Smart EliseSpecial Group

# Pier Paolo Bosco# Arianna Calabretta

# Giacomo Carozza# Michela Cipollone

# Gian Marco D’Urso# Elio Giannitelli

# Hesham Mahmoud# Michele Massacesi

Main Characters# ELISE SMART: 32, senior manager in the development group of the IT. High perfomer with a strong 10-year track record in the IT field. Assigned to lead the End-User Education & Support Team.

# DARLENE KETCHUM: 28, works under Smart. Computer science graduate from a local university. Extremely knowledgeable, seemed to like helping end-users and seeks for promotion. She is going to take a maternity leave from February to October.

# JOHN CHENG: Smart’s vice-president. Probably doesn’t want to deal with possible conflicts deriving from Smart’s appraisal of Ketchum.

New IT Support DesignBusinessIT Division

Development Dept.- PC R & D - 8 people- Knowledge Management - 8 people

Operation Dept.- IT Helpine - preexisting

End User Edu & SupportSmart & Ketchum + 10 people

ProjectWorks

Help Desk2h shift

Tech Gentre0900-1700

Performance Managm. Process

Smart gives a performance assesment

Smart and Ketchum discuss the rating

Ketchum refuses the rating

Appraisal submission to Cheng

Chen retifys Smart’s decision

Chen overpasses Smart’s decisiondge

Ketchum accepts it and sign it

Chen reunite Senior Board

What factors should elise smart take into account in deciding what performance rating she should give to darlene ketchum? 1...

# Ketchum’s backgrouns and experiences: she is fluent in kinds of problem users, and she is aware of the importance of managing the expactation among the helpline and PCs support group. But Ketchum privious experience was just with a small team that worked closely with the document’s supplier management system;

# Ketchum work behaviour in managing the work of PC support/ tech center team: she scheduled team meetings but she used them to find help for her personal task about the development of new software packages to track and log calls. Also after Smart encouragment, Ketchum did not produce a position paper or set of recomendations, but she continued try to solecit people for her call-logging system;

What factors should elise smart take into account in deciding what performance rating she should give to darlene ketchum? ...2

# Ketchum’s skills: extremely knowledgeable about PCs and related software, and seems to be happy to help no-users;

# Ketchum (family) situation: she is a neo-mum;#Ketchum work behaviour in managing the work of PC support/ tech center

team: she scheduled team meetings but she used them to find help for her personal task about the development of new software packages to track and log calls. Also after Smart encouragment, Ketchum did not produce a position paper or set of recomendations, but she continued try to solecit people for her call-logging system;

# Complex and quite unstructured assignment# The achievement of the goals (Ketchum assignment)

Do you think that the decision about the performance rating is likely to have a positive or negative impact on Ketchum’s subsequent performances and development as an IT professional?

It depends whether Smart will qualify Ketchum with “Excellent” or “Needs Improvement” rating.In the case Ketchum receives an “Excellent” rating, this will have a positive impact on her subsequent performance and development as an IT professional for two main reasons:

# Ketchum’s satisfaction for the appraisal will bring more motivation for the future;

# The extra bonus money for “Excellent” rating will bring to Ketchum more responsibilities, increasing her motivation for higher performance.In the case Ketchum receives a “Needs Improvement” rating, this will have a negative impact on her subsequent performance and development as an IT professional because she will feel unsatisfied and unmotivated.

If you were in Smart’s position, what rating would you assign? Why?

We would assign an excellent assessment to Ketchum.

Ketchum had ever received an excellent rating and She was very enthusiastic and confident when She accepted the task in January before leaving. Ketchum didn't complete her major assignment but it was a difficult goal and quite unstructurated, quite a "stretch" for Ketchum given her background and experience moreover her maternity leave played an important role in her performance . In spite of ketchum's drop in performance level her efforts didn't change during time.