Thomas Ruby & Lauren Sendelbeck

4/5/16
Case #2
Case Summary
This case describes a company called ColorTech Greenhouses Inc. The
company, headquartered in Phoenix, as a high-tech color supplier that
eventually became one of the largest flower companies. The case describes
the declining sales from Phoenix, which once had the highest sales of any
division. Melissa Richardson is tasked with dealing with the difficulties
confronting ColorTech.
ColorTech is a privately held supplier of flowers to big-box stores. Along with
the rest of the color industry, ColorTech faces increased price competition
and a steady decline in sales. Currently, the market is experiencing a very
low demand for the flower industry.
In an attempt to increase revenue, ColorTech decided to expand through the
use of vertical integration and diversification. They operated largely in
southern North America, with a few greenhouses in the northeast and
Mexico, along with plans to expand into Ecuador to enter the long-stemmed
rose market. They also purchased a Columbian company that specialized in
cut flowers to incorporate themselves into the florist industry.
Management presents the biggest issues facing ColorTechs Phoenix division.
Richardson settled into her new sales management position feeling unsure of
her ability to lead teams due to the few management issues she had ever
been exposed to in real life. The courses and classroom instruction
Richardson received prior to coming to Phoenix were little help when faced
with the complex management challenges of the Phoenix division.
Furthermore, the lack of communication from Campbell, a middle manager,
to Richardson, a first-line manager, left Richardson with no help. There were
no guidelines for Richardson to consult, and she received little to no
feedback or advice from Campbell. In addition, Richardson faced a language
barrier, because a large portion of the organization spoke Spanish due to the
nature of their labor force and the location of some of their facilities in Latin
America. As a result of these challenges, one of the greenhouses stationed in
Columbia was infected with a fungus that resulted in weeks of delay, loss of
customers, and ultimately lost potential profits for the company.
Ultimately, Richardsons lack of management experience, improper training
from Campbell, and a dysfunctional staff led the Phoenix division to a state
of chaos.

Dominated
Needs

Needs for
Competency

Team
Leader

Team Members

Melissa
Richard
son

Alex
Hoffm
an

Gregor
io
Torres

Sarah
Vega

High

High

Modera
te

Low

Chelse
a
Peters
on
Modera
te

Nick
Ruiz
High

Needs for
Moderate
High
High
Low
Modera
Low
Autonomy
te
Needs for
High
Low
High
High
Low
Modera
Relatedness
te
Assessment of Needs According to Social Development Theory

Melissa Richardson

She was high in needs of competency, which was reflected

especially when she studied Spanish prior to her start day. She also
displayed this need in her goal to make Phoenix one of the best sales
offices.

She was moderate in needs of autonomy. She wants to collaborate

with her sales teams and wants guidance from Campbell.

She was high in needs of relatedness. Richardson made efforts to

get everyone together that Saturday morning to correct the pots
themselves, a potential opportunity for team building. For example,
she kept thinking of pizza lunches and ice cream on Friday afternoons
after achieving sale targets.

Alex Hoffman

He was high in needs of competency. Instead of being social and

friendly, he was hard-working and put in effort to achieve his goals. He
was the top salesman in the company, and he had earned every
reward and perk ColorTech offered. He achieved his sales goals in any
case, even though he had to make phone sales outside his area.

High in needs for autonomy, he does not want to be managed,

even going so far as to refuse to follow Richardsons terms by saying,
So youre asking me to call on every little mom-and-pop florist shop to
sell them, what, a couple thousand a month in stems? Youve got to be
kidding! Why dont you just let me deal with the real customers?

He has very low needs of relatedness. He is not social and likes

being alone, prefering to focus on his own personal sales.

Gregorio Torres

His needs of competency are moderate because he wants to

perform well but does not take steps to proactively get better.

He is high in need for autonomy. He is easily distracted from his

primary goal of increasing sales by his own personal pet projects that
he is interested in, like his website ideas.

He is high in need for relatedness. He always talks nicely with

Richardson and is quite ready to help her. He also had good relations in
team and he kept converse them in their Spanish language.

Sarah Vega

She is low in needs of competency. She is not interested in putting

special effort to do her work. Even when her work was piling on her
table, she did not bother to complete it. She did not have any kind of
goal related to her job.

She is low in autonomy, because she takes no initiative on her own

and seems disinterested in her work

She is high in needs of relatedness. She is very social and always

on her phone. Also, she missed work to take care of a family members
baby, which further demonstrates her need of relatedness.

