I.

Statement of Problem

SmartStyle Salon is one of the six local hair salons associated with a large retail store chain in the
Southeast, and it is also one of the five chain store groups under the Gold Group Umbrella.

One of the branches of SmartStyle Salon is being managed by Ms. Jamika Westbrook, who has worked
her way to the top. She is handling and supervising 30 staff that consists of hairdressers, a nail
technician, receptionists, shampoo assistants, and a custodian. She is competitive in her position and
have set fourth her priorities. Initially, the said branch is one of the corporate’s top performers but
due to economic depression its sales started to go down.

Since the performance is not good, the management wants Jamika to report about the branch’ sales
and status the next morning.

Working under pressure, with limited time to do the report, limited workforce (2 of her hairdressers
took their unscheduled leave and without prior notice), and pressure for her promotion (to get the
managerial position at Riverwood Mall - the top-performing salon located in an upscale area of the
city), Jamika is already stressed out and is having a hard time in controlling her temper. Things get out
of hand for Ms. Jamika and the only way out is to handle these situations in a way that managers
should.

II. Objective

To help Ms. Westbrook understand the manager roles and skills that managers should possess by
answering the ff:

1. The positive and negative managerial characteristics she possesses

2. How these traits help or hinder her potential to get to the top position at the Riverwood Mall
Salon
3. How she should have handled incidents with Marian, Holly and Carol Jean, and Victoria.
III. Areas of Consideration / Major Assumptions

Below is the personal SWOT speciafically made for Ms. Westbrook.

Weaknesses:
Strengths:
* easily distracted
* hard worker (climbed her way to top)
* negative mindset
* goal - oriented
* lack of soft skills
* trustworthy
* not calm under pressure
*motivated
*micromanage and insecure

SWOT ANALYSIS OF
MS. WESTBROOK

Opportunities:
Threats:
* Gain experience in managing people
* not landing her dream position
* be the manager at the biggest salon
* being unsupported at work
branch
*disliked by staff
*achieve target

Figure above is a SWOT Analysis for Ms. Westbrook. As we can see, there are positive traits (strengths)
and negative traits (weaknesses) that can either make or break her goal of being promoted into the
largest branch of the salon.

In addition, these are other areas of consideration in the case:

a. Lack of innovation/adaptability to changing conditions

Due to economic depression, the sales of the branch started to go down. The management /
corporate should have least made some revisions regarding the price of the services of the salon
or think of other ways on how the consumers will still be devoted the salon.
b. Lack of human skills
The management should have at least provided a training for all the employees for continuous
improvement. It may be a training or a seminar for potential hairdressers / nail technicians and
other services that the salon is offering.

c. Lack of planning
Planning is the most important part in achieving goals. As a manager, Jamika should have
implemented a framework of employees regarding their leaves. For example, 2 or more
hairdressers cannot be both on leave during peak season. In addition, plans to counter the
economic downturn through different promos/marketing strategies should be put in place.

d. Final Monthly Reports should be done regularly

This is their way to measure if the sales is going up or not and it is also their way to determine if
the branch reached their monthly quota or if the branch is profitable or not

e. Lack of Leading (We not me mindset)

Managers get things done by coordinating and motivating other people. Based on the situation,
Jamika should not be feared by Victoria’s doings; instead she should have been commended
Victoria for being a good assistant manager.

f. Lack of Controlling
Jamika should set a rule within the salon regarding unwarranted leaves or surprise leaves. Just on
the given situation, she let the 2 top hairdressers to take their surprise leaves without proper
notice before since.

V. Conceptual Framework

A manager’s job requires a range of skills: conceptual, human, and technical. As shown below, the
skills changes as Jamika got promoted from a staff to managerial position
 JANIKA AS A STAFF

11%
TECHNICAL SKILL

25% HUMAN SKILL

CONCEPTUAL SKILL
64%

JANIKA AS A MANAGER

15%
TECHNICAL SKILL
45%
HUMAN SKILL
CONCEPTUAL SKILL
40%

Technical skills include understanding and proficiency of the specified tasks. Human skills involve
ability to work effectively with people, while conceptual skills include the cognitive ability to see the
organization as a whole system. As we can see, conceptual skills required for Ms. Westbrook increased
as compared to when she was a staff. These three set of skills combined will make a difference to the
managers. These will become their competencies when faced with adversities.

Aside from the three skills, there are also 10 manager roles that are subdivided into three (Mintzberg,
1973): Informational, Interpersonal and Decisional.
VI. Alternative Courses of Action

Ms. Westbrook can choose any and/all of the ff:

1. Improve technical, human and conceptual skills by attending trainings and seminars for managers
2. Be mindful of manager roles such as: informational, interpersonal and decisional.
3. Create and plan goals and innovate of ways to achieve them.
4. Be an enabler. Motivate your employees to develop “Me not we” attitude.
VII. Recommendations

A good manager is someone who is professional and stays calm and could work even under pressure.
She is someone who knows how to motivate and empower her staff, who commend efforts and
reprimand of wrong doings.

I recommend Ms. Westbrook to initially acknowledge what is going on. She should be able to maintain
her calm under pressure. Further, she should avoid and not engage in emotional outburst in the office
since it is really not helpful. I recommend her to stay calm and think of a contingency plan instead if 2
of her top hairdressers were on leave. And for those 2 hairdressers, a punishment should be done for
taking a surprise leave without prior notice given that there are customers scheduled to be done by
those 2 employees.

Ms. Westbrook shouldn’t be insecure of Ms. Viktoria, Instead. She should inspire her to becoming
who she wanna be.