Waterview free essay sample

This case occurred in a premier resort called the Waterview and it’s located in the Muskoka District of Northern Ontario. The Waterview snack bar has been the leading tourist destination for several decades. Unfortunately since the premier resort has numerous ownership changes over the years, the quality of professional services and revenue has fallen down sharply. In this challenging situation, the resort’s operation manager Rebecca Boddington promoted a long-time employee Michael Welland to become the snack bar supervisor. At the first time, Michael turned down Boddlington’s promotion offer because he got a better job as a sales associate with good pay and benefits. However since then, Rebecca held a personal grudge against Michael regarding his work behaviors and ability to perform and some unavoidable arguments have come up between them. This serious lack of communication, toxic work environment and frequent disputes between the workers and management has substantially diminished the Waterview’s share in its highly competitive tourism market. PROBLEMS The most urgent problem is the disorder of the Waterview snack bar’s organization and processes. Rebecca changed Michael’s job responsibilities without informing him in advance about his new job responsibilities. When Michael started to work at the snack bar as a supervisor, he discovered he was actually assigned to work as a part-time server instead. Furthermore, Rebecca failed to adjust Michael’s wage as she has promised before. Therefore, Michael was shocked to discover he was still getting minimum wage. Moreover, after Rebecca found out Michael was talking to her boss behind the scene; she took him off the next week schedule. The second problem is both the management and employees of the premier resort lacks professional abilities and skills and are not qualified for the organization. Neither Rebecca nor Michael behaved properly or professionally in this case. First, Rebecca is the manager of Michael; so she shouldn’t bring her personal emotion into the work environment. For Several times, Rebecca dismissed Michael when he wants to confront her about his issues. Second, When Michael talked to Rebecca about his first payment, he waved the check angrily at her and yelled â€Å"Rebecca, have you seen this? † This is a very unprofessional action for Michael and should be dealt with in privacy or with company’s procedures. Another time, Michael rushed into Rebecca’s office and tossed his check on her desk. These hostile employee attitudes also create and contribute to an unhealthy and unproductive work environment. The third problem is the employees’ task management. There were no clear job descriptions and task details in the Waterview snack bar. In the beginning, Rebecca asked Michael to help cut the grass and clean the toilets. However people that cut the grasses and clean the toilets are usually maintenance individuals not someone in a supervisor position like Michael. In addition Rebecca threatened to cancel Michael’s shifts, then she really did delete Michael’s schedule and removed him from duties list without discussing with her superior and noticing Michael. Moreover when Mark Humphries; the boss of Rebecca found out there are communication problems between his employees; he didn’t take any precautions to correct these problems. CAUSES There is a lack of fit between the people and process. If people could follow the company’s’ procedures and rules in a professional and well mannered behavior within the resort and put aside their personal grudges and negative emotions towards individuals during business hours. There can be many incidents where a lot of the conflicts could have been avoided. For example, if Rebecca has taken the time to notify Michael about important work changes; he would understand his new job descriptions and job responsibilities without the shock and disappointment of being informed indirectly during his shift. On many occasions, Rebecca told her employees that she didn’t have time to solve their problems. This left the employees feeling neglected and it has affected their performances at work. Also when Rebecca told Michael about his pay rate, she did it in an unprofessional manner, and she did not keep her promise to give him more money as a supervisor. Michael naturally grew frustrated with the way Rebecca is treating him. There is lack of fit between the people and the company’s organization structure. Without concerning the poor financial and competitive situation of the resort, Rebecca and Michael intensely confronted each other in the public work environment. Therefore, both manager and employees’ behaviors and attitudes are not professional and responsible to their positions. In short, both of them are not qualified for their positions. Obviously, Michael’s main goal was not to add value to the business but to benefit as much as possible from this premier resort and the conflict between Michael and Rebecca became an important excuse for not taking responsibilities for their unprofessional actions at work. This bad scenario affected his entire crew’s performances and quality of services. For Rebecca, she did not want to face the problem directly. Furthermore Rebecca believes that if she couldn’t see the problems, it can be avoided or ignored until something bad actually happens. There is a lack of fit between the organization as a whole and the tasks being assigned to the organization’s employees. Rebecca being the operation manager for Waterview, she has many jobs responsibilities and duties that she has to perform to maintain the safety and reputation of her premier resort. Regrettably, the Waterview is always