After graduation, Mary obtained a job managing a department in a retail clothes store. Since she arrived, sales have declined 10 percent and employees are complaining about management's lack of communication. Mary meets with each of the eight employees and notes that two of them are displaying negative emotions and low resilience. She also observes that sales people tend to stand around talking to each other rather than helping customers. She is at a loss for why this is happening given the company's values around customer service and helping others. Upon further investigation, a couple of employees tell her that the goals are too challenging, and they don't believe that they can be achieved. Mary speaks to her boss about the situation and he tells her to increase the sales in

Question

her department or else she will be let go.Use the 3-Step Problem-Solving Approach to solve Mary's key problem.   

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Step 1: Define the problem. 
In this case, the primary problem appears to be the individual issues of work attitudes and task performance. These will doubtless impact customer satisfaction as well as sales (and thereby, the company's financial performance). 

Step 2: Identify causes of the problem. 
There appears to be a lack of communication at both the management and employee levels. In addition, employees do not feel invested in the target goals.   

Step 3: Make your recommendations for solving the problem.
The most feasible response is to resolve the problem. Bring employees into the process of goal creation and attainment.