50 Case Studies for Management and Supervisory Training

133

Case 27

Another Staff Meeting

Background Information

June Hanks had worked for Jim McLin for almost one year now, but she still was

not used to these last-minute staff meetings. It was difficult to predict when they

would occur. Some meetings might come within days of each other, whereas other

meetings might be months apart. No matter when they were scheduled, though, she

could count on one thing: they would be set up at the last minute. June knew that

most of the other six managers in the department who also attended these meetings

felt the same way she did: Jim’s supervisory style could be somewhat frustrating.

Although not yet accustomed to Jim’s last-minute meetings, June was not par-

ticularly surprised to learn that a meeting had suddenly been scheduled for that

afternoon at 3:30. She asked Rudy Bronstein, the coworker who told her about the

meeting, what it was about. Rudy just shrugged his shoulders as if to say “Who

knows?”

Jim’s staff were assembled in their meeting room at 3:30. As was common, Jim

arrived about 10 minutes late, apologizing profusely. As he settled into his chair, he

said, “It’s been a while since our last meeting, and I felt like we all needed a chance

to catch up on what was going on in the department and throughout the rest of the

company.”

June caught Rudy’s attention and rolled her eyes. All of their meetings started

like this, she thought, and they usually led nowhere. She soon discovered, however,

that this meeting would be different.

After going around the table and obtaining a brief report from each of his staff

members, Jim announced: “We have got to take care of this red-tape problem.”

He paused as if to let the message sink in, but there was nothing shocking about

it. Since the first day June worked for Jim, she had heard him complain that his

department spent too much time on “red tape”—his code word for a lot of detailed

procedures that he felt people followed too closely. Jim liked to expand on this

topic at every occasion, although almost everyone else felt there was no effective

way to reduce or cut out the variety of organizationally required forms and proce-

dures they had to complete. June felt like telling him that there were far more

important issues to focus on.

“I’m really serious about it this time,” Jim continued. “I want each of you to

bring me at least three ideas for how we can cut down on the red tape we have here.

I’ll expect them in writing on my desk first thing tomorrow morning.”

June could not hold her tongue any longer: “Jim, that’s a very difficult task to

complete. I was planning to work late tonight on that Howard project you assigned

me last week. I just can’t do them both. Besides, if we have an urgent problem to

take care of, it’s this new VIP service program. It’s causing a lot of problems for

everyone at this table.”