Frontline Management training in LucerneFrontline management in the canton of Lucerne: how can managers clarify who takes over?
In the canton of Lucerne, tourism, hospitality, regional financial services and industrial SMEs include many family-run businesses with short decision-making chains and strong local ties. For SHR’s “Management de proximité” frontline management programme, this context raises a specific question: how can handovers be made explicit without making work inflexible?
1. What the literature establishes
Travis C. Tubre and Judith M. Collins (2000, Journal of Management) identify a negative association between role ambiguity and job performance in their meta-analysis. Role ambiguity includes uncertainty about expectations and the responsibilities an employee is supposed to assume. This finding does not, however, demonstrate that clarifying responsibilities is sufficient on its own to improve performance.
2. Two different problems
Susan E. Jackson and Randall S. Schuler (1985, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes) distinguish role ambiguity from role conflict, which concerns incompatible demands. An employee may not know who should take over a case, or may know perfectly well while receiving two contradictory priorities. In the first situation, the manager needs to clarify the handover; in the second, the manager must resolve competing demands rather than simply restate responsibilities.
3. The hasty conclusion: formalise everything
It might seem that every activity therefore needs a detailed procedure and a single designated owner. The cited research does not, however, establish that maximum formalisation is preferable. In a family-run business where people communicate directly, a targeted rule covering the transfer point and acceptance of responsibility may be a more proportionate working hypothesis. (our executive and employee training programmes)
4. What the evidence does not settle
These reviews are not specific to Lucerne and bring together different occupational settings and measurement methods. The observed associations cannot establish the causal effect of a handover rule. In practice, producing a responsibilities document is no proof that employees share the same understanding: that understanding needs to be checked against concrete situations.
5. A practical check in Lucerne
Consider a hypothetical example in a family-run hotel in Lucerne: a guest request passes from reception to the next shift without explicit confirmation that someone has taken responsibility. An exercise suitable for the “Management de proximité” programme is to agree on a simple rule: name the person taking over, specify the deadline and obtain their confirmation. For two weeks before and after introducing the rule, the manager can record the proportion of transferred requests requiring follow-up solely to establish who is handling them, using the same definition and noting the volume of activity. This comparison provides a verifiable local indicator, not causal proof or a finding that can be generalised to Lucerne’s businesses. To go further: explore the Frontline Management training in Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
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