thomas green

Thomas Green HR Problem 2012

WAC CASE FOR ANALYSIS

Thomas Green-Power, Office Politics and a Career in Crisis

By,Bharat Dalvi

PGDM-ExecutiveRoll No:05

Dt: 29/11/12

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To,Mr Thomas GreenDynamic DisplaysResident HillsNew York Dt: Nov 27,2012

Dear Mr Green

As per our discussion relating to your problem, our consultancy has formulated a report with recommendations to deal with the current situation.

The report covers the different working styles, the reasons for the incident created and also the action plan required to improve the situation.

I hope you find this report satisfactory.

If you have any queries or doubts please contact us on mail or at the contact number given below during office hours.

We look forward to doing further assignments with you.

Sincerely,

Adrian BaleSenior ConsultantRoyce and [email protected]+19099089054

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Content :

1. Executive Summery...................................... ..4

2. Situational analysis.................................... .....5

a. Roll of key players..........................................6

3. Problem statement.................................... .......8

4. Objective................................................ ..........8

5. Criteria.................................................. ...........8

6. Solution options...................................... ........9

7. Evaluation of options............................ ..........10

8. Recommendations.............................. ...........11

9. Action plan.......................................... ............11

10. Contingency plan............................... .............11

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Executive Summary:

This is a very interesting & recent case analyzed & recommended by Royce & Mather(HR

consultancy) related to power, office politics & career in crisis.

Prime character is Thomas Green, a 28 year guy, who was recruited in Dynamic Displays as an

account executive got promoted to senior marketing specialist within few months was finding

difficulty in adjusting with immediate boss Frank Davis. The conflict between the two now had

reached its limit affecting the enthusiasm of Thomas Green and can result in termination of

Green. Also other senior members in organization like Shanon McDonald also plays critical role

in whole situation.

This case throws light on role of politics, dynamics of the power and importance

of communication within an organization.

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Situational analysis :

Company's Background :Dynamic Displays was founded in 1990 as a provider of self-service

options to banks via Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). In 1994, Dynamic Displays launched a

new division at the Travel and Hospitality Industry, and developed their first self-service check-in

kiosk for Discover Airlines. These kiosks not only reduced costs but also improved customer

service, shortened passenger wait times, and provided valuable information to these travelers.

But now due to web check-in facility is kiosk is facing a danger of lacking behind.

Situation : The case of Thomas Green deals with the existence of power, office politics and how these two affect the career of an employee. It highlights the play of politics that occurs in a workplace when senior management does not agree to the decisions and appointments that are made by the decision makers of the organization. The case delves into the disagreements between Thomas Green who is recently appointed as the division’s senior market specialist for the Eastern region of North America and Frank Davis who is the marketing director for the organization for the travel and hospitality division.

Thomas Green started his career in the organization as an account executive. He soon became an important member of the organization when he established a great rapport with clients.In his first four months as an account executive, he completed a contract for one of the largest airline carriers, Journey Airlines; to accelerate rollout of kiosks in 20 airports and purchase upgraded software for kiosks in the majority of their locations. Senior executives quickly took notice of Green’s performance and were eager to strengthen his relationship with the company. The division vice-president Shannon McDonald seemed to take Green under her wings. McDonald had several informal meetings with Green. By the end of that week, Green became aware of an open position for a senior market specialist. Green lobbied hard for the position and won himself a position of senior market specialist. McDonald put her trust in Green and promoted him to the position of senior market specialist. This was no normal feat. An account executive interested in joining the marketing team usually moved first to a market specialist position and then put in a number of years before reaching the ‘senior’ status. Other senior market specialists were in their forties. Green was 28.

The very same day that Green was promoted, McDonald stepped by Green’s office and told him that he was walking into a tricky situation with Frank Davis. Frank had expected to choose the new senior market specialist and that would not have been him (Green). He was warned that he was to deal with any fallout because of this. Green used most of his first week to review 2006 and 2007 year-to-year sales. He also visited clients, market specialists, and account executives in New York, Atlanta and Orlando. On October 8th, Green attended the 2008 budget plan meeting. This was the first time Green had been exposed to the planning and forecasting process. Here Green was surprised by the numbers that Davis was proposing. According to Green, Davis was way off mark with his pro forma numbers. The sales goals that Frank set for Green’s department were impossible to meet. Davis was visibly upset that Green had openly challenged him at the meeting.

