Insights from Two Managers: Experience, Responsibility, and Pride in Work - Prof. Carol L., Study notes of Introduction to Business Management

Download Insights from Two Managers: Experience, Responsibility, and Pride in Work - Prof. Carol L. and more Study notes Introduction to Business Management in PDF only on Docsity! Case 1 Interview 1 Interviewee: Position: Resident Manager Company: Experience: One year 1. Briefly describe your current position and responsibilities. I am the Resident Manager. I am responsible for the entire storage facility including 3 employees, about 800 tenants, the office, and the lot. As part of this responsibility, I live onsite so I can monitor the facility 24 hours a day. 2. What do your subordinates expect from you on the job? First of all, I am responsible for making sure everyone does their part. If one person doesn’t pull their weight the other two employees feel it. I have to mediate these problems and make sure my employees are happy. I am also expected to make all major decisions concerning tenants. For example, if someone wants to access their unit but their account is delinquent, I am expected to decide whether or not they are allowed to enter. My employees are told to strictly adhere to the rules and refer any questionable situations to me. 3. What are the major stresses and challenges you face on job? The major stress of my job is dealing with tenants. I’m the person over 800 people look to for answers. Everyone feels like they are special and need to be dealt with differently. The pressure from the owners to increase rentals can make the job stressful. I don’t have control if people come in to rent units so I feel sort of helpless in this situation. 4. What, if anything, do you dislike about the job? The one thing that stands out as a dislike is being accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. I cannot stop people from coming up to my front door and asking me questions on my day off. 5. What do you like best about your job? I basically enjoy being the boss. I like having the responsibility of making final decisions and that’s just what they are, final. There’s no one above me and it makes me feel good knowing that the owners have entrusted me with this responsibility. 6. What are the critical differences between average managers and top- performing managers? I think average managers do their job based on the job description. That is to say, they do everything they are supposed to and nothing else. I could easily show up 9 to 5, Monday 1 through Friday, and go home. But I think that top-performing managers wouldn’t do that. You need to be willing to go the extra mile as a manager. 7. Think about the skills and knowledge that you need to be effective in your job. What are they and how did you acquire them? One of the main skills is being a hard worker. I acquired this skill from previous odd jobs. I did general warehouse work at a dairy distributor and there was no time to relax. I also worked the phones at a bank call center and that was a whole different kind of labor. That job taught me how to be patient with customers which is a skill I use in this position. 8. What have been your biggest mistakes thus far? Could have you avoided them? If so, how? My biggest mistake would have to be taking so long to get where I am. I wish I went to college right after high school instead of trying to work. I think my road was a lot harder because of my previous decisions. Interview 2 Interviewee: Dave Mullens Position: Stock Manager Company: Office Max Experience: Six years 1. Briefly describe your current position and responsibilities. I am the stock manager at Office Max in Placentia. I manage a varying number of employees on any given day and usually it’s in the mornings. I unload trucks and do the paperwork required to receive them. I also unpack all of the boxes from the trucks and put the contents in the required places. I open the store five days a week and handle any problems that may occur. Finally, I scan the entire store every morning to maintain data integrity. 2. What do your subordinates expect from you on the job? Most employees have been at the store long enough so that I don’t need to tell them what to do. I delegate a few things that may be of higher priority but I usually have my own tasks to handle. I am expected to handle customer complaints when the customer asks for a manager. I am also expected to know the appropriate place for everything in the store or where we should put something until it has an appropriate place 3. . What are the major stresses and challenges you face on job? The major stresses come from scanning the store every morning. It is my responsibility to maintain data integrity which means that if there is an empty peg or shelf, I need to make sure that the computer shows a quantity of zero for that item. If it says we have a quantity on-hand then I have to find it. This becomes very stressful when the district manager makes his monthly visit. The first thing he checks is empty pegs, and if he scans something with a “sorry we’re out” tag and our computer shows we have a quantity on-hand, he immediately assumes I’m not doing my job. 2