| YOUR SCORE1.2505.7111.5.5.42 | TOTAL SCOREYOUR GRADE | 18.3C- | Julie,Some foundational problems, including excessively long and unfocused paragraphs and unorganized outline. However, you’ve covered the assignment pretty well. I understand what change you want to have at this company with some obvious management problems. | |

Management and Processes

Julie Brito

BUS340 Business Communications

Steve Freeman

February 13, 2012

Management and Processes Agencies are only as good as the people who make up their staffs and it is a matter of time before Zimmerman Advertising finds itself without a willing and able employee staff. The agency is run like a sweat shop and management makes it seem at times as if you owe loyalty and should be proud to be part of the “Zimmermite” colt. This agency is primarily known because of its creative and statistic research before and after the marketing campaign is rolled out on any of the agency’s over 300 retail and automotive accounts. Sadly, this agency grew from a three person hole in the wall to a multi-billion dollar agency in a short 15 year span and management had great ideas for business growth. However, it failed at implementing a strategy for office growth. With this lack in interdepartmental communication, communication, and accountability employees are constantly unhappy and stressed in their work environment. These feelings of low morale and dissatisfaction will be reflected in the productivity of the department, as well as the amount of turn over within a department. Employees who don’t feel some motivation, satisfaction, or sense of loyalty from their employers will not be productive for that employer. These conditions bring loses to the company in the form of high employee turn-over, which in return affects the company’s reliability since it will be continuously bringing in and training new employees.
Current Conditions
The Zimmerman media department, with an average of two resignations monthly, has the highest level of employee turn-over within the agency; therefore, this is the department that will require a careful review of employees, processes, and work-load evaluation. The media department communicates with every department within the agency at one point of planning or implementing every campaign or company pitch. Current workload includes a little over 300 clients in 568 markets across the country on a local and national level. All handled by 35 employees split into supervisors, senior buyers, buyers, and assistants. Workloads are strenuous. In many cases impossible to complete within a normal work day. When entering the department everyone is upset, angry, and cursing. The supervisors seem to bark orders from their desks or use bold or capitalized wording for emphasis in their emails. Taking lunch, as described and allowed within the employee manuals, is frowned upon. Laptops are also provided and supervisors repeatedly request that buyers log on from home to finish any incomplete work; however, no overtime or free time is offered or given as compensation. Everyone seems to be so overworked and stressed that no one is content being in the office. Current morale levels in the media department of Zimmerman Advertising are tense, unfavorable, and undesirable. With minimal acknowledgment from the senior executives within this department, the middle-management has little desire to change processes or the employee approach. Those who do attempt to improve the protocol eventually fizzle out and lose motivation. In the end, the department has the highest level of employee turn-over within the entire agency.
Recommended Changes in Processes “Motivation helps to create a working environment by helping to formulate appropriate policies and programs. Actually, the clearly defined job descriptions of different categories of employees and timely feedback from a manager or a chief executive motivate the concerned employees to do better performance for organizational uplift.” (2010, August 16) Streamlining changes in the communication methods of the supervisors with the buyers and in the departmental processes within the agency with the media department would help alleviate some of the pressures and stresses within the department. Setting up one method and protocol on how situation are to be handled will help employees know what is expected of them and how they are to react in a difficult situation. Additionally setting up a standard method of keeping and organizing files will streamline the process so that any buyer can look at a file or an account and know what was and what was not done with the work order. Simple fixes such as keeping all the files in a central location in a uniform filling manner would be a start to making the necessary elements to finish a day’s work accessible and searchable for all staff members within the department.
Recommended Changes in Personal A negative personality and attitude can corrupt and be detrimental to an entire department. The associate director, Shereene Kahn, who is responsible for the process of all the supervisors within the department as well as interdepartmental communications between the media department and other departments within the agency, is a very hostile woman. She does not explain herself well, is not skilled with adapting her approach for different employee personalities. She does not train employees, but hold them accountable when things are not completed in the specific manner she wants. Since she is aggressive in her verbal and written communications with the supervisors, in turn the supervisors portray the same approach with their employee teams. Obviously, she is not the ideal person for a position of constant change within this agency. An individual who is warm, caring, and yet stern is needed in this position. He or she must be able to adapt to different personalities in different situations with both clients and employees. They must also be open to change and quick to think of solutions for unexpected issues. Playing on the positive strengths of an individual’s quality skill set will help pull this departs out of the negative image it current hold on too.
Implementation
“Employers should pay close attention to how young people are affected by a negative workplace given the large numbers of older workers retiring in the next 10 years.”The battle for talent has already started and it will only intensify in the coming years," says Rieschi. "Young people entering the labor market will increasingly have many work options. To attract and retain talent, employers must be attuned to their needs and understand if they fit well within the organization" (2012, October 21). With the swift removal of negative personalities from within upper level management in the department along with evaluation and training in positive behavior support strategies, this department may have the cancel of changing its image as the overall hiring environment changes in the coming years.

References
Supervisory Roles and the Man in the Middle: Dock Foremen
Stephen Hill
The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Jun., 1973), pp. 205-221
Published by: Blackwell Publishing on behalf of The London School of Economics and Political Science
Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/588379

Happy employees. (2010, August 16). Himalayan Times, Retrieved February 27, 2012, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 2111651971).

Half of working Canadians have trouble fitting in at work: Poll. (21 October). Canada NewsWire, Retrieved February 27, 2012, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1579796381).