VENUS BOUTIQUES (CASE ANALYSIS)

I. SUMMARY OF THE CASE

Carla Santos is the manager of Venus Boutiques, a string of specialty shops

selling a selected line of ladies’ bags, beauty products and ladies’ wear. She

went on a three week business trip outside the country and when she returned,

a problem was presented to her in one of her three stores.

One of Santos’ store managers is Ms. Glo Martines who didn’t get to

graduate in college but she was very hard working and responsible. She had just

been a manager for ten months and previously worked as a clerk in the shops

for over two years. Martines’ diligence was what prompted Santos to promote

her to manager when Santos wanted to have managers for each of the stores.

When Santos went back from the business trip, there were complaints

about Ms. Martines’ attitude towards the sales clerks of her store. Three of the

four clerks complained that Martines favored the other clerk, as she is one of

her distant relations. Irma, the errant sales clerk would be late for work but

Martines would sign her time record on time and her performance ratings were

always “excellent” even though her performance was not exceptional. The

other employees also complained that there were times that Irma was allowed

to leave early and Martines would vouch for her.

Santos decided to visit the store and talk to Martines. She laid out the

complaints about her and Martines bowed down in shame. The store manager

neither concurred nor denied the accusations, choosing not to look into her

boss’ eyes.

II. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

How can Ms. Carla Santos address the attitude of Ms. Glo Martines and the

sales clerks without jeopardizing the employees’ integrity and moral?

III. STATEMENT OF THE OBJECTIVES

1. To deal with the misdemeanor of Martines and Irma.

2. To ensure the continued quality service and performance of the other

employees and also from the other stores.

3. To prevent future biased evaluations like that of Ms. Martines’.

IV. ALTERNATIVE COURSE OF ACTION

The first solution to this problem is to investigate the matter further. If it is

proven that Irma was coercing Martines, then Irma would be the one

terminated. If Martines was not forced and actually favored Irma, then both

could be fired. One advantage is that the other employees would see that

Irma was punished and that they would appreciate that the management

sees to it that the irresponsible workers are reprimanded. The downside is

that you lose a hardworking manager and the employees might also feel that

they have no job security. Also, the shop would incur additional expenses for

termination costs and also for hiring and training costs of the replacements.

Another solution is to issue a written warning to both the manager and sales

clerk. State in the warning that another misdemeanor could cost them their

jobs. Also, an employee handbook could be made to include rules that could

prevent favoritism in the future. The performance evaluation should be

amended so as to include the actual accomplishments of the employees in

each period. This could appease the other employees and further events like

this could be avoided. But, there might still be some bad blood between

them as this is not a punishment in of itself.

Another possibility is to shuffle the sales clerks and to put under probation

the delinquent sales clerk and manager. This way the other sales clerks won’t

be under the same manger and won’t be working with the errant sales clerk.

The upside is you give chance to Martines and Irma to do well and not repeat

their mistakes. Also, the employees won’t feel much threatened as they

won’t be terminated after one offense. But, again this is not a heavy

punishment and might be seen as tolerance of the management.

Martines can also be demoted and Irma’s pay grade be lowered. By doing

this, you get to keep the hard working employee and you give chance to the

delinquent. The good this might is that those two would be able to prove

themselves worthy of their jobs and the other employees would appreciate

the penalty as fit for the offense. The disadvantage is that Martines might

take offense and demoralized.

V. RECOMMENDATION AND CONCLUSION

There is no one optimum solution for this problem. A combination of each

solutions is the best possible way to address the entirety of the dilemma. The

management may start an investigation on the complaint whether it’s done out

of malice or out of sense of duty of the employees. Depending on the outcome,

the administration could issue a warning; reshuffle or transfer the employees;

and, demote or terminate the miscreants. But, most of all, the management

must restructure the performance evaluation of the employees and also of the

store managers. Employee handbooks must be made and issued to the

employees upon hiring and training for them to know the different rules of the

company. There must also be a fixed penalty in the handbook for the

transgressors. The guidelines within the handbook must be strictly

implemented and the store’s owner can enforce this better by spontaneous

inspections in each of the stores. Carla Santos, the manager, must be proactive

in handling the business. This way she could easily perceive when there are

problems and tackle them accordingly. A more sophisticated hiring system

could also be applied to avoid having employees in one store who are related to

each other.

By applying the recommended courses of action, Santos will be able to

uphold the company’s integrity and improve its employment and evaluation

systems. Also, further incidents such as the one stated will be avoided.