Reference no: EM133303042

Case: Most city employees were aware of the city's financial difficulties and the impact Detroit's bankruptcy had on creditors and employees and retirees. The city of Metropolis retirees were well aware of the fact that the bankruptcy judge had stated that pensions were not protected. It was estimated that only a fraction of the $3.5 billion the city of Detroit owed to pension funds would be paid to retirees. Like most cities and counties, Metropolis's city council and administration will have no recourse in future years but to raise property taxes or cut more current services.

The city's purchasing department consisted of six buyers, two clerks, and one supervisor. It is responsible for ordering all supplies needed by all departments. Mary Sue Beringer is the newest buyer in the department. Included in her responsibilities are purchasing and inventory monitoring of all supplies needed by the city police department. The city's material requirements planning (MRP) system provides daily reports to Mary Sue and the other buyers. These reports identify items and supplies that need to be reordered. During her orientation Mary Sue was instructed that she would need to review the report at the beginning of each day, and place the necessary orders before the end of the day. The city required that all orders in excess of $2,500 needed to have at least three vendors bid and the low bidder was to get the order. This process would take a week and was the exception to filling the orders by the end of the day. Three years ago, Corey Chesney was promoted from buyer to supervisor of the department. Six months ago, Mary Sue Beringer was his first hire. Corey had worked in the purchasing department for almost 14 years, and he knew the system inside and out. As a supervisor, he reviewed the MPR reports of all his buyers every day. On Wednesday, several months after Mary Sue was hired, a review of the MRP report revealed to Corey that several necessary items for which Mary Sue was responsible had not been ordered. Since Corey was most familiar with the needed supplies and the appropriate suppliers, he decided to place the orders. Later in the day, he conveyed to Mary Sue that he had placed the orders and was willing to help her in any way possible to do the best job. On Friday of that week, Mary Sue got a call from one of the suppliers wanting to know why there were duplicate orders placed. They asked her if she really needed to double the amount that she usually ordered, since earlier in the week Corey Chesney had placed orders for similar amounts. Mary Sue was infuriated that Corey had placed orders with her suppliers without informing her. She then confronted Corey about it. He apologized and said, "If you remember we discussed this on Wednesday and reminded her that he told her at the time he was willing to help her in any way." Mary Sue thought the problem had been solved. But as time progressed, Corey continued placing some of her orders, although he always informed her of what he had done. On one occasion, Corey said. "I know you have been extremely busy and I needed to reduce your workload." Mary Sue did not say anything about this to any of the other buyers, because she was afraid of what they might think. She thought to herself, "We work well together as a team but I am frustrated by what my supervisor is doing." She wondered how to tell Corey to let her do her job without causing hard feelings. Mary Sue came to realize that her supervisor didn't have confidence in her abilities and that he was unwilling to tell her what might be done differently. Her six-month performance appraisal was scheduled for next week.

Mary Sue was not comfortable with her situation, and wondered if her days in the purchasing department were numbered. She couldn't afford to lose her job. She wondered if she should first go to see the director of HR or Corey Chesney's immediate boss.

Question 1.Should a supervisor like Corey do the work of an employee to assist the employee or reduce his or her workload? Discuss.

Question 2.Why would Corey have continued to do some of Mary Sue's job duties even after their initial discussion?

Question 3.Why did Mary Sue resent her supervisor performing some of her job duties?

Question 4.If you were Mary Sue, what would you do? Please consider alternatives.

Question 5. In previous parts of the text we talked about the essentials for effective supervision. Do you think Corey is an effective supervisor? Why or why not?