Incident A Matter of Priorities As production manager for Thompson Manufacturing
ID: 447382 • Letter: I
Question
Incident A Matter of Priorities
As production manager for Thompson Manufacturing, Sheila Stephens has the final authority to approve the hiring of any news supervisors who work for her. The human resource manager performs the initial screening of all prospective supervisors and then sends the most likely candidates to Sheila for interviews.
One day recently, Sheila received a call from Pete Peterson, the human resource manager: “Sheila, I’ve just spoken to a young man who may be just who you looking for to fill the final line supervisor position. He has some good work experience and appears to have his head screwed on straight. He’s here right now and available if you could possibly see him.”
Sheila hesitated a moment before answering. “Gee, Pete” she said, “I’m certainly busy today, but I’ll try to squeeze him in. send him on down.”
A moment later Allen Guthrie, the applicant, arrived at Sheila’s office and she introduced herself. “Come on in, Allen,” said Sheila. “I’ll be right with you after I make a few phone calls.” Fifteen minutes later Sheila finished the calls and began talking with Allen. Sheila was quite impressed. After a few minutes Sheila door opened and a supervisor yelled, “ We have a small problem on line and need your help.” Sheila stood up and said, “Excuse me a minute, Allen,” Ten minutes later Sheila returned, and the conversation continued for 10 more minutes before a series of phone calls again interrupted the pair.
The same pattern of interruptions continued for the next hour. Finally, Allen looked at is watch ad said, “I’m sorry, Mrs. Stephens, but I have to pick up my wife.”
“Sure thing, Allen, “Sheila said as the phone rang again. “Call me later today.”
Questions
1. What should Sheila have done to avoid interviews like this one?
2. Explain why Sheila, not Pete, should make the selection decision.
3. What steps in the selection process were missed, if any? What problems might occur as a result of these omissions ?
Explanation / Answer
1.Sheila should not accept the interview keeping in view her work priorities, she should postponed the interview and could have explained the situation to pete exactly and would have asked to reschdule it someother day. So that she could have manged the work as well as the interview well. she should have analysed her situation and could have passed the information to pete. Since she did not do that the interview ended up with no result.
2.Since sheila is the final authority and is in a reponsible production manger position who know the exact requirements and comnpetencies for the job to roll out the job well she should make the selection decision.
3. the exact attitude and behavioural analysis of the candidate is missed in the selection procedure where sheila did not focus and there is no good conversation between the candidate and the interviwer to analyse the candidate properly. Also the candidate also did not get a chance to express his talent and know more about the role and the company. The problems that might occur are the candidate may feel uninterested and disrespectful and may develop a bad impression on the companies procedures.