ACME Manufacturing

Case Study

14 March 2022
Assignment 1
Dr. Rasha Wahib
By: Amr El Sayed Hassan
What specific things did Steve do wrong, and what should have been done in
each instance?

Steve made many mistakes concerning the items below:

1- Planning.
2- Setting Priorities and what want to be accomplished first.
3- Time Management.
4- Follow up.
The major mistake in my opinion that Steve made was the planning and accordingly
many other problems happened and it was very obvious in the case and was highlighted
in many situations.

Planning, first of all Steve didn’t plan his work day as he was not aware of the meetings
that he should attend and he needed to be reminded by his secretary Ruth that he should
attend a meeting with the production vice president accordingly he went to the meeting
unprepared and had no contribution as he couldn’t find the memo announcing the
meeting and the attached proposal.
The second meeting which wasn’t planned in Steve calendar and also the secretary wasn’t
informed with the meeting with Mr. Ferris.
The third meeting was a safety committee meeting that Steve fined it when he was
checking his calendar.

Setting priorities was also a major weak point with Steve for example he spent a lot of
time finishing the monthly production report for his department and postponed the
quality figures report which was highlighted as urgent by Steve’s boss (Frank Jones).
Also Steve went to the weekly safety meeting which was not very important and he can
send a representative instead of attending by himself and save some time for more
important tasks like production assignments.

Time management was also very obvious as Steve arrive work late, speaks with the
employees about private house issues, moving from one meeting to another which makes
him late for the meetings that he should attend and he couldn’t communicate with his
employee Lucy Adams.

Follow up, as a manager Steve should delegate part of the tasks to other employees which
he did with Lucy, but he didn’t follow up with her and he wasn’t aware that she was in a
training outside the city, also he didn’t get back to Sue Bradley the sales vice president
as he promised in the phone call.

2
Steve should go to work in time and shouldn’t be late and also shouldn’t stop to talk to
friends about personal issues. He also should pay more attention to his meetings
calendar in order not to mess any meeting and to be prepared.

He also should follow up his employee and the assigned task in order not assign an
important task for an employee that he has something else to do in addition to he should
follow up with his secretary to make the communication with Lucy.

He should have priorities the work according to what manager say.

When he promises to back to Sue Bradly so he should do and never ignore this and back
home before he contact her.

What should Steve do to become more effective as a manager?

According to Gary Yukl Guidelines for Managers he mentioned some guidelines to be

followed and some of what was mentioned in the book and match with Steve Case:

- Determine what you want to accomplish.

- Analyze how you use your time.
- Avoid unnecessary activities.
- Look for connections among problems.
- Make time for reflective planning.
- Plan daily and weekly activities.
Steve should practice time management and organization and this comes when he
determine what to accomplish first and this will keep him on the top of the various tasks
that he should accomplish first, this way he can priorities and this will makes him aware
of the urgent reports requested and the less important reports.

Avoiding unnecessary activities like talking to his friends about the progress on the new
addition to their houses also attending unimportant meeting that he can send a
representative.

Plan daily and weekly activates in advance will help to schedule appointments, plan next
day activities and revise what proposal needed to be revise or preparing repots needed to
be prepared in advance.

Making time for reflective planning is very important and will help Steve to deal with the
pressure of the immediate problems and responding to requests for assistance, direction
or authorization.