Assignment:
THE BUSINESS PROBLEM SUBJECT
Business Problem Post: Poisonous Management
NYP Steakhouse, a hidden gem in the well-known location of Boca Raton, Florida. This local hot spot serves only prime grade meat, succulent fresh seafood, and impeccable service and professionalism. The restaurant is compiled of hostesses, server assistants, servers, bartenders, front of house manager, kitchen manager, maître d', dishwashers, and cooks. I have accepted the opportunity to be a server at this establishment.
I am a firm believer of how management can affect how the staff feels and works as a whole. A bad manager can take a good staff and destroy it, causing the best employees to flee and the remainders to lose all motivation. When a manager is constantly micro managing and breathing down their employee's necks, it is actually doing more harm than good. As employees, we know how to do our job and are best served to let the restaurant run itself, and alert a manager when and if a serious problem arrives. This is a problem for the company because employees now do not want to come to work and feel like our manager is a plague that is bringing down the company.
MEMORANDUM
Date: Month, day, 20xx
To: GEB Students
From: GEB Instructors G.I
Subject: Business Problem Memo
Your Business Problem memo responds to your supervisor's inquiry regarding a problem in your company or at your place of work. You will not offer any possible solutions for the problem in this memo. You want your supervisor to know that you are willing to further research the problem to determine alternative solutions and a final recommendation. This assignment memo provides instructions and an example of your memo's format. It discusses the required format and required elements of this assignment.
Required Format
Your paper should follow: It should (1) be single-spaced, (2) be between 1.5 and 2 pages, (2) use Arial or Times New Roman 12-pt font, (3) include page numbers, and (4) use parallel headings for each content area.
Required Elements
Your memo will contain an introductory paragraph, the three content areas with headed sections named below, and a conclusion to your paper. After the introductory paragraph, your main headings will be Symptoms of the Problem, Effects of the Problem, Causes of the Problem, and Conclusion. Center the main headings in your paper. Write in complete sentences using paragraphs with topic sentences; avoid using bullet points. Each section should contain concise, well-developed paragraphs. One sentence statements are not paragraphs.
Introduction
Provide an introductory paragraph right after the memo letterhead that includes the purpose of your paper and previews your content areas for your audience. This section does not need an "Introduction" heading. The introduction to your memo should contain a "preview sentence" of the main sections of the paper: tell your supervisor that you will discuss the symptoms, effects of these symptoms on the company, and possible cause of the problem. Use active sentences without filler: "This paper describes" is better than "the purpose of this paper is to provide a description"
Symptoms of the Problem
Why does your supervisor think the company has a problem? Describe the noted symptoms leading to this conclusion. For example, an increase in customer complaints about not receiving timely responses to their requests is a symptom of a problem. These actions or behaviors that employees or managers are complaining about are the symptoms of the business problem you will attempt to solve later on in the semester.
Symptom example: Company X is losing approximately 8 clients per month.
Effects of the Problem
What are the effects of these symptoms on the company? What is this problem causing or costing the company? For example, the company may be losing more clients than usual and therefore losing money; you can calculate the approximate amount.
Effect example: This client loss translates into an estimated $8,000 revenue deficit per month.
Causes of the Problem
Analyze the situation to determine the contributing causes to the problem situation. In this section, you might discuss more than one cause; however, your conclusion statement below will present ONLY the ONE primary contributing cause. This section should NOT merely repeat the problem symptoms or effects; rather, discuss how the symptoms and effects help you uncover the cause(s) of the problem.
Cause example: One possible cause of the client loss is recent staff shortage-two key employees left the Company last quarter. The remaining employees are managing their own client workloads, plus the workloads of the former employees.
Conclusion (your paper should only have one conclusion)
Summarize with a problem statement that concisely states the ONE primary cause of the problem situation. The problem statement should be the first sentence of the first paragraph in this section, and should be one sentence only. Although your problem might have a number of causes, provide only one primary cause for your problem (even if in reality, the problem has a number of contributing factors).
Problem statement example: Company X is losing approximately 8 clients per month because the current staff of 4 employees is performing the workload of 6 employees.
Then, add detail to the conclusion to provide context. Be sure to close with a concluding remark that lets your supervisor know you are willing to provide further research to develop a solution.
Conclusion (to this assignment description)
Analyzing the symptoms, effects, and causes of a workplace problem sharpens your ability to write a concise business memo. Be sure to pick a problem that interests you and that will allow you to do library research on the topic. The business problem you choose will be the basis of increasingly complex assignments this semester, so your problem has to be narrow enough to handle in a two- page paper, but broad enough to find authoritative, published material addressing the problem.
Your paper will be evaluated according to the Business Problem Memo Rubric provided in the Blackboard platform. Your paper will be graded according to the formatting, organization, content, and writing criteria set forth in that rubric. Prior to submission, be sure to (1) confirm that you have addressed all assignment directions, (2) use topic sentences in each paragraph to organize the information therein, (3) put information in the appropriate section (e.g., symptoms in the symptoms section; effects in the effects section), and (4) employ direct, straightforward, and properly punctuated sentences.