Reference no: EM133949800
Assignment:
John Readings (a simulated business) is a successful and growing Book retailer and publisher with approximately 140 stores located across Australia and New Zealand and a large and growing online retail business. In its vision statement, John Readings states that it intends to 'lead the book sales and publishing market in Australia within five years'. John Readings believes in developing and unlocking the potential of its people to allow the company to become the most trusted book company in Australia (ref. John Reading's Vision & Mission).
In order to realise this vision, the organisation intends to:
? Build market share by focusing on the customer experience,
? Control direct and indirect costs through efficient internal processes,
? Establish the reputation of John Readings as a socially and environmentally responsible company, and
? Lead by example in embracing cultural diversity in the workforce.
These strategic organisation-wide directions are implemented from senior management down, in the form of performance expectations for managers and employees at every level of the organisation.
John Readings realises that the success of the business rests on its people. For this reason, the organisation insists that managers build effective teams by responding to the needs of employees. Such needs include safety and security, fairness, flexibility, skills development and self-actualisation. Satisfying such needs will allow employees to focus more effectively on work tasks and customer needs. In addition,
John Readings encourages managers to take a flexible approach to meeting performance targets and to set goals in close collaboration with employees.
To implement strategic directions and advance John Readings values, managers are expected to lead employees by modelling positive behaviours and attributes. This mindful approach to leadership and management is intended to encourage employees to follow the example in their interactions with colleagues and customers. To lead and inspire people, managers must demonstrate keen emotional awareness and promote positive team-building behaviours in others.
You are the NSW State (Regional) Manager and you are ready for a challenge. You are responsible for all the stores in NSW including the new Flagship store located in Sydney city centre. You are directly responsible for managing state sales targets across all stores, stock control, Customer satisfaction, Financial management and HR. You report to the Director of Operations.
Read the scenario for background information and then work through each of the scenarios following answering all questions in full. For the following case-study scenario questions, put yourself in the position of the new State (regional) manager and answer the questions accordingly.
SCENARIO
It is the end of the financial year and sales revenue at the Wollongong store is down on targets. This issue is almost certainly due to increased competition from a significant number of new online companies some of who are promising same day delivery; nevertheless, some action should be taken by management to mitigate the effect of this issue on the state targets overall.
As a result of managerial discussions, it has been decided that some employee performance targets will be increased where capacity exists and some programs, such as training, will be delayed. These measures will have the effect of potentially increasing revenue and reducing costs to compensate for overall poorer-than-expected performance in the Wollongong store.
Each team leader will have responsibility for implementing this group decision in their particular area of responsibility. It will be important to consider the emotional impact on staff and any consequential impact on health, safety and wellbeing as well as the impact on performance and the achievement of organisational goals.
1. Describe the relationship between emotionally effective people and the attainment of business objectives.
2. Describe how considering the emotional impact of decision-making could lead to better decision-making (with respect to business objectives).
3. Describe what a possible process of decision-making that takes emotional impact into account could look like. Decisions in this case include, for example, setting particular performance targets, or selecting what programs can be delayed.
4. Identify policies, procedures or legislation that will need to be adhered to in order to satisfy internal and external requirements related to managing emotions in the workplace.
5. Describe how health and safety legislation is relevant to managers' implementation of business decisions.