Maureen Frye at Quaker Steel and Alloy Corporation Essay

Frye made some(prenominal) mistakes with respect to her initial attempt to run with multifariousness, yet in that location be wider companion issues beyond Fryes present(prenominal) support that also contributed to the failure of her initiative.Having take ton her original memorandum attract criticism for its arbitrary nature, Frye failed to richly comprehend the concludes for the initial rejection of her proposal, when she proceeded with her January 1995 meeting with the DSMs. This is receivable to the item that Frye did non right sympathise the way in which the gross revenue segment worked. On page 7 it is mentioned that Frye had not been able to spend as more conviction in the field as she had hoped, while on page 9 Frye says we gave them a rough protrudeline of what we treasured done, and we expected the DSMs to follow through as they saw fit. As a leave of this, we speculate that she was unaw ar of the intumescent layer of autonomy afforded to individu al gross revenue state by the regional DSMs. In a scenario where there is ordinarily a large stagecoach of autonomy, a rough discoverline presented to people who then crap to pass on the c erstwhilept to their respective subordinates is tot every(prenominal)y inadequate.Frye showed a complete want of empathy with the changes baffling for the sales fierceness. She has not solicited widespread feedback on her proposals and from her spot behind a computer analyzing cold hard numbers, she has entirely underestimated the change involved to the nature of the sales forces work. Addition anyy she has made no causal agency to understand their demands and frustrations.Frye does not appear to have engaged the General gross sales Managers at entirely. By sidelining them in this way she removes their motivation to construe correct instrumentation. She thus tackively discards what could be very effective resources that wield bear line responsibility everyplace the employees who will in the end need to go through Fryes proposed changes.Finally, Frye was not properly authorise by her superiors and debatems to have made no effort to cut across this. As demonstrate on Page 2 the tangled responsibility lines that cut across departments meant that typically managers who joined Quaker from new(prenominal) companies build Quaker a confusing order to work. These complicated responsibility lines (Exhibit 1 and Exhibit 3) meant that Frye was not given expressed control over the people who would ultimately implement her proposals. In the workplace, believability grows off of some(prenominal) sources expertise and consanguinitys1 Coupled with the incident that Frye did not have installed workings relationships, this confusing mental synthesis meant that in the absence seizure of explicit empowerment, Frye lacked the credibleness to effect change.The two overriding themes that we have identify are that Frye has demonstrated a clear lack of people skills. She has shown no collar of the central motivators of the sales force and communication more or less implementation of her idea has been poor two in terms of content and its direction. Frye has been unavailing to exhibit leadership due to twain a complicated organizational structure and her soulfulnessal lack of established credibility due to lack of relationships.What would you do if you were Maureen Frye, at the end of the case?One standalone alternate(a) that Frye could pursue is for Israel to send a direct order to his entire department petition that they comply with Fryes proposals. This proposal benefits from the fact that Israel has direct line representation over the salespeople and is in a better incline to monitor the implementation plan.This ersatz however entirely fails to address concerns around soliciting feedback and ignores the largely accepted norm of influencing through mentation and analyses earlier than through form-only(prenominal) author ity.2 Additionally this entirely underestimates the change for the salespeople, which Frye was initially guilty of. What is more, this does not address what appears to be one of the primordial frustrations that salespeople have when dealings with large accounts, namely that the quality of do from the practiced Service department varies greatly depending on the salesperson involved. Thus, whilst Frye might see a change in way she may not necessarily see the desired result of higher sales due to lack of buy-in from the technical service Department.Another alternative is to try and implement her proposal while at the alike time introducing a change to the remuneration policy whereby salespeople would be remunerated found on a fixed payment plus a large inconsistent component determined as a commission on sales revenue. This alternative however requires a radical swap in the corporate culture and its potential outcome of success is severely rock-bottom by the fact that whe n talking al nigh motivation of salespeople in the Chicago and forward-looking York offices, All rated monetary rewards and incentives lowest on the scale3. This solution also fails to address the problem of making sure that both the gross revenue and technological Services departments are pulling in the same direction.Our lucky alternative composes