Reference no: EM133407318

Case Study: Leilani has been a successful manager in quick - service restaurants for 10 years. She recently became an area manager for Good Food, a newer company with 35 units, and she reports to one of two regional managers. She accepted the position because of lessened travel requirements and the professional challenges presented by an opportunity to help grow this young organization. The Good Food organization markets to nutrition - conscious guests and offers a variety of fresh vegetable and fruit salads, soups, and sandwiches. It is a tough market because, as many restaurant owners and managers know, the public ' s expressed interest in nutrition doesn ' t always translate to dining - out decisions. Leilani has been with the company about three months, and she is impressed with the amount of operating and production support provided by headquarters. There are detailed standard recipes, food purchase specifications, nutritional information for interested guests, and even a nutrition training program that is mandatory for all staff. In contrast, Leilani quickly noticed that many of the operating problems encountered by other restaurants also affected her units. Examples included high employee turnover that placed a continuing management emphasis on recruiting staff, cost control issues, and some opportunities for employee theft of products and money. Her boss is aware of these concerns because they apply to units throughout his region. He explained that the company ' s owners also knew about the problems but considered them to be part of the business, and top management was currently more concerned about expanding the business than addressing these issues. " Well, should we just go with the flow and ignore the problems, should we campaign for change in the organization ' s emphasis, or should we just dictate policies and procedures to control cost and theft problems? " Leilani asked. " Also, won ' t we increase our turnover rate even more if we create a more dictatorial atmosphere? " " I ' m also concerned about these issues, Leilani, and I have another option, " replied the regional manager. " There is another area manager who shares your concerns. We all know the correct procedures that should be used, and a major problem is that they are not being used. What is needed, in part, is a training program for our supervisors to help them learn how to teach our staff to do things correctly. Perhaps the three of us can team up and address these problems. Let ' s assume I can talk headquarters into funding a pilot program to train our supervisors, " he continued. " I know they will want proof that the expenditure of these funds is cost effective, and as professionals we want that as well. " " I came here because I wanted to confront challenges in a small and growing organization, " said Leilani. " This is really a challenge. Let ' s do it, and I hope we ' re up to the task. "

Questions:

• Planning for Training Assume that the regional manager, Leilani, and the other area manager initially meet to determine how to begin the training effort and to determine who should do what and when. 1. Develop a list of the most important initial decisions that must be made, suggest tasks that should be undertaken, and propose a list of intended accomplishments for the first six months. (Recall that these three managers must also run the business.) 2. What, if any, identified tasks might be delegated to unit manager
• Strategy Assume that the planning team decides that the project will go more smoothly (and additional funding will be forthcoming) if a project yielding a quick and easy success is implemented. 1. Plan a simple project addressing an issue that can be developed and implemented quickly, such as reducing food cost by portion control, improved inventory management, or implementing more effective procedures for product receiving. 2. Outline the steps that you would use to develop and implement a training program that addresses this simple task. Also, describe how you might provide some quantitative ROI data to help justify the worth of training.