When a New Manager Stumbles, Who's at Fault?

Case Analysis Number 2

Is it too late for Goldstone?

Executive Summary

Bulwark is a company in the midst of changing the direction of the organization to be more customer service focused. By changing the focus, other organizational problems are amplified. Bulwark employee selection process appears unstructured with no consideration given to the prospective employee’s skill set, personality or fit within the organization. When considering losing more employees, Bulwark should take the initiative in giving the proper training and organization it lacks as a respected business. With this done everyone can keep their job and be more productive for the company. Employees should be provided with the resources they need to improve their job performance whether it is through seminars, formal and informal education. Most importantly, and not enough companies do this, is giving employees formal feedback about their actual job performance through performance appraisals. Ultimately these weaknesses will need to be addressed in order to make the organization successful. The lack of an adequate selection process, management skills, clear expectations and collaboration of goals, and employee development are only compounded by the lack of a structure that the company needs in order to succeed and retain the knowledge and skills of their current employees.

Introduction

The March – April, 1996 Harvard Business Review article entitled, “When a New Manager Stumbles, Who’s at Fault?” by Gordon Adler. Former Sales Rep, Rafferty Goldstone explained his dilemma of attaining his dream job of having “Manager” on his door. Goldstone had a M. B. A. from Kellogg, eight years experience as a sales rep, and member of the task force for improving sales calls. His supervisor’s father once said that leaders are born, not made. A few months after his managing position started, he realized his dream job had become a nightmare. With...