Case Law Offices of Jeter
Brandy Wayne
Management Practices & Policies
Case: The Law Offices of Jeter, Jackson, Guidry and Boyer
January 20, 2013
The issues that are presented in this case study are not uncommon problems that happen in the working environment. It was clear from the case that the partners in the law firm worked from a style of collaboration and meeting to understand the needs of their employees. However, their growth left them needing someone to take over the day to day, yet important operations of the organization like human resources, and marketing. The partners decided to create a General Operations Manager. The partners hired someone who had a background as a longtime administrator from the insurance industry seeking a final career change. This person’s leadership style was autocratic which means “the leader makes decisions on his or her own and then announces those decisions to the group” (Bateman and Snell). Hiring a person with this type of leadership style placed the firm in jeopardy of losing excellent employees and clients. As the case stated the law firm did lose clients. When the partners learned about the problems, the new General Operations Manager told them it was normal activity for what was taking place, and that they should just wait it out. This suggestion of sit back and wait given by the GM Brad Howser put a persona out to the partners that more clients would come and the employee morale would not remain low. The partners should not sit back and wait as Brad Howser has instructed them to do. Sitting back and waiting could destroy the company quicker then it took to build it up. This could cause more clients to leave the company and employees to leave the company. The partners needed to step in and develop a plan of how to address the issues that have developed since Brad Howser has taken the GM position. First, they needed to meet with Brad Howser and express their concern about losing clients and the sinking morale among their employees.
Management Practices & Policies
Case: The Law Offices of Jeter, Jackson, Guidry and Boyer
January 20, 2013
The issues that are presented in this case study are not uncommon problems that happen in the working environment. It was clear from the case that the partners in the law firm worked from a style of collaboration and meeting to understand the needs of their employees. However, their growth left them needing someone to take over the day to day, yet important operations of the organization like human resources, and marketing. The partners decided to create a General Operations Manager. The partners hired someone who had a background as a longtime administrator from the insurance industry seeking a final career change. This person’s leadership style was autocratic which means “the leader makes decisions on his or her own and then announces those decisions to the group” (Bateman and Snell). Hiring a person with this type of leadership style placed the firm in jeopardy of losing excellent employees and clients. As the case stated the law firm did lose clients. When the partners learned about the problems, the new General Operations Manager told them it was normal activity for what was taking place, and that they should just wait it out. This suggestion of sit back and wait given by the GM Brad Howser put a persona out to the partners that more clients would come and the employee morale would not remain low. The partners should not sit back and wait as Brad Howser has instructed them to do. Sitting back and waiting could destroy the company quicker then it took to build it up. This could cause more clients to leave the company and employees to leave the company. The partners needed to step in and develop a plan of how to address the issues that have developed since Brad Howser has taken the GM position. First, they needed to meet with Brad Howser and express their concern about losing clients and the sinking morale among their employees.
Cited: Bateman, Thomas S and Scott A Snell. Management Leading & Collaborating in a Competive World. New York: The McGraw-Hill Irwin , 2013. Inc, Human Metrics. Leadership Styles . 20 January 2013 <http://www.personalityexplorer.com/FREEResources/WhatLeaderAreYouoryourboss.aspx>.