Executive Summary This case addresses the problems between a manager-subordinate relationship at a snack bar a popular tourism destination

in Northern Canada. Such problems that had arisen were differences in communication, misunderstandings of prior pay agreements, and misunderstanding of job duties. We suggest that the majority of these problems are most likely result from bad communication and the misunderstanding of the job description. This has led to the supervisor of the snack bar, Michael Welland, to believe that his manager Rebecca Boddington (the assistant operations manager) had a personal grudge against him. This also had led to there to be a strong tension between the two throughout the summer. Michael was so fed up with the situation that he hated his job to the point where he had not wanted to finish up the remaining four weeks on his job contract. The many problems leading up to this point had been evidence of bad manager-subordinate relationships, which is the focal point of this case. The issues that led to this sour relationship between Michael and Rebecca were quiet evident throughout the case, and even escalated as the case went on. From the start, Michael was promised that he would be given a job over summer as the supervisor of the Waterview snack bar. To his disarray upon arrival, he learned that the Waterview snack bar was not yet opened and he would have to work as a server with part time hours. In addition Michael was also angered when his paycheck did not reflect the pay level he was promised as a supervisor. These situations all which had angered Michael and decreased his morale, had led to multiple confrontations between him and Rebecca. However nothing was established at these confrontations. Rebecca not only neglected the concerns of Michael, but only reassured him that nothing would be done to help his situation and understand his viewpoint. This lack of communication provided by Rebecca to Michael was perhaps the main reason why the

relationship began to get bad and was inefficient to carry out a successful organization model. Had Rebecca listened to Michaels concerns and made an attempt to address them more clearly, perhaps Michael would not feel as much anger, and at least would have some of his motivation to perform his job duties. Not only did this impact his own abilities to perform his job, but also since he assumed the position as supervisor of the Waterview snack bar it can be assumed that his lack of motivation transgressed to his subordinates. Thus the lack of communication

Between Rebecca and Michael would hinder not only motivation of management, but also of those of whom are supervised by them. It was apparent throughout the case that the job duties and tasks were not very well defined because Michael kept getting surprised and aggravated about certain duties that he had not expected. Such as was the case when he realized he would be a part time server until the Waterview snack bar opened. Not only were some his job duties different, but in addition he was getting paid at a rate below what he initially expected. Therefore the unclear details about job and a great number of unexpected occurrences on the job had led to the lowering of motivation of Michael, and his great discontent for the job alongside subpar job communication. Recommendations that should be made to fix the situation presented in the case include the development of a plan for more formal communication between upper level management and all employees, not just supervisors. A good plan to establish this communication would be weekly meetings, with clear descriptions of policies and changes made to job duties along with explanations as to why certain things are the way they are. In addition management should allow for their subordinates address their concerns and even make suggestions, or even work hand in hand with them to solve certain problems. The presence of management knowledge and

understanding or certain situations in itself can help to prevent lowering of motivation and grudges from occurring. We would also recommend that job duties and tasks be written into job descriptions and acknowledged by the employees at the time of hiring, along with set rates for certain jobs. Thus there would be no surprises or shockingly bad news for the employees and such arguments would not occur. Analysis The analysis section of the paper will discuss how the relationship between Michael Welland and Rebecca Boddington was continual bad based on 3 main issues: 1) Bad leadership 2) Poor Conflict and Negotiation both of which led to a continual decline in motivation for Michael to continuing to come to work. We came to these conclusions by using the Michigan Theories from the Leadership Behavioral Theory, also using the Nature of Organizational Conflict model. Coming to the last conclusion about why Michael became less and less motivated with each day we used the Two Factor Theory also known as the Herzberg Theories. Throughout the rest of this section we will show in depth what both Welland and Boddington were doing wrong and how they were affecting their work as well as the work of the other employees. The first reason mentioned above of why there were so many conflicts between Boddington and Welland is Poor Leadership, more specifically the Leadership Behavior Theory. The Leadership Behavior Theory describes two main Leadership styles, 1) Production-Oriented Leader and 2) Employee Oriented Leader. Both of which have their pros and cons however one thing is certain. It is hard for these two to get along. Rebecca Boddington is clearly a

