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Lyndon Brook’s Story Case Summary : Jensen Shoes, a premium shoes company for children and adults, was founded In 1953. This company was known for valuing their human resources as much as products. In the early sass’s, sale business began to gradually shrink. Sally Briggs, Vice President of marketing, was assigned to identify opportunities for new products and markets. Chuck Taylor, the director of strategic division, asked Jane Gravity as the product manager of casual wear, her responsibility was to develop a new marketing plan.
Gravity took in Lyndon Brooks, who would be in charge of planning a marketing plan for the African American and Latino markets. Lyndon was an expert, but at the same time he was unenthusiastic. The main issue was that Lyndon had some expectation from company In term of nature of work and career growth opportunities while Joggling the company, however the projects and team he was assigned with didn’t meet his expectations. Her manager Jane Karakul tried to take the situation with open time and understand the scenario but her micro management approach damaged the relationship between the two further.
After her few attempts, she began to think about terminating Lyndon by documenting his overall performance. Whereas Lyndon continue to be unsatisfied at work place and denominated to perform the task at hand. Analysis : Upon receiving her new role as manager, Jane Gravity was already conscious of the responsibilities that came with her new position. Incorporated in these responsibilities would be overseeing a staff that she may not have personally selected. In Cane’s case, she was given a staff of three to manage, one of them being a man named Lyndon Brooks.
As a manager who is very aware of her situation, Jane Leary saw that Lyndon was not in her boss’s greatest support. Having worked with Lyndon only a handful of times, Jane thought that Lyndon was very “professional and charming. ” Though at first, hearing her boss’s repulsive impression of Lyndon, she inferred that given the right motivation, Lyndon would certainly impress the boss. What were Brooked’ assumptions about Karakul’s abilities, attitude and motivations? On what were these assumptions based? Lyndon Brooks knew Jane Karakul earlier through some committee work and thought she Is a genuine person to work with.
He as ready to appreciate her style of management In their first meeting and he felt she had a good track record. However as they worked together, Brooks found that she NAS more AT controlling Attlee, snorted meanness Ana Like to micro manage tattlers. She was looking for each bits and pieces of details about the projects Lyndon was working on and interested to know about the plan in details. When Brooks was working on environmental project Jane helped him by starting of some leads and provided support on getting this completed, she didn’t came any easy on him when assigning two more projects of s. O. Of African American and Latino
Vertical market which were supposed to be completed with in the time frame of 4 months while other two members of team were assigned with one project each for working on the duration. Though Brooks raised his concern about getting both of these completed on time, Gravity ignore his concern and forced him to work on those after completing the environment project. Brooks expressed his concerns and unsatisfactory about nature of work he was doing, considering her a ally and someone who can help him out however, she instead of taking any alternative thought about helping him, lately became eager to help him find a new Job.
So, these are some scenarios on which the Brooks thought that Gravity was only concerned about getting the project done and no business about considering employee satisfaction as well as his growth and learning options. What were Gravity’s assumptions about Brooks’ abilities, attitude and motivations? On what were these assumptions based? With an open mind and a lot of faith, Jane Gravity primarily assumed that Lyndon Brook is a great worker, diligent and determined whose only fault was not having the right motivation.
Upon signing him a seemingly unrealistic project, Jane was impressed at how attentive he was at the start of the process. This led Jane to believe that with the right coaching, Lyndon would be a star-staff in no time. His honesty in confiding to Jane that he did not intend to stay in his current position for a long time also led Jane to believe that this is a great step into an effective communication. While her intentions were good, Jane often did not see past first impressions. Cane’s primary ideas of Lyndon were a combination of her first impressions and her willingness to see the best in everyone.
Even though her boss had already given her a less than sterling review of Lyndon, she thought first to defer Judgment and help Lyndon. Seeing Lyndon capability to work hard also pushed her to believe that it can be a continuous effort as long as she remains a nurturing manager. Gravity’s strengths are that she holds a positive expectation towards her staff, which is Lyndon in this case, she’s eager to follow up on the projects her staffs are working on, and she is generous to negotiate with her staffs by offering benefits.
