Cassio Ferreira
MGT-600 Narative and Final Write up
Narrative:
Peggy and Kimberly are loan processors for Acme Bank, a large, global bank. Their job responsibilities include contacting loan applicants and branch loan officers, requesting needed documentation (employment and income verification), ordering vendor services (appraisals, credit reports etc.), and setting up loan closings with the loan applicants. They are compensated with a salary and a monthly bonus based on the number of loans closed. They work in a call center environment off the front lines where the applications are taken by loan officers. Dan is Peggy and Kimberly’s manager. In addition to Peggy and Kimberly, he has thirteen other loan processors that report to him. Under Dan’s management each loan processor is assigned a market. While he makes changes to the assigned markets from time to time, each processor is expected to develop a relationship with their assigned market. The higher performing processors are assigned markets that have higher application volume and therefore, more likely to yield a large bonus. Dan sees this as a reward system where the best processors get the best markets. Peggy is one of the top performers. She was given the San Francisco Bay area as her market. The market is one of the wealthiest in the country and full of credit worthy applicants. She has a good relationship with the market and always receives a bonus. Peggy is in her mid-fifties and is primarily working to put her two children through college and then enjoy retirement with her husband. Kimberly, on the other hand, is one of the lowest performers. She was given a market known as Nevada Growth Market. A name, which despite sounding positive, has little potential for growth. Kimberly struggles to make bonus and only receives one about half the time. She has a reputation among her co-workers as being a bit lazy, and attendance has been a problem in the past. Although younger, Kimberly was in her mid-thirties and had about the same amount of experience as Peggy.
Why is Kimberly the one chosen? Perhaps mentioning how all others were too busy to handle, or briefing the selection criteria for market replacement. One Monday, Dan came into the office and checked his voicemails. The first message was from a very distraught Peggy. She had called the previous Friday night. Her husband had a heart attack and had died. This was of course terrible news and Dan knew that Peggy would be out for some time. He called Peggy and offered his condolences and told her to take as much time as she needed. He was willing to work with her to get any additional time that the company policies on bereavement leave would not allow. While Peggy’s news was terrible, work had to continue. Dan had some decisions to make. First and foremost was who to assign to Peggy’s market. It was a busy time and all of his top processors could not take on the additional work load. He thought that Kimberly would be the best option simply based on workload. Her market plus Peggy’s would be large, but it would be ok for a few weeks. He also thought it might give Kimberly motivation to perform better than her history would suggest.
Dan then brought his team into a meeting and told them about Peggy. He also informed Kim that she would be assigned Peggy’s market while Peggy was out. Kim, not enthused, asked, “Well… how long is Peggy going to be out?” Dan was already beginning to question his decision to assign Kimberly, but decided to stick with it.
Discussion Questions: 1. Did Dan make the right choice in assigning Kimberly to work Peggy’s market? 2. What are some potential negative outcomes of his decision? 3. What alternative solutions could Dan have considered?
Outcome:
Peggy was out for approximately one month. During this time Kimberly struggled to keep up with the assignment. Dan was routinely receiving complaints that Kimberly was not communicating with loan officers and applicants. Dan tried to manage the complaints by assuring the callers that Kimberly was doing her best but was a bit behind. Dan even tried to help take on the work load himself, but struggled to offer much assistance because he still had thirteen other processors to manage on a daily basis.
When Peggy returned, she was not the same person. She was still grieving and it was obvious that the stress of suddenly losing her husband had taken its toll. She was no longer friendly and out going. She was angry that her market was such a mess. She confronted Dan about the situation, questioning why he would select Kimberly as her back up. Kimberly over heard this and became upset. The team as a whole became divided some thinking Peggy had a right to be upset, others thinking Peggy was being harsh. Overall, there was a feeling that Dan had mismanaged the situation and was the real reason for the conflict. Dan became defensive of his decision, which further alienated both Peggy and Kimberly. His team continued to be divided, and what was a well functioning group was quickly falling apart.
Discussion Questions: 1. What can Dan do to resolve the issue? 2. Were the processors justified in thinking that Dan mismanaged Peggy’s absence?
Write-up:
Dan clearly mismanaged this situation. He was not prepared for an extended absence of one of his top performers, lacked creativity in assigning Peggy’s work, failed to recognize that his decision was not working, and did not communicate well in the end to resolve the conflict.
Dan’s decision to assign markets based on performance was a cause of the inevitable conflict. By giving the biggest and best markets to his best processors, he painted himself into a corner. He essentially had no way of dealing with an extended absence other than using his lowest performers as back ups. Using this model, his team could survive a short absence, but more than a week long absence was problematic. Dan could have distributed the workload better to start with, this would have given him more flexibility in a crisis situation. Dan could have used a more creative solution to support Peggy’s market while she was out. Instead of giving the entire volume to Kimberly, he could have broken it up to several of his other processors. While this may confuse the market as to whom their processor is, it would have better supported the market. The complaints may have still come in, but it would have preserved his team. He could have also discussed the situation with his other processors and managers to find volunteers to take on the work load or come up with more alternatives. When the complaints did come in, Dan could have been more pro-active to either remove Kimberly from the situation or use it as a training exercise to improve her performance. By neglecting to take action at this point, Dan was failing both Kimberly and Peggy, and to a larger extent his team.
When Peggy did return, Dan should have expected that she would not be the same person. He could have taken her aside and explained his decision. He could have offered apologies for not handling it the best way possible and offer any assistance to help get her market back on track. Instead he let the situation fester and it became a larger problem than it needed to be.
Good management requires a manager to be pro-active and creative. No one wants to have to manager through a crisis and an extended absence, but it is an inevitability for managers. Some extended absences, like maternity leave, can be planned in advance, but a manager must always be ready to deal with an illness, injury, or even death. By giving yourself flexibility to start with, you are setting yourself up for success when an unforeseen absence occurs. Being prepared may not be enough though, you also have to be able to adjust when you recognize that your management decisions are not working. In the worst case scenarios, there is not going to be a perfect solution. Sometimes you have to stand by your decisions and just do your best to make it better going forward.