Ann Wood, the current director of marketing for Norwich Enterprises’ Consumer Products Division, had a challenging day managing three different groups. She oversees the market research, where Joe Jackson is the manager. Ann also oversees the marketing strategy and administration department, led by manager Brooke Carpenter, as well as the Advertising and public relations department. When Ann entered the building, Joe Jackson informed her that the intranet had been down for half the night, resulting in incomplete market analysis.
Ann had assured her boss, Anil Mathur, the executive vice president, that the analysis would be delivered to his office early in the morning. Immediately, Ann assisted with the analysis. While in Joe’s office, he informed Ann that his department had experienced a high rate of employee turnover due to the difficulty of finding qualified analysts who comprehend their product line, and that retaining talented individuals had proven challenging. Brook suggested to Ann that increasing salaries and offering appealing stock options might help. Ann requested Joe to create a specific plan to decrease turnover and committed to working on it at a later date.
Then, upon arriving at her office, she received a call from Brook Carpenter urgently requesting to speak with her. Upon reaching Ann’s office, Brook expressed his deep frustration, revealing that two of his employees had recently discovered that similar job positions were being paid 7% higher salaries than their current compensation. The two employees shared this discovery with the rest of the staff, causing widespread disappointment among them. Brook informed Ann that this unfavorable atmosphere was negatively impacting the staff’s ability to focus on their work.
Ann had a conference in a few minutes that she could not miss so she told Brook to set up a time to meet with him and his crew to discuss the concerns. Right after that Ann got on the conference call. As soon as she finished her conference call she checked emails and reports on recent turnover and employee complaints. A few moments later Brook interrupted Ann saying that the situation had to be taken care right away. Ann knew that the marketing analysis was about to be finished by Joe, so she decided to have the meeting with the employees right away.
Ann demonstrated her commitment to addressing employees’ concerns by actively listening and assuring them that she would examine and resolve the issues, acknowledging that changes may not happen immediately. In addition, she expressed her intention to secure resources for a training program enabling employees to acquire new skills. Ann’s actions exemplify her high level of involvement as a manager, as she efficiently handled multiple problems without hampering productivity. Furthermore, she empowered her management team to solve their own problems but also encouraged them to seek her assistance when needed.
Ann is an efficient and dedicated head of marketing who possesses excellent people skills. She actively listens to her staff and values their suggestions. A manager who understands the importance of adhering to company policies while promoting employee satisfaction can greatly impact the company in a positive manner. High involvement management, as discussed in Chapter one, entails selecting and training associates with care, assigning them significant decision-making authority, providing them with information, and offering incentive compensation.
The case reveals that Ann is a high involvement manager, as evidenced by her interactions with her top managers. She grants decision-making authority to her managers, provides them with information, and recognizes the significance of incentives in maintaining loyal employees. Currently, the employees are not performing at their maximum capabilities due to misalignment between the company’s reward systems and customer value creation. However, Ann is actively addressing this issue and working towards implementing a training program that will enhance employee value, giving her the competitive advantage she requires.
Ann recognized that the market lacks skilled workers and concluded that implementing training is crucial for success. This training program will not only create loyal employees but also skilled workers, ultimately enhancing productivity and demonstrating Ann’s managerial effectiveness.
Exhibit 1-2 highlights that for human capital to be sustainable, it must fulfill three conditions: value, rarity, and difficulty of imitation. However, these conditions alone do not guarantee a competitive advantage. In this particular case, the employees’ skills are not valuable, rare, or difficult to imitate, resulting in low performance and a competitive disadvantage in the market.
