Case Analysis Kevin Lowe

Case Analysis: 1-17 Page 49 – Eating Time.
1. Evaluating Kevin’s suggestions made during his discussion with the partners Bo and Moe.
Based on the information given about Kevin, it would seem this is his first job with a Public Firm. He has learning curve seems to be low as he has not be able to become more efficient in his productivity as compared to his peers.
Kevin’s first suggestion to cut down the work suggests that he does not have ethics that is required when working for a CPA firm. The quality of work performed should never be compromised. This is a concern that he would have first come to this conclusion to meet the deadlines.
Kevin’s second suggestion of using his personal time was a more welcomed suggestion to the partners but Kevin cringing suggests he was not keen on doing this but he understands that he cannot keep over running budget since the CPA firm needs to be profitable and also provide a quality yet competitive package to its clients and also his job is on the line if he does not meet expectations
In regards to Bo and Moe as partners they need to evaluate why Kevin is taking so long to perform the tasks. Could it be that the others have gotten the work done because they worked during their personal time and never told the partners how long it really took them? In which case Bo and Moe need to really evaluate the budgets they are allocating to the team and see if it is realistic.
The partners should also see if the training Kevin was given was sufficient or perhaps speak to the Audit Manager to see if what has been allocated to Kevin is too much for him to handle at this point of time. When Kevin mentioned about compromising the quality of the work, the partners response about not compromising the work was good but they should have emphasized more their core importance of integrity and reliance of the work they do for the stakeholder. In which case would be the clients of the CPA firm.
The partners see that Kevin has one valuable trait that he is willing to work without charging time but at the same time as a firm they need to promote a more work life balance otherwise they will face high turnover in the long run and the quality of work does suffer. Moe’s respond was not directly agreeing with Kevin’s suggestion but he did give the impression to Kevin in his ambiguous response that it was a welcomed suggestion and he was concerned more about the bottom-line.
2. Kevin should first of all evaluate the ethical code of conducts of the firm to ensure he does not infringe them in the future. The next time Kevin should do is work with the Audit manager to improve on his productivity and it might just be that he is under trained and therefore taking longer than what he should be taking to perform the tasks.
Kevin should also evaluate if he wants to have a future with the firm and if this type of work is suitable for him in the long term. Kevin should also outline how he goes about performing his work so that in 30 days’ time he can present to the Partners why he took longer to complete the tasks than what was budgeted. This way the meeting will be more informative and also allows the partners to really understand why Kevin is not performing like the other staff members.