Exercise Overview

Diagnostic skills help managers visualize and understand the most appropriate response to a situation. Technical skills are used to accomplish or understand the specific kind of work done in an organization. Both diagnostic and technical skills play a role in effective control. The purpose of this exercise is to demonstrate the relationships among diagnostic skills, technical skills, and the process of controlling workplace activities.

Exercise Background

In recent months you have become aware of three troubling developments. First, your costs have been increasing steadily. Food costs have been going up, and there appears to be more waste and spoiled food each month than the month before. Second, customer complaints have also been going up. You have never gotten many complaints (often averaging only one or two a month), but you are now getting four or five each month. You know that your competitors often get more than that, but, nevertheless, your numbers are rising. Finally, turnover among your employees has been increasing. Turnover is common in the restaurant business, but you do clearly see increasing numbers.

Use your diagnostic and technical skills to answer the following questions.

Your efforts to better understand and potentially reduce customer complaints focuses primarily on which area of control?

A, Physical resources

B, Financial resources

C, Information resources

D, Human resources

In addressing the employee turnover problem, you have decided that you want to try to get it below 15%that was the turnover rate for the last few years, although it has crept over 20% recently. What part of the control process does the 15% represent?

A. Corrective action

B. Comparison between performance and standard

C. Measured performance

D. Control standard

Which of these would make a relatively effective control standard? Check all that apply.

A. Cut employee turnover by half

B. Reduce turnover to zero

C. Reduce customer complaints from the current level of five per month (on average) to two per month (on average)

D. Reduce food waste by a substantial amount