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My case study proposal involves an actual situation between a middle manager and a Engineer on record who deals with issues where micromanaging could have prevented a situation entirely. This predicament extends beyond an internal company problem and to both the client, the City of Green Bay in respects to spending government money, and the contractor who gets over paid for his miscalculation. 2. 0 Background of Organization and Problem: This situation happens in an International Construction Management firm called Highlight Engineering that has between 3000 and 3500 current employees relied.
Highlight Engineering has been doing Construction Management for about 35 years now and is proud to be one of the top Construction Management companies in the world. Jim Smith is the head engineer and has been a head engineer for 35 years spanning across five companies, and has only been with Highlight Engineering for the past 2 years. Jim Smith was put in charge to be the head engineer of a $2 million construction project being paid for by the Federal Government through stimulus money. Jim was given the recommendation to hire Jamie Mills as the engineer on record by the vice president overseeing the reject, Larry Appleton.
Larry Appleton and Jim have worked together for the past two years and Larry told Jim that Jamie was well recommended for the jobs; Jamie Mills had already taken a three day course on learning the SEEMS and Next software programs required for the project and had been a materials testing inspector for five years, and so with those credentials Jim hired him. Jim is also running two other projects which minimizes his presence on the job site to two days a week. When Jim visits, Jamie gives him a consistent status report that everything is under control and Jim reminds Jamie to contact him immediately if NY problems occur.
About five months into the eight month project, Jamie reported to Jim that there was a substantial overrun in quantities. As Jim investigates the issue, his primary focus were in the calculations and explanations for the overages; however in doing so, he uncovers Jasmine’s negligence in maintaining official records of his calculations, reporting daily activities, providing no explanation for the overages and discovering quantities were paid under the wrong item classes which due to price differences the contractor was overpaid by $50,000.
Over the last couple of months of exhaustive investigation, Jim concludes Jamie has been careless in writing detailed reports, inattentive of the daily activities happening on site and still has difficulty clarifying the overages he reported, which resulted in Jim bringing other people over from his other projects to recalculate all quantities. Jim has Lee Ho had Ted Shields, the Engineer on records on Jims other projects, over trying to help sort things out and working on the re-measuring of quantities and recalculations of all quantities on Jasmine’s project.
Lee’s project is unfortunately about 1 5 miles away from Jasmine’s project and fairly busy but Tee’s project is only bout a mile down the road from Jasmine’s project and is currently winding down with the contractor on site only one or two days a week. This negatively impacts the credibility and reputation of all parties involved in the situation from Highlight Engineering and Jims management ability, to the City of Green Bay who approved the payment of government funds because of Jasmine’s negligence.
This is a situation in which my boss was recently trapped in on one of his other projects and I will be taking the perspective of a new manager facing this issue on a new assignment, as I feel that I can learn from the situation on the best way to solve the predicament without resulting in micro-managing future projects. 3. 01 “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees,” by Frederick Herbert 3. 11 What part of the situation is relevant to this article? The part of this situation that is relevant to this article would be Jamie Mills’ decreased performance at work.
It would seem to me that Jamie is dissatisfied with his work requirements and with his responsibility as is evidence of the lack of organized records of his calculations, daily reports and knowledge of daily activities. Jasmine’s dissatisfaction might stem from lack of knowledge of how to reform the new duties of a Engineer on record, which has resulted in him getting lost and frustrated with his work requirements. Also, he seems too discouraged and unmotivated to ask for help. 3. 21 What would the article conclude is the root cause of the problem?
Herbage’s article would suggest that Jamie is experiencing one or more of Herrings hygiene factors which has lead him to be dissatisfied with his current jobs. This could be a result of Jamie having an issue with the supervision given by Jim, as Jim is constantly reminding him that if he has any problems to contact him immediately. Jamie could be taking this as a general distrust by Jim for his own ability to handle the job and, thus, he is backing off and doing what he believes is understood of Jim. We could also look at this as one of Herbage’s motivators, “work itself. In all actuality, this was taken too far and resulted in Jamie receiving too much work that he is unable to handle so he started falling behind. Over the first 5 months of the project, the workload may have gotten to the point that he started making errors in his calculations and things may have gotten too far out of control for Jamie to handle this by himself. This is the point where he would notify Jim of problems. 3. 31 What action will I take based on this article (and the root cause determined above? ) It would be suggested that in order to improve Jasmine’s performance, we first must isolate what is causing Jasmine’s job dissatisfaction.
