Jenn Kerwell
Assignment 1.2 Essay

Danielle brought all four managerial functions noted in the textbook to Numi. One of the most important functions she brought was leadership. She motivates her employees, in a calm but assertive way, to perform at a higher level. She doesn’t ask them to do tasks that she wouldn’t do or hasn’t done herself. To me that speaks volumes because that shows respect for her employees and also it shows that she doesn’t think she’s better than them just because she is the boss. I believe her predecessor was more rigid in her approach and also not prepared for the companies fast growing pace. Danielle also showed great human skills, as did the former manager, but Danielle put forth a team environment whereas the former manager had the employees working individually. I believe that had a lot to do with helping the company be more efficient and swift. Another thing that Danielle is doing is keeping her employees aware of the changes in the company and why the change is needed and important. When employees feel that they really play a major role in the ultimate success of the company, I think they want to work harder and get things done the right way, and that’s why it’s easier to implement the new changes.
Danielle embodies the total quality management approach by doing as I stated above. She focuses on employee involvement by keeping her employees in the loop with the changes needed and why they are important, and by doing that she helps the employees to thrive in quality assurance. Danielle’s main focus is on the customers and I believe that her employees see that and are now more focused on them as well. I don’t really think she did much benchmarking but she did embark on continuous improvement. One thing that she did to help improve the company was implement the “live loads”. The customer service manager stated that in the past if