Summary The case involves Kimberly Brouchous who is in a difficult situation because of a changed company policy. Because of worsening financial conditions the company is forcing district managers to cut their sales personnel expenses. This means that either Kimberly will have to fire someone or increase the sales quota before they get a commission, or do both. The situation is further complicated by two things. One is that one of her employees is within 6 months of retirement after 19 years of service and Kimberly was planning to hire another employee to replace him. Another is that Kimberly has just found out unofficially that one of her employees is planning to go on two months unpaid leave for health reasons. Strengths Kimberly has the chance of simply lowering the quota and not firing anyone. This will be negatively viewed by employees earlier on. However, using the right motivational techniques could motivate the employees to work harder to earn the same commission and to look at the bigger picture. Employees will eventually respond positively if they feel they are being equitably treated. This will happen if they are made to realize that if the company does well they well share the rewards just like they shared the loss when the company was in a crisis. Weaknesses The firing of employees could result in dissatisfaction in employees and their performance may drop, which will eventually hurt the company. Even the raising of the quota could be perceived as a sign of neglect by the employees. Kimberly might end up firing two people and then if Brian Kindler leaves, the remaining employees will be considerably overworked. If she chooses to fire Brian Kindler then this could be seen as because of his mental health which could result in legal problems for the company. Questions might be raised on whether Kimberly had access to confidential health records. The further complication is that she has to make a decision now when a few months later one of her employees Joe will be retiring. If she fires this employee now then he loses his medical and other benefits which seems unjustified after 19 years of service to the company. Opportunities This situation may push employees to work harder. If two employees are fired, then the remaining eight will work harder to ensure job certainty for themselves. If their quotas are raised then they will work harder to make sure they still earn the same or more commission. This process will give Kimberly the opportunity to weed out the poor performers from amongst her 10 employees. Threats One threat is that ensuing dissatisfaction may make employees, who the company wants to retain, resign their jobs. This will depend on the demand for these employees. This will eventually hurt the company and bring it into further financial distress if it starts losing a large number of its qualified employees. Conclusion In conclusion, it can be said that the manager is in a tough spot. She needs to keep her employees motivated and make sure they do not start resenting the company. One good option for Anne would be to increase the sales quota needed for commissions. This could be accommodated in January and Feburary since an employee will be on unpaid leave, the sales quota could be dropped in response to one less employee. She could train present employees to do Joes work and when he leaves the sales quot