Question: Case Study: Les’ management challenge

See-MeSheffield, (knownasSMS)is a small,butrapidly growing,marketingcompany that is wholy owned by its German parent company whose values are Integrity, Innovation, Compassion, Excellence in Execution and Inclusion.

SMS has beenoperatingfor almost10years and employsaroundonehundredpeople in Sheffield, UK. The majority of SMS’s customers are small and medium sized enterprises from across a variety ofindustries. They areall seekingpromptandexpert marketing support with development of their online and physical profiles. Business is good, probably too good. With the pandemic fading away companies are keen to get their brand back in the spotlight, this has put huge pressure on everyone in SMS as the work keeps pouring in.

Leshas beenrecruiteddirectly from university intoher firstlinemanagementrole. She secured the job because she had completed a sandwich year on placement where she worked for a large US based marketing corporation as a brand executive. Les was attracted to the company based of its scale (she could have a large influence on outcomes) and in particular its values of integrity, innovation and compassion (she can't remember the others) but now she's not so sure she made a wise decision.

Les oversees three teams which each specialise in a particular form of marketing; the Social Media team (looking after all things online, Tik Tok, Facebook etc.); the Printed team (who look after marketing in physical media, such as magazines and newspapers) and the Billboard team who look after a mixture of large physical billboards attached to buildings as well as smaller electronic billboards that you find on bus shelters. None of the teams works well with the others, preferring to remain in their silo.

The Social Media team– Its team members are all under 30 years of age and no-one has been there longer than two years. Turnover of staff is very high, with leavers frequently saying better pay, and lack of prestigious clients forced them to leave. Stress was also an issue, with clients always expecting their promotions to go viral. Maria had been off for two months now, initially with covid and now anxiety, and the Human Resources (HR) department had told Les to “geton top of it”,butshe isn’tsure what to do.

Les constantly needs to recruit for the Social Media team as the current process is not working. SMS advertises jobs on a national website and the majority of applicants are from London, who then frequently turn the down the job offer when they find out the pay scales and that they would have to move to Sheffield for their role, despite much of the work being undertaken online. Two people had left last week, and they were already understaffed anyway causing the existing team to complain about being over-worked (or lazy as Les saw it– the American team she had worked in previously would make sure the job was done even it meant staying late AND they each had more clients). She quite enjoys the recruitment part of her role (when she has the time) as it gives her an excuse to be nosey about candidates, looking on social media for inappropriate behaviour, or if they listed an obscure hobby or shared compromising photographs.She hadn’t completed her “unconscious bias” training yet,as she did not think it was relevant.

The Printed team – Almost all of the Printed team has been there since the company was formed. They are all male, with an average age of over 50 and they are often referred to as the “oldies” or “dinosaurs” by the Social Media team. They are the happiest team and content to keep doing what they have always done but don’t like to be stretched to achieve more and are very resistant to change. They’ve started to call Les ‘her highness’ suggesting that Les hasn’t the experience but acts like royalty and demands obedience.

The Billboard team – The Billboard team is a mixture of ages/genders and the most international of the teams, with staff from all over Europe. The German parent company had recently moved 10 employees from France into this team rather than make them redundant, but this had now caused a rift between existing staff (who do not speak French) and the new employees (who do speak fluent English) but were also very happy to remain as an independentgroup solely speaking French. Les knew she needed to do something about how the Billboard team worked together. Frankly, right now they didn’t really work together at all.

Zach from the Billboard team had commissioned a billboard opposite a school advertisingafast-foodoutlet,knowingfullwellthatitwas inappropriate(andpotentially not compliant with advertising standards). It had caused a huge number of complaints and was front page news on the local paper, but the attention on the brand was fantastic, achieving much more than he could have done within the budget, so he thought it had been very successful. Sam (Les' boss) has said that Zach has done a greatjobandshouldbepraised.Les however is wonderingwherethecompany's value of integrity is in this decision, and she worries that congratulating Zach will set a precedent for poor behaviour across the team. On top of this, the recognition seems to have caused Zach to abandon his duties, he now focuses on just 2 rather than his 20 clients and has been turning up late for work. Les is unsure what to do with Zach.

Nihal (from the Social media team) had spoken to her last week about career development and asked Les what he could do to move into a management position. Les (secretly) knew that he had applied for her job as Tracey from HR had told her. Nihal had wanted to investigate and discuss the options open to him but Les saw this as a threat to her leadership, so had simply told him a list of (impossible) tasks that had sent him away despondent.

The three teams were physically separated in different parts of the building as well as psychologically, thinking each was the best. It was not uncommon for beautifully designed “fake” posters to appear in different parts of the building ridiculing another team.Les thoughtitwas probably Zach (Billboard) and Bob (Social Media) butdoesn’t know what to do. If only they could all get along!

The Social Media team consumed all of Les’ development budget as it was obviously very important to keep the most technical team up to date with the latest knowledge. The Billboard team had asked for further training butLes told them to talk to the Social Media team and learn from them. The Printed team don’t think they need any development, but they are currently missing opportunities to collaborate with the other 5 teams togenerate morerevenue.They continuetohavetheir 10am wholeteam coffee breaks “to share knowledge and potential new opportunities” as they had frequently told Les. She just saw it as an excuse to gossip and has plans to stamp it out – it is such a waste oftime! She has already drafted the email thattold them from nextweek, it would be a disciplinary issue. She was sure she was right and didn’t need to talk to her manager and certainly not the team in advance of her official communication.

