Case Study: Leadership and Labor at Jamesville Branch Office

The case study examines the Jamesville Branch Office of Ajax Business Machine Company, which faces a labor shortage in its sales department due to various factors. The district manager, Mr. Miller, identifies poor staff training and a lack of career development as the root causes of low morale and high turnover. He proposes two approaches: one involves dividing employees into high, medium, and low-performing teams, and the other advocates for grouping employees based on their abilities, with rotating management and flexible training. The case explores the problems associated with the first approach, such as potential drops in morale and the creation of a competitive environment. The ultimate solution, according to the study, lies in the second approach, which focuses on individual career development, flexible training, and adjusted output goals based on abilities rather than performance scores, promoting a more collaborative and supportive work environment.

Running head: CASE STUDY OF JAMESVILLE BRANCH OFFICE
CASE STUDY OF JAMESVILLE BRANCH OFFICE
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1CASE STUDY OF JAMESVILLE BRANCH OFFICE
Facts of Case
This is a demand and supply of labor case in Jamesville Branch office of Ajax
Business Machine Company. There is shortage of labor in the sales position in the branch due
to disability, termination and also vacancy of positions in the sales department. The district
manager considers it to be a vital issue due to less morale and satisfaction on behalf of the
salesperson employees in order to leave the company. He points out that the geographic
factors or economic factors do not play any part in the staff turnover, the main problem lies in
the fact of poor staff training and less attention to the career development as well as
mentoring to the employees in the branch. Mr. Miller decides to adopt the approach of
keeping high performing employees on the sales department team as the high achievers rather
than a mixture of high and low aptitude score employees in a haphazard manner who will
later fail to deliver. He propose to the company branch to divide the high performing
employees into a team in order to achieve the two thirds of previous year’s sales quota and to
bring high profit into the business, while the other employees will be divided into second best
and the low performing employees. These group of employees will be given not so high
performing goals and training is to be provided on urgency basis to make them more
efficient. According to him, the major difference and fault lies in the management process
and the proficiency in sales training which are given within the company to the employees.
Strategy of Firm
The firm, Ajax Business Machine Company as per the district manager, Mr. Miller
formulated a strategy of hiring new talent on the basis of their aptitude scores and keeping a
high level performing team in order to deliver first output and fill the seats with urgent
vacancy. He also wanted individual growth and productivity of the employees in the firm
branch gradually. Mr. Miller though of 2 alternative approaches to bring the firm’s efficiency
back through a reorganization of existing sales unit. In the first approach, the best eight sales
employees will comprise to a best graded team managed by the sales manager, Maria. The
average number of sales employees will report to the sales manager, Sarah. The other
marginal low performing employees will be placed under the direction of sales manager Joe
who is on the verge of retirement due to senior age in the company. He thought of this
approach as being the solution of division of responsibilities and clarity of job tasks which
will make the employees feel less stress and under the relevant guidance, they can perform
well with the appropriate manager as their lead. The high performing team will get the target
of achieving two-third of the quota of previous year, while the medium performing team will

2CASE STUDY OF JAMESVILLE BRANCH OFFICE
get the one-third of the quota to fulfill. The third performing team will be monitored and
observed.
Problems
The main important motive of Mr. Miller is to enhance the business profits along with
the morale of the staff. The low profits has damaged the goodwill of the firm, so he wanted at
first to fill the positions right from the scratch with deserving performing candidates rather
than candidates who will require 2 months training to deliver efficiency. The company’s
branch suffering from labor shortage was in need of faster recovery in order to not become a
sick industrial unit. Miller’s main purpose behind such a strategy was to create a high
performing with high morale unit. He believed that performance can bring back morale in the
company’s workplace culture as well as among the employees. Miller thought that there can
be a drop in morale from the sales manager who will have to manage and lead the second best
employees. However the division of employees into three different groups and assigning a
manager to lead and guide them was not that relevant as this may cause a decrease in morale
in both employees and the managers. The division may not be fully justified. Some
employees may failed to perform under certain conditions which required training or
counselling. The labeling and grading of employees on the basis of their performance
appraisal make the employees feel like assets in the company who after depreciation will be
disposed off (Dreyfuss, 2017). The competitive environment arise among the groups and the
workplace culture rises to an environment of envy, jealousy and inappropriate values. The
marginal and low performers having a manger who is very senior and going to retire soon
will supposedly get less attention and the efficiency may drop. The manager in the last stage
of career may mentor them but the individual attention may not be there.

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Discussion of Solutions
The ultimate solution to the problem can be derived from Miller’s second approach
where he wanted to impose a dual structure of operation and human resource management in
the company branch. All the sales employees will be organized not as per their performance
but as per their abilities where they will be grouped to train on their abilities. The labelling
and assigning roles will not be as per their performance scores, rather they will be trained and
proper assistance will be given under the respective managers of the group for individual
career development and progress (Timothy, 2018). There will rotation of management style,
all the three managers assisting in the process will be rotated to each three groups to bring
flexibility and best way of training practices. This will increase the interpersonal relations
among the employees as well as the managers. The best sales manager will train the
marginal low employees, and the sales manager of the low performing team will also train
and give valuable insights to the high performing team. The output goals can be adjusted as
per their abilities but not as per their performance with no biasness towards any group or
individual employee.

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References
Porter, F., Blakey, H., Chater, M., Chesters, G. S., Hannam, M., & Manborde, I. (2017).
Analysis: Voices from the movement: What can the Trade Union Act (2016) tell us
about trade union organising?.
Timothy, O. (2018). Unfair labour practice: job grading: employment law/management.
Without Prejudice, 18(11), 13-14.