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.