If Jamie is feeling a lack of trust in his supervision, along with having a workload larger than he can handle, this may be turning a motivator into a job dissatisfaction contributor. It would first be suggested that Jim give him some more “breathing room,” and work on ways to decrease his workload to a more manageable level. It would be important to make sure that Jamie understands that having other people help him with the calculations and workload would be in his best interest and not a hostile takeover of the project.
The best way to accomplish that would be to have the others report to Jamie directly and not report to Jim directly. 3. 41 What outcome do I expect from this action (based on the principles of the article? ) I would expect that Jamie would be able to regain control of the situation and project with the assistance of others that Jim has temporarily brought over from other projects. I expect that with putting Jamie in charge and having others help IM out with the workload that Jamie will rise to the challenge and be greatly motivated. 3. 02 “Small Unit Leadership, Section of Willing vs..
Able” By Cool. Dandier M. Malone 3. 12 What part of the situation is relevant to this article? The part of the situation that is relevant to this article would be Jasmine’s job performance decreasing throughout the project, along with his inability to keep accurate records of what is going on and a lack of daily knowledge of work activities happening on the project. His negligence in maintaining official records of all of his calculations and his inability to be able to explain for the overages hat had been paid to the contractor are some other key aspects relating to this article.
Also, over the couple of months after informing Jim of the overage, his job performance did not equal what was understood performance of him, which resulted in Jim bringing other people over from his other projects to recalculate all quantities. 3. 22 What would the article conclude is the root cause of the problem? The root cause of the problem as determined by this article would be that Jamie is either able and unwilling or unable and unwilling to fulfill his job requirements as a Engineer on record.
Based off of the background, it was mentioned that he had attended a three day course to learn both computer programs (SEEMS and Next) used on the project. He was also recommended by the Vice President of Highlight Engineering which would lead to the belief that he is able and qualified for the jobs. Malone would conclude that Jamie is just unwilling to perform the necessary requirements for his jobs and that his lack of performance is probably the result of either a lack of confidence in his ability or a personal problem.
It is suggested to determine if he is lacking in confidence or if there is a personal problem. It could be that Jamie did not learn enough in the here day course that he took for the two computer programs mentioned above and that he was recommended for the jobs as a Engineer on record without having held the jobs before. If he didn’t learn enough to be able to handle the workload associated with his current jobs, this would make him unable to perform the duties of his job, by definition of Malone. What is also clear in this stance is he must be unwilling.
If he was willing and unable, he would have approached Jim with questions and asked for assistance on his workload long before being five months into the project. 3. 32 What action will I take based on his article (and the root cause determined above? ) Malone stated that it is important to first determine if Jamie is either able and unwilling or unable and unwilling. It would be very important to sit down with him to figure out which category he belongs in. If it is determined that Jamie is able but unwilling, then It would have to figured out if he is just lacking in confidence or if he has a personal problem.
Assuming he is lacking in confidence, I would then work with him to give him confidence in being able to handle the jobs and correct the error that resulted in an overpayment. If he has a personal problem then I would sit down tit him and try to see what could be done to help him with his problem and to get him back on track with the project workload. On the other hand, if it is determined that Jamie is unable and unwilling, then he slipped through the cracks and should not have been given this jobs.
It would be best to let him go as he is not helping with the situation and bring in someone else that is working on another project to help me figure out why there was an overpayment made. We could then figure out a resolution of the issue in the interests of Highlight Engineering, the City and the Federal Government. 3. 42 What outcome do I expect from this action (based on the principles of the article? ) I would expect that with Jamie being able, but unwilling, that things could be worked out and he could be given the confidence to get things back on track.
