Exercise: Promotion Decision
You are head of a highly regarded computer center in one plant of a multiplant organization. The work of your center involves
design and operation of a plant management information system, as well as tying into the multiplant system. These activities
involve the processing of a large amount of data and the preparation of detailed reports,
which are then sent to different divisions within the plant, and then to the headquarters office. While some of the work is
routine, much of it requires technical expertise. Some of it requires high interpersonal skills to handle conflicts with other
organizational units.
On a recent visit by the headquarters vice president in charge of data processing, you were asked to nominate one of your
subordinate managers to be the computer center head in a large plant that the firm has recently purchased. The vice president
has asked for the person to be from your center because of some of the excellent results that your center has produced, both in
developing new data processing techniques and in getting them successfully implemented within your plant. As you consider
the personnel in your center, only two stand out in your mind, both of whom head up sections.
Georgia Summers is a 32-year-old college graduate with a master's degree in management information’s systems.
Though fairly young for the level of responsibility in her present position, her performance has been outstanding. One of her
strengths is her ability to get people to work with her and for her. She has taken the lead in getting department heads to go
along with new and different data processing ideas. The fact that she is attractive has opened doors for her. Summers is single
and has mentioned several times that she is very career-minded.
The other candidate, John Winter, has also done an outstanding job as section head.
He is 48 years old, has an undergraduate degree in general business, and has been in the center for 12 years. His progress has
been slow but steady. In reviewing his work history, you realize that many of the creative innovations in data processing have
come as a result of his suggestions. He has been able to devise a number of very effective, yet simple, procedures. He
typically comes to work an hour before everybody else, and leaves an hour or so after the regular quitting time. On the job, he
is all business and expects the people working for him to be the same. As a result, he seems somewhat abrupt in his
interpersonal contacts. He is married, has two children, and has mentioned his great interest in advancing further up the career
ladder.
As you consider these two candidates, you think about such aspects as the following: (1) effects of the promotion on
Summers and Winter and their careers, (2) effects on the two present work groups, (3) effects on the total organization, (4)
effects on you if you lost either of these two valuable people, and (5) effects on the newly purchased plant, which would
require introduction of the firm's management reformation system. Whichever person is selected, you know that you will have
to inform the other, and you worry about what to say. You realize that you, personally, will feel a loss since you do not have
the technical skills of Winter, nor the superior interpersonal leadership qualities of Summers.
Procedure
.'"
1 Working individually, develop the criteria that you would use in making the decision to promote Summers or
Winters. Organize them into (1) organization effects, (2) personal effects on you, and (3) effects on the two
candidates.
2 Form into groups of four or five people. Discuss the criteria that each of you has developed, and agree on one set for
your group. Without classifying as above, place these criteria in the order of importance that your group feels is
proper.
3 Based on the information and the criteria, decide whom to promote. 4 Additional variations:
a Have one group read its list of criteria in the order of importance, and have the class determine if it can predict the
group's final decision.
b Role play the task of informing the losing candidate of your decision.
Case: Archer Company·
Upon the death of their father, the two sons of Frederick Archer each took part of their father's original business and set
up separate establishments. James Archer set up the Archer Company, an advertising specialty manufacturing firm, making
metal, wood, and paper advertising items.
The Archer Company organization was set up by James Archer when he was 40 years old. He operated the business as
its sole owner and principal executive for 15 years. The company employed about 150 people in the plant, on the average, and
had a staff of nine salesmen. Most of the business of the firm was special order work. The Archer Company was highly
regarded for the quality of its work.
James Archer, at the age of 55, began formulating plans for the future of his organization in .the light of his planned
retirement from active management a few years hence. His primary objective was to leave a strong, going concern. The plan,
as matured by Archer, provided for the establishment of three key positions in the organization. These three positions were
general manager, sales manager, and factory manager. It was Archer's purpose to have the men holding these three positions
act as the executive committee of the company in determining policy and making important decisions. Initially, Archer would
maintain active connection with the company, but he would gradually give over operating authority to the general manager,
who would make use of the executive committee in formulating policy.
Up to the time this plan was developed, the Archer Company was a one-man organization operated by Archer himself.
After a careful survey of his existing staff, Archer felt it necessary to go outside the firm to fill the newly created positions.
As general manager of the concern, Archer selected his son-in-law, Samuel Barton.
