Question

READ the scenario pasted below then answer the following 4 questions:

Elaine Bridgewater, the former professional golfer you hired to oversee your golf equipment company's relationship with retailers, knows the business inside and out. As a former touring pro, she has unmatched credibility. She also has seemingly boundless energy, solid technical knowledge, and an engaging personal style. Unfortunately, she hasn't been quite as attentive as she needs to be when it comes to communicating with retailers. You've been getting complaints about voice-mail messages gone unanswered for days, confusing e-mails that require two or three rounds of clarification, and reports that are haphazardly thrown together. As valuable as Bridgewater's other skills are, she's going to cost the company sales if this goes on much longer. The retail channel is vital to your company's survival, and she's the employee most involved in the channel.

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1. List specific areas where her performance must improve. Consider possible causes for performance problems and whether they are rooted in ability (skill gaps, unclear objectives, etc.) or mentality (i.e. personality, attitude, etc.).

2. Identify reasons improving performance is important (costs of low performance, benefits of improved performance).

3. Describe target performance quality.

4. Identify areas in which performance is strong.

Answer 1

1. The performance improvement areas are:

• The clarity in business communication(Ability)
• Diligent response to voicemails and emails(Mentality)
• Improvement in preparing reports(Ability)

2. The reasons to improve the performance would be:

• The retailers may switch to another supplier considering the difficulty in dealing with Elaine Bridgewater which is costing them valuable time and energy
• The word of mouth may even discourage new partnerships
• If the performance of Elaine improves, the retailers will continue the association considering her credibility
• The Golf equipment company will get a good brand name in the market

3. (a) The voicemails and emails should be responded within 24 hours.

(b) Reports should be made in a professional manner with a clear flow.

(c) The emails to retails must contain zero errors and should always be clear on the expectations and information.

4. Elaine Bridgewater was a professional golfer who knows the business quite well. She knows the requirements of golfers and hence is an asset when it comes to predicting the needs of the retailers. She has an engaging personal style and very good technical knowledge. All these makes her very credible for the business.