Also, I believe that we can resolve the overpayment to the contractor and finish out the project successfully. 3. 03″Management Time: Who’s got the Monkey? ” By Wizen & Was 3. 13 What part of the situation is relevant to this article? In this situation, the part that is relevant to this article is that Jamie was in control of all the paperwork, and was in charge of the quantities and payments even though he was told by Jim that if he came across any issues or problems to contact him first.
Jamie encountered an issue of time management, which resulted in him falling behind in his workload and not keeping adequate files, which ended up in the overpayment of the contractor. 3. 23 What would the article conclude is the root cause of the problem? Wizen and Was would suggest that the root cause of the mistakes that ultimately lead to over paying the contractor was due to Jamie not passing the “Monkey” of falling behind in his workload back to Jim by requesting assistance.
It looks to be that a root cause of he problem is that Jim, either knowingly or unknowingly, allowed Jamie to be in the “Wait until told to act” initiative levels. Jamie was not performing his job requirements at the understood level caused this to be the case. So it appears that he was waiting for Jim to tell him how to do his job and what he needs to do and what was understood of him. This could be that Jim did not adequately explain to Jamie what his job requirements were and what was understood of him. This could mean that Jim was holding the “Monkey” when he should have passed it off to Jamie.
It could also be that Jamie was holding the “Monkey” and instead of informing Jim that he needed assistance, he waited until the “Monkey” got out of control. 3. 33 What action will I take based on this article (and the root cause determined above? ) When Jamie informed Jim of the overpayment to the contractor, I would have sat down with Jamie and put the “Monkey’ on the table and use this situation as a teaching opportunity so that way he will have a better understanding of what is understood of him. This, in turn, would make sure that he keeps hold of the “Monkey” and does not result in passing it off to myself.
There is a clear understanding that would need to spend more time on he subordinate imposed time to make sure that things are running smoothly and that things get back on track. 3. 43 What outcome do I expect from this action (based on the principles of the article? ) I would expect that there will be a little bit of a learning curve with Jamie getting on track with what is understood of himself. I would also need to make sure that Jamie is spending more time on the system imposed time to get the project back on track. 3. 04″Are You Delegating So It Sticks? ” By Lauren Keller Johnson 3. 4 What part of the situation is relevant to this article? In this situation the part that is relevant to this article would be that Jim has delegated the Engineer on recording job duties to Jamie and has instructed Jamie to contact him immediately if there are any issues that arise. 3. 24 What would the article conclude is the root cause of the problem? I would say that the root cause of this problem could be that Jim did not fully explain the job requirements to Jamie and what his expectations are, and thus Jim was displaying one of the barriers to delegation.
By Jim not giving Jamie a full and adequate explanation of his duties it would make Jim appear to be indispensable as Jamie would need his alp and would be relying on Jim. I believe this might be the root cause given Jim has been with 5 different companies over 35 years and has only been working for Highlight Engineering for the past two years. Another root cause of this situation could be that Jim has delegated the responsibility to Jamie to handle the Engineer on recording job requirements but Jamie is bored, or uninterested in the job jobs.
This could be seen over the following couple of months after Jamie reports that an error has occurred and the contractor was over paid, that Jamie seems like his performance has remained at an inadequate level. 34 What action will I take based on this article (and the root cause determined above? ) I would make sure that Jamie has a full understanding of what is understood of him and what his job requirements are so he can move forward from the point of coming to me with the error that he made and figure out the reason for it and how to resolve this issue.
If the root cause is that Jamie is uninterested in the jobs then it is important to find a way to make Jamie more interested in his jobs and work load as Johnson states “delegate in ways to enable people to stretch, and treat mistakes as growth opportunities. Explain your assessment of each members capabilities so they understand why you’re handing certain tasks back to them. ” By using this situation as a learning opportunity for Jamie, this will help to get him motivated and work to determine the reason for the overage and be able to explain it and find a solution on how to fix it. 3. 4 “Are You Delegating So It Sticks? ” By Lauren Keller Johnson 3. 14 What part of the situation is relevant to this article? In this situation, the part that is relevant to this article would be where Jim has the article conclude is the root cause of the problem? The root cause of this robber could be that Jim did not fully explain the job requirements to Jamie and what his expectations are. Thus, Jim was displaying one of the barriers to delegation. Since Jim did not give Jamie a full and adequate explanation of his duties, it would make Jim appear to be indispensable as Jamie would need his help.