Production Oriented leader. The article states that she often works six days a week, if not seven, and also work very long hours on each of those days. However Michael is more of a mixture of both kinds of leaders, he was results oriented yet he also seemed to care a lot about relationships even saying that, the fact that many of friends and a cousin work there was one of the reasons that he first started working there and continued to. Rebecca has such a high ProductionOrientation that when Michael approached her about questions regarding his work, she was often too busy to have a proper conversation, even telling him to get out of the way. As we can see, having either leadership style has its pros and its cons however, the example of Michael and Rebecca describes perfectly having too much of one or the other will often lead to conflict in the workplace. The Second reason why Michael and Rebecca continued to have a negative experience with each other is how they failed to communicate to help solve conflict through negotiation. Right from the beginning of the article we see that Michael is not being given adequate tools to help him perform his job. Rebecca has failed to give him a new computer so he has to run up the hill to process transactions slowing the whole process down, later in the article he is having to do jobs which were not in his job description and his pay reflected that as well. Though these are significant problems to Michael the real problem that is affecting Michael and Rebecca is conflict negotiation. Throughout the article we see that every time Michael has an issue, immediately finds Rebecca by barging into her office, finding her in the dining room, etc. Whenever they meet it always starts as an argument and nothing really gets solved at the end. This is known as Dysfunctional Conflict. This is an unhealthy, destructive disagreement between two or more people. This is important to note because it these negative relationship that is developing from their dysfunctional conflict. For example it diverts energy from work, creates

a negative climate, increase hostility and aggressive behaviors, and breaks down group cohesion. We see examples of effects in the article, for instance when Michael discusses he problems with fellow coworkers, he is actually hurting everybody else even though he may feel better afterwards. Another example is how Michael and Rebecca had such a high level of tension that it created hostility and an overall negative climate. None of which helped the company. The last topic we found important is Herzbergs motivation theory. Throughout the whole article Michael keeps saying he wants to quit and hates coming work every day. This has a direct correlation with Herzbergs Hygiene Factors model. Things that affect the hygiene theory are supervision, salary and the company policy. Michael was clearly upset with the supervision and the salary, especially after he was supposed to have been promoted. Since these factors were not adequate to what Michael thought he deserved, this led to him being dissatisfied with Rebecca and work in general. As shown throughout our analysis section, there were many problems between Rebecca and Michael. Three main problems being lack of motivation, conflict and negotiation problem, and lastly leadership style conflicts. If nothing is done to help correct these issues, they will continue to get worse and furthermore affect the quality of work both Rebecca and Michael are able to produce. Rebecca Boddington and Michael Welland, the operations manager and the snack bar supervisors of The Waterview, have contradictory ideas regarding their 5 star resorts in Muskoka district of northern Ontario. Situated approximately 160 Km north of Toronto, the Muskoka district is home to some of the best preserved natural scenery in northern Canada. The district has attracted millions of tourists each year and has hundreds of accommodation options, so

competition has become fierce. Welland believes that Boddington holds a personal grudge against him and feels as though her criticism has deteriorated the work ethic of his coworkers. He is on the brink of quitting his job despite his contract. In past years the resort has unfortunately undergone several changes in ownership and has since lost several guests that have cited this reason for the deterioration in quality at the establishment. The present owners are aware of this problem and are in the mist of addressing it but the issues will take time to resolve. Rebecca Booddington and Michael Welland both work at the Waterview and both are involved with the running of the snack bar during the summer months. The summer months are when the resort sees the most business and the snack bar welcomes both patrons of the resort and the general public as well. The bar serves a pub-style lunch. Boddington is the assistant manager of operations at the resort and has been with the company for about 6 years. She oversees the food and beverage department, reservations, and customer service. Her responsibilities include hiring, training and scheduling for these departments. In the past Rebecca has not met many of the guests expectations but has earned many compliments for her honestly in dealing with the issues during the transition of ownership. Rebecca lives on-site and commonly works long hours to deal with the demands put on her. On the other hand, Michael Welland is a former bus boy that has about 4 years of experience at the Waterview. He since has moved up to the position of server but has never really enjoyed the job nor profited much from his employment there. He views it as a fairly easy job and works with family therefore he is motivated to remain employed.

Along with Boddington and Welland the resort employs many part-time seasonal workers to deal with the seasonal tourism. Most of the workers are employed from April through October and are generally student workers except for housekeeping and the kitchen staff. Boddington and Welland begin to butt heads when she offers Welland a full-time position as a staff supervisor during the summer. Welland initially turns down the offer and then accepts after Boddington makes the deal more attractive. Welland begins to regret accepting the offer after having arrived the next summer and being given maintenance tasks unexpectedly. Welland is also furious to find that in his first paycheck he was being paid at a starting rate and that other part-timers are getting paid more than he is. There were further problems that followed Michaels second paycheck and resulted in a promise from Boddington that Welland would receive a bonus at the end of the summer for his supervisory work. This was not the original agreement that Welland had agreed to and he was furious. Recommendations There are a few recommendations that could improve the overall interaction between hourly employees and upper level management. The recommendations are as follows; conduct weekly staff meetings for all employees, strictly defining job duties/responsibilities in the descriptions and acknowledgement at time of hiring, lastly institute an open door policy. Implementing any of these three recommendations will increase effective communication and interactions between all employees greatly. The first recommendation is to fix the communication issues between all employees. The most basic and efficient way to fix and increase communication is for Boddington to establish

