After reading the first two chapters of this course, do the following exercises:

Question

After reading the first two chapters of this course, do the following exercises:

1. Analyze the situation below and answer the questions. Answers to be fully accepted must be between 100 - 150 words or more. Use APA style.

The Word Processor

The Word Processor

Betty Jackson, the youngest of six children, is black and was raised in poverty—by her mother for her first seven years, and by her grandmother for the next nine. She started working at 14 to help with expenses. The product of welfare, Betty vowed at an early age to become financially independent as soon as possible. Although she never finished high school, she did finish a two-year secretarial program at the local community college, with a concentration on word processing. In this specialty she received straight A’s and found it very much to her liking.

While still a night student in secretarial science, Betty found work in a secretarial service as a word processor. The owner/manager, Mrs. Dodge, soon found that Betty was a star performer. Within her first six months, Betty received two merit raises—boosting her pay to within $25 per month below that of the highest-paid operator. This fact, once it became known, caused her co-workers to become bitter. As the only black employee, Betty soon found herself isolated and plunged herself more deeply into her work. She did not hesitate to take all the overtime offered.

Business was good and growing. As a result, Mrs. Dodge asked Betty to recruit two new operators. Betty found them through her college’s placement service; and after screening by Mrs. Dodge, they were hired.

The two new workers were both black and lacked on-the-job experience, so Mrs. Dodge asked Betty to break them in and make them productive as soon as possible. This Betty did in short order, winning them as friends in the process.

Two months later, Mrs. Dodge split the workforce into two specialty groups, appointing Betty as the supervisor of one section and taking the other for herself. Betty’s group consisted of three people: the two newest, whom she had trained, and one of the original workers, Sue. Mrs. Dodge made it clear that Betty was to be an operator only in emergencies to help even the workload, but then to return to her administrative and work management duties. But since becoming supervisor, Betty seemed to be constantly at the machine evening out workloads. The two newest employees complained that they were overburdened and that Sue was constantly idle or receiving the “easy stuff.” Betty had to admit that Sue seemed to work longer on a job than the others, but explained that Sue made more mistakes and was less careful with her work initially, thus requiring redos.

As an administrator Betty seemed to be floundering. Her response to complaints was to take the work and do it herself. Mrs. Dodge began to wonder if she had made the right decision in promoting Betty.

Even Betty’t s skills could not prevent her group’s problems from affecting Mrs. Dodge’s. Betty was so far behind that specialty areas were becoming blurred, and work flowed to any free operator.

Questions

1. Which of the three basic management skills does Betty seem to possess? Which does she seem to lack?

2. Of the management roles shown in Exhibit 1.2, which does she seem to practice? Which does she seem to need the most?

3. What does this case tell you about the wisdom of promoting the best worker to supervisor?



2. Analyze the situation below and answer the questions. Answers to be fully accepted must be between 100 - 150 words or more. Use APA style.


Who Controls Quality?

Connie was quite upset to find her production line and her people idle when she returned from her morning break. Everyone was standing around the head of the line engaging in social chitchat. Two inspectors from quality control were arguing with one of her people, Albert.

“What’s going on?” asked Connie. Albert started to speak but was interrupted by Brenda, one of the quality control inspectors.

“Connie, your robot 62 was malfunctioning. I shut the line down because the parts were getting welds that were too thin.”

“You have no right to shut my line down,” snapped Connie. “I’m in charge of this line and I am the one to shut it down when there are problems. I suppose you’ve screwed around with the robot too. The minute I turn my back, you people sneak in here and mess up the operations. How come you never find a problem when I am here?”

“Look, Connie, I didn’t consult you because you weren’t here twenty minutes ago when the problem was spotted by Jean, my assistant. I told your people to stop production until the problem could be traced. Jean traced it to robot 62, and we were about to send a search party after you. It’s your job to adjust the robots, but it’s our job to inspect your output.”

“I tried to tell them that we can’t stop the line without your permission,” said Albert, “but they ‘pulled the plug’ anyway. I told you she would be mad, Brenda.”

“Look, Brenda, I’m the one responsible for what comes off my line. My people and I are committed to quality production. Anything that affects this line affects me. Your job is to advise me, not run my line when I’m not here.”

“Connie, all of us are committed to quality. What did you want us to do—let your line continue to produce defects until you came back?” asked Jean.




Questions

1. Who is in charge of quality in this case? Who should be and why?

2. What lessons are there in this case about delegation?

3. Should quality control inspectors have the authority to stop production when they spot defects? Why?

3. On your computer, go to an Internet search provider and type in "supervisor job openings". Choose three job openings related to a managment position that list required skills. Create a one-page summary listing the job title, job location, and the required skills for each of the job openings. Identify the Mintzberg's management roles (on page 12) present in each selected position. Use APA style.

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