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4/27/2014

Written Analysis on Case

Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics and a

Career in Crisis

MID TERM

Instructor: Dr. Nasir Afghan

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Case Overview

2

Company Profile

2

Analysis

3

Answers to Questions

4

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Case Overview

The case study describes about Thomas Green, who has received an email from Shannon McDonald, Division Vice President, asking for a written reply on the issues and criticisms raised upon his work performance by his boss, Frank Davis, Marketing Director. Thomas Green was promoted to the position of Senior Market Specialist in Dynamic Displays (Exhibit 1) in the month of September 2007, just six months after he joined the Company at the position of Account Executive, which is an initial recruitment position.

The issues with Frank Davis started when Thomas Green had disagreement with Frank Davis on the sales target given to him. Thomas Green thought the target to be unattainable under harsh economic conditions which were hurdle in his achievement of the target. Frank’s reservations on the performance of Thomas grew with the passage of time. At his first performance review meeting, Thomas was informed about his shortcomings and it was decided that they will be taken into consideration and corrected by Thomas in the future. Similarly, the second performance review meeting also highlighted the weaknesses in the working style of Thomas. One of the fact in the case is that Thomas Green was promoted out of the way by Shannon McDonald, without the consent of Frank Davis. Frank Davis did not want Thomas Green to be promoted to the position of Senior Market Specialist and this is the reason that Thomas Green felt that Frank Davis was questioning his performance on regular basis. Frank Davis has also informed Shannon McDonald through emails on the issues with Thomas Green and the proceedings of his two performance review meetings. Now, Thomas Green has to submit a written reply to Shannon McDonald and he is worried how to deal with this situation effectively, as he is on the verge of getting terminated from his job.

Company Profile

The Company, Dynamic Displays was founded in 1990 to provide self- service facility to banks through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). In 1994, Dynamic Displays started a new division which concentrated on the travel and hospitality industry, and installed their first self-service kiosk for Discover Airlines. In 2007, Dynamic Displays Travel and Hospitality Division had a 60% market share, having more than 1500 self-service kiosks operating in over 75 airports. Its customers included regional, national and international airline carriers, as well as different hotels and car rental agencies. Out of the total travel and hospitality revenue, 80% came from airline carriers, 15% from hotels and 5% from car rental agencies. The Company provided full range of services including hardware, software, engineering and maintenance support.

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Analysis

In my opinion Thomas Green has much to blame himself for than his boss for the current situation. Thomas Green has firstly failed to realize that he is not an Account Executive anymore, but has been promoted to a much higher level. This promotion has also increased his authority and responsibility. He has not tried to change his behavior, work approach and style in order to meet the required standard for the position and the expectation of his boss.

Secondly, his lack of managerial experience has also contributed to his weaknesses. As it normally takes years for a position to reach at the position of Senior Market Specialist, the person is already experienced and well groomed to deal with the demanding nature of the job. But in the case of Thomas Green, he has been offered the position in just six months of his joining of the Company, which is the critical cause for his inability of deliver.

Thirdly, there is also a conflict of personality and work style between Thomas Green and Frank Davis. Frank Davis prefers paper work while Thomas Green gives priority to verbal communication. This issue was emphasized by Frank Davis during the meeting when he showed the PowerPoint presentation of other employee to Thomas Green.

Thomas Green was unable to manage his boss effectively and neither was able to build good networks within the Company. It’s the responsibility of subordinates to understand the nature of their bosses and then create a compatible work style accordingly. Similarly, have good networks and effectively managing them is are helpful for career for an individual. Had Thomas Green paid attention to them, he would have found himself in a different position.

There was also evidence of poor communication between Thomas Green and Frank Davis. They hardly met, and Thomas Green did not keep him updated with his progress. This is supported by the evidence in the case when Frank Davis criticized Thomas Green in the first meeting for not providing feedbacks in a timely manner, not updating outlook calendar and by not returning calls.

