Case Analysis: Ed Worth, G.M. At Techno Greats

Description of the problem(s)

This particular case highlights upon a single day of Ed Worth, G.M. at Techno Greats. Ed is a motivated, responsible and dedicated employee who has been associated with Techno Great since the last ten years. He began his career in Vancouver as a research analyst. Within three years, he was promoted to the position of a lab supervisor. He was further promoted as an assistant to manager two years after that. Upon the retirement of the GM, he was offered the same position and since then he has been serving as General Manager at the Calgary division of Techno Greats.

The case helps us understand that Ed has been unsuccessful to devote time to execute an idea that was apprehended a couple of years ago. The idea relates to an investment and stock option plan that needs Ed’s urgent attention. He also needs to brainstorm and think of a simpler procedure to record various blood tests and settle upon a new courier partner for Techno Greats. These three things are currently taking a priority on his list of To-Dos. Nevertheless, from the moment he set foot in his office till the time he left for home, his day was packed with work and he could not get himself to focus on either of these tasks. He spend his time fulfilling other responsibilities of the job like discussing the brochures with Jean, taking feedback from supervisors, assisting Jon in getting some extra space for chemical storage, brainstorming on a new marketing plan with the marketing director, taking a review of a researcher, sorting enquiries received from client hospitals as well as medical schools, investigating some regulatory changes with the safety supervisor, handling a bunch of HR concerns, responding to the Vice President’s questions aimed at the launch of phase 2 trials, organizing activities for various organizational departments and communicating with Jill.

While returning home, he felt furious for being unable to work as per the plan he had set in the morning. Soon, he realized that important and strategic tasks are being delayed in order to cater to small projects. Upon realizing this, he felt he would not be able to do justice to his role if he continued to push strategic tasks for later. His lack of time spent with his family is also troubling him.

Clearly, Ed is battling with a lot of problems. The three major problems reflected from the case are as below:

Root cause analysis

Dissatisfaction: One of the first problems highlighted in the case is the fact that Ed is highly dissatisfied with his own performance. Job satisfaction plays a significant role in the any individual’s career (Aziri, 2011). There are various theories in organizational behavior that highlight upon the importance of job satisfaction. McClelland stated that employees have a need for power, achievement and affiliation (Miner, 2015). This essay suggests that Ed’s need for power is fulfilled but his need for achievement and affiliation have a long way to go. This is what creates a lack of satisfaction. He feels he is not performing to his fullest potential. He doesn’t find himself innovating new things and hence this is a source of demotivation.

Unable to do justice to an executive role: A manager in the job role has to be effective and efficient. By being efficient, a manager does the things right and by being effective a manager does the right things (Daley, 2012). Most of Ed’s strategic tasks have not be done. Therefore it can be said that he is efficient but not effective. This reflects upon his inability to do justice to his role as an executive.

Missing work-life balance: It has been observed in the case that Ed is the last employee to leave from office despite reaching early on a daily basis. Clearly, the extra hours of work that he is putting in are impacting his personal life. A lack of work life balance adversely impacts employee’s level of motivation and may even lead to hindered performance (Delecta, 2012).

There is no single reason behind the problems faced by Ed. Majority of such problems faced by employees in the work place are caused by a combination of two or three factors. It is understandable from the case that Ed needs to prioritize his work better and enhance his focus on important tasks. He is a senior level executive and it is critical that managers are able to identify and understand what requires their immediate attention. A manager must possess technical skills, human skills and conceptual skills (Lussier, 2011). A top level manager essentially requires a high level of conceptual skills since he is hired with the purpose of performing tasks that are strategically important.

Secondly, Ed is the point of contact for everything and everyone. Therefore there is an excessive dependency on Ed of the remaining employees. He is the one point contact for storage issues, employee performances, brochures, stocks or even work timings of a field placement student. This high dependency makes Ed unable to prioritize his work.

Prioritize work: The foremost thing that Ed needs to do is prioritize his work by making and maintaining a planner on a daily basis. It is important that he sincerely devotes his time to more strategic decisions of the firm. Secondly, it is important he gives time to his family and does his best at maintaining his work life balance.

More points of contact: It has been noticed that Ed has been a single point of contact for a lot of people in the organization. Therefore, it is important that every department must have a point of contact. Leaders should be hired who need to take responsibility of an entire department (Yukl, 2013). These leaders can then report to Ed. This would increase the efficacy of coordination within the organization and the overall culture would become more professional.

Clarity of roles: It is important that executive level employees should have clear roles and that is only way that these employees would be clear about their roles, responsibilities and what is expected from them (Caillier, 2014). At present, Ed has been not been able to manage his work because employees do not have a clear job description.

Pros	Cons
Work is more organized Strategic tasks would be completed Efficiency would improve Time would be saved	A cultural change may be difficult to accept Small tasks may remain undone

Pros	Cons
Efficiency would increase Ed would be relieved of clerical work Time would be saved. Work would be prioritized Many more leadership roles would be introduced	It will take time to train new leaders Resistance towards a cultural change Strategy would take time to implement Expensive strategy

Pros	Cons
a. Work would be prioritized b. Efficiency would increase c. Time would be saved d. Strategic tasks would be done e. Ed’s performance would be judged based on executive tasks	Small tasks will remain undone Increased confusion Ed’s personal connect with employees would be lost Increased training Reduced team work

After a detailed analysis of the three given option, it has been decided that the second option of increasing the number of contact points in the business is the right way forward. This process will initiate by creating more leadership roles in organizations, providing training to these leaders and making sure that they are capable enough to handle their respective departments. The three predominant advantages of this step would be as below:

• The first benefit would be that Ed would be able to focus on strategic decisions of the firm
• Different leadership roles would create increased opportunities for other employees (Goleman, 2017).
• All the leaders would be selected from the organization and hence the cost of this strategy would be relatively less.

Steps	Time Taken
Decide the number of leadership positions	3-4 days
Review performance of employees and shortlist 3 candidates from each department	One month
Interview shortlisted candidates	One week
Select employees, offer them new positions, explain their roles, provide on job trainings	Two months
Work upon building a culture where employees automatically reach out to the selected department heads	ongoing

Three ways to measure the success of the above plan are:

1. The time devoted by Ed to strategic tasks should be improved. This should be measured on a daily basis in order to understand the effectiveness of the strategy. It is also important that strategic tasks are achieved in a timely manner.
2. Understanding the communication between Ed and all appointed leaders as well as between the leaders and their department members. If there is transparent and positive communication then the strategy can be considered a success.
3. Daily reports of all the departments must be reviewed. If all the departments are functioning effectively then it is a sign of a successful implementation of the strategy

References

Aziri, B. (2011). JOB SATISFACTION: A LITERATURE REVIEW. Management Research & Practice, 3(4).

Caillier, J. G. (2014). Do role clarity and job satisfaction mediate the relationship between telework and work effort? International Journal of Public Administration, 37(4), 193-201.

Daley, D. M. (2012). Strategic human resources management. Public Personnel Management, 120-125.

Delecta, P. (2011). Work life balance. International Journal of Current Research, 3(4), 186-189.

Goleman, D. (2017). Leadership That Gets Results (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Press.

Lussier, R. (2011). Management fundamentals: Concepts, applications, skill development. Cengage Learning.

Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge. United Kingdom.

Yukl, G. A. (2013). Leadership in organizations. Pearson Education India.