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Give evidence from the case, and link your analysis to relevant concepts from the course where possible. You must acknowledge any sources that you have used using the APA citation format. Guiding questions for structuring your analysis – please address all the questions in your essay: 1. What approaches to organisational management (classical, human relations, human resources) do you think influence the three managers (Robert, Jenny, and Mark)? 2. How would the two Assistant Managers (Jenny and Mark) solve the situation differently based on their approaches to organisational management? 3. If you were called in as a communication consultant, how could the meeting be conducted differently so that both transactional and relational goals can be met? Expected length: 1,000 words (excluding the reference list) Case study Robert Lee has recently been taken on as the new Marketing and Sales Manager at Chung Hing Clothing Ltd, a large clothing manufacturer. He has been hired in order to help improve the company’s position in the market. Two years ago Chung Hing was the market leader, but now their share of the market has dropped to below 20%. Robert is a tough manager, and is well-known and respected in the industry, particularly as he did an excellent job for his previous employer. He has two Assistant Managers working under him: one, Jenny Wong, is a recent MBA graduate who is also new to the company; the other, Mark Fung, has been with the organisation for many years, and has the friendship and trust of the sales force of about thirty people. Robert has organized a meeting to discuss company strategy for improving their performance. At first he planned to hold a small meeting with the two Assistant Managers, but they have persuaded him to invite three representatives from the sales force to come. Robert outlines the situation, explaining that he is looking for a substantial increase in sales over the next year – as much as 30%, if possible. He then asks the Assistant Managers why they think there has been such a large drop in market share. Jenny speaks first; she has done a thorough analysis of the market performance of Chung Hing’s and their main rivals, and believes that they are now targeting the wrong sector of the market, and that they should rebrand their products to aim at a younger market. She is confident of her analysis, but is less sure about how to solve the problem. She tries to express her thoughts in tentative ways and suggests possible solutions, but Robert interrupts her speech and asks Mark what he thinks about the situation. Mark explains that he has spent a lot of time chatting to the sales force and getting them to talk about their work. He believes that one of the factors that have caused the drop in sales is that the sales representatives are less happy in their work than before; this, he says, is because they are spending much more time on the road than they used to, and they now have very little contact with their colleagues and the head office. He goes on to list the factors which motivate and frustrate the sales team, but he is cut off by Robert, who then proceeds to explain his analysis of the situation, and to outline his own plan in great detail. Robert’s view is that the main cause for the downturn in Chung Hing’s sales is that the sales representatives have lacked direction from management, and that they go off on their own without any clear plan, each of them doing things their own way. To deal with this, Robert proposes a week’s training for the entire sales team, so that ‘they can learn how to do things properly’. He goes on to say that they will follow the approach used in his previous organisation. Once he has finished, the others react. Mark seems pleased with Robert’s idea, saying, ‘It’ll be good for them to get together – they hardly ever see each other these days.’ He asks whether he can have a look at the proposed training plan. ‘Don’t worry,’ says Robert, ‘you’ll see it when the training starts.’ Jenny expresses concern about this. ‘Wouldn’t it be a good idea to get some input into the training plan?’ she asks. ‘We could get some of the sales representatives to look at it. After all, they’re the ones with the experience. They know what the problems are. And they’ll be the ones who carry out the new plan, too.’ One of the representatives raises his hand to speak, but Robert ignores him. ‘Why?’ he asks, turning back to Jenny. ‘The plan worked at my last place, and it’ll work here’, he says. Then Jenny points out a potential problem: ‘Is it a good idea to have all the representatives training at once? Wouldn’t it be better to have them in two or three groups?’ ‘That’s right,’ says Mark. ‘We can’t just stop selling for a week. And most of them will need plenty of notice – they always have appointments lined up weeks in advance.’ ‘Yes,’ says one of the representatives, ‘I’m really busy with meetings for the next four weeks.’ ‘Well,’ says Robert, ‘you’d better cancel some of them. Training starts next Monday.’ ‘Next Monday?’ says Jenny. ‘That’s right, Monday.’ Says Robert. ‘See you then.’ He picks up his papers and talks out of the meeting room.
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