Chelsea Peterson

She is moderate at needs of competency, because she has the

desire to move up to a sales position

Her need of autonomy is moderate, which is displayed by her

desire to move up in the company.

She is so low at needs of relatedness, because she is not interested

in building good relations with others. She demonstrated this trait in
her very first meeting with her new boss when she was very
argumentative in her behavior.

Nick Ruiz

Nick has high needs of competency. He is ready to put each and

every effort to get sales position. He was ready to use his full potential
in work and, in return, seeks growth, achievement and advancement in
his career

He is low in needs of autonomy, because he always pesters Melissa

and consistently needs guidance.

He is moderate in needs of relatedness. He likes to meet new

people. He also built a strong relationship with Richardson. He kept
interacting people in other departments and asking them about their
jobs.

Analysis of Employees
Alex Hoffman
As Hoffman is the top sales person in the company and has always
achieved his sales targets, he should be motivated by motivating factors like
giving him praise for his work, recognition, promotion and increased status,
offering challenges, and bonuses. This also aligns with his social
development needs. Hoffman is intrinsically motivated to be successful
autonomously. Richardson needs to take advantage of this information and
interact with Hoffman in a way that highlights these strengths. She should
also convey to Hoffman that she also shares these values and gets fulfillment
from being successful and independent. If this fails to produce results, then
Hoffman likely needs to be motivated by the stick. Richardson would then
need to make clear that if his negative attitude continues, then he will be
punished via increased supervision and a decrease in his monetary
compensation. Finally, one concrete way to intrinsically motivate him would
be to relieve him of the cut flower business and instead allow him to focus on
the accounts he cares about. Then, the cut flower business could be
transferred to Gregorio Torres, who seems relatively interested in the cut-

flower market and could take over these sales. This would be a good
alternative, since the cut-flower market is worth relatively less than the
warehouse sales, allowing for a good learning experience for the new
representative while not costing the company a lot of sales while they are
still learning.
Gregorio Torres
As Torres was innovative and has so many creative ideas, Richardson
should motivate him with intrinsic motivators for that by giving him praise
and appreciating him, encouraging him, accepting his ideas and creativity.
Richardson should have Torres transfer all his traditional color business to
Hoffman who could likely reap more benefits from those accounts. Instead he
should be given the responsibility of handling all the cut flower business.
Torres is high on the need for autonomy, therefore Richardson can
intrinsically motivate him by giving him the authority to handle the cut flower
business alone. In addition, Richardson should appeal to his need for
relatedness by giving him praise for his efforts and explaining to him how his
handling of the cut flower business frees up the rest of the team and leads to
overall better performance. As a reward, if Torres handles the cut flower
accounts well, Richardson can reward him by giving him leeway to pursue his
computer system. This further takes advantage of his need for autonomy.
Sarah Vega
Sara Vega is a loose cannon, coming in late and not paying attention,
so Richardson should consider termination if the situation does not improve
and instead promote Ruiz who want a sales representative position. Her
attendance problem is the primary concern. However, given her need for
relatedness, there may be a solution to the problem. Richardson should sit
her down and fill in the gaps in her sales training, bonding with her in the
process, and convey to her that the office will succeed or fail based on their
performance as a team. Then, she should take the time to discuss with Vega
her family situation and convey to her that Richardson cares about her
personal issues. The Richardson can offer Vega a somewhat extrinsic reward.
If Vega meets her sales goal Richardson can offer her family leave. For
example, if she completes her targets and works overtime within the five
days of the week, then she can get a day off.

Chelsea Peterson
First and foremost, the legal issues need to be dealt with. Richardson
should consult with their legal team immediately and take steps to protect

