Question

1. Case Study: Acme Manufacturing Company

Steve Arnold is a production manager at Acme Manufacturing Company in New Jersey. When Steve drove into the parking lot at the plant on Tuesday morning at 8:35, he was already 35 minutes late for work. Steve had overslept that morning because the night before he had stayed up late to finish the monthly production report for his department. He parked his car and entered the rear of the plant building. Passing through the shipping area, Steve spotted his friend George Summers and stopped to ask how work was progressing on the new addition to George’s house.

Entering the office at 8:55, Steve greeted his secretary, Ruth Sweeney, and asked whether anything urgent needed his immediate attention. Ruth reminded him of the staff meeting at 9:30 with Steve’s boss — Frank Jones, the vice president for Production — and the other production managers. Steve thanked Ruth for reminding him (he had forgotten about the meeting) and continued on to his adjoining inner office to look for the memo announcing the meeting. He vaguely remembered getting the memo in an email one or two weeks earlier, but did not take the time to read it or look at the attached materials.

His phone rang, and it was Sue Bradley, the sales vice president, who was inquiring about the status of a rush order for one of the company’s important clients. Steve promised to look into the matter and get back to her later in the day with an answer. Steve had delegated the rush order last week to Lucy Adams, one of his production supervisors, and he had not thought about it since then. Stepping back into the outer office, Steve asked Ruth if she had seen Lucy today. Ruth reminded him that Lucy was at a training workshop in California. She would be difficult to reach until the session ended late in the afternoon, because the workshop facilitators regard cell phone calls and text messages as an unnecessary distraction.

Going back into his office, Steve emailed a message to Lucy asking her to call him as soon as possible. Then, he resumed his search for the memo about the meeting with his boss and the other production managers. He finally found it in his large collection of unprocessed emails. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss a proposed change in quality control procedures. By now it was 9:25, and there was no time to read the proposal. He hurried out to get to the meeting on time. During the meeting, the other production managers participated in the discussion and made helpful comments or suggestions. Steve was not prepared for the meeting and did not contribute much except to say that he did not anticipate any problems with the proposed changes.

The meeting ended at 10:30 and Steve returned to his office, where he found Paul Chen, one of his production supervisors, waiting for him. Paul wanted to discuss a problem caused in the production schedules by a major equipment breakdown. Steve called Glenda Brown, his assistant manager, and asked her to join them to help rearrange the production schedules for the next few days. Glenda came in shortly and the three of them worked on the production schedules. At 11:25, Ruth came in to announce that Mr. Ferris was waiting and he claimed to have an appointment with Steve at 11:30. Steve looked at his calendar but could not find any entry for the appointment. Steve asked Ruth to tell Mr. Ferris that he would be ready shortly.

The schedules were completed around 11:40. Since it was nearly noon, Steve invited Mr. Ferris to join him for lunch at a nearby restaurant. During lunch Steve learned that Mr. Ferris was from one of the firms that provided materials used in the production process at Acme, and the purpose of the meeting was to inquire about some changes in material specifications the company had requested. As Mr. Ferris talked, Steve realized that he would not be able to answer some of the technical questions. When they returned to the plant at 1:15, Steve introduced Mr. Ferris to an engineer who could answer his questions.

Soon after Steve walked back to his office, his boss (Frank Jones) stopped in to ask about the quality report for last week. Steve explained that he had given top priority to finishing the monthly production report and would do the quality report next. Frank was irritated, because he needed the quality data to finalize his proposal for new procedures, and he thought Steve understood this task was more urgent than the production report. He told Steve to get the quality data to him as soon as possible and left. Steve immediately called Glenda Brown and asked her to bring the quality data to his office. The task of reviewing the data and preparing a short summary was not difficult, but it took longer than he anticipated. It was 2:40 by the time Steve completed the report and attached it to an e-mail to his boss.

Looking at his calendar, Steve noticed that he was already late for a 2:30 meeting of the plant safety committee. The committee meets weekly to review safety problems, and each department sends a representative. Steve rushed out to the meeting, which was held in another part of the plant. The meeting was dull this week, without any important issues or problems to discuss. The meeting ended at 3:30, and as Steve walked back through his section of the plant, he stopped to talk to his assistant manager. Glenda wanted some advice on how to resolve a problem in the production assignments for the next day. They discussed the problem for about a half hour. When Steve returned to his office at 4:05, his secretary was just leaving. She reported that Lucy had called before leaving to fly home from the conference.

