management refuses to confront the issue, leading to the departure of several branch employees.

Instructions

Analyze the case and submit a written brief summarizing the results of your analysis. Your brief should be two to four pages in length and cover the following four areas:

1. Problem
2. Solution
3. Actions
4. Evaluation

To conduct your case analysis, do the following:

In reading the case, look for symptoms indicative of problem(s). Those symptoms may be of three types:

1. Statements from individuals in the case who state that a problem exists
2. Statements in the case that differ from what you would expect based on what you've read in the textbook chapters
3. Statements in the case that your common sense tells you are problematic

After developing a list of symptoms, look for symptoms that "hang together" and point to the same basic problem. You may find more than one problem; if so, focus your attention on the one that encompasses the most symptoms and/or the most important symptoms. Be ready to support your choice of problem statements. Write your problem statement according to the form "The problem in this case is _____." List the related symptoms as support for your problem statement. Bear in mind that the case analysis brief is a test of your ability to apply course material, so your problem statement should be rooted in the topics covered in the relevant week’s readings.

Next, use the course materials to come up with a solution for the problem identified in your problem statement. For example, if the problem is poor group productivity and related symptoms indicate problems with group cohesiveness, your solution will deal with improving group productivity by building cohesiveness and insuring the possession of positive productivity norms.

Be sure that your solution is directly related to the problem you've identified, and that you can provide evidence of this relationship. Write a solution statement according to the form "The solution to the problem, in this case, is _____." List the course material used to identify this solution as supportive evidence.

Third, develop an action plan of steps that must be performed to implement your solution. Some of these may come from the book; others may come from your personal experience. If cohesiveness is the problem and the solution is to build higher group cohesion, then the action steps might include some sort of team-building process and maybe a socialization program. List the steps of your action plan in the order they should be accomplished, and identify individuals in the case if any that should be involved in each of your steps.

Finally, identify measures you would use to evaluate whether your solution solves the problem. In the case of a problem with group cohesiveness, you might identify group productivity as a measure you would expect to improve if your solution (team building, socialization) is successful. Indicate how each measure is related to your solution and action steps (e.g., Measure 1 will tell me whether Step A worked).