the company. Once the legal issues are sorted out, Peterson should be fired.
Her behavior is unacceptable and she is clearly opposed to reform. Her
immediate use of legal repercussion is also not acceptable. Firing her also
sends a clear message to the rest of the team. It lets everyone know that
Richardson is serious as a manager, and she can also spin it in a way that
lets everyone know that Peterson was fired because she was not a team
player. Peterson has very little institutional knowledge and would be very
easy to replace. Therefore, it makes more sense to hire someone else who is
willing to take direction and be civil.
Nick Ruiz
Is promising and motivated to be promoted to the sales department,
and he could be a great addition to the team. He is very enthusiastic about
the possibility of a job promotion into the sales department. If things with
Vega dont work out, Gregorio decides to pursue the website, or they budget
for another sales representative, Ruiz could be a loyal new salesperson
Richardson could depend on and train. He has a low need for autonomy,
which might bother Richardson occasionally; however, in the long term it will
allow her to train him into a salesman that meets her expectations.
Combined with Ruizs high need for competency, it is likely he will work hard
and embrace Richardsons training.
Analysis of Richardson
Richardson did a few things right immediately when she started. First,
it was a good idea to brush up on her Spanish in the car. Second, it was a
good idea to prep the weekend before by preparing supplies and touring the
facilities so that she could start on Monday having everything prepared. It
was also a good idea to assemble basic information about her team
members, track her progress with them, and meet them one on one.
However, there are a number of things Richardson should have
handled differently. Her biggest mistake was the way that she failed to
manage her manager. When Campbell asked her if everything was alright,
she should have expressed her opinion of how she doesnt know how to do
certain reports and would like some sort of training in this position if it is
available. She should have insisted on a meeting with Campbell to insure
that she knows the jobs that are expected of her (like what she should do in
situations that are out of her control, i.e. the fungus issue in the greenhouse)
and to get a quick rundown of how to accurately complete the paperwork
that is now expected of her. If this doesnt work, she should contact the VP of
HR, which she was given his card with the intention when in doubt, give us a
shout, and should ask what training programs are available to someone in

her position to handle and assess the different risks and requirements the job
needs.
Richardson should get the whole group together when there is plenty
of time to talk and explain the issues that are present and ask for their
opinions on what to do (where applicable) and attempt to get a line of
communication open with the staff about things that are occurring in the
business (get information for paperwork to fill out and maybe new ideas for
how to do things more efficiently). This is in contrast to how she held her first
meeting that she scheduled without proper notice, which ended up
undermining the team dynamic and her authority.
Next, Richardson should make sure that all of the staff knows that she
wants them to succeed within the company and that she is available to
discuss whatever is needed to make things clear with them. However, in
return, she expects commitment to the team and respect for her as a leader.
When her team fails to show that commitment, like the non-showers for the
day of repotting, Richardson needs to take a different course of action. They
need to be immediately confronted and Richardson should address the
behavior, likely needing to rely on extrinsic motivators.
She should be aware of the different atmospheres between her offices.
She should not hold her new people accountable right away to the standards
that she is used to in the Chicago office, but she should clearly voice her
expectations (like she wanted from her boss if she wanted the same thing
from her boss it could be reasonable to assume that her staff wants the
same thing) as soon as possible to get people accustomed. She should
understand that this is a difficult business they are in (due to extreme price
competition and the changing demand of customers from high intensity
products to low intensity products in which the greenhouse needs three
months notice for changes in products), and that sales cannot be perfect all
the time.
Future Goals
Upon further reflection of the issues of this case, there are some future
long-term goals that ColorTech should look into. Finding a resolution of the
current issues allows for quick and easy resolution for issues in the future
that are similar in nature. To start, when Melissa accepted this job offer, she
felt unprepared for the tasks she would be performing. It is vital that future
employees of the company, at all levels, are given a reasonable job preview
to prepare them for the tasks they will be doing. An example of ColorTech
failing to provide itsr employees with reasonable expectations of the job is
that Melissa was unaware of the vast amount of paperwork that is required
to complete her new job. In regards to this paperwork, Melissa is unaware of
the proper ways to complete the forms necessary for monthly and quarterly

paperwork. As a result, there should be either written or physical instruction

on how to adequately complete the paperwork. Overall, there should be
training relevant to those at the management level. Some possible
techniques for training new managers could be an orientation into the roles
of management or shadowing current managers to see what typical
situations one might face. This is essential to new managers in order to feel
prepared that they can accomplish their goals and not get lost in the
paperwork.
Another future goal that should be of concern to ColorTech is devising a
backup plan for greenhouse issues. The fungus infestation in the greenhouse
was a major setback for the cut-flower division. This could not have come at
a worse time for ColorTech, because of the infancy of its relationship with
customers in that market. They could lose the little market share that they
have as a result. Finding a backup supplier or using multiple greenhouse
facilities to grow flowers for that market would be a good way to reduce the
risk of losing customers due to inadequate flower stock. In order to stay
competitive in a highly price sensitive market with a decreasing level of sales
volume, such as the color or cut-flower division, is necessary to conduct a
continuous evaluation of the processes that make up the core operations of
the company. Continuous improvement should be of the utmost importance
to ColorTech in the current economy. Finding new ways to motivate
employees to look for the inefficiencies and create efficient solutions should
be a long-term goal for management, but the most important goal of
management currently is to maintain and grow the customer base they have
in order to compete in the market.