Reference no: EM132674974

Brenda Dawson worked hard, liked what she did, and was good at it. Brenda was the senior customer service trainer with American Products, Inc., a state-wide retail service organization with over 90 branch outlets. Typically, there were about four to six customer service associates (CSAs)in each branch office. Brenda reported to Bill Abbot, Head of the Training Department.

Bill and Brenda started working in the Training Department at about the same time two years ago. Since then, Bill had noticed Brenda's natural talent for training. In his opinion, she had considerable potential for higher levels of responsibility too- which was why he became concerned when Brenda started showing signs of becoming bored, stressful, and in general, unenthusiastic about her work. Bill wanted to deal with the problem directly, but was not sure how to do it.

Late one day, after everyone had already left the offices, Bill took a break from a report on which he was working to recall some of the history and circumstances surrounding Brenda: Brenda was initially hired to work as a CSA and compiled a strong record of performance. After three years as a CSA, she was promoted to a position as a CSA supervisor in one of the busier branch offices. When the position of CSA trainer opened up, Brenda was a natural choice. She took over the CSA trainer job just a few months before Bill Abbott was hired. So when Bill moved in, Brenda was still learning the basics of training.

During this period, American Products was undergoing a lot of changes itself as it struggled to meet a variety of new competitive challenges in the marketplace. For example, in the boom economy of the time, CSA turnover was high. At one point, Brenda had to teach 12 people in classes that were designed for 8. And even with this 50 percent increase in training output, there was still a six-week waiting list to get into the training. Brenda would teach the class in the usual three-week period, take tests home at night to grade, use two days to finish up class records and order supplies, then get right back into the next class. When Bill finally received approval for a second trainer, Brenda had to train that person in addition to her hectic workload. Small wonder, Bill thought to himself, that she is ready to do something else. He reviewed the current situation in his department. There were five people in the Training Department: in addition to Bill and Brenda, there was the second CSA trainer, Chris; a management trainee program coordinator; and the departmental secretary. All reported directly to Bill, who was now swamped with other projects. Bill thought about what he wanted: fewer people reporting to him directly, a reinvigorated Brenda with new, more challenging assignments, and the entire CSA training effort coordinated and managed at a lower level.

As he sat staring out the window, absently toying with the pages of the report on which he was working, Bill made a list of some additional pieces to this puzzle: 

1. Brenda had supervisory experience and the potential to supervise others. She already was serving in a senior, lead-worker capacity with Chris, the other CSA trainer.

2. Both Bill and Brenda were aware of the need for other CSA training programs. Some already existed, but could not be given because of time limitations, whereas others needed to be developed. For example, programs in customer relations, product knowledge, and sales skills had been simmering on the back burner for six months and were waiting for someone to put them together and deliver them.

3. The rate of CSA turnover was subsiding, and Bill knew that soon there would be a need for only one three-week CSA training class. This would cut out the need for running two classes at a time, as was done now.

4. There was a need for a new program for training CSA supervisors in branch service and supervisory tasks. This program would have to be developed.

5. Bill handled virtually all administrative and political issues in order to avoid burdening the staff. For example, the budgets for Brenda's CSA Training Center came directly to him each month, and Brenda never saw them. He did all the budget planning for her too.

6. Likewise, Bill fielded all the problems and questions that the Branch Operations people had about CSA Training. He had instituted the Advisory Committee of branch personnel to meet with the Training Department in order to act as a conduit for branch office complaints and to serve as a sounding board for departmental ideas. He knew this was a good approach. Brenda, while interested, said she'd never seen anything like that done before and claimed not to have time to get too involved.

7. Chris, the second CSA trainer, had been doing an acceptable job, but he needed help and coaching. Bill had neither the time nor the background to do that. Given these factors, Bill wondered what he could do to restructure Brenda's job in order to make it more challenging and satisfying while also improving the productivity and effectiveness of the department

a. Is job enrichment an appropriate solution to this situation? If so why?

b. Identify how you would redesign Brenda's job to enrich it. Write both a job description and a mission statement for Brenda's new job.

c. Identify how you would implement or go about completing this process. Think about how you would deal with the following: Brenda, Brenda's coworkers, other departmental staff, Branch Operations personnel, and the Personnel Department (for job evaluation). Devise an implementation plan.