SMALL GROUP ACTIVITY 1 ANSWER KEY

MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY—ANSWER GUIDE

1. Currently, there are two official levels of management in this business: top level and mid level. The top-level manager is Nicole because she is the owner and president. The mid-level managers are the human resources manager, accounting manager, and production manager.

2. As owner and president, Nicole is responsible for the operation of the entire company. She sets the goals for the business and decides what she wants the business to be in the future. However, she is also doing the jobs of the middle managers.

3. Currently, the mid-level managers are not permitted to manage any of the business’s resources. Nicole determines when there is a need for more human resources, makes decisions about financial and material resources, and gathers information that will be useful to the business.

4. Nicole should delegate many of the management functions to the mid-level managers. First, she should consider hiring a sales manager to oversee the sales force and plan ways for the salespeople to generate new clients and increase sales to existing clients. Then, Nicole should give the current managers the authority to do their jobs. She should allow the human resources manager to make staffing decisions and let the accounting manager deal with routine financial issues. Also, Nicole should turn over the scheduling to the production manager who is also in a better position to decide in which order garments will be produced.

5. Nicole might consider adding a first level of management to report to the production manager who has responsibility for several departments within the factory. Furthermore, there might be a need for another shift to handle the extra work if sales increase. Then, Nicole might want to hire shift supervisors to handle day-to-day activities in the plant.

6. If Nicole implements these management changes, she will have more time to focus on her goal of increasing sales to $10 million annually. She will be able to plan strategies to achieve that goal. Because she no longer will handle routine activities, she will have time to meet with mid-level managers to discuss the future. She can share her vision of the business and obtain feedback from the managers to make the vision a reality.