weekly meetings. During the weekly meetings, issues that employees have may be raised to Boddington and other management if necessary, as well as organizational issues that Boddington becomes aware of on a weekly basis affecting all employees can be relayed in greater detail. Keeping employees aware of situations and new policies in a timely manner is essential to keeping employees happy and working. It may be difficult to hold one larger meeting for every employee to attend, if that is the case Boddington would be wise to hold 2 or even 3 meetings shortly before scheduled shifts as to not be pulling the employees from their tasks. To address the other major problem of Welland doing duties that should not have been in his responsibilities stricter descriptions should be established. In the job descriptions given with each title the duties and responsibilities should be strictly defined and understood by the employee at the time of hiring. By defining the duties more strictly you remove surprises in the job such as Welland being hired as a supervisor yet still working as a server and maintenance person. Hiring an employee for a specific job, especially a management style job, and then having them conduct completely different duties is only going to be aggravating for the employee, because now they have no idea what to expect or prepare themselves for in any given day of work. The last recommendation is for Boddington to institute an open door policy for any and all issues employees may have. If Boddington were to make herself freely available for even just 30-60 minutes a day during each shift, the stress on employees who have problems should be greatly reduced; because they can simply walk in and address the issue rather than trying to locate Boddington and then set up an appointment. The work of locating Boddington or a supervisor and setting a given meeting may be more stressful then their actual issue. Also with an open door policy Boddington may be able to include employees in some decision making

processes, if conducted in the correct manner. Getting employees involved in some of the decision making processes will reduce the stress on Boddington making her more willing to deal with employee issues, helping everyone out, it also brings it out of the box thinking that Boddington may have never considered giving a greater reward/outcome than without. If Boddington were to move forward with these recommendations many aspects of the work area would begin to change. With weekly meetings Boddington can quickly address certain issues and ensure that the days activities will run smoothly. In addition to the meetings the open door policy allows Boddington to use extra help from her employees to solve minor issues, as well as helping her employees with their own minor issues which in turn gives the employee a sense of worth since their manager cares. Lastly if the job descriptions are addressed and enforced more strictly almost all of the issues that were experienced between Welland and Boddington disappear, creating an easier, friendlier work environment.

To put an end to the calamity going on in The Waterview resort I would implement a few major changes. My recommendations are as follows; managers, supervisors, and workers are not to work more than 5 days a week or 40 hours per week without consent from upper level management. Define managers and employees job descriptions and duties. Conduct weekly staff meetings between employees. Lastly, I would implement a performance evaluation system where employees and managers can evaluate each other to address problems going on in the work place. Out of the recommendations mentioned, first I would implement the weekly staff meetings between employees and managers. Weekly staff meeting will boost communication which is the key to the success of any team or organization. Weekly staff meetings also promote

teamwork; Rebecca Boddington should not be the only go-to person in the Waterview resort. During these meetings Rebecca can distribute some of her tasks, duties and responsibilities to other managers throughout the resort. Also, weekly staff meetings will keep all employees up to date on new policies and situations that affect The Waterview. The next recommendation I would implement is defining managers and employees job descriptions. A well written job description can be of great value to any business. In the case it was said the Boddington and Welland were working out of their job position. This can be detrimental to managers or workers because of longer hours and increased stress. Workers should not be allowed to work more than 40 hours per week or 5 days per week without consent from upper level management. This should be written in the job description of that employee for legal protection. Lastly, I would implement an evaluation system. A performance evaluation system can also increase communication in the workplace by giving workers and managers feedback on their job performance. With an evaluation system goals can be set and met, by the collaboration of worker and manager on a specific goal. Evaluations can also help a manager & worker see if they have chosen the correct career path. If upper level management were to implement these recommendations I believe the Waterview Resort will change dramatically. Friendly interaction between customer, employee, and manager would increase sales and the morale of all workers. Weekly staff meetings boost communication between worker and manager. Defining job descriptions protect your business from legal complications and also help the worker know what they are to do. Lastly, performance evaluations provide feedback which helps everyone in the long run