CLO2/3

Through 24 years of hard work and good luck, John Smith constructed his own organization, Smith Properties, from one new apartment unit into a multimillion dollar, 3,000 -unit property management organization. Because these units appeared to be located at 20 different sites, John had to rely on four different property managers. Each of managers had almost total responsibility for the renting and maintenance of the facilities under their control, servicing these apartments, and collecting payments. One of these managers, Sue Brown, had been working with the organization for over 9 years and was very skilful in her work.

The top facility of the four properties for which Sue was responsible was Turtle Towers, a 140-unit complex. Turtle Towers attracted older couples as well as retirees.

However, a resident manager was responsible for the day to day chores of the management and maintenance of Turtle Towers. This was to make sure, the residents had round the clock assistance. This resident manager had an employment agreement, which included rent free usage of an apartment, as well, as free electricity and water. In addition, this manager had passkeys to enter any section of the building so that he could work on any problem at times that were acceptable to residents.

Approximately three years ago, during a very humid and scorching summer, the resident manager at Turtle Tower retired. So, Sue was very eager to replace him with someone else who could work on and fix the air conditioning and other systems in the Towers. Therefore, she decided to run a help wanted advertisement in one of the local newspapers, asking potential applicants to call her office If interested in the position.

Sue decided to screen the calls herself. To determine minimum qualifications, she asked each applicant about their experience in working with centrifugal air conditioners and elevators, as well as about their previous experience in the management of high rise units. Sue also asked about what their family circumstance was like.

One of the phone-in applicants who appeared to impress Sue the most, was a 38-year old man named Jack Smith. Jack indicated he had very strong qualifications for the position. This was because he had been recently employed as a resident manager in a high rise apartment hotel combination. However, he wanted another job that had less traveling. Jack sent in a resume, which included his present employer as a reference. Sue interviewed Jack in person, and then decided to visit his home, where she met his wife and son. Sue also decided to call his employer and asked if he would hire Jack back, to which Jack's supervisor said yes. Being satisfied with her background check on Jack, Sue decided to hire Jack for the resident manager's job. Soon after, Jack and his family moved into the apartment at Turtle Towers.

During the first year, things went smoothly. Sue would frequently visit Turtle Towers and meet Jack to review issues concerning the management of the apartments. She always seemed tocall Jack to confirm with him so that she knew beforehand that he would be available for these meetings. Sue usually heard very good things about Jack from the tenants, who all loved Jack's capability to fix almost any issue they had with their apartments. However, she also had heard of a few complaints about Jack drinking while on duty. On further investigation concerning this, Sue found out that while Jack on occasions was intoxicated, or had the smell of alcohol on him. He was off duty on most of these occasions, and so Sue did not appear too worried about this.

This period of good feeling only lasted through the first year. Then, one day not long after Jack's first anniversary with the organization, Sue decided o sop by unexpectedly to talk with him about a particular project she had in mind. She could not find him in the building, so she decided to go to his apartment. After knocking for a while, Jack finally opened the door. He was wearing a bathrobe, his hair was uncombed, and he appeared to be unshaved for a week. He was asleep, and even though Sue was about four feet away from him, Sue could smell the scent of alcohol. Jack was very intoxicated.

Jack explained that his spouse has left him the night before. Sue listened, then talked with Jack about the drinking. He did admit to some problems in the past with alcohol. Sue decided to instruct him to go to Alcoholics Anonymous, adding that he should at a later date bring her a signed slip stating that he attended.

A couple of weeks later, Sue asked Jack if he had attended the support group and he responded with a "yes". However, AA, because it was anonymous, would not sign a slip. After approximately five weeks, because there was no further complaints, Sue assumed that the issue with Jack's drinking had been resolved, and things had returned to normalcy.

About two weeks ago, on August 30, Sue heard a disturbing report from Bonita Miler. Ms. Miller was the daughter of Mrs Miller, a tenant in the building. Ms Miller, an official with the city government, regularly visited her retired mother. In early August, on an early Sunday evening, she dropped her mother off at the Towers after they had spent a day visiting in the city. Jack, walking by the car, observed them and opened the door to assist Mrs Miller out. While Jack was holding the door, Bonita Miller gave her mother a small bundle of dollar bills, worth approximately $ 150. Jack escorted Mrs Miller into the building, and she went to her apartment.

Early the following day, however, Mrs Miller called her daughter to report that the money was missing. Strangely, Mrs Miller told her daughter, the chain was still on the door, so she could not comprehend what had happened. Bonita Miller decided to have the police investigate, however, they found no evidence of any force entry. What they did find, on further investigation, though was that one of the links on the chain that close the door, had been keenly sawn in half, and then replaced. As a result, the police made the conclusion that it was an insde job.

Bonita Miller called to ask Sue what could be done. Sue assured Bonita that she would look into the matter instantly, and called Mrs Miller. In that conversation, Sue learned that other tenants have also experienced robberies of money and other types of valuables. It seemed that even though the tenants had reported the incidents to Jack, he had done nothing further with these reports, and this was the first time Sue had heard about the problem.

During this same period, Sue received the monthly phone bill for the resident manager's apartment. While she examined the bill, Sue observed a very odd pattern. Several of the calls had been made to the same number, and each of the calls lasted for some seconds. These calls have been placed constantly throughout the day, beginning in the morning and finishing in the late afternoon. This was the first time Sue had observed such as a trend in Jack's phone bills. What surprised her most about it was the total number of calls placed during the month of August, Jack had made 120 such calls.

Sue contacted the phone company and asked for an explanation. A customer service representative informed her that the number Jack had called so often was that of a beeper in an adjoining township. This was because this particular township had a different area code, calls were considered long-distance ones and reflected on the bill. Sue now suspected that drugs were the source of the problem.

Case Questions

Why is making the right selection important? Evaluate the employee selection procedure Sue used. Given the nature of this job, should Sue have been extra careful when selecting a person for the resident manager's position? If so, what steps should Sue have taken? (20 marks)