case notes - atlantic
Case Notes – Atlanta Home Loan
Al Fiorini, the founder of Atlanta Home Loan, was caught in an unfortunate situation when he lost control of his start-up company, and also was faced with an unfavourable credit rating which forced him to sell his home. I feel that this situation may have been avoided if Al had developed and enforced “tighter results controls”.
In order to produce tighter results controls, Al had to consider the following:
1. Definition of desired area:
This section is concerned with both goal congruence and completeness. The goals of the organization must be consistent with the individual goals of the employees. It is clear that in AHL, both of Al’s temporary “partners” had much different goals than was communicated by Al. This is clear because although both Joe and Wilbur were both held in high regard and had good performance while employees, once they became management they began acting out, seemingly in their own best interests. For example, in his first 10 days as manager, Joe only showed up for 3 days. Additionally, he took company files home and did not return them.
To help aid this situation, Al should have established very clear performance targets that promote goal congruence of the company as a whole, while also making the goals specific, quantifiable, and achievable.
2. The Effectiveness of the Acton Tracking System
This section attempts to deal with the perception of employees with regards to being monitored. Basically an employee should always feel that their actions are being noticed, and relatively quickly. Concerning AHL, I feel that Al did not have enough control over his employees when he chose to go back to school. Furthermore it is clear that Al did not choose a good replacement to take control. To remedy this situation, Al should have hired a more trusted replacement to run the company. Or even in his absence, Al should have hired someone to monitor the actions of employees and this person would subsequently report to
Al Fiorini, the founder of Atlanta Home Loan, was caught in an unfortunate situation when he lost control of his start-up company, and also was faced with an unfavourable credit rating which forced him to sell his home. I feel that this situation may have been avoided if Al had developed and enforced “tighter results controls”.
In order to produce tighter results controls, Al had to consider the following:
1. Definition of desired area:
This section is concerned with both goal congruence and completeness. The goals of the organization must be consistent with the individual goals of the employees. It is clear that in AHL, both of Al’s temporary “partners” had much different goals than was communicated by Al. This is clear because although both Joe and Wilbur were both held in high regard and had good performance while employees, once they became management they began acting out, seemingly in their own best interests. For example, in his first 10 days as manager, Joe only showed up for 3 days. Additionally, he took company files home and did not return them.
To help aid this situation, Al should have established very clear performance targets that promote goal congruence of the company as a whole, while also making the goals specific, quantifiable, and achievable.
2. The Effectiveness of the Acton Tracking System
This section attempts to deal with the perception of employees with regards to being monitored. Basically an employee should always feel that their actions are being noticed, and relatively quickly. Concerning AHL, I feel that Al did not have enough control over his employees when he chose to go back to school. Furthermore it is clear that Al did not choose a good replacement to take control. To remedy this situation, Al should have hired a more trusted replacement to run the company. Or even in his absence, Al should have hired someone to monitor the actions of employees and this person would subsequently report to