Les has carried out performance appraisals for the Social Media and Billboard teams (she left the Printed team to get on with it and set themselves some ‘useful team targets’). HR dictates the process and the forms that must be completed by Les. Everyone had been given the targets from senior management to “be 10% more effective” and “reduce costs by 5%” but Les wasn’t exactly sure what that meant so she ignored it. She struggled to understand the company values when “Integrity” felt more like “Do as I say, rather than as I do” given the tacit approval of Zach’s billboard campaign and following a recent scandal concerning office expenses.

Pay was always a contentious topic and the recent pay-review had not been received well, further widening the gulf of hostility between the three teams. Les has given the largest pay award to the Social Media team (“we need to recruit more people”), some to the Billboard team (“they should be thankful that they still have jobs”) and a very small award to the Printed team (“they’ve all bought their own homes so don’t need it”). Les was keen to see how she could improve retention using other incentives and has persuaded Sam that the company join the “Cycle to work” scheme that provides cheaper bicycles for staff to then ride to work. She also wants to get free gym membership as she knows a healthy work force is more productive and that everyone enjoys going to the gym. She sees these as great ideas as they are based around being environmentally friendly and keeping fit, which are subjects she personally feels very passionate about.

Sam is very compassionate but Les doesn’t think she is very effective, and is far too soft–why wouldshecongratulateZachrather thandisciplinehim for his poor choices? Every timeLes goes toSam withanissue,Sam wouldalways ask her questions “What is the situation?”, “What could you do?”, “What should you do?” rather than telling her the answer, which she found incredibly frustrating. Once, Les had stormed out of a meeting with Sam, shouting “Just tell me the answer!”. Les doesn’t feel like she had aclear directionfrom Sam,sheis awarethatSamhas targets,butthey arenotformally shared. Sam hasn’t identified any development for Les as part of Les’ performance appraisal discussion – instead she asked Les to identify what she thinks she needs – “how would I know what I need, except a new boss?” thinks Les. Sam originally came from the Printed team,and she loved being the only woman there,and still makes time to join them occasionally for their ‘coffee break’ which Les thinks just undermines her efforts to get the Printed team more focused on generating output and revenue for the business. Sam has also set some diversity targets for recruitment in both the Printed and Social Media teams, as they are not very inclusive. Les finds this really frustrating as it is difficult getting anyone to apply, regardless of worrying about whether they bring something different to the team.

Les needed to get ready for her cross-team meeting. She dreads these, even though there is only 3 other people - an elected representative from each team. Somehow, she needed all the teams to agree on certain topics and thought that by having a representative from each team, it would work, having fewer voices at the table, but it always seems to just turn into a shouting match, where she has to shout the loudest to be heard.

Les had spentthe last2 hours trying to work outwhy people justwouldn’tdowhatthey were told. It is now lunch time, she leans back in her chair, sighs aloud and with no-one around, flicks onto the job adverts website.

Case study assessment task

The essay should be 3,500 words (plus or minus 10%).

Using HIGH QUALITY * research and APPROPRIATE^ organisational case studies, answer all the following questions in your individual essay (there are more notes on how to do this below – so keep reading):

Case Study questions

There are three questions that all have to be answered.

1. Critically analyse the case study situation and apply theory in the identification of the key issues and challenges that Les is facing in her job. (We suggest this should need around 25% of your word count – you can use examples from across the case study to answer this question).

2. Provide justified and critically-argued actions (using theory and organisational examples) that address the following:

a. How Les,thelinemanager, couldimprovetheperformanceofthepeople in her teams in your three chosen topic areas – one from each theme. (We suggest this should need around 25% of your word count).

We have identified the themes in the schedule of study. Simply put you need to choose one topic from each of the following:

• One from ‘The Context’ theme

a) Devolving HR to Line Managers and the role of a Line Manager

b) Talent management, acquisition (recruitment and selection) and development (learning and development)

c) Psychological contract including Justice/Equity/Fairness and ethical working

d) Diversity and Inclusion

e) The International Manager and Cross-Cultural Management

• One from ‘The Individual’ theme

a) Coaching and the line manager as coach b) Performance management and appraisal c) Managing underperformance

d) Absence management

e) Employee health and wellbeing

• One from ‘The Team’ theme

a) Leadership and management skills including Emotional Intelligence

b) Followership and Teamwork c) Decision making in teams

d) Employee engagement, emotional wellbeing and teams

e) Supporting team cohesion and collaborations (including managing conflict)

b. How Sam (Les’ manager), could improve her relationship with Les and support Les in her first line management role. What do you see are Sam’s strengths when it comes to team leadership and where do you think Sam could change to improve her line management? (We suggest this should need around 20% of your word count – you can use examples from across the case study to answer this question).

Reflection on your learning from the module

3. Using theory to illustrate your discussion, how has your thinking about line management changed as a consequence of your learning on this module? Compare your initial thoughts from week 1 with your understandings in the final week. (We suggest this should need around 20% of your word count – you can use learning from across the module to help you answer this question).

The final 10% of your word count relates to your introduction and conclusion. This should be viewed as a minimum figure, and you may wish to borrow a few words from the suggestions above to make sure you produce both a sound introduction and conclusion that appropriately structures your work.

* By High Quality Research we are looking for you to reduce the number of text books you use and increase your use of journal articles and other academic texts. We would like you to focus on resources accessible from Google Scholar and organisations such as the CIPD and ILM. If you find yourself using the first source that appears in a conventional ‘Google’ search – then it’s very likely NOT to be the quality we are looking for!