Turmoil in the Customer Service Office at Bluegreen Shipping Agency
Case Study (please use first person writing)
Enrico did not presently manage any area in his office at Bluegreen Shipping Agency (America) Corp., the South America general agent for Bluegreen Line, one of the world’s leading ocean carriers. However, he knew that he would be supervising the customer service area beginning in the summer, and his current supervisor was training him to take over. The shipping agency served the international ocean logistics needs of Brazilian importers and exporters since 2005, providing customer service, marketing, sales, logistics and administrative support.
The Customer Service Office is made up of 3 customer service agents and one administrative assistant Two of the customer service agents have quite a smaller workload due to the size of their customer base. Their title is Customer Service – Exports, and they are not always busy. The third customer service agent has a very busy schedule and handles the bulk of the work for Imports. Her title is Customer Service – Imports.
The current supervisor (who is also Enrico’s supervisor) usually designates Tom and Margaret, the two Customer Service Agents for Exports to help Sarah, the Customer Service Agent for Imports, when she is busy. Tom good-naturedly helps all of the time. Margaret fights tooth and nail to avoid doing anything outside of her specific job description. When tasks are assigned to Margaret that will help Sarah, she complains, states that it is not her job, and passes the buck to Kelly, the Administrative Assistant. In addition, Margaret works so slowly that Sarah, the person she is helping, will catch up on her workload and will take the work back. Margaret occasionally makes mistakes so that Sarah has to do the work over again. (It is not clear whether Margaret’s mistakes are deliberate or not).
Margaret has worked for Bluegreen Shipping Agency for many years and has been in the Customer Service Office longer than all of her other co-workers. However, she does not have a supervisory role. The three Customer Service Agents are all equals. Margaret seems to have a “veterans vs. rookies” mentality. She has often indicated to Enrico (not knowing that he will one day be her supervisor) that she has resentment towards management because they have not promoted her beyond her current position. Enrico’s private feeling is that if employees don’t exhibit willingness to help others and act as team players, how can you in good conscience, promote them? He strongly feels that working for the Customer Service Office for a long time is just not reason enough for being promoted.
Enrico dreads becoming Margaret’s supervisor, because he knows that she will be resistant and possibly bitter, because he has worked for Bluegreen Shipping Agency for a little over 5 years, verses 15 years for Margaret.
Please post your comments to the Discussion Board by answering the following questions
What recommendations do you have for the Customer Service Office?
How should Enrico approach his new position, once he is promoted to Customer Service Manager?
What are your suggestions for getting Margaret to feel more involved in the group, so that she will become a bigger contributor and help out her co-workers?
Example:
Good Evening Class,
What an interesting situation this case study provides. I imagine we have all been in similar instances of this. I have some questions, that we do not have the answers to – such as what kind of evaluation process does Bluegreen have? Has Margaret been counseled on her actions? It makes it difficult to find a solution when the party is unaware their behavior is not acceptable. Never the less, I would recommend that management make the introduction to the new supervisor. This tells Margaret subconsciously that the decision was made above her role, and backed by higher management. As for her mistakes, Sarah should not be doing the work over or taking the work back – rather pointing out the error and helping her resolve it. Margaret should be given some control over the work she helps with – and given the ability to give input as all team members should. Enrico can help guide Margaret into furthering her own career with the company by coaxing her into feeling like a valuable team asset. Encouragement and development goes a long way with people who are resistant to change.
or it can be written like this
What recommendations do you have for the Customer Service Office?
I would create a customer service organization and not have it divided up into Exports and Imports. Based on the information provided it sounds like the organization is trying to function this way, however, since it is still segregated/separated not all employees have bought into this concept. This team approach concept seems to work better in situations like this. A discussion needs to occur from management that states we are a customer service organization which entails supporting our customers. Therefore, it doesn’t matter which customer needs support we are one organization.
How should Enrico approach his new position, once he is promoted to Customer Service Manager?
Enrico is being put into a difficult situation as he is going from being an equal/friend or co-equal with his co-workers to now a managerial type role over these same co-workers. That is a difficult task as many of these individuals will find/show resentment toward the new manager. Hopefully, the new management position that Enrico will take over will be announced by upper management with all parties/employees being invited to attend. Enrico will then need to create a smaller meeting with just his employees and go over his vision. This would be a great time to make any changes or discuss his changes that he wants to make for the organization. Sometimes I have found after this meeting it is good to also have a one on one with each employee so they are aware of the goals you are trying to attain and what are you requiring each employee to adhere to. Performance appraisal information should be used as the guideline so employees understand how they will be graded.
What are your suggestions for getting Margaret to feel more involved in the group, so that she will become a bigger contributor and help out her co-workers?
What is occurring with Margaret is nothing new/different than what many organizations incur. A one on one with Margaret needs to occur to understand why her productivity is low or not occurring at all. Here are some steps we have found useful in this type of situation. The first thing that needs to happen is Enrico needs to define the word productive. In a Dale Carnegie book he says employees like this need to “give a dog a good name”. Simply put Enrico needs to change the nature of the employee and create a challenge for her. Also, competition is a good option for all employees to create a challenge. If they improve or meet the productivity requirement then reward the employees with whatever was promised (cash, time off, verbal recognition,etc.). Finally, its always good to ask employees how you can help them. Ask them for recommendations or changes they see should happen. This creates a sense of being part of the team.
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