due in 20hours

HINT: Case #56: You can also focus on the "Major Question" for this one.  Try to think of 2 specific solutions for how Janet can try to resolve her motivation and morale problems with her team.  For example, specific means not just "have some meetings", you would need to outline how to approach the meetings, what would be discussed...etc.

Major Question

What recommendations should Sandy make to Janet in regard to the lack of motivation and poor morale of her staff?

Case 56 APROPOS: MANAGING A MULTI-AGED STAFF

Judith Everett, Northern Arizona University

Apropos is a chain of 25 specialty stores, featuring better and designer merchandise. Several branches are located in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, and one branch is out-of-state in Phoenix, Arizona. This company targets an affluent female customer generally between the ages of 35 to 60, who is career-oriented or who is the spouse of a successful professional. She has a relatively high clothing budget—typically spending between $10,000 and $22,000 per year on clothing and accessories.

The buying and merchandising operations for Apropos are centralized in Los Angeles. Employees who are interested in an executive or professional career with the company are promoted from within the firm. All personnel start as sales associates. The first executive position is as an assistant store manager, which involves learning the successful operation of a branch store and hands-on training to become a manager. After successfully completing this training, an individual is assigned his or her own store to manage. It is expected that a manager will remain in that position for a minimum of five years. In addition to the supervision duties, store managers are given sales responsibilities. With the company expansion plans, it is realistic to expect to be a district manager or return to the central offices as a merchandise planner or assistant buyer after working as a store manager. Apropos typically asks management personnel to transfer to another branch when they accept promotions. This is done to avoid any problems associated with managing former peer employees.

Janet Hudson has recently been promoted from the assistant manager of the Horton Plaza store in San Diego to the manager of the Biltmore Shopping Center in Phoenix, Arizona. Janet completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Merchandising while she served as the assistant store manager. Sandy Cohen, the district manager, saw excellent executive potential in Janet despite her young age of 25. Normally managers of Apropos are 30 years old or older because of the nature of the target customer, who tends to expect service from an older sales associate. Janet's enthusiasm, her ability to finish school with a high grade-point average, in addition to working full-time as the assistant manager in San Diego reminded Sandy of herself at that same age.

The store at the Biltmore Shopping Center has been open for nearly 25 years. It is the only branch of Apropos located in the Phoenix market. Two of the full-time sales associates, Blanche Darcy and Elsie Scheiner, and Sophie Rostoff, the assistant manager, are nearing retirement age. They have been with Apropos as long as the store has been open in Phoenix. They take pride in the store, their customers, and the fact that several of the previous store managers from that store have been promoted into the executive ranks and now serve as buyers and other merchandise executives. Sophie feels that because of her leadership and training skills as the assistant manager, most of the former Biltmore store managers have been promoted and achieved success as company executives. Because she is close to retirement and wants to spend more time with her grandchildren and hobbies, Sophie wants to cut back on her responsibilities and hours. All three of these older employees enjoy their work at Apropos, but are not assertive in sales, nor motivated to rise careerwise within the company. Sandy has asked Sophie to remain as assistant manager, however, during Janet's transition to manager of the Phoenix store.

The remaining sales staff are younger than the senior staff. They are between 35 and 42. Kathy Acres, Andy Wright, and Mickey Malone have bachelor degrees in liberal arts or education. All three of these associates would like to move up in the company as managers, but each is aware of the transfer policy. They are assertive salespeople and are extremely competitive. Kathy, who is 35 years old, has been with the firm for four years and is married with two children. Her husband is a well-respected physician in Phoenix. Because of her family responsibilities, it is impossible for her to leave the area. Mickey has also been with the firm for four years. She started a Master of Business Administration degree on a part-time basis and will complete it in two years. Andy is a single woman with aging parents who live in Sun City—a nearby retirement community. She has been working at Apropos for eight years. This group of employees is resentful and jealous that a young “25-year-old girl” has been given the manager's position. They all feel that the company policy of “asking” employees to transfer after accepting a promotion is unfair and unrealistic in a market such as Phoenix, which has only one branch. Kathy, Andy, and Mickey each feel that they should have been eligible for the manager's position at the Biltmore store.

When Janet arrived in Phoenix, she detected a serious morale problem in the store. The enthusiasm she has seen in all other Apropos stores she has visited or worked in seems to be totally absent. The older employees are very friendly, personable, and rather matronly, helping her adjust to the new city. But these women don't seem to have much work enthusiasm, and she feels that she cannot really motivate them. The younger employees seem efficient in their job tasks, but they are not very friendly toward her at all. They are distant and cool, causing Janet to feel somewhat uncomfortable. It seems as if the employees resent Janet, and she is uncertain as to why. Janet is familiar with the Apropos policy in regard to promotion and transfer, and she figures that everyone else was told about the policy at the onset of their employment with Apropos as well, so she doesn't consider this to be a problem that would contribute to the low morale of her staff. Janet is concerned because she has never had a problem getting along with fellow employees, and she is particularly proud of the way in which she has motivated others to work for the benefit of the total company in the past. Working for Apropos has always been fun, and Janet wants it to continue to be. Attitudes have continued to deteriorate, however, during her first few months on the job, regardless of Janet's various attempts to try to build enthusiasm and motivate everyone to work together as a team.

This is the first time that Janet has lived this far from her friends and family. Therefore, she does not have a personal support group to brainstorm in regard to her concerns at work. Although San Diego is only a couple of hours away by plane, Janet never seems to have the time to visit. Because she is so busy learning her job and managing the Phoenix branch, she has had little time to socialize and meet new friends and is therefore very lonely in this new town. This loneliness, along with her frustration at her futile attempts to motivate her staff, is beginning to seriously worry Janet about her capabilities as a store manager.

During a spring trend meeting in Los Angeles, Janet decides that she must discuss her problems of motivating her multi-aged staff with Sandy, because she knows no one else to turn to. Janet is extremely discouraged with her sales associates and their generally poor attitudes, and she hopes that Sandy can give her some insight and recommendations to help her improve morale.