At the time of his employment, Barton was not well acquainted with the business. He was rated by associates as a man of
superior mental ability. He demonstrated an excellent capacity at long-range planning and organizing and was considered an
average administrator. Some of his associates said he was moody at times and attributed what was called "personality
difficulties" to the fact that he was hard of hearing and used a hearing aid. Barton had an obvious personal interest in the
position by virtue of family connections and undertook his new job with enthusiasm.
For the position of sales manager, Archer selected James McCarthy. McCarthy was an outstanding salesman with a
record of great success in this industry. He had a tremendous amount of drive and had achieved his reputation through his
personal sales efforts. He had limited experience as a sales executive. At the time he was hired, his administrative skill in
directing a sales force was an unknown quality. Archer was motivated in selecting McCarthy by the belief that his knowledge
of salesmanship in this
*Robert Dubin, Human Relations in Administration. 2d ed .. Prentice-Hall, rnc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1961, pp. 485-490. Used with permission.
industry and his obvious success would serve as an example and inspiration to the sales force.
William Stevens was hired by Archer for the position of factory manager. Stevens had no direct production experience in
this industry. However, for some years he had sold equipment throughout this industry and had a thorough knowledge of the
machinery, its use, and its capabilities.
Shortly after these three principal executives were installed in office, they made plans for achieving an annual volume of
business of I million dollars. The business was to be expanded over a 5-year period to reach this goal. This represented a
substantial increase from the present volume of about $600,000 a year. Archer participated in this planning as the source of
final authority in approving the work of the new executive committee.
Anticipating the expanding business, a decision was made to hire two additional specialists. Will Harrison was selected to
fill the job of plant superintendent under Stevens. Harrison had worked in the industry for many years and had a fine
reputation for his technical knowledge. Arnold Jefferson was hired as chief designer. He came to the Archer Company with an
excellent background in product design, having done such work with several companies and with a design consulting firm in
New York.
Also in line with the expansion program, an order was placed for a considerable amount of new production equipment. At
this time a major contract was secured covering a lO-year period and calling for an estimated annual sales of $250,000 to this
single account, the largest in the company's history.
In the face of sales expansion and plant modernization, Archer personally hired Sidney Fremont, an industrial engineer, to
work on plant layout and production processes. Fremont was hired only on a project basis, but did such a creditable job that he
was retained permanently to work out industrial engineering problems.
The final stage of staff expansion was reached when a decision was made to secure a new man to take over the job of
Jefferson, the chief designer. Jefferson was considered a competent designer capable of developing other people's ideas. He
was considered weak, however, on originality in design. The decision was made to move him into the sales department, where
his talents would be particularly useful in servicing established accounts. To replace him, Wayne Klinger was employed as
chief designer. In previous positions, Klinger had demonstrated exceptional promotional talents; he gave every promise of
being the idea man desired for the position.
About a year after the organization began to expand, its structure was as shown in the chart (Phase I) on page 274.
In the course of the development of Phase I in the growth of the Archer Company, a number of problems arose. First of
all, it became reasonably clear that the executive committee idea was not serving in the manner intended by Archer. He had
retained very direct participation in the organization and his staff continued to look to him as the active chief executive. This
was particularly true of McCarthy, the sales manager. Although nominally reporting to Barton, McCarthy often bypassed
Barton and took problems directly to Archer. Archer's reaction to this was to continue to permit Barton to be bypassed. Archer
viewed such action by McCarthy as a natural continuation of the sort of consultation he was used to as active head of the
business.
At the same time that McCarthy seemed to be making an effort to work around Barton, he was frequently a minority of
one in the executive committee in opposing the creation of new jobs and persons hired to fill them. This was particularly true
of Klinger,
Archer Company organization: Phase 1.
to whom McCarthy took an instant dislike. Part of McCarthy's dislike for Klinger may have been related to the fact that
Klinger soon developed direct contacts with customers and was responsible for securing some important accounts on his own.
In the nature of his work as new-idea man in the organization, Klinger had a lot of opportunity to contact customers and, if
possible, secure their accounts through such contacts.
McCarthy was the object of considerable discontent among the salesmen. They felt that he was seldom at the office to
help them, and in fact, was never really available for consultation or help with sales problems. McCarthy was on the road a
great deal. Some of his sales staff undoubtedly viewed him as a potential threat in their own territories, since, by virtue of
being sales manager, he could work in any territory he chose.
