PART 1 A FIRST LINE/SUPERVISOR LEVEL

CASELET 1
Helen Flores was an outstanding sales person in the Acme Discount Store. She knew the products well,
kept up to date with her recordkeeping and was willing to work overtime whenever necessary. None
of her co-workers came near her level of overall sales performance.

Because of this effective record Helen was promoted to manager of the children's-wear department.
Almost from her first day in the new position trouble began to occur. Flores complained about her
subordinate's lack of motivation and dedication, feeling that they were overpaid and that many should
be fired.

Naturally this caused difficulty in the department, and two of the better sales people quit abruptly.
Flores' superior discussed these problems with her, but after several such discussions Helen still could
not understand why she should approach her job differently.

Finally her superior offered Helen her old job back as a salesperson with no cut in pay. At first Helen
was happy about this switch back to her old job. No more problems with those lazy employees. But
then she became worried about her lack of success as a manager, and this caused her sales to fall. Even
though her boss reinforced her on several occasions, telling her that not everyone can succeed as a
manager and that excellent sales people are very valuable to the store, nothing seemed to give as-
surance to Helen Flores.

QUESTIONS:
1 Why was she promoted ? Was the reason sufficient to promote her? Why or why not?
She was promoted because She is an outstanding sales person. Not sufficient because she lack management ski
2 Should she have been demoted to her old position? Why or why not?
She should not, its not good idea to demote her. It will make her morale and motivation low.
3 What might her superior have done to help Helen in the managerial assignment?
Her superior should trained her thru coaching and mentoring regarding managing people/staff. Monitoring the
4 What can Flores' boss do now?
The boss can do now is to start to trained his/her people. Create a succesion plan and make them ready for upc
CASELET 2
Leo Humarang, one of your assistants in a fire insurance company, is in charge of a group of clerical
workers who review changed policies, endorsements, and riders, calculate commissions, and maintain
records.

He is very meticulous, and everything coming out of his group is perfect. He does not delegate autho-
rity and responsibility but rechecks in detail all the work turned out by his group. He keeps turning
back to them careless and inaccurate work until it is perfect. As a result he is busy from early morning
until late at night doing detail work and neglecting his role as a supervisor. His workers have figured
him out and are taking it easy. They do slap-dash work and correct it as often as he returns it.

You are afraid that Humarang is overworking and is heading for a nervous breakdown. You have told
him in general terms to delegate authority and responsibility and to discipline his group. He says that
 you can't find people anymore who have pride in their work or concern for the company and that if he
fires any of his people, or they quit, the replacements would probably be worse.

QUESTIONS:
1 What are some of the reasons why people do not delegate authority and responsibility?
They believe and afraid that no one can do the work right and they might fail.
2 What are Humarang's responsibilities as a supervisor?
The supervisor responsibilities is to help achieve company goals by overseing employees' performance, provide
3 Which can he delegate?
The supervisor can delagate any task based on their expertise and role
4 How should he go about delegating them?
Delagating them by roles , strenght and scope of task and knowledge.
5 What can you observe from the case as some of the management characteristics that Humarang lacks?
He is micromanaging them. Lack of trust to his people.
6 How can you go about developing them in him?
Humarang should be train by coaching, mentoring ,providing support, guidance and instructions
le/staff. Monitoring the activities until such time she is ready.
es' performance, provide training, support, and identify needs.