Roles and Skills of Managers

Case Study Assignment
PURPOSE:
The purpose of this project is to examine your understanding of the roles, skills of managers and to develop strategies to implement goals and strategies. Using a case study, you will be asked to demonstrate how motivation, relationship building, and trust affect organizational effectiveness.
TASK:
After carefully reviewing the case study below, comprise a 5–6-page paper (excluding the title page and reference list page) that includes ALL of the following points:
• Research the concepts of motivation, trust, and behavior as they individually, and collectively, relate to the ability for leaders to create sound management relationships that ultimately lead to successful organizations.
• Apply your research on the concepts of motivation, trust, and behavior to the relationship-building issues identified in the case study.
• Develop a forward strategy for leadership, and management that focuses on relationship building, diversity and trust that will help the organization implement these new strategies.
• Explain the reasoning/conclusions behind your plan elements and support them with your research, class materials, and case-study facts.
• Analyze how the plan/strategies you develop for management will maximize organizational effectiveness, purpose, and vision.
INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE THE SUBMISSION:
• Final submission should include a Title Page, analysis, In-Text Citations, and a Reference List.
o The analysis should begin with an introductory paragraph that clearly and succinctly explains what you intend to cover in the body of the paper.
o The analysis should end with a conclusion/summary paragraph that clearly and succinctly explains what you covered in the body of the paper.
• Utilize a minimum of 5 scholarly references/sources/course readings (following APA 7th Ed. style and format guidelines) to support ideas, reasoning, and conclusions.
o Paraphrase from relevant sources to show a greater understanding of the topics. Limit quotes, though when used explain their significance.
o Provide the page or paragraph number as appropriate for APA format.
o Note that a reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa.
• The paper must be double-spaced with 1-inch margins with 12 pt. font.
o Third-person writing is required and do NOT use contractions.

Case Study Description & Details
• Ann McConnell is Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Jackson Spice Ingredients (JSI), a large Maryland spice and food ingredient company.
o The mission of JSI is “to profitably expand its global leadership position in the spice, seasoning markets while being good stewards of the environment.”
o In an industry that has a large national market presence, yet is global in its need for raw materials, JSI is always looking for ways to increase productivity and speed things up while staying connected to its worldwide sources.

• Two years into the job, McConnell recommends to JSI’s president, Charles Jackson, that the company should implement a new global organizational structure.
o McConnel suggests that the new organizational structure should be focused on divisions or geographic areas, thereby enabling a stronger focus on local environments and sustainability.
o The new divisional structure will enable more of a focus on the local environment, thus assisting managements in understanding how they can impact each demographic area.

• One of the first steps would be reorganizing the company’s current functional structure and moving or hiring new managers for each of the new divisions.
o Charles and Ann know that 3 of the 7 current managers will be reluctant to change to the new organizational structure and strategy.
• Charles and Ann need to consider what management strategies they will need to focus on in order to get all 7 of the managers onboard with the organizational changes.
o Charles and Ann also need to consider what management skills will be most needed to implement the new strategies.

• Taking into consideration what you have learned about organizational structure/theory, management strategy, workplace culture, and human capital, develop a strategy for leadership to use that will help management in their new roles and that will focus on JSI’s vision and purpose.