Assignment #2: Dunn’s Emporium Experiences Growth

Assignment #2: Dunn’s Emporium Experiences Growth

Dunn’s Emporium is going gangbusters and George who owns the deli next door is getting ready to retire. Dunn is in the process of acquiring The Deli. Although most of the local long-time employees at Dunn’s and The Deli have been on board with the merger some employees have never been happy.

The Deli people did not trust the new ice cream manager because of his age. Fresh out of culinary school, John Levitz, at age 22 became the ice cream manager. Ice cream was one of The Deli’s biggest iconic menu offerings. The ice cream is homemade and The Deli offers a special flavor each week. John has big ideas in expanding the ice cream business by having classes and opportunities for customers to make their own flavors. He is passionate about his job but sometimes rubs the older employees the wrong way. He can be arrogant about his skill. He thinks he is being confident. The chef at The Deli is jealous of the newcomer because he has wanted to change the menu for some time. He thinks that George’s retirement will be the demise of his dreams because the new General Manager that is working with George is not on board with innovation. His attitude is “if isn’t broken don’t fix it.” However, the new General Manager tells Dunn and George that he is happy with making changes.

Dunn’s sporting goods has had a change of employment as well and a new group of South American immigrants has come to work at the Emporium. Dunn is impressed with the wonderful skills of the workers as they display outstanding repair work and the group’s work ethic as seen by their willingness to work long hours during the ski season is impressive.

Dunn’s long term employees agree that the new employees are a good addition to the staff but find working with the group hard because they are not able to understand Spanish and sometimes it creates problems in communicating order information.

Also, the group tends to stick together. They even eat lunch together despite attempts by the other employees to get them to join in with the rest of the group. There seems to be a growing frustration on the part of the original group.

What neither the original employees nor Dunn know is that because of the language barrier the new South American employees are apprehensive about being included in the group because they cannot speak English well and do not know how to break the language barrier.

What the original employees do not know as well is that Esteban Enrique has asked to be promoted to the vacancy as head of the second shift in the repair shop. Dunn has concerns that if Estaban is promoted that it might be hard to keep the cohesiveness of the group. He is especially concerned because his nephew who works the evening shift during the off season would like the job.

In short, Dunn has to revisit his organizational structure, culture and vision to make the changes necessary to prevent future problems with the business. Further, he hasn’t told anyone but he wants to put in new software to monitor the staff hours, payroll, and business sales. It will make information gathering much easier but will require some staff scheduling changes and authority delegation.

Course Reading Materials:

Theme #1: Looking at the big picture is the leader’s ultimate job

Read:

Building the 21st Century Leader
21st Century Leader – Skills and Attributes
What Leaders Really Do
Five F’s of Successful Leadership
Ted Talk on Happiness and the Leader
21st Century Skills and Attributes

Theme #2: The leader’s perspective for the 21st century – What is it and how does it interface with the leader’s job and characteristics?

The 21st Century Leader is the “Enlightened Warrior
Leadership Zones
7 Secrets of ‘Servant Leadership’ That Will Lead You to Success

Theme #1: Communication Skills are the leader’s great set of paint brushes as they cover and color every aspect of a leader’s job and are essential to creating change