Steve was feeling tired and decided it was time for him to go home also. As he drove out of the parking lot, Steve reflected that he was getting further behind in his work. He wondered what he could do to get better control over his job.

Questions

1. What specific things did Steve do wrong, and what should have been done in each instance? Provide a critique of Steve's analysis of the situation: What assumptions remained unquestioned? Critique his logic and the conclusions he must have reached to take the actions he deployed.
2. What should Steve do to become more effective as a manager?

Answer 1

(1)

Conceptions of leadership effectiveness differ from writer to writer. One major distinction between different definitions of effectiveness is the type of consequence or outcome used to determine how successful a leader is. These outcomes include such diverse things as group performance , attainment of group objectives, group survival, group preparedness, group capacity to deal with crises, subordinate satisfaction with the leader, subordinate,commitment to group objectives, the psychological well-being and personal growth of followers, and the leader's retention of his or her position of authority in the group. The leader effectiveness measures used most often are the exterit to which the leader's group or organizational unit performs its task and attains its objectives.

On the case of Steve Arnold Specific things that he did wrong are that he arrived late at the office, did not plan for the day as he spent long time last night trying to complete the monthly production report. Monthly production report that he spent lots of time on was not urgent as compared to the urgency of the report on quality figures. Quality figure report was needed by a top executive, Frank Jones – who also serves as his own boss. Was unable to plan work for the day, as a result was moving from one meeting to another,from one appointment to another call, as a result was really not been able to focus on managing his time well. Because of the fact that he did not plan the day, he was unable to categorized top priorities as against things that are not urgently required. Steve as part of his job role was to have delegated some of his work / task to people around him, he failed to follow up with Lucy Adams on the rush orders. His participation on the safety committee meeting was not planned, though there was not much things to discuss as there was no serious incident or issue to discuss. As a production manager, safety in production was an area where much attention need to be given. Also his preparation on the meeting at 9:25 am, was also of shambles. He has no time to read to proposal for the change in quality control procedures. Quality control in a department like production takes a high priority as quality should be the watch word of every product. A review of the proposal would have given him the glimpse of what is to be discussed, ideas which he would have thought of, deliberated on, and if possible advised on.

(2)

The case for steve arnold is one that has vivivly open my eyes when it comes to the real nature of managerial task and responsibilities . On one occasion, one can say that steve did not plan his job well, on another occasion one can say that he was really doing something important, ie the monthly production report that he was working on. He was really busy on this report until late hour last night…which made him not to woke up earlier. Waking up late from bed and been in a position where you have not reflected on the things to do for the day, create a bad day at times for people especially so when at times day work are hectic at the workplace. In order for steve to become effective in his workplace, the following ate thus things which he should try to master/ practice for his managerial responsibilities to be on course.

Make time for reflective planning: Managers face relentless pressures for dealing with immediate problems and responding to requests for assistance, direction, or authorization. Some of these problems require immediate attention, but if managers become too preoccupied with reacting to day-to-day problems, they have no time left for the reflective planning that would help them to avoid many of the problems, or for the contingency planning that would help them cope better with unavoidable problems.

Plan daily and weekly activities: The extensive practitioner-oriented literature on time management shows consider- able agreement about the importance of planning daily and weekly activities in advance (e.g., Webber, 1980). When planning daily activities, the first step is to make a to-do list for the day and assign priorities to each activity. This type of prioritized activity list may be used with a calendar showing required meetings and scheduled appointments to plan the next day’s activities. Most of the discretionary time should be allocated to high- priority activities. If insufficient time is available to do important activities with immediate deadlines, reschedule or delegate some activities that are less important. The task of juggling the various activities and deciding which to do is a difficult but essential component of managerial work. Remember that it is more efficient to do a series of similar tasks than to keep switching from one type of task to another. Sometimes it is possible to schedule similar activities (e.g., several telephone calls, several letters) at the same time during the day. In addition, it is wise to take into account natural energy cycles and biorhythms. Peak alertness and efficiency occur at different times of the day for different people, and peak periods should be used for difficult tasks that require creativity.

