Reference no: EM133166356

Sharon Brown has operated Sharon's Sweet Stuff Bakery for the past 5 years. By 5:00 a.m. every weekday morning, customers are dropping in both to enjoy the cozy smells and to purchase fresh warm donuts and other goodies to enjoy with their coffee before going to work. After 5 years of this schedule where she began baking by 3:00 a.m., Sharon is very tired.

Sharon has decided to hire an apprentice baker and a cashier to provide early morning counter help. She knows that she must stop treating her bakery as an extension of herself and begin operating a business. She has a friend with a PhD in Human Resource Management who told her to establish a performance measurement system so that she can tell whether her two new employees are good employees or not.

It all seems so complicated. Sharon has contacted the local Business School Co-op Program and asked for advice. Your professor assigned you to answer Sharon's questions for 20 percent of your grade. When you meet with Sharon, she tells you that she will need you to explain with examples related to her bakery "because I'm not good at theory." She presents your group with the following question:

1) Define performance and explain how this term relates to her employees.

2) Evaluate why all of this is so complicated to Sharon. Explain what kinds of performance we should be measuring and why?