ADMS 3930

1. Identify actions in the case that detracted from managerial effectiveness.

2. Which of the two emails, Susan's or Don's, is a more effective example of communication with respect to how well they advanced the sender's intentions and why?

3. From the perspective of the most effective structure for the short term and long term performance of Superior Solutions, which plan for Susan's position, Don's or Susan's (as described in their emails), would you select? Fully explain why. (You may make a different selection for each time period, if you wish.)

4. Susan confidentially forwarded the emails to Howard. Without disclosing that he had seen them, he requested to Don that the three of them have a meeting very soon to decide on Susan's job description. Howard would prefer that Don accept a job description that is close to Susan's, since that conforms to his original idea for the General Manager position. Howard decides to suggest a long range pan with gradual implementation steps starting soon to accomplish this. However, he obviously needs Don to be in agreement with this plan. What would be the long range plan that would do this and what decision-making process should he use for accepting the plan that would be most likely to gain Don's agreement? Explain your answer.

Superior Solutions Inc. Susan Y has been hired as General Manager by Don T., the owner and President of Superior Solutions Inc., a firm that employees 18 people and supplies customized packaging equipment to small and medium sized manufacturers and distributors in Southern Ontario. Susan Y. graduated from business years school 9 years earlier. She had previously worked for a firm of 110 employees that bottles and distributes fruit juice to retailers. She began as a management trainee and ultimately attained the position of office manager after three promotions. In that position, she had been supervising an office staff of 28 who performed all the administrative work in the firm. Susan was attracted to the position at Superior Solutions because it would expand her role to encompass general management. Superior Solutions was started 13 years earlier by Don. He began with 7 employees, a bank loan and a substantial investment from the only other shareholder, Howard N. They each owned 50% of the company and Howard's investment was important to the company. Through Don's long hours, marketing skill and overall determination, he was able to build the company into a profitable enterprise employing 21 people. There was an office manager and a production manager, but they had limited authority. Don was very active in every aspect of the business and would work with and supervise any individual employee. All plans and policies were announced by Don and would be changed whenever necessary. Although profitable, growth over the past few years was slowing. Howard, who was not active in the Company, but had extensive business experience, told Don that he could no longer manage everything by himself. Howard strongly suggested he turn most of the management and supervisory activities to a new General Manager who would report to Don. This would free Don from a lot of routine work, so that he could focus on marketing to major clients, planning and dealing with any major problems that might affect the firm. Don agreed, but with some reluctance. Since Susan would be the General Manager, the Production Manager and the Office Manager would be reporting to her. They were both older than Susan and had worked for the firm for more than 10 years. Susan thought she might receive a cool reception from these two people, but after only a week at the company, a time that was spent becoming familiar with the business, she was taken out to lunch by the two managers at a local restaurant. Over lunch they complained about how their work was made harder by Don's continual interventions with their subordinates and how he would bypass the managers to work directly on projects, both with office and production staffs. Even in the brief time that she had been there, Susan had witnessed two incidents that reflected those complaints. In one case, a mistake was made on an invoice and one of Don's favoured clients was being overcharged by about 12%. Don immediately stormed over to the staff member who had compiled the invoice and angrily complained and criticized. The Office Manager stood in the background saying nothing. This staff member almost never made mistakes and had recently been working many hours of overtime. The Office Manager believed this was a valuable employee who should have been given some latitude for an isolated error and not an angry warning. The second example was a design problem for a custom packaging machine. Don overheard the problem being discussed by the designer and the Production Manager. Ignoring the Production Manager, who was almost literally pushed aside, Don spent two hours working with the designer. Then Don returned to his office and the manager knew nothing of what had been done to resolve the issue. Three days later, Howard requested a dinner meeting with Susan and explained to her that she needed to become pro-active in her role. He said that if she did not, Don's practices would not Page 1 of 2 change and she would not be able to exert any real authority. Susan recalled that during her initial interview with Don, she had asked for a job description for the General Manager's position. Don had replied \"we'll work that out after we see how you fit in.\" This seemed to give credence to Howard's warning. Two weeks after starting at Superior Solutions, Susan was due to phase out of her orientation stage and actually begin taking the role of General Manager. On the Monday of the third week she was to begin by meeting with Don. On the Friday before the meeting, she decided that she should provide him in advance with her recommendations as to how she would carry out her new job and how she would relate to Don. She thought it might be best to alert Don that she intended to become an active General Manager and exert authority. This would give him a chance to think it over during the weekend and that might facilitate a productive discussion of her role on the following Monday. She sent Don the following email. \"Hi Don I have had a great orientation here at Superior and I believe I am now ready to begin contributing to the success of the firm you have built up. I wanted to let you know my impressions of the company and the way I can contribute in preparation for our meeting. Frankly, I have been surprised as the way in which you are able to handle so many of the day to day details, but I feel that these may be distractions that are preventing you from spending more time on the major issues of strategy and marketing. I would like to propose that I step in for these operational matters. From my orientation experience, I see my role as directly supervising the Office and Production Managers, and their staffs. To ensure that my supervision is carried out in the way you wish, I propose to consult you on any unusually difficult issues before I take action and provide you with summary reports on all significant problems and events that I have dealt with. If is convenient for you, I suggest a regular Monday morning meeting between us to ensure that the firm's day to day operations are carried out according to your overall policies. Looking forward to our meeting on Monday, Susan\" On Friday evening, Susan checked her email and was surprised to see the following reply from Don. \"Hi Susan Thanks for your email. Your plan for your role sounds promising for the future when you are more fully integrated into the way we operate at Superior Solutions. (By the way, we always refer to the company by its full name. ) At present, however, It would be best if things carried on as before with respect to my level of involvement. I will expect you to ensure that the policies I set are carried out, that the Office and Production areas are operating smoothly and to report to me immediately when they are not. I believe our success has been due, in large part, to my ability to stay on top of daily operations and deal with problems at any level as they arise. Let's discuss the details on Monday. Have a good weekend, Don\" Page 2 of 2