Sport’s Complex Case Analysis
Purpose: Your objective is to submit a 1.5-page case analysis. The purpose of this case analysis is to develop your critical thinking, communication, and consulting competencies. As you look at this scenario from a consultant’s point of view, imagine what guidance you would share with the members of this case.
Scenario: This scenario examines the perspectives of three managers at Sport’s Complex. They each hold different perspectives about the performance of one of the Complex’s employees -Paul Taylor. Paul is a lifeguard. Each manager’s perspective lends differently to the interpretation of Paul’s work performance. In this scenario, the three managers need to write a performance appraisal for Paul and have decided to hold a meeting to discuss his performance.
Specifications: 1.5-page analysis, 1.5 line spacing, 11 point font, Times New Roman or Calibri font, 1″ margins. Your works cited page does not count towards your 1.5 pages. You should annotate your bibliography just like EBM: Short Bibliography.
Steps for Completing Case Analysis:
- Step 1: Carefully read the case study. Pay attention to how each manager views Paul’s performance differently.
- Step 2: Begin writing your case analysis. Use the following questions as a writing prompt:
- How would the three managers reconcile their different views of Paul’s performance?
- How should these managers guide Paul’s performance?
- Step 4: You should draw on principles from this course, but your welcome to bring in other external topics as well (should be sourced).
- Step5: Your paper should be supported with 4 research sources. Textbook or class slides do not count as a source, though you should still reference these materials to inform me when you draw from these materials.
- Step 6: Review your first draft for any revisions (including spelling and grammar).
Briefing Sheet: Clive Summers You are Clive Summers, a general manager at a sports complex. You work mainly during the weekdays, but occasionally have to cover weekends. Paul Taylor is a lifeguard and swimming instructor who has worked for you for about two years. In general, you have found Paul to be an enthusiastic and reliable worker who is eager to progress in his career. You have noticed that Paul particularly enjoys his involvement with the swimming lessons for the 5- to 16-year-olds. He encourages the children by giving them support and praise. Paul has a particularly good success rate: 97 percent of swimmers entered for tests have passed during the past year. He seems to take particular pride in awarding the certificates and badges at the end of the session. When you have watched Paul coach the more experienced swimmers, you have been impressed by his knowledge and the way in which he tactfully suggests how they could improve techniques and style. Over the past six months, he has played an active role in coaching the league freestyle 100 m and 200 m representative to improve his personal best time by 3 seconds. Your main concern is Paul’s routine pool control. When completing the task, he does not show the same level of enthusiasm, and on three occasions, you have spoken to him about chatting to swimmers. You have never had the opportunity to witness him helping swimmers who are in trouble and just hope he would be alert enough to notice. During the past three months, Paul has organized a water polo competition to raise money for charity. You were impressed at his initiative in organizing such an event. Eight teams took part and over $2,000 was raised for the local hospice. You are well aware of the time and effort this entailed, because last year you were responsible for organizing a similar competition. You are not aware of Paul’s attendance percentage, because you have not had time to check the records. As far as you can remember, he has not taken excessive time off from work.
Handout 3.3 Briefing Sheet: Rachel Rogers
You are Rachel Rogers, a general manager at a sports complex. Paul Taylor has worked for you as a lifeguard and swimming instructor for about six months. So that you can be home with your family during the weekdays, you work mainly evenings and weekends. These are particularly busy periods when the general public uses the pool, so you mainly see Paul performing his routine pool control and are not as familiar with Paul’s involvement with swimming lessons and general coaching.
You are well aware of Paul’s enthusiasm to be promoted to supervisor level. He has spoken to you about his ambitions on many occasions and is always eager to hear your suggestions for improving his chances of promotion.
On four occasions, you have spoken to Paul about his failure to notice swimmers breaking the pool rules (for example, non-swimmers in the deep end and young boys splashing and jumping into the water). He was extremely apologetic on both occasions and did mention that he finds it difficult to maintain his concentration as he prefers the actual coaching and teaching parts of his job.
At times you feel Paul lacks his own ideas of how he could develop his job. However, once he has been delegated a project or been given an idea, he takes considerable pride in ensuring that a high standard is achieved. Take the water polo competition, for example: Once you suggested the idea to him and brainstormed how he should go about it, he did very well and impressed everyone.
Paul is always very willing to help out, and when he is working the late shift with you, he will often help with locking up and cashing out.
You have always found Paul to be punctual, but you are very concerned about his attendance rate. His absence rate is 9 percent compared to the company average of 6 percent. This absence is mainly during the weekends and evenings and is made up of odd days with various reasons given. You have not had time to consult the company training program to decide which courses Paul could be nominated for.Briefing Sheet: Andrew Waters
You are Andrew Waters, a general manager at a sports complex. You work mainly during the weekdays, but occasionally have to cover weekends. You have worked with Paul Taylor, a lifeguard and swimming instructor, since you joined the company about 18 months ago. You are an ex-professional swimmer who retired due to problems with an injury. Your real interests lie in the teaching and coaching elements of the operation.
In your view, Paul is your best swimming instructor. You have received many comments from parents of students about Paul’s ability to encourage the children to improve and achieve the next level. He has a good knowledge of the requirements of each level and rarely has to consult the manual.
You are equally impressed with Paul’s ability to coach the experienced league swim team. In fact, you feel it would be beneficial for him to attend the advanced coaching course to develop his talent.
You know that Paul is not as impressive when he is on routine pool control and is often seen chatting with his friends, but after all, that is a perk of the job! Last January, you saw Paul save the life of a boy who was having difficulties in the pool. Paul was quick to react and followed the procedure exactly, and he used the first-aid he had recently learned. Paul received a letter of gratitude from the boy’s parents.
You feel that Paul needs to improve his organizational skills before being considered for promotion to supervisor level. He did not do a good job of taking inventory of the equipment last month. You found many items missing from the list. In fact, you wonder how he was so impressive when he organized the water polo competition. Perhaps if he was given this year’s swimming gala to organize, it would be a real test of his skills.
You checked Paul’s absence rate and saw that it was 9 percent, well above the company average of 6 percent. This surprised you because you don’t recall Paul ever calling in sick to you.