Case study (performance management issue)

David has worked at Company X, a Vietnamese start-up in the e-commerce industry, for three years. His main job is to work with the Idea team to come up with new ideas for products according to each sales campaign, and then, jointly with his peers, they create designs for products with high best quality. He is also responsible for reviewing and giving feedback to other team members to ensure their designs meet the requirements of each campaign and train new employees.

David has an impressive background in the graphic design industry. He is well trained, has good aesthetic knowledge, and has outstanding skills with design tools. So the products he creates have high satisfactory results in a short time. Moreover, David is a sociable, friendly person. In his team, he is always the one to bring the members together. The problem of David is that he is not a hard worker at work, and he frequently violates the company's rules. He is often late to work, about 1 to 2 times a week. He sometimes takes half-day or full-day leave with the repeated excuses of being sick or tired. The nature of the design team's task is done entirely on computers and using the company's working platforms. Therefore, the company allows this team's members to complete by working from home one or two mornings a week. If with the same frequency as before, David's work results are still guaranteed to be as required and do not affect team members and the company's business results. In fact, because company X focuses on the European market, with the Covid-19 pandemic situation worldwide and also Vietnam, the company's business situation is significantly affected in the first three quarters of 2021. Therefore, for the fourth quarter - the most significant sale season of the year, company X has set a target to increase revenue by 30% compared to the past 3 quarters. To achieve this goal, team members of team Idea and team Design need to work closely to create the best products. Therefore, the quantity of work of each member was substantial. However, in the last 3

weeks of the fourth quarter of 2021, David's time off and late work occurred more often. There were weeks when David took 3 mornings off. This David's behavior has led to his colleagues being overwhelmed because some designs need to be completed in 1 or 2 hours as soon as the Idea team comes up with a new idea. Furthermore, sometimes good ideas, which need someone as skilled as David, are presented but cannot be implemented.

Company X's business results for the fourth quarter of 2021 only achieved 80% of the initial spending. In the process of monitoring the work, the Board of Directors also recognized the problem but could not immediately solve it because of problems related to the freight company.

Your task will be to read the case carefully and provide:

1. a brief diagnosis of the underlying reasons for the situation,

2. a solution of the problem with justification (why you propose this solution and why it will be effective).

PM Coaching Criteria Ratings Pts O pts Diagnosis of the Situation Diagnosis of the underlying reasons 2 to >0.0 pts Full Marks No Marks 2 pts O pts Proposed Solution Description of an adequate Solution 2 to >0.0 pts Full Marks No Marks 2 pts Justification of Solution O pts 1 to >0.0 pts Full Marks No Marks 1 pts Total Points: 5