I believe this might be the root cause given Jim has been with five different companies over 35 years and has only been working for Highlight Engineering for the past two years. Another root cause of this situation could be that Jim has delegated the responsibility to Jamie to handle the Engineer on recording job acquirement but Jamie is bored, or uninterested in the job jobs. This could be seen over the following couple of months after Jamie reports that an error has occurred and the contractor was over paid.
It seems like his performance has remained at an inadequate level. 3. 34 What action will I take based on this article (and the root cause determined above? ) I would make sure that Jamie has a full understanding of what is understood of him and what his job requirements are so he can move forward from the point of coming to me with the error that he made and figure out a resolution to the issue. If the root cause is that he is interested in the jobs, then it is important to find a way to make him more interested in his jobs and workload.
As Johnson states, “delegate in ways to enable people to stretch, and treat mistakes as growth opportunities. Explain your assessment of each member’s capabilities so they understand why you’re handing certain tasks back to them. ” By using this situation as a learning opportunity for Jamie, this will help to get him motivated and to begin to work on determining the reason for the overage. This will enable him to explain the issue and find a solution on how to fix it. 3. 45 What outcome do I expect from this action (based on the principles of the article? I would expect that by finding ways to delegate the task to Jamie where he senses a chance to grow will get him interested in the jobs where he will work harder and more effectively to find solutions. With using this situation as a learning lesson to teach him what went wrong and what is required to prevent this situation from happening again will be better for himself as well as Highlight Engineering. 3. 06 “Pygmalion in Management” By J. Sterling Livingston 3. 16 What part of the situation is relevant The part of this situation that is relevant to this article would be what expectations Jamie thought Jim had for his work.
In the beginning Jim hired Jamie without an interview based off of Lorry’s suggestion and given the role as Engineer on record for the project, and told Jamie that if there were any issues to make sure to call him immediately. 3. 26 What would the article conclude is the root cause of the problem? I believe that the root cause of this situation, based off of this article, would be that Jim set impossible expectations for Jamie being that he hired him without an interview, gave him the Engineer on recording jobs and stepped back giving
Jamie full freedom with the only constraint being that if any issues arose to contact him immediately. I believe that this is the cause that Jamie began to decrease his performance over the course of the five months leading up to when Jamie reported to Jim that he had made an overpayment to the contractor and was unable to explain why or how with reports or calculations. At this point I would say that Jim started expecting less of Jamie, which is why his during the couple of months that Jim was investigating Jasmine’s reports and calculations to try and find an explanation.
Jim also then proceeded to bring over people from there projects to re-measure and re-calculate all of the quantities for the project. 3. 36 What action will take based on this article (and the root cause determined above? ) I would take the action that it is very important to believe in myself as a manager and believe that Jamie will be able to rise to the challenge and will be able to find an explanation along with finding possible solutions on how to rectify the situation. I could also put Jamie with another person, possibly under Jasmine’s command, that has been successful on another project and that I have confidence in.
Having Jamie work with someone that that will help to deviate Jamie and show my confidence in Jasmine’s ability. 3. 46 What outcome do I expect from this action (based on the principles of the article? ) I would expect that Jamie will understand that I have high expectations for him and that he will rise to the challenge to find the reason and explanation for the overpayment error and find a solution as to how to rectify the situation and regain confidence in Highlight Engineering’s construction management practices, by the City and Federal Government. . 0 Action Plan: In the beginning of this paper I stated the situation that I believed, at the time of y project proposal, could have been prevented by micromanaging, although throughout this course I have realized that micromanaging might not have prevented this issue at all and might have just made things much worse. My action plan would be to first sit down with Jamie to discuss the events leading up to this overpayment to the contractor to get a better idea of what exactly went wrong.
The next step I would take would be to make sure that Jamie has a full understanding of what the Engineer on recording jobs requires and what my expectation of him are. Next, find out from Jamie what is needed of me to alp him get things back on track and to resolve this situation, if he needs more manpower to help him with the workload then I would work to move someone over from one of the other projects.