Henley Department Store Case Elizabeth is a store manager for Henley Department

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Henley Department Store Case Elizabeth is a store manager for Henley Department Stores, a large retail chain of stores in the northeast and midwest. She has been manager of a medium-sized store for nearly a year. Before that she was the assistant manager in another store for two years. Arriving at the store on Monday Elizabeth is determined to make progress on her goal of improving store profits, which have dropped below average for the past six months. As she enters the store, she notices that the new window displays for the coming holidays have not been set up yet. Two weeks ago she delegated responsibility for these displays to Jeff, her merchandise manager. Well, she thinks, it is just like Jeff to screw up even a simple assignment like this one. When she arrives at her office, Elizabeth greets her secretary, Mary, and looks through her mail and telephone messages. One of the letters is from a customer complaining that Ms. Cooper, the new sales dlerk in the woman's wear department, was very rude last week when the customer wanted to try on some clothing. Elizabeth asks Mary to go talk to the salesclerk and reprimand her for being rude to a customer. Elizabeth frequently relies on her secretary to handle personnel matterso nature. Mary has good administrative skills and has been a valuable employee. Elizabeth would like Mary to apply for a job as a department manager, but Mary likes her present job and does not want the added responsibility of a supervisory position. Next, Elizabeth calls in Jeff, and in a very irritated tone of voice, asks him why the window displays are not set up yet. Jeff replies the employees in several departments are preparing the displays and they will be set up after Thanksgiving weekend, just as they were the year before. He adds that he advantage of the opportunity to retreat back to his own office. report that he needs for a planning meeting the next day. Elizabeth ssures him that the report will did not realize Elizabeth was in such a hurry and wishes she had told him she wanted them set up earlier than usual. Just then the telephone rings, and, as Elizabeth picks up the phone, Jeff takes The call is from Brad, Elizabeth's boss. Brad asks her how she is progressing on a special sales office where her three clerical employees work and asks them to gather the information neededf be sent by express mail at the end of the day. Hanging up the telephone, Elizabeth goes to the report. She says that each of them tells them it is important to get the job done before the end of the workday should work on the report in between their other tasks. She Next, Elizabeth stops in to see Fred, the assistant store manager. Fred is the son-in-law of executive vice president for Henley Stores. Elizabeth advancement in the company. Fred has been an assistant manager for only six months, but the suspects that he is being groomed for rapid Elizabeth views him as a potential rival for the position of store manager in a larger Henley's store being built in the suburbs. Fred has an MBA degree and seems very capable. She has a BA degree. She gives him mostly routine assignments that do not allow any opportunity to exercise initiative and impress higher management. She checks on him closely and insists on approving even small decisions. In the few instances when she has given him an important task with high visibility, she intentionally provided insufficient resources to do the task pr on a marketing project that he is doing for her. to try a new approach, Elizabeth gets upset and reprimands him for not checking with her. Later in the aftenoon, operly. Elizabeth asks Fred to report When Fred explains that he has made arrangements Elizabeth returns to the clerical section to get the information she needs to complete the sales report for her boss. When Elizabeth arrives, she learns that they are not finished yet. Randy, one of the clerical employees, says that each of them worked on the task a little during the day, but they did not have much time to spare and there is still about an hour's worth of work to do. By this time, Elizabeth is really angry. What is the matter with these employees? Don't they have any sense of responsibility when she gives them an important task like this one? She tells all three employees to drop everything and get the sales figures ready, even if they have to say late flh Henley Department Store Case

Explanation / Answer

She should have given Jeff a deadline as to when he should complete the window displays.

2) She should not have delegated this to Mary. She should have gone personally and explained to the sales clerk how important it is to be polite to customers as it affects sales and profits.

3) She should not have asked all of them to work on the report in between their other tasks.

She should have asked one of them to work on the report while the others concentrated on the other tasks.

4) She should not allow her insecurity about Fred to interfere with work.

She has to do what is best for the company and she should give Fred whatever work he is capable of doing. She should also allow him to try a new approach if it works well.

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