Diamond Wipes International Inc > Adjusting for Expansion - Essay Example

In 2003 the company achieved revenues of $9 million. Management became concerned that the company might not be able to cope with more expansion. Some of the problems at the company included an overworked sales team, inefficient inventory, poor communication, and lack of control measures. These factors were constraints that were inhibiting growth at the firm. Employee mistakes were costing the company $100,000 per year. To restructure the organization the owner brought in a new general manager, three departmental managers, and four administrative assistants.

The owner was not satisfied with the performance of three of the assistants and she let them go. She also did not like the performance of the general manager, thus he was fired as well. The following year the losses associated with employee inefficiency increased by 50% to $150,000. Answer to Discussion Questions 1) I would rate the leadership skill of Eve Yen as poor. Leadership can be defined as a special case of interpersonal influence that gets an individual or group to do what the leader wants done (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003).

She did a terrible job of managing the staff. Her demanding work schedule created the proliferation of stress among the employees. The increase in stress in the workplace caused moral problems, inefficiency, and underperformance from the employees. “Workplace stress costs U.S. employers an estimated $200 billion per year in absenteeism, lower productivity, staff turnover, workers' compensation, medical insurance and other stress-related expenses” (Maxon, 1999). Mrs. Yen was an over controlling person that wanted to know all the details of the operation.

She did not give her employees the space they needed to perform their job. She should have acted in a different manner by incorporating managerial techniques that empowered the employee such as delegating job responsibilities at the managerial level. Her leadership style can be described as authoritarian and it isolated the employees due to the fact that she did not use input from the employees in her decision making process. Her style is similar to the typical business founder in that she is passionate about the success of the company, while it differs in regards to her hands on approach to management. 2) Eve Yen does not have the capacity to make the transition from founder of the company to the general manager of a now sizable company.

She lacks the patience and people skills needed to become a good manager .Mrs. Yen does not effectively communicate with her employees and demands too much of them. She does not seem to understand that it is important to have a good work-life balance. Her actions have caused an organizational behavior chaos within the company. She increased the size of the administrative staff by hiring eight new workers and delegating the general manager duties to a new person. Her attempts failed since she let go of four of the new employees including the general manager.

Even Yen has to learn to trust her employees and that the human capital of a firm is its most valuable asset. An employee turnover rate on the new hires of 50% is unacceptable. 3) I would rate Eve Yen’s delegation skills as poor. Her timing on the hire of a new general manager was good, but she did truly trust the manager and ended up getting too involved in the day to day operations of the company. In regards to the administrative assistants she put too much pressure on them by delegating too many responsibilities.

Most of the administrative assistants could not handle the workload which led to the dismissal of three of the four administrative assistants hired by Eve Yen. Mrs. Yen is a perfectionist and she wants everyone to follow in her path. She has to learn that not everyone