MANAGEMENT CLASS ESSAY QUESTION

SCENARIO - You have just taken over as a Shift Supervisor at Bad Teddy Bear Manufacturing and have a team of 30 under you. Your educational and training level is exactly what you have today.

Your teams rotate shifts every 3 weeks and there are two shifts, morning, 0700-3:30 PM and evening, 3PM to 11:30PM. You have the flexibility to move people around shifts, and you stay on the same shift, with overlap (i.e. your hours are 9-6). Two co-leads take over when you are not there and stay on shifts with their workers.

The previous supervisor was let go for cause, failure to meet quotas and leadership inability. The department's morale is very low and there is a great deal of pressure for your shift to perform.

On top of this, there is a problem with two of your employees, one is always late and the other calls in sick frequently (you can decide what factors lead to their absenteeism). The previous supervisor never did anything about this and everyone knew it was an issue. One of your co-leads has brought it to your attention and wants to know when you are going to fix it.

You also have an employee that has been there for 14 years and has never been promoted to co-lead or supervisor. He came to you and wants to know why? He is an older worker and knows what he is doing, however, one of your co-leads told you that some of the younger workers grumble that he is too slow and can't learn new technology. He also stated that unless he gets the opportunity to move up, he'll quit and make sure that management knows you never gave him a chance.

Finally, there is a brand new worker, a single mother, who is super sharp and a very hard worker. She told you on your first day there how much she loves working at the company and wants to progress upward. However, childcare is an issue and sometimes she needs to leave early. On top of that, her car has left her stranded on several occasions.

For this question, develop a solution to present to each of your co-leads on how to start fixing some of these issues. Make the essay answer informative. This is about the terms leaders vs. managers, counseling, feedback, types of leaders, SMART objectives, SWOT, generational differences, Theory X and Y, MBWA, and favoritism. Please provide references.