CASE ANALYSIS

JENSEN SHOES

GROUP 25- Y1
TEAM MEMBERS
19F520 ELISHA ELIZBA GEORGE
19F525 JATIN BHERULAL DHAKAD
19F555 TANNISHA DAS
19F556 TATHAGAT AGARWAL
VENKATA SAI PAVAN
19F558
CHAKRAVARTHI JEERLA
 1. Introduction:
Jensen Shoes is a leading American footwear manufacturer dealing in high quality casual and
athletic footwear for adults and children. Jensen Shoes values its employees just as much as
their products and goes to great lengths to keep their employees satisfied. They had been doing
quite well in both the athletic and children’s wear sections in the last decade but casual wear
section began to show signs of flattening. Action was taken to diversify product lines and
improve industry viability. As a part of their action plan, organization structure was changed
and new marketing plans were formulated by the new Strategic Product Managers appointed
for this purpose. The new structure is represented in the following flow chart.
The key players here are: Chuck Taylor, Jane Kravitz, Lyndon Brooks.

Sally Briggs
Vice President, Marketing

Chuck
Taylor
Director, Strategic Marketing

Kyle Robert
Jane Kravitz
Hudson Murphy
Strategic Product Manager Strategic Product Manager Strategic Product Manager

Lyndon Larry Cheryl

Brooks
Latino, African American
Bunton Abott
Markets
College, Men's Markets Pre Teen's, Women's Markets
2. What went wrong where?

1. Miscommunication: There seems to be serious communication gaps amongst Chuck

Taylor, Jane Karvitz and Brooks.

2. Lack of Job satisfaction: Brooks seems to be dissatisfied with his role in the
organization. His suggestions are not being considered or given second thoughts.

3. Inability to multi task: Brooks inability to multi task is a huge drawback when it
comes to accomplishing the tasks at hand.

4. Lack of Confidence: Lyndon Brooks was apprehensive about disclosing the issues and
challenges he was facing to either Jane or Chuck which shows a serious lack of
confidence.

5. Workplace Discrimination: Sudden restructuring in the organization had an impact

on Lyndon Brooks behavior as he felt that he had been singled out and punished by his
superior (Chuck Taylor). There was an underlying feeling of being discriminated
against which kept Brooks from functioning to the best of his ability.

6. Perception Bias: Brooks was given additional tasks as the higher ups in the
organization believed in his abilities. Brooks however, took this as a punishment instead
of a positive reinforcement.

7. Prejudice: Chuck had a certain prejudice towards Lyndon’s capabilities which he tried
to impose on Jane.
 3. Why it went wrong?
1. Overconfidence Bias: - Chuck initially warned Jane about the problems she might face with
Brooks; she turned a blind eye to Chuck’s advice. She seemed too confident about her abilities
as a manager.

2. Lack of Employee performance evaluation: - Due to lack of employee performance

evaluation, Brook was not given any compensation benefits in terms of rewards and
appreciation which made him feel demotivated which also led to far less contribution from
him.

3. Disconnect between Management and Employee: - There was no proper understanding

between the superior and their executive as we can see in the case that Chuck never bothered
to enquire about any problems or challenges Brooks might be facing with respect to his work
environment and job roles.

4. Nature of Job: - There seems to be a lack of stability with regards to job description and
roles within the organisation. As we see with Brooks, he was initially hired as a promotion
manager and later was moved to a project where he had to report to Jane Kravitz. He considered
this as a demotion and was mentally disturbed by this.

4. What can be done?

1. Problem Identification: Chuck must approach Brooks so as to make an effort to

identify the issue with Brook’s performance. This will ensure that he can reach the root
cause of the problem which will help him resolve the issue in a more efficient manner.
2. Lack of Motivation: “The First secret of effectiveness is to understand the people you
work with so that you can make use their strengths ”.Chuck should make an effort to
increase Brooks motivation levels so that Brook will not only achieve his personal goals
but also contribute to the Strategic Objectives assigned to him and thus help achieve
the organizational goals as well.
3. Positive Reinforcement: Positive Reinforcement in the form of recognition and
acknowledgement for the extra effort Brooks has put in the form of additional projects
and other responsibilities.
 4. Disciplining: Jane should have focused more on disciplining Brooks rather than being
very lenient to him.
5. Failure Acceptance- Brook should accept his past failures and instead of getting
demotivated from them, he should use that as a tool to discover his strengths and
weaknesses and use them appropriately for his future personal and professional life.

5. What can work?

1. Brooks must have communicated about his problems regarding African-American and
Latino S.O and his past failure experience in that area to Jane so that she wouldn’t have
misunderstand him.
2. Rather than postponing the discussion, Jane must have discussed regarding the time
allotted to Brooks which he feels is very limited and unfair.
3. Chuck Taylor must have given some compliments or praises to Brooks for his works
so that Brooks wouldn’t feel dissatisfied.
4. Chuck Taylor must have given proper reasons to Brooks regarding the reorganizing so
that Brooks doesn’t feel like he is being punished for his past failure.
5. During the time of reorganizing, Chuck must have allocated Brooks to a management
position of which Brooks was passionate about rather than asking him to report to Jane
which lead to employee dissatisfaction.
6. Jane must have divided the work fairly to Brooks considering the fact that he was
working on the special project (Environmental consumer buying) so that Brooks
wouldn’t feel the burden of carrying too much load.
7. Brooks was reluctant to try the African-American and Latino S.O thinking of this past
failure experience. So, he must have at least given it a try rather than accepting the
defeat and putting pressure on Jane.
8. Jane shouldn’t have pulled a contract at the end of their meeting regarding Brook’s
S.O’s which made him feel that Jane is questioning his integrity and that she is lacking
trust in him.
6. How can it be done?

1. Relieve Brooks off the African American Segment: The underlying issue here is
Brooks reluctance to take up the African American Segment. The two possible courses
of actions before us is to either assign him another segment or to reassign him in a
managerial position, which is what he is truly passionate about.
2. Incentivization: Brooks displays a serious lack of motivation towards his tasks. There
is a glaring need to motivate him which can be done by employing some incentivization
techniques. Something as simple as acknowledging him for his efforts might go a long
way in motivating him.
3. Employee Engagement: Employee engagement activities organized to encourage a
more open channel of discussion between the various levels of the organization
especially between Chuck, Jane and Brooks.
4. Daily Progress Reports: Daily Progress Reports can be recorded so as to ensure
accountability for one’s actions. This can be implemented on all levels.
5. Addressing Brook’s Negative Thoughts: Brooks negative thoughts about his past
experiences dealing with the African American segment should not be allowed to get
in the way of his ability to deal with the situation at hand.
 APPENDIX-

 Additional Reading- a