Page 369 - Business Principles and Management

Unit 4

quotas emphasized selling too much and didn’t allow them adequate
time to answer customers’ questions and solve their problems.
The department began to experience some computer difficulties.
When a high volume of calls came in, the computers would slow down.
Employees would have to wait to get information on their screens, and
occasionally all of the information entered would be lost before the
order could be processed. Also, Jasmine was learning that when sales
volume was high, the company sometimes was not able to meet its goal
of overnight delivery. Although Jasmine had been able to hire more
sales employees, the delivery department was still operating with the
same number of employees as in the past. As a result, the telemarketing
employees were starting to receive customer complaints that they were
PHOTO: © GETTY IMAGES/PHOTODISC. sales quota issue, she was also facing the growing employee turnover
not prepared to handle.
While Jasmine was struggling with the computer problems and the
problem. Even though she was hiring and training new employees, it
seemed there were never enough employees to replace those who left
and to handle the growing amount of business. To get new employees
on the job faster, training time was reduced. That seemed to result in
more errors in the orders processed. Veteran employees were being
asked to work overtime to meet the demand and to help inexperienced
telemarketers. That created even more employee dissatisfaction. Jasmine
couldn’t believe that a plan that seemed so good and had initially been
Supervisors must be able to successful could result in so many problems.
implement the plans that have
been developed. What types
of information are available CHECKPOINT
in business plans to help
supervisors direct employees? Identify several types of changes that can occur in an organization
that can create problems in accomplishing plans.

Implementing Activities

To implement successfully, managers must complete a number of activities designed
to channel employee efforts in the right direction to achieve the goals. These activ-
ities include effective communications, motivating employees, developing effective
work teams, and operations management.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATIONS
Communication is an essential part of implementing work in a business. Man-
agers must be able to communicate plans and directions, gather feedback from
employees, and identify and resolve communication problems. Both personal
and organizational communications are important. Because so many forms of
communications media exist in organizations today, managing communications
technology is an important responsibility.
Communication is much more than telling employees what to do. In fact, if
employees believe managers are being too directive, they will likely be dissatis-
fied and not work as hard or effectively as they could. An important communi-
cation skill for managers is to listen to employees and involve them in deciding
how work should be done. A manager should use both formal and informal

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