Lipa City Colleges

ORGANIZATION Graduate School

AND MANAGEMENT
rd
MPA – 3 Trimester SY 2020-21

Controlling

Learning Activity 2. Jupiter Drug Corporation: Crying Time

Ms. Justina Concepcion has been working for the past 3 years as branch manager
of Jupiter Drug Corporation in Cabanatuan City. As branch manager, she oversees the
operations of 5 stores located in different parts of the city. The stores open at 8:00AM.
Each store is manned by a store manager plus 9 other employees consisting of an
inventory clerk, a cashier, a utility boy and 6 salespersons.

Ms. Concepcion has the full authority to hire and fire any employee within her
branch except the store managers. It was one morning when she was browsing on various
documents forwarded to her, that she noticed 4 letters of resignation. The letters were
prepared by 2 cashiers and 2 salespersons. She thought that she must act quickly on the
resignations. The letters indicated reasons that she finds hard to accept. One employee
stated that he is resigning because he would attend to the needs of the family farm.

With Ms. Concepcion’s experience with the company, one resignation per year is
considered normal, but 4 resignations in a month is too much, she thought. She
immediately contacted a trusted employee to seek out the real reasons. She found out that
the 2 cashiers made a written request 2 months earlier about swapping assignments with
one another. They said that once approved, their new assignments will bring them within
walking distance of their residences.

One of the salespersons resigning indicated that she was confused in doing her
job. Most of her time is spent on entertaining customers, but at other times, she is ordered
to perform bookkeeping functions. When she was reprimanded by the store manager for
logging in the lowest sales records, she filed her resignation.

The other salesperson resigned because he thought the store manager was unfair
to him when an amount equivalent to 3 days absence was deducted from his weekly
earnings. The salesperson objected by saying he made one day absence on account of
illness. The store manager, however, was not convinced.

Ms. Concepcion is now considering the moves she will have to make.

QUESTIONS:

1. What possible communication errors may have been committed by the branch
manager? By the concerned store manager?
2. What measures must be instituted to prevent the recurrence of such problem?

ANSWERS:

1. The possible communication error that may have been committed by the branch
manager is that she did not properly and effectively communicate to her staff and
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did not explain well the responsibilities and obligations of them, that’s why one of
the salesperson was confused in doing her job. Mrs. Conception should provide
them with clear standards and expectations for their work. A proper
understanding of responsibilities is a main function of effective communication
which leads to engaging staff and reducing turnover. A person will perform
according to what she perceives she is supposed to do. There are also physical
barrier between the branch manager and the two cashiers because Mrs.
Concepcion found out that the two cashiers made a written request two months
earlier about swapping assignments with one another. She wasn't able to
provide feedback maybe because of communication barriers. A communication
channel that is overloaded may also prevent important information from reaching
the intended user. While, the possible communication error that may have been
committed by the concerned store manager is that there is a personal barrier
between the store manager and the other salesperson. People with different
values will find it hard to communicate with each other. Poor listening habits of a
receiver which is the store manager frustrate the communication efforts of the
sender on the other hand the salesperson. Practice what you preach, i.e. listen
to others, and act quickly and appropriately on their questions, complaints,
suggestions, issues, etc. This is probably the most important aspect of
developing an atmosphere of openness. People have to be consistently treated
as if they and their ideas and opinions matter. If that doesn't happen, you might
as well forget the rest of this section.

2. To prevent the recurrence of such problems the branch manager and the store
manager should learn from their errors. They should also do the following:
 Communicate face-to-face, and give them the chance to respond and
steer the conversation;
 Ask the team to voice their frustrations in a constructive manner;
 Use feedback to facilitate understanding and increased the potential for
appropriate action by organizing a meeting to explain well how their
contribution has benefited the Jupiter Drug Corporation;
 Allow them to take the pulse of the organization and understand its
overall situation;
 Help them maintain a shared vision and a sense of ownership in the
organization
 Provide people the information they need to do their jobs effectively; and
 Make sure they know about anything that concerns them.

Prepared by:

Kathlyn M. Mayo
MPA