Assume you are Mary Ann O'Connell, general manager at Executive Development

Associates. Your firm provides outplacement, training and development, career planning,

and head-hunting services for a large number of Fortune 500 companies. You have been

at the corporate board meeting for the last three days in the Rocky Mountains, and you

relied on your secretary to screen out all but the most important or urgent messages. You

slipped into the office on the way home from the airport Monday evening, just to check

your electronic messages and your mail. Aside from a host of phone calls to return, here

is the collection of messages retrieved from your email file and mailbox.

Assignment

1. For each message, outline specifically the plan you will implement to empower

others effectively to solve these problems. Determine who should be involved,

what level of initiative should be taken, what actions you can take to ensure

empowerment, how accountability should be maintained, and so on.

2. Write out the actions you'd take in response to each item. A worksheet has been

provided on the next page to remind you of what you should consider as you record

your responses.

For each message, write out your plan of action. This plan should include answers to the

questions listed below. Not every question is relevant to each message, but most are, and

they can guide your action plan. After you have formed your own responses, form a team

of fellow students and share these plans in turn. Provide feedback to one another on what

is especially good, what could be improved, and what could be added to each action plan.

1. Who should be involved in resolving this issue? Will you form a team?

2. What kinds of personal mastery experiences can be provided for whomever you

involve? Can you model successful behavior?

3. What kinds of support, information, and resources can be provided?

4. How will you create emotional arousal and create confidence in others?

5. What are the main considerations in deciding if you should engage others in each

task?

6. If you opt for engaging others, what will you do to:

Begin with the end in mind?

Identify boundaries?

Specify the level of the initiative?

Allow for participation?

Match authority with responsibility?

Provide support?

Maintain accountability?

Ensure consistency?

Avoid upward delegation?

Clarify consequences?

Data Processing center

Date: 15 June

to Mary ann O'Connell, general Manager

FroM: Roosevelt Monroe, for the Data Processing staff

, after looking over last quarter's audit, it is clear that the number of complaints our group

is receiving from individuals throughout the company is escalating. the problem is an

obvious one to us. it is, simply, that several incompatible software systems have evolved

over the last several years in various departments, and it is becoming increasingly difficult

to coordinate across units. as you know, some data have to be retyped two or three

times into different systems because of these incompatibilities.

the trouble is, our own employees, not to mention our customers, are becoming increasingly

impatient with our slow turnaround time. they focus squarely on our group as

the bottleneck. We think the rising complaint numbers in the quarterly audit are misleading,

however, and they divert us from the real cause of the problem.

We're writing this memo to you to collectively urge you to address this issue as soon as

possible. at a minimum, it should be discussed at our upcoming staff meeting on Tuesday.

so far, the data processing staff is taking the blame for not getting data processed

fast enough, yet it is really the fault of the system, not our unit.

We'll look forward to hearing from you on Tuesday.

Human resources Department

Date: 15 June

to: Mary ann

From: Lucy

I was excited by your speech at the senior management meeting last week in which you

established a new challenge for all senior executives. With the new competitive environment

that we face, the vision that you articulated for our future is both exciting and

challenging and, I think, an important step forward. it really makes clear the key success

factors that should drive our business.

in particular, I think your directive for all senior executives to disseminate the vision

throughout the organization to their own subordinates is a good way to get the message

delivered. However, you made a statement in your speech that has me troubled. You

said, "We used to pay you on the basis of new accounts generated, quarterly earnings,

customer satisfaction ratings, and new product designs. our new barometer is going to

be how you're doing in disseminating the vision throughout your own units."

Frankly, I'm perplexed as to how we'll ever measure this directive. as the one who has to

administer the appraisal and compensation systems, I'm not sure what criteria we'll look

for or what indicators we'll use to determine success. I'm afraid that we'll create dissatisfaction

if we don't have something specific outlined. our people, especially those who

may not perform, will think it is purely arbitrary. Do you really mean to have us change

the appraisal and compensation systems to include this new criterion? How do you propose

we measure effective performance? What would you like me to do to support your

statement? Did you mean to make the statement that you did? this is rather urgent because I have a staff meeting Tuesday afternoon, and I promised to

have a response by then. I've already stalled until I had a chance to talk to you.

Midwest state university

24 May

Dear Ms. O'Connell:

I am happy to be joining executive Development associates after several years at Midwest

state university. as you know, leaving Midwest state has been quite traumatic for

me, and that is what motivated me to make a request of you. I'm convinced that the

reason I didn't receive tenure at Midwest state is that the expectations were never

clear about what my responsibilities were and what the criteria were for success.

I know your company is very professional, and employees are pretty much on their own,

but I'm feeling a need to get some specific performance requirements outlined for me.

I'm sure that I can be a good addition to your company, but I want to be clear about what

your expectations are.

I have set a meeting with you on Tuesday through your secretary. Would you please

outline a specific set of responsibilities and expectations for my job as an instructor in the

training and development department? if possible, I'd like it in writing to avoid any misunderstanding.

regardless, I'll look forward to talking to you Tuesday.

thank you for your consideration.

sincerely,

Lester Frost

Training and Development

Date: Monday, a.m.

To: Mary ann

From: Pam

Re: tom Kinnir's Jury Duty

i know you're just getting back, but we've got an emergency on our hands.

i was just notified this morning by tom that he has been selected for jury duty and that

(can you believe it) he is being sequestered! Holy cow, Mary ann, this couldn't come at

a worse time. as our expert on activity-based costing, tom is the only guy we have who

can teach the topic. so what's the trouble, you say? the trouble is that we have over

100 corporate trainers showing up here for a seminar on Friday, and the seminar isn't

prepared yet. tom said that he has some notes and a few transparencies on his desk,

but he had planned to spend this entire week designing and preparing it. not only don't

any of us know the topic very well, but we're not even sure what information we need,

what data still needs to be gathered, who's got what, and how we go about filling in.

Help! We're counting on this seminar to make budget this quarter, and we're feeling a

little ticked off at tom for waiting until the last minute. What do we do next?

By the way, how were the rocky MountainsjQuery2240790831216655236_1614976278574?

Outplacement Department

Date: Monday, a.m.

to: Mary ann o'connell

FroM: aneil Mishra

re: Pending Plant closure

You may have missed the news over the weekend. it was announced in the paper that

Detroit Manufacturing has filed for chapter 11 protection and that they're closing their

toledo plant. that means about 4,000 people will be out of work.

if we want the business, we've got to get moving right away. they will be looking at

proposals from outplacement firms next week. We've got to get our proposal together,

identify staff, determine a budget, and prepares a presentation in the next day or two.

sounds like a great opportunity. i'll stop by tomorrow when you get back.