Read the following case and use the questions below for a basis of a discussion.

There were some talents that Sheena was sadly lacking. But she did have a gift for languages. Including English and French, she spoke six of them with perfect fluency. And living in Ottawa, she realized that her skills were in great demand. After graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration, Sheena worked at a translation service for a couple of years, then eventually opened her own business conducting guided tours through the city and surrounding areas for foreign visitors.

Sheena promoted her services to conference organizers, travel packagers and large hotels. Most of her business was taking groups of 10 to 50 foreign visitors on walking or bus tours conducted in their own languages. She would rent busses and drivers as needed from OC Transport. The business was now receiving many more requests than Sheena could handle on her own, so she knew it was time to hire some tour guides. So far the company consisted of just Sheena and a full-time clerk.

In the past year, Sheena had gone through four clerks so she felt that it was important this time, to get good reliable help that wouldn't have to be replaced all the time. She decided to hire people that would have some overlapping languages with hers, but also some that she did not speak so that she could expand the range of groups she could service. Even though she was only hiring one new guide and only to work part-time at first, she put a lot of work into the process. She had placed several ads in the local newspapers and whittled the list of candidates down to six. These she interviewed in depth and finally settled on a single recruit as the first new hire, Ramesh.

Ramesh was 36 years old (five years older than Sheena herself) and held a Masters degree in Canadian history. He was fluent in English, French and five other languages including Spanish which Sheena also spoke. All through university, Ramesh had supported himself by working as a tour guide in half a dozen cities all over the world, including Ottawa. Now Ramesh worked full-time as a professor at Algonquin College where he had considerable flexibility with his schedule. He wished to work occasional days during the college term, but full-time in the summers

Sheena made an appointment for Ramesh to come into the office where she gave him all the necessary tour and historical information to study and scheduled him for three tours which she said Ramesh would conduct, but where she would come along to help train him. The first was for a group of visiting politicians from Mexico and so it would be in Spanish, a language that both of them spoke. At the end of the meeting, Sheena pointed out that the grey slacks and blue shirt that Ramesh was wearing would be ideal to conduct tours but that he should not wear the navy blazer (too formal) although he should wear a neck tie (something conservative, not too bright) to set a professional tone.

On the day of the first tour, Sheena arrived at the pick-up point to see Ramesh outside the bus door collecting tickets from the passengers, shaking their hands and talking animatedly. He was dressed as she had suggested but the tie; no that tie would never do, way too gaudy. Sheena decided to alert him to this error at the first opportunity. As the last of the passengers straggled aboard, Sheena pulled Ramesh away from the bus door for a quick chat.

"Ramesh, I'm glad to see that you were here early, but you obviously did not take my advice about a tie. I have rarely seen anything that cheesy".

Ramesh laughed good naturedly. "You're right," he said, "but I bought this tie in Mexico City and it has been a great conversation piece with all the Mexican customers who also think it's cheesy. We're having a good laugh over it".

"Well, another thing I'd like to nip in the bud," Sheena rolled on, "is that you should let the driver collect the tickets. After all, that is part of what we pay them for. I usually use boarding time to study my notes for the tour".

"Don't worry," Ramesh assured, "I have covered this route lots of times and know the tour lecture perfectly. Besides, greeting the customers as they board gives me a chance to learn some of their names and establish some rapport".

Sheena said, "Just let the driver take the tickets from now on". And she boarded the bus, determined to have Ramesh doing things correctly right from the start. She could see that this training business was going to be more of a chore than she had expected.

Ramesh was clearly capable in Spanish and he conducted the tour in a lively entertaining fashion. Several times during the tour, Sheena interrupted him with a small correction or suggestion of a better choice of words to explain some issue. At one point, when the group was at the Peace Tower, Sheena suggested that now would be a good time to tell the group about Lester Pearson's Nobel Prize for Peace but Ramesh responded that he was saving that for when they would actually see the golden award. Sheena gave him a stern look that was meant to convey "do it now" but she suspected that Ramesh could not interpret her signal as he just carried on blithely.

At the end of the tour, Sheena, who was used to getting tips herself, was quite amazed at the huge amount of money these visitors were stuffing into Ramesh's shirt pocket as they left the bus. She also noticed that Ramesh shared some of the bills with the bus driver before coming over to join her.

"That's quite unnecessary," she said, "to give some of your tips to the drivers. They're not particularly co-operative and we never seem to get the same one twice".

Ramesh just looked at her curiously.

"And while I'm pointing out some of the things you'll have to change," she continued, "I think your tour lecture is just a little too casual, especially coming from someone of your academic background". From her purse, Sheena pulled a notebook where she had listed all of the points she wished to correct for Ramesh.

"Sheena, I think I can save us both a little time here," he interrupted. "I've been re-thinking the whole tour guide thing and I think you'd be better to hire one of your other applicants. But hey, thanks for the opportunity to try it out with you". With that he shook her hand and walked away.

1. Explain why Ramesh is not returning.

2. What management style has Sheena been using? Give examples.

3. What management style would be appropriate here? (Note: There is no such thing as democratic style) Give reasons.

4. What are Sheena's poor management skills costing her?

5. What could Sheena do to improve her management skills? Give several suggestions.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 Explain why Ramesh is not returning Ramesh is not returning because he perceives a lack of flexibility and an uncomfortable working environment He may feel that Sheenas management style is too contr... View the full answer