MGMT 56035 Case Assignmeat 3 Lynn at Big Oil Company "What a dayt" Lynn said to herself with a small sigh of contentment as she scanned Tuesday's 'to-do' list on her smartphone. While waiting for the elevator that would take her to her office at Big Oil, Inc, she took note of some items on the list requiring her attention today: the monthend travel and entertainment (T \&. E) expense report was due, progress needed to be made on her boss's upcoming budget presentation for the Management Committee, and she had an afternoon meeting with another department's manager about a new financial system that was seheduled to be phased-in soon. She felt a twinge of guilt when she saw that "develop next year's departmental goals and objectives" continued to appear at the top of the list; it was one of three ifems she had set to carryover automatically from one week to the next until she could eheek it off as done. Given the typical phone calls, drop-ins from the five accountants who reported to her, and "fires to pot out" that characterized most of her days, Lynn knew she would get a lot done todny and never be bored; just the way she liked it! She had worked hard to eam the promotion 2% years ago to Accounting \& Budgets manager for her division, and she wasn't about to complain about the responsibilities or hours. Below is her complete 'to-do' list from her smartphone: - Develop next year's departmental goals \& objectives (earryover, 6th week) - Schedule interim performance feedback meetings with staff (carryover, 4th week) - Research Susan's question re: environmental cost accruals (carryover, 2ed week) - Meet with Dan re: financial systems integration project; 2:00, Conf Rm B - Call Catering - monthly department lunch - T\& E expense report due - Work on Susan's budget presentation for Management Committee - Investigate out-of-balance account reconciliations older than 60 days As she stopped off in the break room to get coffee before heading to her office, Lynn felt a niggling concern in the back of her mind about two brief conversations she had late last week one with June, her most experienced and capable accountant, and the other with Susan, Lynn's boss. Probably nothing to worry about, but still... Lynn replayed the two conversations in her head: (Thursday of last week, Lynn stopped by June's desk.) Lynn: "June, the monthly variance analysis report is due to Susan on Monday. Please give me the data on expenses exceeding budget by 2% or more, by line item, by the end of today. That should give me enough time to investigate the reasons for those variances and write up the report by the deadline." June: "Yep, I've already compiled the numbers for you. How about if I do some reliminary research and call around to get some answers about the larger variances? My ccount reconciliations are all caught up and I have time today." Lynn: "Thanks for offering, but doing the analysis and writing up the results is something k forward to doing myself every month... it reminds me of my accountant days before 1 moved into the supervisor and then managet job. I love digging into the numbers and figuring out the story behind them... got to keep those analytical skills sharp, you know!" June: "Well, OK. On another subject, I've been meaning to ask if I could come with you to the meeting Tuesday with Dan from Financial Consolidations. I heard from Jim, one of the analysts in his group, that Dan asked him to attend so he could learn more about the upcoming financial systems integration project. I think it might be helpful if I came, too. 1 may be able to help you spot some potential trouble spots in the new system for our group's monthly closing process." Lynn: "Thanks for offering, but I don't think so. I think coordinating the implementation of the new-system between our departments is more appropriately Dan's and my job. Frankly, I'm a little surprised be's bringing Jim along." June (a bit flustered): "Lynn, I'd like to talk with you sometime soon about how you view my performance and responsibilities. I know formal performance reviews aren't for a few months, but t have some concems that I don't think can wait. I'd like to meet with you sooner than review time." (Friday of last week. Susan, Lym's boss, stopped by her office.) Susan: "Lynn, you've been in your current position for 221 years now. I know we've had a couple of formal year-end performance review meetings, but I think it's time we sat down to specifically discuss some career development issues. I'm interested in learning about your aspirations for your next position and perhaps the one after that. Call my assistant to sehedule a time that works for you on Thursday or Friday of next week. Please come prepared with some thoughts on what has gone well and not so well in your current role, where you'd be interested in moving next, and what you think you need to work on to be ready for that next step. I'll do the same. " (Back to Twesday morning...) As Lynn sat down at her desk, she opened her e-mail inbox and shuffled through the 'callsto-return' Post-its leftover from yesterday. She thought to herself, "I wonder what's got June ticked off. I hope she's not about to jump ship on me; I really can't afford to lose her. And I wonder what prompted Susan to bring up this 'career development meeting' idea. Maybe that management position in External Reporting at corporate headquarters is opening up and she plans to recommend me for it! It would be quite a step up... roughly triple the number of staff, with two supervisors between the accountants and me... I'd love that job. Wonder what she's thinking I "need to work on to be ready'?" Soon these thoughts faded as Lynn became absorbed in the here-and-now of a typical Tuesday. She queried her staff via e-mail about their sandwich preferences and then called Catering to place the order for Friday's departmental lunch. She met with John, who had worked in the department since before Lynn's arrival, to show him how to go about categorizing and labeling last year's hardcopy reports and CD ledgers in preparation for storage. Karen stopped by with a problem she was having with an account reconciliation; Lynn told her to leave the file with her and she'd take care of it later. After returning a couple of calls and e-mails, she got to vork on the month's T \& E report, pulling numbers from several cost center statements, econciling them with employees' approved reimbursement requests, and annotating the figures vith notes about timing differences and other explanations. She worked on this for an hour efore lunch, retumed to it afterward, and finished the task shortly before 2:00 PM. As she mac er way to Conference Room B for what promised to be a lengthy meeting with Dan, she realized with a familiar sense of regret that progress on Susan's budget presentation, as well as the three carryover items on her 'to-do' list, would likely have to wait for another day. Please prepare a Word document with your answers to following questions. Submit it via the TurnItln submission link provided. Please note that not all these questions will have similar weights - expect that Q2, Q3 and Q4 will be weighted significantly heavier. You must use course material and posted readings, as well as examples from the case, to support your answers. 1. What are some strengths you see in Lynn's performance as Accounting \& Budgets manager? 2. What are her weaknesses? Think about this in terms of how she is conducting her job responsibilities, as well as manaing "down" and manaing "up". 3. Given that Lynn has been in her position for 21/2 years and she appears to have had several year-end performance reviews with Susan, what are your impressions of Susan's leadership and management of Lynn's growth and performance? 4. Lynn would like to be promoted to Manager, External Reporting at corporate headquarters which would entail significantly increased responsibilities, a much larger staff, and subordinate supervisors. What should be the plan for Lynn's development at this point and why