Week 03 application assignment – case study #3 leadership
Bill Thompson is the new manager of a retail
sporting goods store in Vermont that is part
of a national chain. Bill, who is 25 years old,
has been working for the company for four
years.Before his promotion he was the assis-
tant manager for two years at a company
store in Delaware. Last week he was briefly
introduced to the employees by his boss, the
regional manager.
The profit performance of this store is
below average for its location and Bill is look-
ing forward to the challenge of improving
profits. When he was an assistant manager,
he was given mostly minor administrative
duties and paperwork, so this assignment will be his first opportunity to show he can
be an effective manager.The base salaries of
the 20 employees who work in Bill’s store
are set by the company, but appraisal ratings
by the store manager influence the size of
an employee’s annual merit raise.These rec-
ommendations must be justified to the re-
gional manager, especially if they are not
consistent with individual and department
sales.Bill can suspend or fire employees with
the approval of his boss, but in practice it is
difficult to do so unless the recommendation
is supported by a strong case.
The store layout and most prices are set
by the headquarters office. However, store
Bill Thompson is the new manager of a retail
sporting goods store in Vermont that is part
of a national chain. Bill, who is 25 years old,
has been working for the company for four
years.Before his promotion he was the assis-
tant manager for two years at a company
store in Delaware. Last week he was briefly
introduced to the employees by his boss, the
regional manager.
The profit performance of this store is
below average for its location and Bill is look-
ing forward to the challenge of improving
profits. When he was an assistant manager,
he was given mostly minor administrative
duties and paperwork, so this assignment will be his first opportunity to show he can
be an effective manager.The base salaries of
the 20 employees who work in Bill’s store
are set by the company, but appraisal ratings
by the store manager influence the size of
an employee’s annual merit raise.These rec-
ommendations must be justified to the re-
gional manager, especially if they are not
consistent with individual and department
sales.Bill can suspend or fire employees with
the approval of his boss, but in practice it is
difficult to do so unless the recommendation
is supported by a strong case.
The store layout and most prices are set
by the headquarters office. However, store performance can be affected to a limited ex-
tent by the store manager.One way is to keep
the cost of employees low by making sure
they are working efficiently and not taking
excessive sick days.Another way is to ensure
that employees are providing a high level of
customer service so that customers will return
to make other purchases rather than going to
a different store next time. Customer service
depends on knowing the products well,being
polite, providing prompt service, and making
sure that inventories of popular goods are
maintained so that customers can find what
they want. Pay is low for this type of retail
selling job,turnover is high,and it takes a few
months for a new employee to learn the mer-
chandise well enough to be helpful to cus-
tomers. Thus, it is also desirable to keep
competent employees satisfied enough to
stay with the company.
Although it is only his first week on
the job, Bill believes that he has already
discovered some of the problems at this
store.Among the various departments in the
store, the ski department has the highest
potential profits during the winter, because skiing and snowboarding are popular winter
sports in Vermont. At the current time the
department’s sales are about average for com-
pany stores in the Northeast region, with
potential for considerable improvement. On
several occasions Bill noticed a line of cus-
tomers waiting to be served in the ski de-
partment, and he overheard some of them
grumbling about how long it takes to get
served. One customer said he was leaving to
go to another store that didn’t make him “wait
all day to have the privilege of spending hun-
dreds of dollars on ski equipment.” Bill ob-
served that Sally Jorgenson, the department
manager, spends a lot of time socializing with
her salespeople and with customers,including
friends who drop in to visit and talk about ski
conditions, resorts, fashions, equipment, rac-
ing, and so forth. Bill, who doesn’t ski, cannot
understand what they find so interesting to
talk about. He wonders why anybody in their
right mind would want to spend a small for-
tune and risk permanent injury to hurtle down
a mountain in blizzard conditions, and then
stand in long lines and ride up a freezing chair-
lift just to do it all over again! ■
SOURCE: Copyright © 1987 By Gary Yukl.
QUESTIONS
1. How much of each type of power does Bill have at this time?
2. What influence tactics could be used in this situation to influence Sally? Explain what
you would actually say to Sally in the process of using each tactic.
3. What should Bill do to improve store performance?