Barton soon found himself on the most friendly and cordial terms with Klinger.
This friendship extended even to after-hours recreation, in which the two men spent considerable time together. This
friendship was ultimately viewed by many of their associates as the cause of Barton's wife divorcing him. These observers
said that Barton and Klinger had developed quite a reputation for "painting the town red" to the point where Mrs. Barton
could no longer ignore her husband's activities.
McCarthy had by this time become so enraged with Klinger that he successfully delved into Klinger's past and sent a
report to Archer outlining some of the more undesirable features of Klinger's career. Archer was not disposed to fire Klinger,
since, on business grounds, his work was entirely satisfactory. However, the report from McCarthy, together with Klinger's
connection with the events leading to the Barton divorce, put him in a frame of mind to accept Klinger's resignation when it
was offered at the time of the divorce. (Klinger also had gained knowledge of the fact that Archer had the McCarthy report on
Klinger's unsavory past. The combination of Klinger's close connection with Barton's divorce and Archer's knowledge of his
past probably led him to
3.
Submit his resignation.) The removal of Klinger from the organization tended to relieve McCarthy's feelings only temporarily.
Barton also offered his resignation to Archer at the time of the divorce. In spite of Archer's obvious hurt at seeing his
daughter seek a divorce, he told Barton that he was doing a good job and did not have to resign. Archer pointed out that "a
man's personal life has nothing to do with his business life. He would be judged on the job only as he was successful in the
latter."
At about this juncture in the affairs of the company, Archer became increasingly aware that the strong organization he
had envisioned had not yet materialized. He had this view confirmed when a personnel consultant hired by Barton discussed
the organization with him. Archer came to the conclusion that he would have to shake up the organization drastically.
McCarthy was let go. In his place, Sidney Fremont, the industrial engineer, was appointed. Arnold Jefferson, the former
chief designer, was given his old position back to take the job left vacant by Klinger's resignation. William Stevens was
moved up from factory manager to general manager in place of Barton, who was retained in the company but given no
specific assignment other than to be available for work on special projects. Finally, Will Harrison, plant superintendent, was
moved up to factory manager and his old position was abolished. The executive committee was discontinued.
In the second phase of the growth of the Archer Company, the organization was as shown in Phase II.
The replacement of McCarthy by Fremont has been viewed by the sales staff as a distinct improvement. Fremont spends
considerable time working individually with the salesmen and confines most of his work to the office, leaving direct sales to
the salesmen. Jefferson is said to have improved and seems to display more creative ability than he first showed upon joining
the organization. Stevens occasionally encounters difficulties in making decisions, according to some of his associates, but he
has easy access to Archer's advice and counsel on such occasions. Harrison is doing a capable job of running the factory.
Barton is called in on special projects to lend his assistance whenever and wherever needed.
Archer Company organization: Phase II.
Questions
1.
Is Archer unable or unwilling to retire? Document supporting evidence for your choice.
2.
How does a chief executive go about the process of exiting from a firm?
Case: The Training Staff livening*
The Central Corporation had four plants, each employing at least 1,000 people, and a central office with a staff of
approximately 250. At the central office James R. Simpson headed the training division with general staff responsibility in the
area of company-wide training, and specific responsibility for running the training programs of the central office. Each of the
four plants had a plant training staff operating under a director of training responsible for carrying out the plant training
programs. The plant training directors reported directly to their respective plant managers. Mr. Simpson had no direct line
authority over the plant training directors. His position, however, in the central office, and particularly his direct contact with
the principal officers of the corporation, permitted him to exercise a great deal of influence over the plant training directors.
The board of directors had determined to undertake an executive training program and gave a general directive to Mr.
Simpson to develop such a program to be worked out in detail with the plant training directors. The four plant managers were
informed of the directors' decision to carry on the executive training program, and were urged to get their plant training staffs
working on the program in the near future. As a result, Mr. Simpson had called a conference of the plant training directors and
they were meeting with him at the central office. The discussions at the meeting were recorded as the simplest means for
providing each participant with a record of discussions and decisions. Following is a segment of the recorded staff meeting on
the first day. As Mr. Simpson indicates in his opening comment, the group has been talking about the program prior to the
incident recorded here.
