Part A:Conflict and risk management
This project requires you to reflect on the catering company you created in a previous workshop, and consider the issues explained in the case study below.
Catering company
Your catering company relies on tight teamwork, especially during busy periods when you’re catering for large functions. You cannot be on site all the time as you are often meeting with prospective clients or managing multiple functions at the same time.
Now that you are not there all the time, problems are starting to happen. One night, the kitchen and office were unlocked all night as no one remembered to lock up. It resulted in everyone blaming each other. Another incident occurred in which a kitchen hand had a bad accident on site. You suspect this happened because the chef wasn’t keeping an eye on them.
You know the chef, Alex, and the function manager, Jamie, never really got on, but recently they are ringing you frequently about their disagreements. You have asked them to sort it out themselves because you’re busy.
Your company has been popular and has a steady stream of bookings, but recently some negative reviews have appeared on social media, with comments like “Food was always good, but quality has really dropped off lately.”, and “Wait staff seem inexperienced and uninterested.”
At a recent function, one of your wait staff, Frankie, mixed up the special orders. Three vegetarians received the gluten-free meals, which contained meat. Meanwhile, the gluten-free people were given vegetarian dishes with wheat-based pasta. The remaining vegetarian dinners went missing.
You’ve observed that orders for food supplies aren’t being managed efficiently, which is Alex’s responsibility. Sometimes you seem to be overstocked with certain items, and much ends up going to waste. At other times, you’re short on other items so that one of the kitchen hands has to run to the expensive local supermarket to get essential items at short notice.
Alex is an experienced hospitality worker, has successfully run a restaurant in Nepal, and has good spoken English. However, you wonder about Alex’s English literacy when reading and whether this could be the cause of the problems with the food supply ordering.
Jamie has been coming in late recently and seems perpetually on breaks, although still manages to get the required work done, albeit at a level that is only just satisfactory. Now Alex tells you that Jamie is running a side business, being a DJ at events and is using your events to advertise their business.
Frankie seems terribly unhappy and occasionally bursts in to tears at work and has called in sick for several recent shifts. On a break recently, you overheard Frankie ask Jamie if Alex normally yells at staff.
Bookings have started to drop off in the past few weeks and you cannot let this continue. But before walking into this conflict-ridden situation, you’ve decided to analyse what you already know, and to determine how to find out what you don’t know.
- What are the risks, and how can you manage them?
- What more information do you need to know, and how will you find this information out?
- What strategies will you use to manage the conflict in the team?
- How can you better support your staff when you’re not there?
- What is one way you can measure individual and team performance other than looking at the number of booking received?
Consider the issues raised in the catering company case study above.
Form a group of three and roleplay the three conversations the manager would have with each staff member (Alex, Jamie, and Frankie). In your group of three, you will take turns being the manager, one of the staff members, and an observer. For instance:
When in the role of the manager, flag anything that may require further investigation or discussion, and any relevant legislation, regulations, codes or award conditions that may need to be checked. Also think about things such as cultural diversity and communication styles, and the Code of Conduct and ethical frameworks of your company.
To building your own self-awareness, you can use the ‘Experience Cube’ as a framework in conversations to be curious about the experiences of others. We suggest that you first give people the space to describe their experiences as they see fit, and only ask these types of questions judiciously and with the intent of understanding the other person’s experience.
- Observe: What did you see happen?
- Think: What do you think about it?
- Feel: How do you feel about it?
- Want: What do you want to do about it?
When in the role of the observer, make notes about what you observed and give feedback to your group members.
After conducting the role play, and after receiving feedback from your group members, critique your performance as the manager and answer the following questions.
- Who did you have a conversation with, Alex, Jamie, or Frankie?
- What issues did you raise with the employee, and what legislation, regulations, codes, or award conditions did you refer to?
- What was the employee’s response?
- Did you reach an agreement? How did you reach it, and what was the agreement?
- Is there anything else noteworthy that you reflected on?
Part B: Short answer questions and case studies 9.2
A job purpose statement should answer the questions ‘what do I do?’ and ‘why do I do it?’.
- Using the below formula, write a job purpose statement in one meaningful and motivational sentence for a position in your team (this may be your real workplace or fictional catering company).
KRAs are a framework for managing your time and efforts.
- Using the table below, list the four main areas of accountability and responsibility for the position you identified above.
KPIs help you fine tune your efforts and manage your time better.
- Choose two of the KRAs above and write two KPIs for each. Make sure your KPIs SMART.
- What strategies could you use to monitor and document the performance against these KPIs?
- How would you communicate with the person occupying this position regarding performance expectations at the time they commence? How would you communicate performance on an ongoing basis?
- What strategies could you use to foster a shared understanding of roles and responsibilities across your company?
