Week 5: TraceGains & SQF Audit
My fifth week with The Lebermuth Company has been quite busy, as the major Safe Quality Food Audit is this Wednesday. Hitherto, in preparation for this audit, I have uploaded hundreds of documents and edited thousands of product details on the new TraceGains software. Still, there are 1600 documents waiting to be approved by tomorrow. I am unsure whether or not the Regulatory department will be able to meet this deadline.
Anticipating that the Regulatory department would fall short of the goal, given the time constraint, an additional intern was hired. James is a college sophomore attending the University of Michigan. He has been asked to work with me and essentially do what I do, or approve product specifications on the TraceGains system. Unfortunately, we do not sit near each other, which might be helpful considering we are doing the same task… Both James and I realize that the quantity of work that we are expected to complete by Wednesday is unrealistic given the time constraint.
Chris Kiefer, my supervisor and the SQF expert in the Regulatory department, is out for the week. I am unsure if he is dealing with health problems or on vacation, but we could really use his help in these last couple of days! My hope is that he is still working remotely. He is a driven individual and very knowledgeable, so we really would have benefited from him being present in these last couple of days leading up to the audit.
The situation with my supervisor being absent reminds me of Chemers commentary on the contingency model of leadership. In specific, his ideas about match, stress, and confidence. I think Chris Kiefer is a good leader for the Regulatory department, in spite of the stress that he deals with throughout the day (Sales and Quality Control people are always consulting/interrupting his work flow and he maintains control of the situation). At the end of the day, I think that our productivity as a team is impacted negatively by his absence.
You’ve categorized this under a number of the topical prompts, so I’ll try to acknowledge those as I respond. Clearly, you’re contributing significantly, not only getting all of the items uploaded and materials ready for the audit but also on-boarding and essentially training a new intern. The absence of your supervisor with the impending audit seems to be a problem you’ve identified; it does seem odd to have a leader out in light of the audit. You don’t really offer remedies or strategies for dealing with this problem/challenge. As for theory into practice, this seems a bit light. As you reflect, whether you are submitting written reflections or after you’ve completed those, it would serve you well to think of specific examples (plural) that illustrate (or do not illustrate) particular theories you are discussing; this will serve you well for the academic assignments in the fall. I’m not exactly sure how this connects with organizational culture?