Reference no: EM132102568 , Length: 10 pages

Read the case study and answer ALL the questions.

The Worst Part Was That She Often Was Right

The Winston County Bank was founded in 1928. The institution managed to survive and grow over the years by adapting to changing markets and taking advantage of improving technology. The Winston County (as it was called) was doing well: it had remained solvent and profitable even during troubled periods in the banking industry.

As a recently promoted manager in charge of the Consumer Credit Services Department, Wanda Vaughn felt as if she was progressing along with Winston County. Her department handled all aspects of consumer credit: analysis, account establishment, file maintenance, and payment processing. Indeed, she had moved into her current position just six months ago when her boss, the former head of department, was promoted to head the newly formed Investment Services Unit. Wanda wanted to show that she could take charge and make things run effectively, so she became a very ‘hands-on' manager. She made decisions, took close control, and worked closely and often with the employees under her charge.

At the time of her promotion, Wanda could not have been happier. Having worked as a senior representative in the department for almost three years, she had been able to develop close working relationships with the other representatives in the department. Currently there were four representatives in the unit. Three of the representatives were relatively new, having been there less than one year on the average. The fourth employee, Beverly Beutell, had been in the department almost as long as Wanda, and they had a good working relationship.

‘Or so I thought,' she mused to herself late one afternoon after the latest run-in with Beverly. Wanda was sitting at her desk, looking out the window at the emptying parking lot. She was still trying to recover from the staff meeting that had just ended.

Wanda thought back to how things had changed between her and Beverly since Wanda had become supervisor. Before Wanda moved into her supervisory position, she and Beverly had been very friendly, even close. Wanda always respected Beverly's ability, even though she was wary of Beverly's habit of speaking her mind directly and quickly. Wanda could understand why others might think that Beverly was defensive and belligerent. Indeed, Beverly's quick tongue and tart manner easily put people off.

When Wanda was promoted, Beverly became the most senior person in the department. However, when it was time for Wanda to pick an assistant to help run the department, she selected another employee who was junior to Beverly in years but easier to get along with and more liked by the other employees. Beverly reacted badly to this decision, believing that she should have been selected as the department assistant manager. Since then, Wanda had noticed that Beverly directed more and more of her argumentativeness at her. For example, it seemed that Beverly would drag out staff meetings to twice their necessary length simply by asking question and voicing concerns. The only thing these tactics seemed to do was get her to the point where she would finally say, ‘I think we ought to do it this way...'

As she looked out the window, Wanda thought back to the times when Beverly's action had become a real point of friction. One instance really stood out. Shortly after taking charge of the unit, Wanda issued a change in the account processing procedures. This change was intended to remedy a long-standing ‘glitch' in the system that required unnecessary work.

Within minutes of receiving the memorandum, Beverly was in Wanda's office. "This will never work," she said waving the memorandum. Wanda was surprised. ‘What do you mean, it won't work?' she replied. ‘Sure it will. We'll be able to cut our work load on that task by 10 percent.'

‘Yeah, but you forget about the last audit and the regulation on consumer notification,' Beverly said without missing a beat. ‘If you do this, we're going to have the worst audit next time, plus get in trouble with the consumers we turn down.' Wanda realised Beverly was onto something, even if she was overstating it a bit. After thinking about Beverly's remarks, Wanda realised she had to revised parts of the new procedures.

This incident seemed to capture the nature of what their relationship had become. Even though Beverly did her job well, Wanda felt as if Beverly was always challenging her. It appeared that for every decision Wanda made, Beverly was almost playing a game of ‘I'll get in the last word' with her, and she was becoming tired of it.

Indeed, at one point Wanda felt compelled to tell Beverly that her behavior might have to be taken in account during the performance appraisal. After hearing Wanda's caution, Beverly had responded, ‘Well, if that's the way you feel. I'll never say anything else.' Wanda told her, "That's not what I meant. I just want you to keep an open mind.' Beverly has seemed satisfied with that.

Then, at another staff meeting, it happened again. This time the problem centered on Winston County's new computer system. For over a year, the bank had been preparing for a large-scale conversion to an integrated system. Even though the conversion had little direct impact in Wanda's group, it did have an impact on other departments in big ways. As a result, Wanda wanted to make some important changes in their own processing operations to anticipate and support the conversion.

The meeting was devoted to explaining what the conversion would involve and what they would do differently. Wanda began the meeting by bringing everyone up to date on the status of the conversion project. After Wanda answered a few questions, she then announced the changes she was going to institute for various procedures. Wanda believed her proposed changes would be right on target, and she decided on these changes, in part, because they were just slight modifications to current practices. Almost as soon as she had finished, Beverly announced: ‘Those changes will never work. If we do that, things will be chaos around here.'

Even the other employees who were used to Beverly's behavior were surprised and looked at her. ‘Sure," Beverly continued, ‘think about it for a minute. If we start following those steps, here's what will happen.' She spent the next three or four minutes reeling off a list of potential problems and difficulties. She concluded: ‘I think we just ought to continue doing things as we have been. Then, after the new system is operational, we can see whether we need to do anything differently.'

Wanda looked at the other employees, who seemed to be agreeing. Wanda realised that some of Beverly's ideas were in fact valid and that she did have a worthwhile point of view. Not wanting to let the meeting get too far out of hand, Wanda said something about it being late and that she appreciated every everyone's reaction. She said she would get back to them with the final decision as soon as possible.

She adjourned the meeting and went back to her desk. As she watched the parking lot empty out, she wished all her problems would drive off too.

Source: Clardy, A.B (2005). Case Studies in Management Training. Jaico Publishing: Mumbai.

Questions:

Does Wanda have a problem with Beverly? Explain your answer.

Examine steps could Wanda have taken in order to reduce or avoid the problem after she was promoted.

Analyse steps that Wanda should take now to deal with the issues at hand. Recommend specific actions and steps.

Comment on Wanda's leadership style.