Jill is the new human resource manager at the company. She is 38 years old, with 13 years of previous experience in a similar organization.

Jill is the new human resource manager at the company. She is 38 years old, with 13 years of previous experience in a similar organization. However, five years prior to her previous position, she was a stay-at-home parent raising her family. She applied for this position after reading an announcement in the local paper.

Jill supervises five individuals:

Ed Bigwig, Assistant HR Director, 14 years of service
John Bishop, Employment Specialist, 9 years of service
Mary King, Benefits Specialist, 7 years of service
Tom Prince, Payroll Specialist, 3 years of service
Donna Queen, Clerk, Probationary

The previous supervisor worked in this office for 19 years and was very popular with most of the employees. In fact, he was "best" friends with John, Mary, and Ed. The previous supervisor recently retired, and upon his retirement, John and Mary sent a letter on behalf of the office staff to the chief operations officer (COO) asking that Ed be appointed to the then-vacant position. It was a request the organization decided not to accept. It was understood by Mary, John, and the administration that Ed wanted the job and would accept it, if offered. Also, during the interview process, the COO told Jill about the letter and the staff's request that Ed be appointed. She also told Jill that Ed was quite disappointed at not having received the promotion. Regardless, given Ed's length of service, the company decided that he should be retained in his present position.

In planning for the new appointment, management was concerned that the office had not progressed as far as it might have during the past several years because of the "buddy‑buddy" atmosphere. The office had exhibited a high absenteeism rate for the past five years, and despite strenuous efforts from administration, little action was taken to correct the problem. A recent audit also indicated that the office files were a mess. Over 15% of the files the auditor requested could not be produced within one hour.

Nonetheless, the HR office had always scored well on performance evaluations. It had issued checks, including overtime payments and other payroll changes, for over six months without an error. HR's reputation with staff was also quite high. Frequently, the company would receive letters from production managers commending the office for the initiatives it had taken to recruit and retain quality employees.

In her final interview, the COO told Jill that the organization expected her to improve the filing system and absenteeism rate of the unit significantly without reducing the high quality of its day-to-day activities and the excellent relationships it had developed with staff. "We don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water," she said.

In considering the situation in which Jill finds herself, one can reasonably assume that staff will at least initially be angry at her appointment, and probably unlikely to want to accept her as a "leader." Of course, she nonetheless is their manager.

Jill has decided that she should meet with the entire staff on her first day at work. Based on your understanding of the situation,

create an agenda to guide Jill at the meeting;
explain why each agenda item would be important to discuss at that time (i.e., the first day of Jill's tenure); and
if Jill conducts the meeting consistent with your advice, will the employees be inclined to reassess her as a "leader"? Explain.

In completing this assignment, you should use whatever research findings you believe are relevant from this and/or previous lessons that are part of this class.