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Primary reasons of this whole situations seems to lies in following;

Thomas Green:

Lack of leadership skills required for senior marketing specialist.

Lack of good communication & relation building skills.

Lack of management skills (Data, Time management etc)

Senior management:

Power & politics within senior management.

Lack of conflict management skills at senior management levels within Dynamic display.

Role of Key Players :

Shannon McDonald (Division vice president):

Inconspicuous promotion of Green:

Green's (having less age than others plus only few months of job with the organization)

promotion was not clear. Although Shannon took a chance in promoting Green, Davis might

have asked for an experienced person to take the position. Just because Green and Shannon

were in the same college alumni and from the same state (Georgia), and the fact that he cajoled

her into promoting him.

Lack of showing interest on feedback of a guy whom she hired:

Though we see that Shannon promoted Green, she was not concerned enough to carefully read

through the performance review given by Davis and taking some proactive action. It can be

assumed that if she would have taken enough interest in giving Green some important

suggestions, about how to improve his work, things might have been different.

Personal relationship is a source of conflict: The personal relationship between Shannon and

Green is also cause of concern as it already caused Shannon to err in her judgment.

Thomas Green : (Senior Marketing specialist) :

Radical thoughts and style:

Thomas Green is a young and dynamic graduate from University of Georgia in

Bachelor's degree in Economics and has a six year work experience as account executive. He

is relatively still not that experienced and he is very power hungry, which probably caused him

to use Shannon to further his goals rather than looking after the interest of the organization.

Inability to blend in the organization and not listen to his immediate boss: Green was reluctant to

listen to his boss, Davis and hence was unable to mould himself to the needs of the

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organization. As a result, the boss got vexed with his lack of documented numbers and updating

his scheduler properly.

There is very little visibility of Greens work in the organization which also accounts for his lack of

alias in the organization and his low-influence.

Frank Davis(Marketing Director)

His long career makes him feel better than Thomas Green: In the initial meeting (Green's first

meeting), Green challenges his position on the growth rate forecasts for following year calling

them unrealistic and unattainable. Davis feels that Green is too inexperienced to justify to him

how he got to the 10% growth projection.

Positional power also has influence in his actions:

Frank Davis thinks that Green is not capable enough to handle the responsibilities nor is he

experienced. Therefore he sends along negatively biased report against Green to Shannon in

an effort to remove him and get some one more able.

Office Politics

Green when became aware of a position for a senior market specialist, tried to aggressively

campaign for the post, since he knew that Shannon held a powerful and influential position in

the company, that of the VP. This goes to show that despite Green having to work under Davis,

Davis could not choose whom to hire but was forced upon by Shannon.

Office politics was also evident from the fact that, the email sent by Davis regarding

Green's performance sent on January 30 to Shannon, though not sent to Green directly reached

him by interoffice mail.

Towards the end, Green himself feels that he had not paid much attention to office politics and it

was then that he realized that he should have taken advantage of Macdonald's position in the

company by being more interactive with her; so that she would take his side once the matter of

his firing comes up.

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Problem statement:

Critically analyze perception of poor performance of Thomas green as senior marketing

specialist by immediate superior Frank Davis. If so provide necessary suggestions to improvise

same.

Objective:

1. Study & Analyze current situation of Thomas green in Dynamic display as organization.

2. Analyze organization structure, power, politics around Green by analyzing environment

and personnel dealing with Green.

3. Identification of issues ,problems hindering performance of Thomas Green in last 5

months.

4. Suggestion and recommendations to improve performance and visibility within

organization.

5. Presenting and feedback seeking from senior officials at Dynamic display.

Criteria:

1. Improvisation of Thomas's performance as senior market specialist.

2. Perception change by presenting performance in effective way to immediate Boss &

senior management.

3. Preparation of facts and figures to support performance & improvements.

4. Feedback seeking and representation of feedback actions.

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Solution Options :

Following options can be utilized to solve this HR problem.

1. Self improvement:Thomas Green should get into self critical mode & identify some pitfalls within himself.Senior marketing specialist is a leadership position requiring management skills and way different than previous position(More of individual performance driven)

2. Work Collaboratively with senior management:Green should change his working style and learn managerial skills from Davis. Firstly, Green must have a face-to-face meeting with McDonald and must persuade that there is a need for clear goals and mentoring from Davis. Green should convince McDonald that having Davis train him would help Green understand the organizational hierarchy and his responsibilities for the new role. Also, Davis should take up a mentoring role for Green, as Green is highly inexperienced as a senior market specialist. Secondly,Green should have a meeting with Davis and understand his concern regarding his work style so that both could work towards an integrated solution. Green should commit to Davis on the following improvement areas that Davis is looking for so that he could trust Green for the role of a senior market specialist.

