Buff Spalding †Manager’s Workshop Essay

Part I: Decision History – Buff Spalding Situation: Buff Spalding seems to have all the personal skills necessary to be successful but is not. Everyone appears to like Buff, and he is quite helpful to his coworkers, but it is not clear how Buff maintains his life style given his low earnings. How would you begin your conversation with Buff? You decided to: Ask to accompany Buff on several sales calls. Results: You accompanied Buff on several sales calls. You find Buff has very good sales skills but is violating company policy by selling real estate to his clients. What would you do next? You decided to: Ask around the company discreetly to find out more about Buff’s reputation as a salesman and how he is able to maintain his lifestyle when his earnings are so low. Results: You tried to find out more about how Buff is able to maintain his lifestyle despite his low earnings. You receive proof that Buff is violating company policy by selling real estate to his Omega clients. What would you do next? You decided to: Consult with your superior about how to handle the situation. Results: You consulted your boss about how to deal with Buff’s low performance and violation of company policy. She informs you that you must correct this situation but without creating more difficulties for the company than necessary. What would you do next? You decided to: Call Buff in and ask him if the rumors you have heard are true. Results: You asked Buff if the rumors about his outside deals are true. Because you have clear evidence, he cannot deny your charge. You also learn that he does not highly value the income his Omega job provides. How would you deal with the violation of policy? You decided to: Tell Buff that he has a choice. He can either resign or end his real estate dealings. If he doesn’t resign, you expect him to deliver a plan within 48 hours for ending his real estate involvements. Results: You told Buff that he either needs to resign or give you a plan for ending his real estate dealings. Buff gives you a plan that requires six months to execute and offers to resign if the plan does not work. How would you respond? You decided to: Call Buff and attempt to find out why he wants six months to make his plans about resigning. Results: You explored why Buff wants to stay on the job for six months. He says he may want to sell real estate full time, but he really likes the people at Omega. According to Buff, it will take him six months to execute his plan. What would you do next? You decided to: Try to negotiate a deal with Buff in which you would keep him on in a limited capacity. Results: Because Buff was being rewarded for not performing his job effectively, it appeared there was little you could do to motivate him to increase his performance. Your decision to negotiate a deal with Buff to reduce the negative impact on the company was successful. Part II: Decision Analysis and Application Buff Spalding is a Sales Representative for Omega and has been employed with the organization for eight years. The key responsibility of Sales Representatives is to make business calls to physicians and pharmaceutical wholesalers in an effort to sell Omega’s products. Buff possesses a Bachelor of Science Degree in Marketing which fits very well with the job that he holds. Buff’s employment background prior to Omega includes sales roles within the automobile, clothing and real estate industries. He is a professional golfer as well. Buff works on a team of twelve Sales Representatives. His job performance with the company has been solid until the last two years. Job Performance Performance at Omega is measured in several ways including sales volume, percent of physicians contacted, and days of wholesale supply. In terms of sales volume, in the last two years Buff has been ranked last or second to last when compared to the other Sales Representatives on his team. While the standard percentage of physicians contacted is ninety percent, Buff has only contacted seventy percent. Lastly, days of wholesale supply is also measured. If wholesale inventory drops below fifty days within a sales territory, retailer stockouts occur. Whenever a stockout occurs, retailers substitute Omega’s product with another manufacturer’s product, therefore causing Omega to lose business. Buff’s days of wholesale supply is forty two days, causing Omega to lose business due to stockouts occurring. Buff’s manager has held two discussions with him in the past regarding his performance. The Interview Due to Buff’s performance issues, an interview was conducted in an effort to identify why Buff’s performance was substandard. Through the interview process, it was determined that Buff was utilizing his professional relationships with Omega customers, physicians and pharmaceutical wholesalers, in order to sell real estate deals. This action is not only unethical; however, it is also a violation of company policy. Theory Application Even though Buff was a natural fit for a sales role, had a great personality, connected very well with his team, and was motivated to succeed; his motivation was not directed correctly. According to Dunham, direction and intensity are key components of the theory of motivation (2004). In order for an employee to be successful, it is important for employers to find ways to influence an employee’s direction and the amount of intensity to utilize (Dunham, 2004). Dunham cites that even though an individual starts off in the correct direction with the correct amount of intensity, at times, they locate another target that is more attractive, thus pulling them away from the original direction they were intended to follow (Dunham, 2004). This theory is applicable in Buff’s situation. During the first six years of Buff’s employment at Omega, his performance was strong and he was effectively doing his job. Within the last two years of employment; however, the real estate business became more enticing to him thus pulling him away from his original role. Aldefer’s ERG Theory in regards to needs applies in Buff’s situation as well. According to Dunham, every individual has a very complex set of needs that should be met in order for them to be satisfied with their job roles and continue to be engaged at work (2004). In Buff’s situation, initially he was very satisfied with his role as Sales Representative for Omega; however, after six years his needs changed. This change may have occurred due to number of things including his need to be challenged, recognized, be creative, take risks, have a manager who provided quality supervision, and feel accomplished. In Buff’s situation, while he enjoyed the sense of security that Omega provided, he was more appealed by the risk and financial rewards that the real estate industry offered. Lastly, the concept of performance management applies in the case of Buff Spalding. Buff’s performance issues existed for a period of two years prior to them being addressed by his manager. In order for employees to remain engaged in their work, it is imperative that measureable goals are set and employees are held accountable for meeting the goals. It is also important to reward employees for their successes and achievements. Due to Buff’s needs not being met, his lack of motivation to conduct his job role, and the lack of accountability that his manager provided; he was enticed to take a risk that violated company policy; therefore leading to the termination of his career at Omega. Interview Results  Buff violated a company policy whenever he made the decision to sell real estate to Omega customers. Due to this action, it was decided that Buff had to either resign his role at Omega or cease his real estate side business. When faced with the decision, Buff decided to resign his role at Omega. In order to ensure that customer relationships were minimally impacted, a decision was made to allow Buff to train his replacement and contact his current Omega customers to advise them of his decision to leave the organization. While this solution could be viewed as one that was very lenient in nature, it minimized the impact on the customers; therefore, making it the right thing to do. In the end, allowing Buff to personally tell his customers about his decision to leave the company and providing him with the opportunity to train his replacement allowed for a smoother transition for the customers, therefore saving their business relationships. In conclusion, all employees are motivated in one way or another. It is important for managers to closely manage their team in order to ensure that performance issues are addressed promptly and to provide direction to employees regarding the direction and level of intensity within their careers. Additionally, managers should set performance goals for their employees and continually track them to ensure that they are being held accountable for meeting the goals. Even though Buff was very motivated, unfortunately, his motivation was not to serve Omega customers in the way that he should have, thus causing Omega to experience a decreased sales volume and lose business. In order to prevent this in the future, the Regional Sales Manager should be proactive in holding performance discussions with the Sales Representatives, set measurable goals for them to work towards achieving, ensure that they remain on target to meet their goals and are held accountable if not, and recognize the Sales Representatives for their accomplishments along the way.