Professional Documents
Culture Documents
PMD15 PDF
PMD15 PDF
PART C — (4 × 10 = 40 marks)
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company. These reports contained very detailed
analysis about spending or revenue patterns. The
business and accounting graduates who were
recruited by the company considered as an
assignment in the budget department a
prestigious, appointment, and as a result, the
budget department could hire or select eager,
energetic employees; however to those ambitions
“go-getters” the reports were boring and tedious.
Their view was quite different from Nancy’s; she
saw these reports as invaluable training exercise.
After preparing a draft work – up of the report,
the specialists would send the draft to Nancy for
review and inspection. Busy with many other
tasks, Nancy would glance than over, then have
her secretary return the report back to the
specialists who prepared it. The specialists, young
and eager to learn, were expecting some feedback
on how well they had produced the reports, so that
they could learn enough for their future auditing
tasks; Nancy felt she was too busy, though and did
not add any commentary to the reports.
Because Nancy just glanced at the reports and did
not give the specialists any helpful instructions in
preparing them, the reports were often sent out
with errors. The department head who received a
faulty report would directly call the specialists
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[P.T.O.]
who prepared it. After few faulty reports the
communications from the higher ranking
department head to the junior specialist became
hostile and rancorus. Since Nancy was completely
bypassed in this communication. She could not
learn of any problems, much less act to help
correct them. Over a period of a few months, the
number of errors grew, and the relations between
the departments heads and the specialists became
tense and hostile.
The specialists shared the some open office space.
Wherever a specialists experienced problems;
Moreover, they felt they were getting no support
from Nancy. As they experienced more hostility
from outside department, they become more
antagonistic towards Nancy. They would often sit
together and discuss how badly things were going.
They believed that Nancy was ignoring and not
helping them, and that there was a lot of
information. She was keeping from them.
Over the months, the specialists send more time
taking together, sympathizing and complaining.
Indeed, the more they talked to one another, the
bolder they become in talking with friends – or
any one else who would listen – out side their
department. They made no secret of their
dissatisfaction and displeasure with Nancy. The
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same kind of disgruntled communication spread
among the different departments heads. However,
they complained to an another about the poor
quality of the budget reports they were receiving
and about how Nancy had things “Screwed up”
But as far as Nancy know, every one – specialists
and department heads alike – was happy and
satisfied with the work of the budget department.
After about 5 months, enough news of the budget
department, Nancy’s boss to move him to act;
finally, on a Monday morning as Nancy was
waking to her desk, her boss asked to see her in
his office. She was shocked when he said; “Nancy,
what in the hell’s gone wrong in budget? I’m
getting calls from department heads who say they
can’t get a correct budget report. And I keep
hearing rumors about all these budget specialist
who are threatening to quite the first chance they
get. Get this problem fixed soon, or I may need to
take some strong action myself”.
Nancy left, visibly shaken. When she reached her
office, she uncharacteristically closed the door,
dropped her briefcase on the floor and sank into
her chair. She stared straight ahead, focusing on
nothing in particular, and thought; “What in the
hell happened? And what do I do now”?
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Questions :
(a) Describe how Nancy’s assumption about
employee problems affected her management
practices.
(b) What step should she take to improve her
training responsibilities?
(c) What should she do now, after her boss
lecture about dealing with the situation at
hand?
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