TEAM CASE INCIDENT - A Virtual Team at T.A. Stearns

I must say that the group of Tom Andrews, Cy Crane, Marge Dector and Megan Harris is a “TEAM”. Although having different personalities and personal interests, their profession and career is on working towards the company’s thrust – providing superior and high quality advice on individual tax preparation thru state-of-the-art computer databases and analysis tools. Tom Andrews, a tax lawyer and has worked on the program for 6 years, was a former hockey player who works out in his farm, enjoys hunting and fishing in his spare time. Cy Crane, a computer science graduate and tax accountant, is married with two children who also enjoys biking and fishing. Marge Dector, a tax lawyer, is married with two children who enjoys golf and skiing. Megan Harris, a tax accountant, is single and works out of her apartment. The four member team is always exchanging e-mail messages and their communication is always constant despite guests and family functions. They would even go to Tom’s farm to discuss and converse work related matters while bringing with them their kids and family.
All these four member team of Stearns are employees on salary but they are negotiated separately and secretly with the management. In fact, they were told that they could even work wherever they opted to. They would just have to check in regularly during every workday. Having that clear work arrangement, I believe that each has his own rights to do other things. It is just important that the work is precisely done and in accordance with the company’s policies and mission / vision. Regarding Cy’s innovation in macro, its secrecy to the company is just right. Anyways, both the productivity and quality went up for the management.
Dave Regan, is an effective team leader because he was able to pick-up the innovation despite its secrecy. He wondered how the production time had gone down a bit and that he also accidentally read the email message of Marge to Cy. Having that situation, Dave was able to talk to Cy and responsible enough to told him of his action because bottom line is, Dave would still be accountable to his boss. Dave will now have to report to his boss everything that has transpired to avoid secrecy and promote transparency.

GROUPS - Case Incident on Role Conflict Among Telephone Service Employees

>>> One of group properties is role. Roles are significant in shaping the organization’s thrust and productivity. Role conflict arises when an employee believes that the role demands are incompatible with the position itself. With the case incident on role conflict among telephone service employees, it is very evident that there is a discrepancy between what the customers want from the service employees and what the management is demanding from the service employees.
As telephone service employees, the management requires them to have as many calls as possible per day and to attend each call as short as possible. The conflict arises when as a service employee, they believe that it is their role demand to give optimum quality assistance. Having direct contact with customers, optimum quality assistance requires the service employees to give undivided attention. Employees demand that to have quality service, they should provide much time as possible to be able to give solutions to their concerns and inquiries. They should not consider limiting time in providing quality service. From the management point-of-view, maximizing profit is to attend to more calls as possible which may also mean shorter time allotment per customer. The end result is obviously against the welfare of employees. It obviously gives them too much pressure balancing quality service and management job quotas. Having these results, job satisfaction may not be met.
To resolve the conflict, the management must reconsider making a study on telephone service time allotment and productivity thru sales output. It may start with a monthly evaluation on several aspects like monetary sales, customer feedback, sales transaction flow and including revising the spiels that are used by the telephone service employees. The management must do comparative monthly sales output while at the same time putting emphasis on important aspects and steps of the sales transaction process or flow. During the sales transaction flow, make a study as to which part mostly consumes time. Is it during the probing part? the opening part? the product presentation part? the trial closing part? the closing part? Also, take into consideration the cost of the product that is being sold. Is it a premium product or not? Does a 10 dollar product sales consume more than 30 minutes of the time? Sales quota must consider employee’s welfare and benefits for job satisfaction but still maintaining consistent quality service.

ATTITUDE - Case Incident on Albertsons Works on Employee Attitudes

>>> Ed Foreman’s motivation and attitude training called The Successful Life Course is indeed a life changing module for the employees and a helpful tool for Albertson’s profitability. The main thrust of the module is aimed at producing a positive attitude for the employees. Waking up as early as 6AM promotes industriousness for every participant. It values time to maximize productivity. Just like the saying “The early bird catches the early worm”. The inspirational hand-out may feed the soul and provides spiritual and morale upliftment. The yoga-like stretching supports the physical attributes of the employees. It gives them inner peace, serenity and tranquillity. Even the marching up a hill chanting “I know I can, I know I can” is helpful in giving them positive outlook in life. The employees’ positive outlook in life is contagious and viral. And this attitude is surely transmittable to the customers, since the employees have a direct contact with them. This positive outlook workplace setting is certainly promotes growth and productivity in the organization.
The 10 million dollars investment on training may indeed look such a costly amount or expense for employees’ training. To further evaluate its effectivity, Albertson’s must make a historical financial study on its annual performance. The analysis must make a study going back at least 3 years prior to the 10 million dollar training investment and at least 3-month sales evaluation for 2 years after the costly motivation and attitude training. Thru this, the management may evaluate effectiveness and usefulness of the 10 million dollar training.
If I were one of Foreman’s attendees of the Successful Life Course, I would feel honoured and grateful. I believe that it would not only help me be a useful member of the organization but most importantly, it would help me as an individual become a better person. The training for attitude and motivation would help me apply everything I have learned to almost all aspects in life. It would create for me a better perspective in life, in how I see things, in how I deal with people, my psychosocial, behavioural and interpersonal.

PERCEPTION - Case Incident on J and J Automotive Sales

>>> Perception is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their sensory impressions in order to give meaning to their environment. Individuals may look at the same thing, but perceive it differently. There are three factors influencing an individual’s perception. First is the perceiver or the individual himself. Second is the target or the object being perceived. And last is the situation or in the context which the perception is made.
In the Case Incident of J and J Automotive Sales, it is evident that the perception of a used-car dealer is seen in two different ways – positive and negative. For whatever reasons, used-car dealer is viewed with such a stigma. I personally hold nothing against used-car dealers but I view them as a stereotype salesman who just keeps on talking and talking and the only concern is to make a sale and get done with it. Then nothing else follows. Their objective is to just sell cars that may sometimes are not functional anymore. They tend to just sugar-coat their talk just to sell second rate cars. But in the case of J and J Automotive Sales, Joe Baum is a passionate used-car dealer. He loves what he is doing despite his family’s negative response to it. Joe Baum, enjoying being his own boss, is a total hands-on businessman. He buys the vehicles, fix up for selling, assists customers in financing and actually working with the customers. He believes that there are a lot of better businessmen out there but his advantage is building a meaningful relationship and endearing trust with his customers.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) refers to any application or initiative designed to help optimize interactions with customers, suppliers or prospects via one or more touchpoints for the purpose of customer retention or loyalty, customer acquisition that drives growth or increased margin and customer profitability offering the right products at the right time. CRM is about maintaining loyalty with the customers. It is also bridging a link between the salesperson and the customer. It is focused more on the after-sales rather than on the actual-sale. Joe Baum is a perfect sample of a salesman fully utilizing Customer Relationship Management.
I believe that loyalty and trust are two things a salesman is hard to earn from their customers. Despite the stigma of a typical used-car businessman, Joe Baum holds to his conviction that building a relationship is the best tool for any business. Used-car business runs in the blood of Joe. He knows anything and everything about his business. Joe Baum definitely knows how to treat each customer’s perception on used-car business.