1st Edition
People Management Skills in Practice A Case Study Collection
This practical text covers the essential aspects of managing employees, providing relevant and interesting case studies to enable students to develop the management skills and approaches needed at all levels. The book includes a wealth of case studies across industries including public relations, gaming, food service, healthcare, and nonprofits and hailing from several regions and cultures (including Australia, the Philippines, US, and Taiwan).
The five core sections of the text each focus on a specific managerial skillset: dilemmas managers face when creating a positive work culture, power and influencing others, conflict within a team, managing a cross-cultural team, and motivating and fostering employee engagement. Within each section, short case studies feature real-life situations and managers who had to assess and respond to various challenges with subordinates, colleagues, or their immediate boss. Each case is supported by a case synopsis, reflective questions, and related learning activities. Instructors have access to teaching notes for each case that provide detailed discussion questions, an overview of concepts and their academic references, advanced reading suggestions, and activities that can be employed in class or as supplemental learning assignments.
Comprehensive and practical, this case textbook is perfect core reading for any postgraduate managerial skills course, MBA, professional qualifications in management and leadership, and degree apprenticeship programmes.
Introduction
Laurie L. Levesque
Case Preparation and Analysis for Students
Gina Vega and Rob Edwards
Part I Creating a Positive Climate and Organizational Culture
Case 1 Quiet Springs: Engaging Your Team as a New Leader
Quinn W. Cunningham, Apryl L. Roach, and Eugene J. Kutcher
Case 2 Building a (New) Company Culture at Ma Reilly's Cafe
Laurie L. Levesque and George C. Kokoros
Case 3 Reveal a Mistake to the Boss? Trust and Psychological Safety in a Market Research Team
Amanda S. Patel
Case 4 The Outspoken Contractor: Inclusion and Conflict Across Organizational Boundaries
Gina Vega
Part II Navigating Power Relationships
Case 5 Employee Voice at Bitfrost: Different Perspectives of Managers and Employees to Voice Behavior
Matheus Fonseca
Case 6 The Undermined Manager: Diversity, Influence Tactics, or Inexperience?
Holly Chiu
Case 7 The Chairman’s Jokes: Dealing with a Leader’s Inappropriate Behavior
Ralf Mehnert-Meland
Part III Handling Workplace Conflict
Case 8 Place of Hope and the Board Meeting Disruption
Roland J. Kushner
Case 9 Conflict Unveiled: Intergroup Blame Between Information Technology Teams
Ankur Nandedkar and Roger S. Brown
Case 10 Bias or Poor Training? The Wine Train Incident
Monika L. Hudson and K. O. Hunter
Part IV Managing Cross-Cultural Challenges
Case 11 Culture Clash and the Unraveling of an Immigrant Entrepreneur’s American Dream
Rifat Mahmud, Joy A. Jones, and Elizabeth A. McCrea
Case 12 Trust and Communication Across Borders: Leadership Challenges at Ellume Health
George C. Kokoros and Laurie L. Levesque
Case 13 When in Rome (or Manila …): Where Business, Law, and Ethics Meet
Ralf Mehnert-Meland
Part V Motivating Subordinates and Fostering Engagement
Case 14 Employee Retention in a PR Firm: Generational Differences or Insufficient Incentives?
Holly Chiu and Laurie L. Levesque
Case 15 Colleagues or Sloths? Collaboration and the Allocation of Credit for Contribution
Gina Vega
Case 16 Sandy Shores Care Center: A Long-Term Care Staffing Crisis
Lindsey J. G. Creapeau and Kevin Hansen
Biography
Laurie L. Levesque is an associate professor of management at Suffolk University where she co-leads a community of practice around case writing and teaching. Her publications appear in The Case Journal, The Case Research Journal, the International Journal of Instructional Cases, Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Journal of Management Education, Management Teaching Review, and as the featured case in the Case Writing Workbook, 3e. She earned a doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University.
