Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis
Management of Organizations
Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis
Submitted to: Ms Sutapa Bhattacharjee
Assistant Professor
Institute of Business Administration
University of Dhaka
Submitted by: Ekram Ahmed Bhuyan
ID: ZR 1703035, EMBA 29th Batch
Mohammed Akhtab Ul Huda
ID: ZR 1703016, EMBA 29th Batch
Mubrook Mohammed
ID: ZR 1703005, EMBA 29th Batch
Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis
1) What are the different work styles, personalities and expectations of Davis and Green?
Answer: The different work styles, personalities and expectations of Davis and Green are as
follows:

Work style: Frank Davis follows the authoritarian style of leadership. He keeps strict control
over his employees by micro managing everything. Davis’ working style is direct and on point.
He is highly organized, analytical, likes routine work, pays attention to details, and prefers
recommended strategies supported by numbers. Davis is a transactional leader, focuses on
short term goals and thrives to find best approach to move forward. On the Other hand, Thomas
Green can be considered a visionary leader who could predict the long term market trend and
focus on developing new upselling software. His working style is thus result oriented and
inventive. He prefers on meeting clients directly, listens to their concerns and responds to them
on the spot with little or no preparation He has a tendency to under promise and over deliver.

Personality: Davis is a highly conscientiousness (organized) person, has little openness to
experience, has lower agreeableness (highly analytical) and has lower emotional stability since
Davis was visibly upset when Green challenged Davis’ data at budget planning meeting. On the
other hand, Thomas Green with higher tendency for openness to experience has joined Dynamic
Display in pursuit of new challenges, growth and his current focus on developing new upselling
software. Thomas Green has higher degree of extraversion prefers meeting client directly and
has higher agreeableness who listens to customer concerns and provides solution as well as
cooperate with other teams for development of new software. Thomas Green does not rely much
on detailed planning and structure; is less conscientious than Davis. Green is highly confident
and bold with self-assurance talent

Expectation: Davis is highly experienced and knowledgeable, prefers to stay positive in order to
keep team moral high and expect to be treated as a veteran employee and focuses on structure to
increase job performance. Davis expects Green to comply with provided recommendations for
changes in attitude, behavior, and communication. Green, on the other hand, expected that he
would be readily accepted as he was recommended by McDonald for being a deserving fit.
Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis
Green wants autonomy and authority to work independently without following certain standards
that others require and focus on delivering results.
2) What are the possible underlying agendas for Davis and McDonald?
Answer: The underlying Agendas for Davis are as follows:
I.
Agendas with Thomas Green: Frank Davis possibly had someone else for a promotion to the
position of Senior Market Specialist. He was in an awkward position when Shannon McDonald
unilaterally promoted Thomas Green. Davis was possibly trying to fire Green and promote a
person of his choice to strengthen his position within the organization. Frank Davis possibly
realized that his growth targets would fail. He found Thomas Green as scapegoat who was not
properly ready for the office politics. Thomas Green’s remark inside and outside meeting about
the targets set by Frank Davis possibly hurt the ego of the latter. Frank Davis was already an
irritated person by seeing promotions of the juniors like McDonald and Green. He poured his all
anger on Green.
II.
Agendas with Shannon McDonald: Frank Davis may have negative feedbacks from his
reporting manager Shannon McDonald and was trying to pass the pillow to Thomas Green.
Davis was upset with the promotion of McDonald as she was his junior. He possibly
intentionally set unrealistically high sells target and prepared a case against Green, a choice of
McDonald, at the same time. Failure of the target will hit McDonald and by blaming Green,
Frank Davis crafted escape route for himself.
The underlying Agendas for McDonald are as follows:
i.
Agenda with Frank Davis: Shannon McDonald possibly had issues with Frank Davis. She
intentionally chose far less experienced Thomas Green for a promotion so that Frank Davis had
hard time in dealing with his subordinate. This way she can possibly prove Frank Davis as a bad
manager and fire him. McDonald was also possibly testing Frank Davis’s capacity of managing
subordinates.
Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis
ii.
Agenda with Thomas Green: Shannon McDonald was interested in inside information of Frank
Davis’ Department. She chose Thomas Green, a person from her State, University and grateful
for a big promotion, to serve this purpose. She was possibly hurt by the fact that Green had not
met her with the same enthusiasm he met her before the promotion. Thus she possibly decided to
put some pressure on Green. McDonald possibly had some issues with Frank Davis and chose to
negotiate with him in exchange of issuing show-cause notice to Thomas Green.
3. What should Thomas Green do?
Answer: Thomas Green should go for complete decision making process as discussed below:
3.1 Identification of the Problem: Despite having great experience, paying utmost sincerity and
devotion for Dynamic Display, Green could not meet the expectation of Davis.
3.2 Short Analysis of the Problem: The dynamics of the problem are: firstly, Green has focused
just on his job and maintaining terms with McDonald only, which made him aloof. Secondly,
early promotion of Green has further intensified the situation. Thirdly, the difference in
personality and market evaluation of Green and Davis has created the scope of office politics.
3.3 Developing Options
Option -1 (Quick Fix/Conformation): Green may mail McDonald, accept all the shortcomings
identified by Davis and assure no future conflicts. Then he should manage a detailed session with
Frank Davis, get his advice and conform to his terms.
Option - 2 (Fight Out with Objectivity): Green should at first complete the self-evaluation and
also evaluate the personality, work style and expectations of Davis. This will expose the fact
that he needs to keep the communication with Davis and keep things documented and share
those in regular interval. Considering above issues, Green should then send a detailed mail to
McDonald with a cc to Davis. He may accept that, with his work style he could not meet the
expectations of Davis. But he should also highlight his achievements and explicitly explain his
Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis
plan. He should then meet McDonald at opportune moment and explain underlying issues and
seek suggestions. In the meantime Green should arrange another session with Davis, get his
advice and explain own point of view positively. But Green should not give away his strength by
complying with Davis’ expectations only. Utilizing the strength of both of them (strategic and
tactical), a synergy will be created in the Marketing Department. Besides, Green should create a
network with other senior market specialists and be agreeable in the team.
Option - 3 (Exit): In this option, Green would comply with Davis for some time but
simultaneously look for a new job vigorously and leave in an opportune moment.
3.4 Select the Best Alternative: As Green is talented and had tremendous contribution for
Dynamic Display; therefore, neither conforming nor quitting would be a good option for him.
Rather he should follow Option 2. In future, Green should regularly evaluate professional and
personal relation with Davis and any other superior; do not lose focus on the big picture so that
he can avoid such situation.