BACKGROUND The company Art’s Food is an organisation with 28 years of history in

BACKGROUND
The company Art’s Food is
an organisation with 28 years of history in the area of services. The company’s
headquarters are located in Sabadell, although the services are provided in
numerous points of the Catalan territory. The company has three areas
(Educational, Hotel and Events), all related to catering.
The company achieves a
higher turnover in the educational area, dedicated mainly to serving the
catering of a large number of schools (currently more than 150). This area is a
great entrance of money for the company, but it also requires a great structure
and organisation. The feeling of the worker is that the future and the
viability of the company mainly goes through the proper functioning of this
area.
However, although in recent
months the department has been meeting the objectives set and continues to gain
public and private tenders (which means more schools and clients), there is
widespread discontent among its workers, since the management does not know not
how to handle the situation and that translates into a poor environment.
Raquel Torrà is the
director of the educational area, a competent and proactive woman, with more
than 10 years in the position. Above her there are only Josep Font, Chief of
Operations, and Roger Art, founder and director of the company. They have a way
of understanding the business world that is very classic and authoritarian,
they do not take their workers into account, and they only move by objectives.
In turn, they derive full responsibility from the area directors to communicate
the decisions to their workers. They do not usually have direct contact with
the workers and, if they do, it is scorched and hostile
Roger is only interested in
obtaining good economic results without caring about the personal situation of
his workers. An example of this is that, on average, workers in the educational
area are having to do 10 extra hours a month to be able to fulfil their tasks.
This situation is common in recent months and, far from solving it, their
opinion is “they’re supposed to work, that’s what we pay them for”.
He has also been heard saying, on more than one occasion, phrases such as
“if they are not motivated it’s not my problem, they should come motivated
from home” or “they should manage with the resources they have” when
asked about strengthening the educational area team. All this situation is
generating negative repercussions for the future of the company in general, and
in the educational area, in particular, although management doesn’t seem to
notice.
The educational area is
made up of 19 workers. As has already been mentioned, Raquel is the director of
the area and has a very experienced and prepared team, both in the operational
and commercial sectors. In turn, she is characterised by having excellent
communication skills and a very remarkable ability to lead, which is helping to
relieve the bad environment somewhat, but she does not know how long she will
endure.
Her team consists of 12
area coordinators who mainly perform the work at a distance during their
working day, as they are responsible, in an autonomous manner, to supervise the
proper functioning of the service of the schools in each area. The remaining 6 workers
are two commercial employees, who are responsible for preparing and managing
the active competitions; a personal assistant of Raquel, who offers direct
support to her and to the area coordinators; an administrative assistant,
responsible for customer service and various tasks; an office clerk responsible
for managing routine actions; and a product technician, in charge of
negotiating prices and managing incidents with suppliers. In general, there is
a good atmosphere among all of them, although the continuous stress and the
lack of empathy from the management are beginning to generate problems.
The members of the
educational area that are in office are as follows:
–
Joan:
salesman. He has been with the company for six years and is a severe and
responsible person. For him, the most important thing is to do his job well
above everything and everyone. He does not have a bad relationship with his
peers, but he is selfish. He considers himself well positioned and happy with
his situation as he receives bonuses for won tender.
–
Enrique:
salesman. This is his third year in the company and, unlike Joan, he gets along
very well with the other colleagues in the area. He is a very happy and
confident person, highlighting his excellent communicative ability. For him,
the current situation is neither fair nor sustainable.
–
Lorena:
She has been in her position for three years (assistant to Raquel) and is a
crucial player in the group. She is a very cheerful person and is confident and
confident in her work and training. She is the wild card of them all because her
position in the Educational area makes it indispensable for the proper
functioning of this area. She is dynamic and always takes the initiative and is
willing to help anyone who needs it. However, despite her importance in the
company, she does not feel valued by management.
–
Elisabeth: The most senior employee, she is tasked with managing routine actions.
In spite of not having any type of training, she strives to do her job well and
has a great ability to be heard and avoid friction with customers. She is a
smiling person and always tries to improve the day for her companions.
–
Julia:
she has only been with the company for 5 months. She is an administrative
assistant and deals with customer service (parents), among other administrative
tasks. Being the youngest of the group, she does not want to enter into
controversies and tries to go unnoticed. She is unsafe on many occasions, as
she notices that the work environment is rarefied.
–
Anabel:
has been working on the product for more than 8 years. Her significant
experience makes her a specialist in her field. She is well liked by her peers
Although the area coordinators
do not usually work in offices, they have their common work area in them. They
are a cohesive group, but the stress and lack of recognition by management are
beginning to generate conflicts, resulting in a decline in service quality. In
general, most coordinators are open to helping colleagues, which facilitates
their work and the resolution of possible arising conflicts.
Finally, Raquel’s personal
assistant has informed the company of her decision to accept a work offer,
since she considers that she has not been sufficiently valued (when she was
admitted, she was offered a salary below what was said in the interview, and
they haven’t reviewed it since she’s been in the company). The situation stresses
them a lot, since she gets along great with Raquel and with Anabel, Julia,
Enrique and Elisabeth, and they form a very competent and cohesive working
group, helping each other in everything they need. They have the same opinion
about Roger’s management, and they are considering taking similar measures if
the situation does not change.
DEVELOP
1. Analyse
the current Art’s Food situation in terms of human capital. Then, from an
analytical perspective, answer the following questions:
a.
What is
the position in which the staff of the Educational Area have found themselves?
b.
Define the
causes of how this point has been reached and what consequences can be derived
if you do not intervene.
c.
Draw up
the needs that you think the company requires and which Management hasn’t
detected.
2. Once the situation
is analysed:
a.
Define the
stages of evolution in work teams and identify in which stage the Educational Area
of the company currently is.
b.
Identify
the formal and informal teams that you detect in the company and justify your
response.
c.
Following
the typology of Meredith Belbin, give a role to each of the workers in the
educational area who are in the office.
3. Tell us
now about Roger’s role as boss.
a.
What
type/s of power do you think he has?
b.
What
management functions do you think Roger performs? And what other roles does he
lack? Justify your answer.
c.
From the
characteristics of a leader, what specific aspects should Roger work on to be a
more complete leader?
d.
Propose
actions to improve those skills in communication, motivation, awards and group
cohesion.
e.
What style
of leadership should Roger have to improve the situation?
4. Lorena’s leaving
has gone down like a ton of bricks for Roger, who did not expect it. He has
realised that the situation is extreme, and has decided to take action. He has
given orders to hire two administrative staff to deal with the high workload of
the educational area, but, as well, he has thought about the need to apply
empowerment in the group. It is requested:
a. As an
advisor, you must develop an empowerment Action Plan for Art’s Food with Roger:
i. Indicate the benefits of empowerment and improvements
that can be obtained.
ii. Define one or more goals to achieve with this tool.
iii. Choose a type of inspiration which Roger should use.
iv. Propose a series of actions and/or empowerment
techniques.
v. Plan these actions chronologically.