several elements Frye call for to germinate the VP for Technical Services on board. This is in all likelihood most easily achieved by a meeting involving Salk, Bethancourt and Israel where all spell out their clear support for the excogitate. Frye needs to cause comprehensive feedback on her proposals from the sales force. She should do this by straightway visiting all regional offices and conducting interviews with the General sales managers, all the DSMs and as many salespeople as possible.o The meetings among Frye and the salespeople should not be of a formal kind, but rather sexual and friendly in order to properly devel op a collaborative relationship.o If we assume that meeting each and every salesperson is impossible, then she needs to demand the people she meets with on a strategical basis by choosing those who exert most influence on their young mans.o She should clearly explain the rationale for her proposals in person and take account of any feedback provided and embarrass in the implementation where possible. Feedback should not except be point in time but should be on expiration.o gibe to the case, there is already one aged salesperson that is convinced about the project and has implemented the project to some completion and believes in its future outcomes. Frye needs to make out good use of this senior salesperson because as we know, credibility, along other lines female genitals be built or bought.4 He earth-closet serve as a good liaison between her and the other salespeople, showing evidence that the project working and emphasizing to his colleagues the benefits based on hi s first-hand experience.o Given that monetary rewards are not a high priority Frye must emphasize that whilst they may have an initially fallow period in sales, the ensuant benefits from their time and effort will result in increased sales of a higher magnitude. Additionally she should emphasize that the meanwhile period will also take back scope for significant satisfaction as they collaborate with clients in order to pick their problems. In addition to seeking commentary from the sales force, Frye needs to further establish credibility with the sales force sooner asking them to implement her proposal. As a result of our first point, we believe she can do this by ensuring better cooperation from the Technical Services Department for all salespeople. In this way she helps them see how they can bugger off from here to there, by establishing some credibility and by giving them some reason and help to get there.5 There should be memo sent by the VPs for Technical Support Servic e, and Sales to their subordinates whicho dilate Fryes proposals and explicitly mentioning that she should be afforded all possible help in implementing her proposals.o Emphasizes that the company practices a strong philosophical system of providing customers with the best technical service and aid available6o Insists on each DSM providing a weekly progress reputation in order to ensure greater accountability.o Gives thanks to staff for their slender performance thus far.By going through the points above we believe that Frye addresses the issues that we set when answering the first question, namely a lack of empowerment, a lack of understanding of the sales department, a lack of empathy and a failure to engage the General Sales Managers.The surgery however does not break down there. Close monitor of the implementation is fundamental so that any deviation is identified and corrected appropriately in a timely fashion. Frye should ensure that she uses the need for monitoring as a way to collect continued feedback and comments and thus evaluate the change in sales behavior and its effect not only on sales but also on employee satisfaction. She needs to establish an ongoing and collaborative relationship and make sure that the sales force see her as an approachable colleague working towards the same company goals rather than as a demanding taskmaster.Frye needs to ensure that she has a contingency plan in place. We suggest that should there be complaints from the Sales Department in relation to Technical Services Department cooperation, Frye should escalate immediately to the VP in charge as wellspring as Israel and Bethancourt. Assuming she continues to encounter metro on the Sales side, this should be escalated to Israel for immediate action.Should the trial of Fryes proposals be victorious i.e. increase overall sales through a greater focus on large accounts, we believe that when rolled out to other products that a more formal relationship should be established between the Technical Services Department and the Sales Department. As part of this process we instigate a process of 360degree evaluation feedback where employees are ranked versus their peers.For Fryes personal learning she must realize that feedback is not an interpersonal process where others tell one how they fight down to his/her behavior. It is rather a self initiated process where one examines the effects of ones behavior on others therefore once the implementation plan has been drawn up and executed, it would be valuable for Frye to request 360 degree feedback from all stakeholders engaged in the reallotment process and initiate a thorough self-assessment to address her areas of weakness.