Imagine that you are an organizational consultant for the SNHU Pet Supply Company. The director of retail operations has asked you to evaluate the reason for some of the team's drop in productivity and make recommendations for their improvement. Further conversations with the team members and managers reveal a conflict in the way productivity and efficiency is being measured and handled. The team members say that their managers micromanage them. Each week, the managers send out a task list for the team and expect them to fill out detailed timesheets every day to cross-reference the task list. Any deviations from the list must be explained in a separate email. Moreover, some team members feel their skill sets are not being used correctly, and that they would be better suited to do tasks that are not being assigned to them. This has led to some resentment within the team, not to mention high levels of stress to meet the managers’ demands. The managers maintain that they have just been following the process that’s been set out for years in the company. The many unresolved issues are taking a toll on the team’s productivity and efficiency, which then feeds back into the conflict, creating a vicious circle. Prompt Write a brief report to the director of retail operations that explains the management skills and practices you feel will improve team productivity and efficiency, using the module reading to support your recommendations.

You are working as a manager of a financial planning office where you require your employees to have a presence on social media. One of your financial advisors posts to his Twitter account that he needs $500 to pay his rent for the month. Would you punish him? Why or why not?