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Work styles and personalities of Thomas Green and Frank Davis

In my opinion, the personality of Frank Davis is extraverted, sensing, thinking, judging while using the Myers Briggs MBTI model based on Carl Jung’s theories of personality. Frank Green is a practical person who follows the traditional well defined rules and regulations. He is also organized and is only concerned with practicality of a decision. He has a clear vision, target for the sales teams to complete and also likes to be in charge. Similarly, by using the big five model, we can also put his personality in the factor of conscientiousness. Frank Davis is achievement oriented, has few relevant goals. He is himself responsible and also expects Thomas Green to be responsible in return by keeping him informed, updated and also by responding back to his calls. Frank Davis is a serious person who is less social. He is also a good reader, because he prefers written content over others. Frank Davis likes to base his decisions on facts. He would prefer taking support of reports, memos and presentations while making decisions or convincing other person rather than relying on verbal conversation.

Thomas Green on the other hand is an ambitious, innovative and confident person. He is a good thinker and always has a new idea for the Company to follow. He prefers verbal communication over written form of communication. He does not like to present his ideas through the aid of presentations, reports etc. He is intelligent, but also gets egotistical and proud of his capabilities. He lacks work experience and is less formal in his business dealings. He has a short term focus and lacks long term decision making skills. He lacks strategic decision making abilities. Lastly, Thomas Green does not well adjust with the politics in the Company.

Actions of Thomas Green and the expectations of Frank Davis

There were multiple differences in the actions of Thomas Green and expectations of Frank Davis. Frank Davis expected Thomas Green to be a well-organized professional person who will work with enthusiasm and consistent with the standards of the Company. He was unhappy that Thomas Green wasted time by complaining on the issues he faced in selling to both the current and the prospective customers. Rather, he expected Thomas Green to come up with strategies to enhance sales and achieve the target results.

Thomas Green did not build an effective communication channel with Frank Davis. There were number of occasions when Frank Davis was not aware of know about of Thomas Green. Thomas Green did not inform Frank Davis about his schedules and it irritated Frank Davis because he expected the he was informed on this matter. Similarly, Frank Davis expected that a Senior Market Specialist would follow up when information is requested from him. But Thomas Green failed to give feedback on the required deadlines which annoyed Frank Davis. Similarly, Thomas

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Green kept on asking questions on the plans made by Frank Davis. The questions mostly consisted of the practicality of the targets and goals set by Frank Davis. This was not liked by Frank Davis and he mentioned to Thomas that he should change his negative attitude and be more optimistic and focused in the achievement of the targets. There was one incident when Frank Davis needed to urgently talk to Thomas Green but was unable to locate him. He searched for his location through the outlook but Thomas Green did not update it. Frank Davis was upset by this as he expected his subordinate to be responsible and available to the official work whenever he is required.

Actions of Thomas and expectations of McDonald

While hiring Thomas Green for the position of Senior Market Specialist, she had great expectations from him. As Thomas had proved earlier by his hard work that he is a committed and dedicated employee, McDonald decided to offer him the new position because she saw the spark in him. She also wanted to test the young and inexperienced Thomas because she thought it might turn out to be more beneficial for the Company as a whole to have a young blood in the senior position as she was convinced that Thomas has the capability to give good work output.

But after two emails from Frank Davis, mentioning the issues and weaknesses in Thomas Green’s performance she also became concerned and asked Thomas Green to submit a written reply following the accusations on him.

Analysis of Thomas Green’s actions and job performance in his first five months.

His mistakes.

Achievements of Thomas Green

Although the first five months of his job as Senior Market Specialist were tough and full of weaknesses, there were a few achievements in that period too which need to be addressed. His first achievement was when he was acknowledged by Frank Davis when they returned back from the meetings with the major airline clients, Frank said, “We had some good meetings this week and the clients responded well to your ideas”.

Another achievement was the acknowledgement his dedication and commitment to his individual assignment. He was appreciated by other market specialists who accompanied him in few meetings by mentioning that he was “charismatic and can think quickly on his feet”.

Mistakes of Thomas Green

The first mistake that was done by Thomas Green was the disagreement with Frank Davis on the sales target. He should not have commented on the target in front of everyone else. Rather

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he should have spoken about his concerns separately. This was the root cause of problems between the two people.