Take advantage of reactive activities: Although some degree of control over the use of one’s time is desirable, it is not feasible for a manager to plan in advance exactly how each minute of the day will be spent. The unpredictable nature of the environment makes it essential to view chance encounters, interruptions, and unscheduled meetings initiated by others not just as intrusions on scheduled activities, but rather as opportunities to gain important information, discover problems, influence others, and move forward on implementation of plans and informal agendas. Obligations that might otherwise be time wasters, such as required attendance at some meetings and ceremonial occasions, can be turned to one’s advantage (Kotter, 1982; Mintzberg, 1973).

Understand the reasons for demands and constraints: It is essential to learn how others perceive the manager’s role and what they expect. Perception of demands and constraints inevitably involves subjective judgments, but many managers fail to take the time necessary to gather sufficient information on which to base these judgments. Do not assume that everyone agrees with your vision, priorities, or ideas about effective management. Before one can satisfy people or modify their expectations, it is necessary to understand what they really desire

Expand the range of choices: Too many managers focus on the demands and constraints and fail to give adequate consideration to opportunities to define the job in different ways. It is essential to step back from the job and see it in a broader strategic perspective. It is usually possible to be proactive with superiors about defining the job in a way that allows more discretion, especially when role ambiguity is already present due to poorly defined responsibilities. Choices may be expanded by finding ways to avoid demands and reduce constraints. A manager’s planning and agenda development should include a conscious analysis of the demands and constraints limiting current effectiveness, and how they can be reduced, eliminated, or circumvented.

Determine what you want to accomplish: Time is a scarce resource that must be used well if the manager is to be effective. The key to effective time management is knowing what you want to accomplish. A person with a clear set of objectives and priorities can identify important activities and plan the best way to use time; without clear objectives, no amount of planning will improve time management. The objectives and priorities may be informal, as with Kotter’s (1982) mental agendas, but they need to be identified by a deliberate, conscious process.

Analyze how you use your time: It is difficult to improve time management without knowing how time is actually spent. Most managers are unable to estimate very accurately how much time they spend on different activities. Most time management systems recommend keeping a daily log of activities for 1 or 2 weeks. The log should list each activity in 15-minute blocks of time. It is helpful to indicate the source of control over each activity (e.g., self, boss, subordinates, others, organizational requirements) and whether the activity was planned in advance or an immediate reaction to requests and problems. Typical time wasters should be noted on the log (e.g., unnecessary interruptions, meetings that run too long, searching for misplaced items). The time log should be analyzed to identify how important and necessary each activity is. Consider whether the activity can be eliminated, combined with others, or given less time. Identify whether too many activities are initiated by others, and whether adequate time is allowed for activities that are important but not urgent.

Avoid unnecessary activities: Managers who become overloaded with unnecessary tasks are likely to neglect activities that are important for attaining key objectives. Managers may accept unnecessary tasks because they are afraid of offending subordinates, peers, or the boss, and they lack the self-confidence and assertiveness to turn down requests. One way to avoid unnecessary tasks is to prepare and use tactful ways to say no (e.g., say that you could only do the task if the person does some of your work for you; suggest other people who could do the task faster or better; point out that an important task will be delayed or jeopardized if you do what the person requests). Some unnecessary but required tasks can be eliminated by showing how resources will be saved or other benefits attained.

Conquer procrastination: Even when it is obvious that an activity is important, some people delay doing it in favor of a less important activity. One reason for procrastination is the fear of failure. People find excuses for delaying a task because they lack self-confidence. One remedy for a long, complex task is to divide it into smaller parts, each of which is easier and less intimidating. Deadlines are also helpful for overcoming procrastination. When setting deadlines for completion of difficult tasks, it is better to allow some slack and set a deadline that is earlier than the date when the task absolutely must be completed. However, having some slack should not become an excuse for not starting the task. Schedule a definite time early in the day to begin working on unpleasant tasks that tend to be procrastinated. Such tasks are more likely to get done if tackled first before the daily stream of demands provides excuses to avoid them