Answer & Explanation:Hi this is a case study called Holiday Experts. I have uploaded the case. I do not understand how to answer the questions to this case. The teacher wants me to identify and to well discuss only 7 issues including high turnover and organisational culture. This question is part a. Then the part b i have to solve the 7 issues that was mentioned in part a. Please assist me. Thanks.
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Case Study – Holiday Experts
Ken Turner has recently retired from his travel agency business which he founded 25 years ago.
The company has grown from being a one-man business to an enterprise employing 75 people.
Some of these staff deal directly with business organisations and the public, arranging business
and holiday travel. Other staff work in the back offices dealing with the massive amount of
clerical work associated with these arrangements. Ken has personally recruited and selected all
the staff and often made ad hoc decisions on any increases in their pay. Until recently labour
turnover has been low.
A recent downturn in the company’s business and profits caused Ken to consider the future. He
had felt for some time that he should hand control over to someone with fresh ideas and a more
modern approach to managing an organisation. He couldn’t understand all the ‘new fangled’
ideas about empowerment, lean organisations and information technology and he thought that
new procedures such as performance appraisal and performance-related pay were a poor
substitute for the kind of hands-on informal approach he had used when managing staff. He
could no longer have the kind of close informal working relationship he had enjoyed with his
employees when the company was small. Consequently he has handed the whole company over
to his niece Lisa who has a business management degree and some years of managerial
experience in a large textile company. Within the first few days of taking control Lisa is facing
her first ‘people problem’ that can be taken as typical of many other problems that she will face.
One of the clerical section supervisors has reported that the performance of Amy Brown one of
his senior clerks has been causing some concern and was affecting the efficiency and morale in
the section. This had being going on for some time but whenever Mr Turner had been
approached about the problem he had failed to take any action.
Amy had been recruited as a junior clerk 6 years previously after Mr Turner had been
approached by an old golfing friend to find a job for his daughter. Amy did not measure up to the
standard the company required of its employees but in view of the fact that she was the daughter
of one of his friends Ken Turner had offered her a job as a junior clerk. Like all the other
employees she had been put onto clerical work from the first day of her employment. Over the
years her work performance had been marginal and occasionally below average. There also
appeared to have been some bad feeling between Amy and her colleagues which had resulted in
a warning from her supervisor about her inter-personal relationships and her commitment to the
organisation. However none of this data appeared on her personal file.
For her part Amy had felt increasingly dissatisfied with her clerical job. On several occasions she
had complained to her supervisor that there was no career progression for her in the company
and she was being denied the opportunity to develop her potential. Until now the usual career
pathway had been from junior clerk to senior clerk and some months ago when Mr Turner had
announced his retirement Amy had been promoted to senior clerk responsible for the work of
four junior clerks. However it appeared that this may have been a promotion too far. Amy
seemed to lack the skills necessary for dealing with staff. She did not understand that their need
for affiliation and achievement played an important part in their job satisfaction. She allocated
work then did not provide any support or guidance if staff had any queries. The quality of the
work from this section had deteriorated and mistakes were beginning to occur more frequently
and staff turnover was on the increase. It could only be a matter of time before this affected
customer relations.
a) Based on material from the case, outline and comment on the organisational behaviour
issues which Lisa will have to deal with on taking over control of the company.
b) State what advice you will offer Lisa about how to resolve these issues, offering a brief
justification for your suggested solutions.
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