BBA-Professional Communication Skills1 Case Study

Professional Communication Skills – 1 Case study
The Friendly Supervisor

Avishek manages the customer relations department of a public utility
company. The department is responsible for replying to customer requests for
information and to customer complaints. There are seven typists in the
department who handle the correspondence to customers dedicated by the
staff. Avishek recently promoted Rachana to office supervisor. Rachana had
been a typist in the department for ten years. She was considered the fastest
and most accurate typist who had ever worked for Avishek. Rachana has the
best attendance record in the department and Avishek considered her his
most dependable employee. She was very well liked by all the typist and they
considered her to be a good personal friend. As a supervisor Rachana does a
good job handing out work assignments, but she does little else to supervise
the typists. She does not like to criticize the typists and does not enforce office
rules. No matter what a typists does Rachana will not take any disciplinary
action. She makes no attempt to check the work of the typists for compliance
with quality standards or to see that work is complete on time. In fact, she
spends most of her time typing to reduce the work load of other typists. The
human resource department have been receiving an increasing number of
complaints from various staff from different departments about the poor
quality of the typing and about the slow turnaround time of the work. A
number of the complaints target towards Rachana’s poor supervisory skills,
complaints were also received about the typists under Rachana taking
excessively long coffee breaks and spending time on personal phone calls. The
Human resource department convey the complaints to Avishek who has been
asked to inquire and rectify the problem. When Avishek talked to the typists,
they told him that Rachana frequently invites them to her house for dinner or
to play bridge. It appears to Avishek that the typists all like Rachana as a
friend, but they are becoming concerned about her lack of supervisory skills.
Avishek mentions to Rachana that she should focus her effort on improving
the work of the typists. She replied, “These woman are my friends and I don’t
feel right cracking down on them”.
Questions
1. Can an individual effectively manage a group and be a close personal
friend with group members?
2. What should Avishek do to ensure that the work of the typists will
improve?
3. Should Bobby have been promoted to office supervisor?
4. If you were Rachana, what would you do? Would you quit the
supervisor’s job? Would you no longer be friends with the typists?
Answers
1) No. As a manager, all relationships should be bounded and defined.
They're not about liking, chemistry, or personality. Relationships that
are personal can only produce disappointment in the long run. But it is
not impossible to maintain close personal relations with employees but
the employer must abstain from one-way authoritative directing as
giving preference to one employee can lead to disdain in minds of
others, a manager must adopt a democratic style of management to
ensure mutual respect. In the case of Rachana, her close personal
relationship with her employees proved catastrophic, the other typists
took advantage of her often taking longer breaks and becoming lax in
their work. Rachana was unable to supervise the other typists and this
lead to many complaints being put against her and the department, to
manage the group Rachana has to have a meeting with the human
resource department as well as her superior Avishek on how to handle
office and personal relationships, as well as implementing stricter rules
to ensure efficiency in work if not the only option would be a demotion
or attrition.
2) As a manager it is Avishek’s responsibility to ensure that the typists
improve their performance, and to help Rachana the supervisor, to
enforce rules. Holding a seminar on office relationships can help
Rachana to understand by ‘cracking’ down on her friends only then can
there be proper work done. The seminar can also speak to the typists
under Rachana to be aware that taking advantage of friendship within
the workplace is not ethical as it would cause problems within an
organisation.
3) Yes it was right to promote Rachana to the position of office supervisor
she has been working in the organisation for ten years and has been a
productive employee. But she lacked the ability to separate her personal
relations with her co-workers against the demand of the organisation.
4) As a supervisor it is Rachana’s duty to orient and train, assign work,
evaluate performance, approve time records and requests for time off’s,
resolve complaints and discipline employees including enforcing rules.
No, if I were in Rachana’s place I would neither quit nor cut away from
social niceties, rather I would adopt a democratic style of management
as well as a change I attitude towards employee relationships and find
balance maintaining friendly relations with co-workers as well as
looking over their work; it is unavoidable that clashes will occur with
the other typists which may potentially damage relationships.
Conclusion :
Thus, in conclusion, interpersonal skills at work directly impact the whole
organization. A strong approach to improve communication between people and
break such barriers will go a long way in assuring the efficiency of the workplace.
Cooperation with others and supporting them is very important. It improves
communication and leads to a better understand of the situation and the emotional
disposition of people.

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Professional Communication Skills – 1 Case study

The Friendly Supervisor

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