What are the management functions, roles, and skills. Which ones can be applied to Tasneem at Calm Seas? Calm Seas Case Tasneem Khan is the General Manager for Calm Seas, a small ocean kayak manufacturing company in western Canada. It is the end of the day in mid-October. Tasneem is wondering where the day went. She has gotten nothing done on the “to-do” list that she had with her when she started her day. And yet, she had been busy from the moment she walked in until now. She shrugs her shoulders and starts to tackle some of the work piled up on her desk. Everyone else has left the building by now. Perhaps she can get in a couple of hours of uninterrupted work before she goes home. Tasneem had been promoted to General Manager almost two years ago. She had been the Sales Manager before that for 3 years and had worked in sales for another company for 3 years before that. As she sat at her desk, she thought that the job of General Manager was certainly challenging. Being a manager was tough. There was always something going on to eat up her time and keep her busy. Tasneem wondered sometimes how she ever got anything done. She knew how to do her job – that wasnʼt the problem. It was trying to get things finished! She thought back over her day to try to figure out what happened. Her day had started before she even got to the office. Her cell phone had rung when she was driving to work. The caller was one of her sales staff who was on his way to a clientʼs office, but his car had broken down. A car was essential for the sales personʼs job and he had an important client visit to make that morning. He had tried to contact the Sales Manager, but he was on a plane and couldnʼt answer his phone. She promised to see what she could do about it when she got to the office. As she walked through the parking lot, she saw the sign on the wall of their building, advertising for two more production assistants. That sign looked as though it had been up there for ever. They were always looking for production assistants. Tasneem made a mental note to ask their Human Resource Administrator about that. When she walked into the office, Tasneem asked her Administrative Assistant to arrange for a rental car company to take a car out to their sales person, stranded on the side of the road. Tasneem turned her computer on, knew it would take awhile to start and decided to go to the employee lounge for a coffee. She chatted for a few minutes to a couple of other employees who were there, flipped through the morning paper, glanced at the notices on the bulletin board and returned to her office. She opened up her e-mail and watched all of the new e-mails enter her inbox. She shook her head and wondered how she could have so many new ones. She had checked her e-mail from home last evening and had gotten caught up. Now, she had 60 new e-mails! How was that even possible? She looked more closely and realized that half of them were e-mails that she had been copied on, but didnʼt necessarily need to see. She was tempted to delete a lot of them, but then thought she might miss out on some information that she needed to know. She sighed and opened up her calendar to see what was scheduled. She had appointments that day with the company lawyers to go over the papers to buy a small piece of land beside their office so that they could build an extension of their building. They needed more production capability and they were delighted when this land came up for sale. She got it for a fairly good price and the expansion could start at the end of the month. In addition, there was an appointment scheduled with the contractors to review the designs for the new building. This was the first meeting for them to get together and they needed to really get detailed on their requirements and budget for the construction. Just as she had returned to look at her e-mail, her Administrative Assistant had come in to her office, complaining that she couldnʼt get the numbers to reconcile on the sales reports. The Assistant was responsible for ensuring all of the sales figures submitted by the sales staff matched the invoices. Usually she had no problem with this, but they had just installed a new software program and this month, the numbers didnʼt work out. Tasneem sat down with her and spent the next thirty minutes trying to figure it out. Finally, one of their delivery people, who was good at computers, came along and gave them some ideas for trouble-shooting. Fifteen minutes later, they solved it. As Tasneem walked back to her office, the sales staff with the car problem phoned back to say his rental car still had not arrived and he was getting anxious about his upcoming client visit. They talked for a few minutes and as he was talking, the car arrived. Tasneem got off the phone. The meeting with the lawyers came next. These were lawyers they had used on a number of occasions before for legal issues.
What are the management functions, roles, and skills. Which ones can be applied to Tasneem
at Calm Seas?
Calm Seas Case
Tasneem Khan is the General Manager for Calm Seas, a small ocean kayak manufacturing company in western
Canada. It is the end of the day in mid-October. Tasneem is wondering where the day went. She has gotten
nothing done on the “to-do” list that she had with her when she started her day. And yet, she had been busy from
the moment she walked in until now. She shrugs her shoulders and starts to tackle some of the work piled up on
her desk. Everyone else has left the building by now. Perhaps she can get in a couple of hours of uninterrupted
work before she goes home.
Tasneem had been promoted to General Manager almost two years ago. She had been the Sales Manager before
that for 3 years and had worked in sales for another company for 3 years before that. As she sat at her desk, she
thought that the job of General Manager was certainly challenging.
Being a manager was tough. There was always something going on to eat up her time and keep her busy.
Tasneem wondered sometimes how she ever got anything done. She knew how to do her job – that wasnʼt the
problem. It was trying to get things finished! She thought back over her day to try to figure out what happened.
Her day had started before she even got to the office. Her cell phone had rung when she was driving to work. The
caller was one of her sales staff who was on his way to a clientʼs office, but his car had broken down. A car was
essential for the sales personʼs job and he had an important client visit to make that morning. He had tried to
contact the Sales Manager, but he was on a plane and couldnʼt answer his phone. She promised to see what she
could do about it when she got to the office.
As she walked through the parking lot, she saw the sign on the wall of their building, advertising for two more
production assistants. That sign looked as though it had been up there for ever. They were always looking for
production assistants. Tasneem made a mental note to ask their Human Resource Administrator about that.
When she walked into the office, Tasneem asked her Administrative Assistant to arrange for a rental car company
to take a car out to their sales person, stranded on the side of the road.
Tasneem turned her computer on, knew it would take awhile to start and decided to go to the employee lounge for
a coffee. She chatted for a few minutes to a couple of other employees who were there, flipped through the
morning paper, glanced at the notices on the bulletin board and returned to her office.
She opened up her e-mail and watched all of the new e-mails enter her inbox. She shook her head and wondered
how she could have so many new ones. She had checked her e-mail from home last evening and had gotten
caught up. Now, she had 60 new e-mails! How was that even possible? She looked more closely and realized that
half of them were e-mails that she had been copied on, but didnʼt necessarily need to see. She was tempted to
delete a lot of them, but then thought she might miss out on some information that she needed to know. She
sighed and opened up her calendar to see what was scheduled.
She had appointments that day with the company lawyers to go over the papers to buy a small piece of land
beside their office so that they could build an extension of their building. They needed more production capability
and they were delighted when this land came up for sale. She got it for a fairly good price and the expansion could
start at the end of the month.
In addition, there was an appointment scheduled with the contractors to review the designs for the new building.
This was the first meeting for them to get together and they needed to really get detailed on their requirements
and budget for the construction.
Just as she had returned to look at her e-mail, her Administrative Assistant had come in to her office, complaining
that she couldnʼt get the numbers to reconcile on the sales reports. The Assistant was responsible for ensuring all
of the sales figures submitted by the sales staff matched the invoices. Usually she had no problem with this, but
they had just installed a new software program and this month, the numbers didnʼt work out. Tasneem sat down
with her and spent the next thirty minutes trying to figure it out. Finally, one of their delivery people, who was
good at computers, came along and gave them some ideas for trouble-shooting. Fifteen minutes later, they
solved it.
As Tasneem walked back to her office, the sales staff with the car problem phoned back to say his rental car still
had not arrived and he was getting anxious about his upcoming client visit. They talked for a few minutes and as
he was talking, the car arrived. Tasneem got off the phone.
The meeting with the lawyers came next. These were lawyers they had used on a number of occasions before for
legal issues.
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