WAC Thomas Green

4/27/2014
Written Analysis on Case

Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics and a
Career in Crisis
MID TERM
Instructor: Dr. Nasir Afghan
Muhammad Arsalan Shaikh
ERP ID: 07854
Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics and a Career in Crisis
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Organizational Behavior and Leadership
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Case Overview 2
Company Profile 2
Analysis 3
Answers to Questions 4
Exhibit 1 Extract of Organogram 10

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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. Franks 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. Its 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 Jungs 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
Greens performance she also became concerned and asked Thomas Green to submit a written
reply following the accusations on him.

Analysis of Thomas Greens 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. Youll
have to deal with any fallout that might result from that. You are getting an unusual
opportunity with this promotion. Dont 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 Greens 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)

WAC Thomas Green

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4/27/2014

Written Analysis on Case

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