Thomas Green failed to manage his boss properly. He was unable to work out a compatible working style. Frank Davis was a reader, but Thomas completely failed to realize this, which was disliked by Frank Davis. Thomas was also not able to keep his boss informed about his location and progress. He was unable to make Frank trust and depend on him. He did not understand that the bosses need cooperation, reliability and honesty from their employees. He did not understand the strengths and weaknesses of his boss.

Thomas Green failed to understand the politics in the Organization. He was unaware of the politics and never ever considered about it. Similarly, he was also unable to develop a good network. He needed to have a task network with other Senior Market Specialists who would have guided him on how to tackle his boss. They would have also helped him by sharing job related resources including information, professional advice, political access and material resources.

Thomas Green did not learn from the first performance assessment meeting and therefore did not change himself as per the desires of Frank Davis. If he had tried to change, he would have been appreciated by his boss in the next meeting.

Thomas Green built a wrong perception about Frank Davis in his mind. He thought that Frank Davis was criticizing him just because he was promoted to this position by Shannon McDonald and Frank Davis wanted to offer this position to someone else. This was wrong perception made by him that further weakened his relationship with his boss.

Thomas Green failed to maintain an effective communication with his boss. He rather tried his best to avoid interacting with Frank Davis whenever possible. This was a wrong strategy adopted by Thomas Green. He left a bad impression in the mind of his boss when Frank was unable to locate him and later found out from another employee that Thomas Green had left for second meeting one day earlier. Had he maintained a good communication, it would have cleared the air between both of them.

Possible underlying agendas of Davis and McDonald

Agenda of Davis

Davis joined Dynamic Displays in 1990, which was 17 years before the date of the case study. He was the oldest employee of the Company among McDonald and Thomas Green. After serving for seventeen years he got promoted to the position of Marketing Director.

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While on the other hand, Thomas has been given the position of Senior Market Specialist, which was vacated by Davis. Thomas reached the position in just six months whereas it took years in the case of Davis to become Senior Market Specialist.

Similarly, McDonald joined the company in 2000 and is currently the Vice President of the entire travel Division. It is tough for Davis to see her at a senior position than him because he believes himself as the most suitable candidate for the Vice President position, being served the longest in the Company and having more work experience.

Now, when Thomas is hired by McDonald, she took the opportunity from Davis to hire a person of his own likeness. He is bound to follow her orders because she is senior in the position than him too.

The underlying agenda of Davis is to prove that the hiring of Thomas is not done on merit basis. This way he can prove to the Chief Executive Officer and other Board of Directors that McDonald is not sincere with the success of the Company, rather she is serving her personal interest. By highlighting her mistakes, the chances of Davis for becoming the Vice President will increase. This is even realized by McDonald too when she talked to Thomas on the first day of his promotion that, “Tom, you are walking into a tricky situation with Frank Davis. Frank had expected to choose the new senior market specialist and it would not have been you. You’ll have to deal with any fallout that might result from that. You are getting an unusual opportunity with this promotion. Don’t let me down”.

Agenda of McDonald

Just like Davis, McDonald is also aware about the politics of the Company and so she also had her underlying agenda. McDonald was aware that Davis had intention to find her mistakes and then use them to weaken her position in the Company. Her motive of hiring Thomas was far beyond just appreciating his hard work. She offered him a senior position and out of the way promotion because she knew that Thomas was from her own State and studied from the same University. She could control him very easily as compared to any other employee in the Company. She also thought that as Thomas is new and unaware of the politics of the Company, she can easily influence him and receive the information of Davis’ department from him. Her reason for the appointment was to increase her network and place her person of confidence right where it matters.

Actions I would take if I was Thomas Green

If I was Thomas Green, I would firstly and fore mostly accept all my mistakes. I would then find ways to improve the relations with my boss. One action that I would take will be to go to Frank Davis and then discuss with him all the weaknesses he witnessed in me and then work hard to

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rectify them. Secondly, I would also prepare a detailed work schedule with my boss and then follow it accordingly. It will enable my boss to know about my assignments.

