This a short description of the case. I will attache the complete assigment below. You are a manager at a mid sized company and supervise 15 people. The company has had a slump in sales that seems to be worse than many of the company’s competitors. As a result the company is struggling and the stockholders are not happy.

Recently a new CEO was hired to turn the situation around. A budget freeze was the CEO”s first move. This means budgets are now very lean. A short term hiring freeze was the second action. As a result in some departments, including yours, there are fewer people doing the same amount of work. The third announcement was that until the company improved its position and finances, most people would get very modest raises – smaller than in the past; only the top 10% would get the level of raises employees were used to, and only if they consistently exceeded all their performance targets. Nobody is happy about that, although the most recent management meeting laid out the numbers and there really are few choices with respect to that. The money just isn’t there right now. Rumors are that there will be no layoffs, that jobs will be redesigned to make the company more “efficient” and “lean” (you suspect that means doing more with less but have kept your opinion to yourself), however no one can answer the question of what will happen next. Employees, including you, are understandably concerned.

Despite the recent problems, this company has been a great place to work. There have been reasonable policies, good benefits, salaries are somewhat above the industry average, employees are committed to the mission of the company, the company’s culture is positive and people generally get along – all of which means that most employees will likely stay rather than look for another place to work despite the current situation.