WK 3 Case 1 Incident 15: Minding the Store
November 19, 2012

Introduction In this case study the situation is Ruth Cummings was put in charge of a store by her boss Ken Hoffman. “Ruth, I’m putting you in charge of this store. Your job will be to run it so that it becomes one of the best stores in the system. I have a lot of confidence in you, so don’t let me down.” That was what was told to Ruth by Ken on her first day. After a couple of calls from her boss Mr. Hoffman, Ruth decides to make an appointment with him. Resolving and defining the issues of this case will assist in developing a preferred alternative and implementation plan for resolution to the case. (Leffler, 1999)
Defining the Issue(s) In order …show more content…

In this case Mr. Hoffman did not show any mentorship. Ruth showed initiative in trying to make the store number one in the company. In this case I think that Mr. Hoffman should have checked in with Ruth periodically, giving her guidance and encouraging her efforts. According to Pierce & Newstrom(2011) “Managers should focus on fostering the four positive leadership strategies that enable positive deviance. Those four strategies are positive climate, positive relationships, positive communication, and positive meaning” (p. 102) This alternative will work if a good action and implementation plan is put into place.
Developing an Action/Implementation Plan Implementing this preferred alternative might be difficult but it will be worth the time and effort. Mr. Hoffman needs to be more involved in the mentoring of a new branch manager. He should give Ruth guidelines on what she can and cannot do on her own. Call Ruth periodically to see how she is doing and so that any ideas she has regarding the store will go through him. Mr. Hoffman should follow the four leadership strategies. In order to follow through on this plan we need to see if it works. A review the store and of Ruth’s performance should let us know if the plan worked or did not work. If it worked then you should see that the store is one of the top in the company. If it