Roleplay

T 13 ROLE PLAY #2

‘MANAGING IRENE’

Irene Foster has been employed in your company for 14 years. She started as a sales representative and climbed up to become a store manager with 25 employees under her supervision. Over the past year, we have received several complaints and interviews have been conducted with several of Irene’s employees. Here is some background information:

• Irene Foster. 47 years old, divorced, 2 teenage daughters (13 and 15 years old). She lives in a condominium which she bought last year. She changes cars every second year. She loves fast cars, clubbing and traveling.
• All her performance reports for the past 10 years (until she became store manager) were outstanding. She didn’t receive PRs for 3 and 4 years ago because the former district manager was often sick and neglected his administrative duties. He was replaced 2 years ago by Norman Brown, one of our best district managers, who gave her a slightly above average report last year and an average report this year.
• Irene’s store is one of the most profitable in the company. Her sales are 5% higher than most other stores.
• In February, two female sales representatives complained that Irene favoured male staff and that she often went clubbing with them. Irene denied that and said it was jealousy. The male staff interviewed admitted seeing Irene ‘once in a while’ at the same clubs they visited but that it was ‘chance encounters’, not ‘going out together’.
• In April, a female sales rep was fired by Irene for ‘not performing well enough’. She made a complaint to the government but the case was settled before the hearing. The employee accepted a monetary settlement and dropped the complaint.
• In June, a complaint was made by a sales rep that Irene often left the store and staff were left ‘on their own’ (without direction). When confronted with the complaint, Irene replied that her management style must be right and efficient because June was a record month for sales.
• Two weeks ago, another complaint was made by a female sales rep for harassment. It hasn’t been processed yet.

Here are some extracts from sales rep interviews (all presently employed in Irene’s store):

• Julie: ‘She doesn’t seem to like women much. She really bosses us around.’
• Mark: ‘She’s a good boss. She has character and knows where she’s going.’
• Sonia: ‘Frankly, she’s a bitch. I hate her!!!’
• Amélie: ‘She is very strict and some people don’t like it because they can’t slack on the job.’
• Kim: ‘She is not very friendly but she’s often out, so I don’t really care.’
• Joe: ‘Hey! This store is well located and we can sell a lot, which gives me good bonuses. Irene is cute and she knows it. What’s wrong with that?’

Identify the problem and discuss the options you have and come up with a plan.

• Your team secretary must produce the minutes of the meeting. They will be typed, have a cover page with the name of the secretary and follow the format taught in class. They will be handed in next week.
• The team leader must prepare an agenda for next week that will follow the format taught in class and give me a copy. The time for your meeting math is 100 minutes.

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