Mgt 300 - Analysis on the Case of the Writer Who Could Not Write

Analysis on the Case of the Writer Who Could Not Write

Summary

Bill Gruber applied for a job advertised in the newspaper by Big Time Computers Inc. as a senior technical writer. After a brief interview by Conroy, the technical editor, and two senior writers, Conroy decided to hire Gruber because he is very qualified and he performed well during the interview although one of the senior disagreed.

Short after Gruber started working, Conroy and other people in the department soon found that he had poor writing skills. Conroy had faith in him and tried to help him improve. Gruber did better after a few months, therefore Conroy decided to give him a writing assignment from the marketing department. However, he did not finish well and the marketing product manager complained it to Conroy.

Recruiting

When the working load of the department became more and more heavy, the leader of the department, Conroy, decided to recruit from outside the company. She believed that nobody inside the company is qualified for the position. However, she may not even ask or conduct any investigations. Internal recruiting may be more benefit under this situation. As mentioned in the case, many people in the company wanted to apply for the job. People inside the company know more about the company and the situation than people from outside of the company.

What’s more, insiders are familiar to the people and the rules in the company. Therefore, they do not need to take part in the onboarding programs, which can save the company a lot of time and money on training new people. In addition, ignoring employees who wanted to apply for the position may cause their dissatisfaction and this may have serious influence to the company. If Conroy hired someone from the existing employees, the situation in the case may not even happen.

When doing external recruiting, managers should not only doing interviews, but also use psychometric tools. For example, managers can make up a questionnaire to test the candidate’s ability to finish their tasks. In this case, Conroy only judged Gruber by a simple interview. Interview in this case can reflect a person’s ability to make immediate response rather than the candidate’s ability to write.

Training Strategies

The training of new employees should teach them the skills they need in order to do well in their jobs. In this case, Gruber spent three weeks to get familiar with the products, procedures and departmental methods. However, these are not enough for him to get good preparation to his position. He also needs to be familiar with the way the articles should be written and what kind of writing assignments he may meet and how to deal with them. Learning some standard writing skills in the company will help him get into the position better and faster.