Mr. Simpson. We seem to be in general agreement as to what the executive training program ought to accomplish-what we're
shooting at. Perhaps it would be a good idea to take a look at methods-how are we going to do it. There are lots of different
methods conferences, group discussions, lectures, workshops, and the like-and we ought to have some agreement among us on
which we propose to use at our plants. I, of course, can't tell any of you what methods should be used here, but I do want to
throw out the idea that we consider using role palpating in our training. I have had ....
Carl Halverson (Plant 1 training director). I've read a little bit about that role-playing stuff, Jim, but I can't say it has
impressed me particularly.
Mr. Simpson. I've used it some here and I think I can say without any qualification that it is successful. We have had amazing
results with it after we once broke the ice. I know it is kind of a new thing and some of you may hesitate to undertake
i)"..because you are not familiar with it. If we decide to go ahead with it we could very easily run some practice sessions here
before we break up and that would give us all a chance to see it in operation.
Harold Hicks (Eastern plant training director). Jim, before we talk about this role palpating maybe we ought to find out what
plans the fellows already have, if any. Some of us have been thinking about this program ever since we knew it was coming
and I'll bet some of us have even been doing some executive training already. What I mean is, let's not decide on a method until
we find out what some of the ideas on that are.
*Robert Dublin, Human Relations in Administration, 2d ed., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1961, pp. 575-578. Used with permission.
Mr. Simpson. That's a good point, Hal. I guess I just assumed that would come out in the discussion, but let's do it that way to start.
What are some of the plans you fellows have? How about your plant, Randy?
1'.
Randall (Plant II training director). Well, as you know, our plant manager hires personally all the executives at our plant
and he is pretty proud of his executive staff. I think I will be able to sell him on this training program. I frankly haven't given
much thought to methods-of course, we all know the usual methods-but I'll go along with anything we decide here.
Charles Pinkerton (Western plant training director). I know this role-playing business is supposed to be hot stuff; but we have
used it for some time. I think all of us used it some way during the war with JMT and JRT.· I've found it works all right with
workers and supervisors. But executives are likely to think it is kid stuff and just laugh it off. I have some reservations about
using it in this executive training program.
Mr. Simpson. I'm glad you brought that point up, Charley. We were kind of worried about the same thing. Once we tried it here,
however, we found that the executives ate it up. I know it takes some real technique in introducing it but if you do a careful
job it will work. I remember one of our top executives here who just acted bored when the others were role playing. I could
see he didn't like it. Then he played the role of a department head catching hell from his division chief. He really did a superb
job and had the boys in the aisles with his acting. After that he was really enthusiastic about the method. After all, executives
are human, too, and they get a kick out of really participating in the training. That's what role playing does-it gives everyone a
chance to participate without having to make speeches and shoot the bull.
Mr. Pinkerton. Well, maybe the executives here at the home office have time to play games like that. But seriously, Jim, I wonder
if we are going to have the time at our plants to make use of this role playing. If we are going to do a well-rounded training
program we'll have to cover an awful lot of ground. I think you'll admit that role playing is slow going, particularly, as you
say, when you have to spend so much time to put it over in the first place.
Mr. Simpson. You are right, Charley, and I wouldn't argue with you for a minute about the time it takes to do role playing. My
own feeling about the matter-and this is, of course, just my personal opinion-is that the lessons learned in role playing are
really learned and stick with people. Sure, you can cover more ground quicker by the conference method or by lectures, but
how much of that stuff sticks with a person?
Mr. Halverson. That's just one of the things I've worried about in role playing. Now, I'm not an expert on it like you, Jim-I can
only speak about what I've read about it-but I wonder how you evaluate its effectiveness. That's one of our biggest headaches
in training--evaluation-and I don't think we know enough about evaluating role playing to be sure we have a good thing in it.
Mr. Simpson. Carl, we all know that evaluating is a headache, and I'd be the first to admit that we are a long way from having that
one licked. My own observations are that role playing sticks with the participant and does a teaching job. What do you think,
Charley?
Mr. Pinkerton. Oh, sure, I go along with you in saying it sticks with the participants, but so does at least some of most training. I
still feel that we would have a real problem of getting executives to take it in the first place, and I don't think we will have t!).e
time
back home at the plant to use it anyway.
.
Mr. Simpson. You haven't said much, Randy. What's your reaction to this?
Mr. :Randall. As I said, I'll go along with anything you decide here. If you want us to try role playing, 111 try it. It doesn't make
much difference to me because training is training, after all.
*Job Management Training and Job Relations Training standardized training programs used during World War n.