Reference no: EM131375713

Jane Sutton is the general manager of a chain of restaurants and bakery/coffee shops called Caffeine and Cruller, based in Madison, Wisconsin, and reporting to corporate headquarters in Milwaukee, WI.  For the past eights months, Jane had been trying to keep her team motivated, while at same time meeting the "numbers" she gets from corporate.  Too often she feels caught in the middle of competing needs.  She's just hired a new sales manager, Jason Wong, who came with an impressive sale record from two respected companies.  Jason replaced the well-liked Jim Honeyman, who left because of some murky problem at the corporate office.  Jason's first staff meeting was rocky.  HR director Heather Carreau come in late.  People were talking fast and over one another.  Through Jane tried to include Jason in the discussions, COF Carlos Hernandez kept interrupting when Jason talked and often re-interpreted what Jason was saying.  Heather would often back up what Carlos was saying, but then seemed to lack focus the rest of the time.  Director of operations Carrie Fishman was getting frustrated with Carlos because she felt the meeting was getting off track.  But she avoided open confrontation, instead just giving compliments to Jason when he said something reasonable and cutting off Carlos when he was too abrupt.  Jason could see Carrie was upset, and that she was watching out for him, and he often smiled with a silent "thanks."  Because of all this disruption, Jane found it difficult to finish the agenda, and now there are two key items that still need to be addressed by the end of the business day.

Question 1. If you were Jane, how would you handled the meeting?

Question 2. What do you see as each person's strengths and weaknesses based on the above information?