ABSTRACT
Over the last few years, absence due to illness has increased a fair amount at Dinner Ltd. Despite all the good intentions to increase employee participation in decision making, absence due to illness figures remain rather high. Managing Director Freddy Fortune attended a symposium on absenteeism control and was so inspired by this that he wants to bring the problem to the attention of his colleagues once again. He has acquired a few new ideas. First, he wants to explain the problem in a clear way. He then wishes to discuss with managers the possibility of determining a strategy that can reduce absence due to illness within a predetermined time period. He drops in on Charlotte Cohen and asks for data registered by administration about absence due to illness. They concentrate on the data to see if it is useful for them to have it recorded in neat graphs and tables. Charlotte knows her job. All the details can be processed within a few days, categorized into time periods, departments, age categories, sex, and level of education. Together with Freddy Fortune, Charlotte analyses the data. After that Freddy and Charlotte organize a meeting with the middle managers Bert Berman and Harry Haddock and the headwaiters Alex Armstrong, Grace Green and Ronald Rosenthal.