I would have never question any target made by my boss. This is because my boss has much more experience and exposure than me. Having an experience of only a few months, I cannot prove my boss wrong. But, I would prefer to discuss about any issues in the target separately with Frank Davis in a very professional and respectful manner.

I would try to manage my boss so that my boss does not have any negative feelings about me. I would take into consideration his strengths and weaknesses and try to utilize his strengths and cover up his weaknesses. I would also strive to know about his work styles and then follow the preferred work style.

I would also give importance on creating networks in my workplace consisting of other Senior Market Specialists in the department. Having good and cordial relationship would benefit me in my progress as I would have people to support and guide me.

I would also try to understand the element of politics in the Company. One cannot just ignore the political environment in the Company. Similarly, I would also try to understand the power dynamics in my Company.

Relating to the email to be sent to Shannon McDonald, my email reply would not blame Frank Davis. Rather it would contain my acceptance of mistakes and willingness to improve my work style and relationship with my boss. I would accept to work under the norms and regulations of the Organization.

Comparison of Thomas Green’s previous and current job description

Thomas Green previously worked as an Accounts Executive in the same Company. His main responsibility was to sell the product to the current and prospective clients. This position was a lower end position and had no authority over other Company decision making. The Accounts Executive only followed orders from the higher officials. During his work as Accounts Executive, Thomas Green tried to sell his product by giving information about the benefits of kiosks to potential clients. He had his individual targets which were not that challenging and his task involved working alone. He reported to the Market Specialists.

The work that Thomas is doing presently, is completely different. A Senior Market Specialist comes in upper part of organogram of the Company. It means that now, he has authority over certain matters and also people reporting to him. His targets are even stricter now and are no longer focused on individual goals, but they are well prepared and their completion would give massive benefits to the Company. Apart from this, this current job requires Thomas Green to plan for the future ahead. He is now involved on not only implementation, but also on planning,

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forecasting and preparing strategies for his task. Being a senior official, he directly reports to the Marketing Director.

Promotion of Thomas Green in the larger benefit of the Company or not

The promotion of Thomas Green was not in the larger interest of the Company. This was mainly because Thomas was firstly inexperienced to be given the position of Senior Market Specialist. Secondly, he also lacked any relevant higher qualification that is usually necessary for a person working in the senior positions within a Company. He had just got an undergraduate degree in Economics, whereas usually a person must have postgraduate degree to be placed in this position. We can get the example from the case itself that Frank Davis who was working in the position of Senior Market Specialist also possessed a post graduate degree.

Apart from these two reasons, one major reason for calling this promotional move bad for the Company is that Thomas Green had an experience of working at low position in the Sales Department which has a different job specification than the scope Senior Marketing Specialist. Sales Department has to follow the instructions from the Marketing department and then proceed in fulfilling its target. The work is of a limited and confined scope. But the Marketing department has a broader scope. It has to assess the strategies to be followed and define the targets for other sub- departments in its dominion. The work Thomas has to perform now is very different to what he is used to do and without any training he will not be able to contribute to the Company.

Power of Shannon McDonald in the Company and how can she use it in

resolving the conflict

Shannon has got positional power in the Company. Her positional power is distributed as formal power and relevance power. She has formal power from her designation as Vice President in the Company. The designation is superior to the designation of both Frank Davis and Thomas Green. Similarly, she is the head of the travel division, which is one of the major divisions of the Company. So she has the relevance power in the Company compared to the heads of other divisions which are not among the core divisions of the Company.

Shannon can exercise her positional power on both Frank Davis and Thomas Green to settle this conflict. As it is she who has offered the position to Thomas in the first place, she would be more inclined to resolve the issue. She can call both the people in her office and then try to resolve the issue through negotiation. Apart from negotiation she can also serve the purpose of arbitrator and exercise her power to come to a conclusion in favor of any one individual.

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Exhibit 1

Extract of Organogram

Shannon McDonald (Vice President, Travel division) Frank Davis (Marketing Director) Thomas Green ( Senior Market Specialist)

References

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