Group Gap Analysis Paper

For this week’s assignment, I will be attempting to conduct a needs assessment on the leadership at Solo Serve Company. From research and past assignments, I have come to the idea that the main problem was leadership skills within the organization. Before conducting a needs assessment, I had to learn what a needs assessment is. Businessdictionary.com says that a needs assessment is commonly known as a gap analysis as is defined as “a technique that businesses use to determine what steps need to be taken in order to move from its current state to its desired, future state (gap analysis, 2016). To perform a gap analysis we must first identify the goal of leadership at Solo Serve.

I know the overall goal for the Solo Serve Company was to

I can speak from experience that this was not the case at Solo Serve. I went from a men’s department associate, the men’s department manager, to household goods department manager, to the shoe department manager and did not receive any training on how to be a manager until I promoted to the position of customer service manager. This was the only time I actually had an in-depth training. I actually had to travel to Austin Texas for the training that mainly consisted of how to handle the stores money when opening or closing the store. I went again a few months later when I was in the running for the assistant store manager’s job and that training gave more insight on the interview and hiring process and other functions of management. In an article written by Drea Zigarmi, Dobie Houson, Jim Diehl, and David Witt, we read that in most organizations there is a 29 percent gap in job development and almost a 39 percent gap in career development (2014). This shows that many organizations are not taking the time to train employees on how to progress in their careers or how to become a future leader within the