short on managers and because of the shortage of management. Rebecca has to take on more job duties and responsibilities that would not have happened if the resort has enough managers on a daily basis. As a result, Rebecca is always exhausted, stressful and easily distracted during work and off work. She occasionally works six to seven days a week, from early in the morning till late at night. Moreover, Rebecca also took-on scheduling and inventory management for the Water view’s snack bar; so she rarely have breaks. Thus, she lost control of the management team and brought herself a lot of arguments and conflicts. GOALS First, Mark should become the peacemaker and resolve his employees’ conflicts in 3 days. Second, both managers and employees need additional training on a quarterly basis to improve their competence level and sense of responsibilities. Third, organization should find ways to improve workplace communication, relationships between employees and management and motivations to improve employee’s competitiveness to increase sales revenue. ALTERNATIVES Based on my first goal, the alternative is to fix the lack of communications between Rebecca and Michael as soon as possible. In this case, Mark could arrange a casual dinner, so they could meet each other and talk things through about their issues and conflicts with each other. Also, they could discuss about some company’s rules in the future, Rebecca should take some time and use some effective ways to inform employees about any significant changes, and she should also set some private time for personal issues during the employee meetings to make everyone feel valuable and important. Based on the second goal, the alternative is to dismiss Rebecca, and hire a more competent manager. Since she is not qualified in this position. The new manager could set new rules in the Waterview such as assigning well-defined tasks to every employee of the resort. Both managers and employees should not be allowed to take up additional tasks or work over hours unless exceptional situation happens. Furthermore, a clear break schedule should be brought out to make sure that all employees are getting enough rest. For the third goal, the alternative is to dismiss Michael after the contract expires. Rebecca could evaluate her current employees and promote someone else to become the new supervisor to help her deal with daily matters. This time, she should delegate some tasks to her new supervisor such as scheduling and inventory management to reduce her work burden. Also, The Waterview resort should have regular employee meetings that could be used for solving urgent problems, and disseminate general information. RECOMMENDATION In this case, the operation manager Mark should become the peacemaker and solve the conflicts between Rebecca and Michael. Because of the multiple changes of ownership, the quality of professional services at the resort has fallen along with the sales revenue of the resort. Therefore, the primary task of the Waterview is to remove the internal conflicts and keep everyone together to keep the market share and competitiveness of the resort. Rebecca has been an operation manager for Waterview for five years; she is very familiar about the current situation of the resort. If Waterview decides to dismiss her, it will take a long time to find another proper manager, and it will aggregate the already poor condition of the resort. On the other hand, if the company decides to dismiss Michael, he may file a lawsuit against the company, and the other employees may feel insecure to work at the resort anymore. Consequently, it may affect the job performances of the other employees by not fulfilling their insecure needs. IMPLEMENTATION First step, Mark is the operation manager of the resort and he could arrange a personal dinner with Rebecca and Michael after the work. This dinner may cost him about $150. Mark could be the peacemaker between them and let them communicate with each other without talking about any unhappy memories. Second step, after dinner Mark could take Michael to a bar and drink some beer. This will cost him $50. In this step, Mark could talk about the consequences of his actions and behaviors. Third step, Mark could talk with Rebecca in the morning at cafe. This will cost him $20. He could mention her about the possibility of losing job. Forth step, Mark could offer them a solution; Michael apologizes to Rebecca about his unprofessional behaviors and Rebecca can make up by paying him the money she promised him. Therefore, this solution could create a win-win situation for all of them. These personal dinner and meeting could build up a harmonious interpersonal relationship and it may solve the conflicts between them. Fifth step, after the current conflict has been solved, Rebecca should hold regular meetings, and try to solve their problem as soon as possible. The more employees that feel valued and respected, the more willing they are to share their ideas and innovations. (Fifth, a code of conduct should be set in the work place including list of unacceptable work behaviors. These steps would create a more healthy and friendly working environment. Upper management such as Mark and Rebecca should establish open communication board with all fellow employees. On the board, they could exchange viewpoints about the current situation of The Waterview. This realistic and frank information would help them to evaluate the current company’s situation. When executives implement major changes, they also should request employees’ feedback and, if their changes are proved to be ineffective, executives should adopt alternative courses of action in two months or less.