Write a report of 700 words where you describe the situation at one of the branches of Phoenix Advertising Company.
(There is trouble in the Roanoke branch of this company. The problem is that the Roanoke branch is accepting new clients without evaluating the effects of the new accounts on the current project workload. As a result, without notice or compensation for the additional hours, all salaried employees are required to work long hours several days each week. Employee morale and productivity are declining day by day. In the last three months, two of the top management people—an art director and an account executive—have left the agency. Three of the graphic designers and four of the copywriters are threatening to quit because they feel their creative efforts are being rejected or revised without consultation. They want to be part of a collaborative team, not to simply produce work that the art directors and account executives can alter arbitrarily.)
Write about the problems and the solutions to the problems. Create two questionnaires, one for all the employees at Roanoke and one for all the clients Roanoke has serviced in the last 12 months. Your purpose is to determine when the problems began, how they’re defined by those involved, what caused them, and how the employees think they could be solved.
The following questions may help you in writing the report:
1. Why wouldn’t employees be paid or compensated for extensive overtime? Is the Roanoke branch following employee contractual agreements and agency/branch policies? Is the Roanoke branch operating under different salary scales/schedules than others Phoenix offices?
2. Is the business experiencing financial problems?
3. Who at Roanoke oversees the account review process? What are the procedures for accepting a new client account and for closing completed accounts? Are these procedures being followed?
4. Why are some, but not all, of the graphic designers and writers complaining? Are their complaints legitimate? Have they always complained or is this a recent development? If recent, what has changed to cause the complaints? What have the art directors already tried to do to handle their concerns? How does their negative attitude affect productivity?
5. Why did one of the top executives leave recently? In what ways has the absence affected the branch productivity and employees? ?Has the loss of some management people caused the regular procedure of collaborative review to be over- looked or are the complainers not doing their jobs appropriately?
6. What’s the nature of the complaints filed by the four clients with Mr. Forest? What does each request to resolve the situation?