3. Conflict Resolution:Green, Davis and McDonald should ideally sit down for an informal meeting where they discuss the issues that Green has with Davis and vice versa. Once the issues are chalked out, McDonald should be the person who will make a decision as to whether the issue is trivial or that the issue is worth considering. Once an issue is up for resolution, the company’s goals should be considered when making the decision. Again, McDonald should be the ideal choice for taking this decision.

4. Change of reporting:Considering issues between Green & Davis, McDonald can change reporting of Green to some other marketing director or himself to evaluate & analyze Davis's evaluation of Green.

5. Change of role: McDonald should remove Green from the role of Senior Market Specialist with immediate effect and a sales role position should be given to him in the organization where his sales skills can be leveraged.

6. Change of company: Green should quit the organization so that all the conflicts he had at professional level would be settled.

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Evaluation of Options

1. Self improvement :Green already posses good operation level skills and have created impressive position in senior management's mind.Considering this is a new and senior management position where need to get things done from others than doing it himself. He should improvise following skills

A. Leadership(leading team towards sales goals & monitoring)B. Management (Time & efforts)C. Effective communication & relation buildingD. Creative thinking & conflict management

2. Work collaboratively: Green should change his working style and learn managerial skills from Davis. The advantages for this option are

A. Green will realise that Davis is at a superior position and should respond to Davis on time.

B. The communication gap between Davis and Green could be filled in C. Davis will build the trust on Green when Green adapts to work style that suits the

organisational goals.

The disadvantage is Green adapting to a new work style for will take some time initially and may not be highly beneficial during short span of time. Also, Davis and McDonald need to put in additional effort to support till Green is comfortable with the new role.

3. Resolve conflict: McDonald should act as a problem solver between Davis and Green and understand their respective problems to resolve the conflict. The advantage for this option is conflict between Davis and Green can be resolved but the disadvantage is how far can Green change his work style as per Davis’ expectations is still questionable.

4. Change of role: Green can be removed from the role of Senior Market Specialist with immediate effect and a Sales role position should be given to him by McDonald in Dynamic display where his Sales skills can be leveraged. As an advantage, even though this option would help the company for a different business, the disadvantage is Green may lose motivation towards completing tasks because he may feel that he has been demoted and unsuccessful.

5. Change of reporting:Considering serious issues and already sour relations between Green & Davis (Beyond repair) McDonald can take second opinion by by changing reporting of Green to some other Director and re-evaluate Green's performance. This can give an insight & will also work at root cause (Performance or power/politics)

6. Change of company: Last option is Green should quit the organizationso that all the conflicts he had at professional life would be settled. Even though there is no advantage for this option, the disadvantage is his mortgage was due soon and also furniture is scheduled to be delivered. Hence, this is not a feasible option.

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Recommendations:

Considering complexity of this human relation and skills related issue one single straight forward

solution may not work effectively

As HR consultant I suggest following recommendations for Green & senior management

combining self improvement & collaborative working:

1. Clearly defined rolls & responsibilities.

2. Fast track leadership & management programme for new senior managers.

3. Review & Probation period for senior positions.

4. Mentoring programme within organizations(To prepare juniors for senior positions by

observations)

5. Weekly review meetings with senior management.

6. Data & Knowledge management system & tools implementation (Charts, graphs etc)

7. Conflict management training for all senior management

8. Transparency practice implementation within organization.

Action plan:

1. Immediate preparation of roles & responsibilities (Career path design)

2. Implementation of mentoring programme (Assigning mentors etc)

3. Database & knowledge management system implementation (Specialized software etc)

4. Scheduling of review meetings

5. Fast-track management programme design (May be in collaboration with universities)

6. Conflict management training for all senior management.

7. Transparency policy creation & implementation.

Contingency plan:

Contingency plan can be prepared considering recommendations such as change of reporting

of Thomas green to some other marketing director or McDonald herself.

This will give Thomas opportunity to improvise performance, build better relations with new

superior and also throw light on Davis's attitude & working style.

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thomas green

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