Reference no: EM133397254
Assignment:
Patty Company CASE
Patty Company is a regional firm which has employees located throughout the Caribbean. Samantha McArthur had worked for the company for eight (8) years. A major part of her role in the company required her to use initiative in making supervisory decisions which were instrumental in the company meeting the production targets of ten of the territories where the firm operates. She was considered by many, including management, to be very hard working.
Interestingly however, Samantha was perceived by her immediate Supervisor as being slow and lacking initiative. He was of the opinion that workers are paid to work and should be able to do their jobs without the assistance of others. This position became clearly evident at a time when Samantha was processing work which was new to her, and was previously a group assigned task.
Also note, due to budget constraints Management determined that Samantha could not be trained for this new area in her task. Because of the nature of the problem, Samantha sought the aid of a co-worker who had the experience of successfully and consistently working with the process. Her Supervisor chastised her greatly because he thought she should have been able to 'figure it out herself'. Scenarios like these lead Samantha to believe that her Supervisor was unreasonable and uncaring. In fact, he kept communication with her at a minimum and only when he wanted something done or when production was late. This caused great tension between the two of them.
Though Samantha Manager was aware of the ongoing contention between her and the Supervisor, he made no effort to intervene; and further
(a) (b) (c)
Can you identify any principle of management theory in the case? Provide evidence of this.
Use the case management approach above to work through the case
Post to the forum one management theory you think could solve the issues identified in the case giving reasons. Identify one colleague that has a differing perspective and share your opinion as to whether or not you agree using the Praise, Question, Polish (PQP) feedback approach.