Case 1: What is that odor...?
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This is the blog's first case study, one of several I will be putting up during the next few months. I've used today's case on the first day of my introductory management class as a way to get everyone thinking about leaders and followers and how complicated the human factor can be when we try to get an organization to be the best it can be.
Let me know what you would do.
CASE 1: What is that odor? Smells like a ….
You’re the new manager of an eight-person department in a medium size library. It’s not exactly what you thought it would be when you interviewed for the job a few months ago.
Backlogs are embarrassingly routine; flare ups between staff and users are not uncommon; and, the levels and quality of work performed are uneven, with some far exceeding (unstated) expectations and others woefully below them.
Harry, your supervisor of five support staff, regularly pleads with you for more staff. When you call for quantifiable standards, regularized work schedules and work goals for each worker, Harry balks. He claims, “Nothing like this will work. Staff are already demoralized enough. The work can’t be quantified – everything we touch is one of a kind. And, besides, we’re already working as hard as we can!”
In these talks, you also perceive a reluctance on Harry’s part to confront problem staff. When you ask about his glowing written performance appraisal of a poor performer, he explains that the person is “hopeless”, but she needs the job, so he makes a point of doing some of her work.
When you check the situation with your boss, you find out she believes the workloads are excessive and the department is understaffed. But, she continues, your predecessor was a workaholic who kept the department caught up by taking work home. Your predecessor never had time for planning or exploring other ways of doing the work, but, your boss concludes, “She sure did a great job!”
So what do you do? Request additional help? Insist on an objective workflow analysis? Join in with Harry, clean up the backlogs, and plan on taking work home? Resign?
Let me know what you would do.
CASE 1: What is that odor? Smells like a ….
You’re the new manager of an eight-person department in a medium size library. It’s not exactly what you thought it would be when you interviewed for the job a few months ago.
Backlogs are embarrassingly routine; flare ups between staff and users are not uncommon; and, the levels and quality of work performed are uneven, with some far exceeding (unstated) expectations and others woefully below them.
Harry, your supervisor of five support staff, regularly pleads with you for more staff. When you call for quantifiable standards, regularized work schedules and work goals for each worker, Harry balks. He claims, “Nothing like this will work. Staff are already demoralized enough. The work can’t be quantified – everything we touch is one of a kind. And, besides, we’re already working as hard as we can!”
In these talks, you also perceive a reluctance on Harry’s part to confront problem staff. When you ask about his glowing written performance appraisal of a poor performer, he explains that the person is “hopeless”, but she needs the job, so he makes a point of doing some of her work.
When you check the situation with your boss, you find out she believes the workloads are excessive and the department is understaffed. But, she continues, your predecessor was a workaholic who kept the department caught up by taking work home. Your predecessor never had time for planning or exploring other ways of doing the work, but, your boss concludes, “She sure did a great job!”
So what do you do? Request additional help? Insist on an objective workflow analysis? Join in with Harry, clean up the backlogs, and plan on taking work home? Resign?
John Lubans - portrait by WSJ