In the beginning of her story, Gravity’s feels confident about Lido’s working Attlee although near Doss Ana toner co-workers toll near Tanat Lyon NAS a very Dad performance report. She is willing to trust Lyndon and tell him to handle several rejects. Later on, when Eldon first finishes the environmental project, Gravity feels that Eldon is doing great in terms of his performance although her boss doesn’t show much impression. In the story, Gravity also mentions that she wants to keep Lyndon happy because his performance is her performance, too.
This kind of attitude shows that Gravity is very thoughtful and wanting to enhance her staffs’ performance by complimenting them. In addition to her positive attitude, she is also very eager to have follow-ups on working progress by having small meetings with her staffs. She constantly shows her are on the projects her staffs are involved in and hold meetings consistently to direct them. For example, when Lyndon finishes his environmental project, Gravity says that she is planning to meet with Eldon so she can review his proposal and discuss about it.
This is very important in management because consistent follow- ups let managers understand what their staffs are doing and can direct them to the right direction. Lastly, Gravitas is very generous in that she is willing to negotiate with her staffs. She also offers benefits to enhance her staffs’ performance. Toward the ending, when Lyndon shows no intention to do any of the s. . Project. “l offered him some time off when we finished the proposal. I even tried to appeal to him on the grounds that he wasn’t Just hurting himself when he resisted doing his s. O. ‘s, but that he penalized me as well. This is also important because managers must know how to deal with all kinds of employees in order to bring out the best result. On the other hand, being too negotiable might also be Gravity’s weakness too. Managers who don’t manage their employees strictly will leave their employees chances to slack off. I think this is one of the reasons why Eldon doesn’t do what he is supposed to do. Eldon will definitely feel the pressure if Gravity tell him that she will fire him if he doesn’t complete the proposals. What Brooks and Gravity have had to do differently to results in a more effective working relationship?
One of the biggest problems in the Jensen Shoes case was a clear lack of communication on all levels of the company. From Gravity’s account, it did not appear as though the Strategic Marketing group held regular meetings to discuss their group objectives and the consequences the group would suffer for not meeting their goals. It should have been clear to Brooks from the beginning that his failure to omelet his s. O. ‘s would have negatively impacted a number of people besides himself. Also, at no point in time did Gravity, Brooks, and Taylor all sit down together in the same room.
More consistent communication among the group as a whole, including Chuck Taylor, would have allowed everyone to share in the accountability for the project, instead of management simply assigning tasks down the ladder. Besides communication, Gravity and Taylor did not do a good Job of motivating others. Gravity began by encouraging Brooks and even rewarding him with a paid lunch, but she regressed as the situation worsened and ultimately resorted to reelects Ana tenants. However, layer never snowed any positive Attlee towards Brooks at all.
He dismissed Brooks’ accomplishments and chose instead to focus on the negatives. From the top down, the company’s motivational methods need to be improved in order to increase employee productivity and morale. Finally, related to the point of Tailor’s negativity, Taylor needs to change his behavior towards Brooks. Tailor’s actions (removing Brooks from a managing position and giving him extra work through special assignments) and attitude (having nothing positive to say about Brooks in performance reviews) could be interpreted as call discrimination.
Jensen Shoes cannot afford to let Tailor’s treatment of Brooks continue because doing so may result in the company facing a lawsuit from Brooks. What were the perceptual biases in the case and how such biases shaped the entire case? Lyndon has an experience in professional marketing and expertise of consumer buying trends. When he Joined Jensen Shoes company, he perceived this place as where he could achieve some of his career goals. However, he turnout to be an unenthusiastic employee for organization’s point of view due to series of events here has little influence.
Her manager Jane tried to keep him happy by offering him time off and throwing him a birthday party, but her interference in his Job and seeking all basic details kept the relationship between the two in worst direction. The situations like Lyndon wanted to go to the trade show in order to do the ground level research but she kept his reasons for going to the trade show vague. Jane then confronted Lyndon and tried to understand his situation. After her final attempt, she began to think about terminating Lyndon after documenting his overall performance.
Initially Jane kept an open minded view of Lyndon despite the poor reports about him from Chuck Taylor, his previous manager. She also believed that she could use her managerial skills to motivate him to do great work. As the two continued to work together, Jane developed new assumptions about Lyndon. She saw that he was unmotivated and lazy at times. She knew that he had the potential to complete the job, but he did not seem like he wanted to. The assumptions made about Brooks were accurate based on his previous performance reviews and his lack of motivation. These assumptions influenced Jane to have a different attitude towards him.