K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research

Case Analysis

Assignment 1

A case study on

Thomas Green:

Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis.

Submitted to

Prof. Uma Bhushan

By

Anuj Mishra(33)

Bharat Bhushanam(5)

Gunjan Pathak(40)

Nartan Desai(12)

Jhanvi Kothari

Soumyabrata Saha(44)
To

Mr. Thomas Green

Senior Marketing Specialist

Dynamic Displays

Subject: Recommendation to improve work dynamics in your firm.

Dear Sir,

I have attached the report on the recommendation for improving work dynamics in your firm
Dynamic Displays. The recommendation has been made after analyzing the different options and
their relative pros and cons. We believe that by proper training and talking and sorting things
over situation will be resolved

Thank You

Sincerely,

Anuj Mishra(33)

Bharat Bhushanam(5)

Gunjan Pathak(40)

Nartan Desai(12)

Jhanvi Kothari

Soumyabrata Saha(44)

Encl. 1) Executive Summary

2) Detailed Report.
Contents
Executive Summary ...................................................................................................................................... 1
Situational Analysis ...................................................................................................................................... 2
Problem Statement ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Prioritized Criteria ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Options .......................................................................................................................................................... 3
Evaluation of options .................................................................................................................................... 3
Recommendation .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Action Plan.................................................................................................................................................... 4
Contingency Plan .......................................................................................................................................... 4
Executive Summary
Thomas Green held a bachelors degree in Economics. He was promoted from being an accounts
executive to being a senior marketing analyst of the travel and hospitality unit of Dynamics
Displays. Initially he was appreciated for his power to persuade clients, but later his lack of
substantial hard data to support his claims started surfacing out. His boss Frank Davis started
reprimanding him for his lack of interest in the work assigned to him. It is noted that due to
Thomas erratic working habits Francis seeks McDonalds intervention for resolving the issues.
Thomas did not have much interaction with his colleagues and was heavily banking for support
on the vice president of the travel division Shannon McDonald. McDonald played a crucial role
in Thomas promotion. One of the best ways to resolve this issue would be to engage Thomas in
more training programs relevant to his job as he is a bit inexperience for this post and also
develop a good communication system between Davis and Thomas to have an organizational
betterment.

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Situational Analysis
Thomas Green, born in 1979 in Brunswick, Georgia, had his first time full time job in sales at
National Business Solutions in Atlanta. After achieving a lot of success at National Business
solution Mr. Green was recruited to Dynamic Displays as an executive position. Mr. Green hit
the ground running in dynamic displays and completed a contract for one of the largest airline
carriers, Journey Airlines to accelerate roll out of kiosks in major airports and purchased
upgraded software for kiosks in the majority of location. Soon Mr. Green came in notice of the
top bosses, Shannon McDonald and Mary Jacobs at Dynamic Displays and after making a
conscious effort got himself promoted to senior market specialist at a young age of 28.

Initially all was going well as he made some important trips with his immediate boss, Mr. Frank
Davis and he was quite impressed with how the customers reacted towards Greens ideas. As a
responsible senior he advised him to be well prepared for such client meetings and provide
supporting details to strengthen the ideas. Being busy in his personal life, Mr. Green was pretty
serious regarding his job and made some important trips for the client meetings. But things
started to turn around once the Budget Plan meeting was held. According to Mr. Green, the
forecast given by Mr. Davis was way off base and he openly challenged the forecast made by
Mr. Davis. This didnt go well with Mr. Davis and he commented to Ms. Mcdonald about the
negative attitude of Mr. Thomas Green and his conservative outlook focusing mainly on his
inexperience in handling a post of senior market specialist.

Things turned worse, when Mr. Green was called by Mr. Davis after two months of his
promotion for a review. Mr. Davis pointed out a number of problems regarding the attitude of
Mr. Green. He was visibly upset about Mr. Green not informing him prior to his client meeting
and itinerary details. He wanted some information regarding his accounts and was not able to
contact him during the time of need. Mr. Green was visibly upset with these allegations and he
replied about his position in an impulsive manner. Mr. Davis was also upset because some tasks
assigned to Mr. Green was not completed after 3 reminders and also Mr. Green was not in favor
of making any backups of organization charts and as he believed he had everything in his head.
This very conflicting working nature of Mr. Davis and Mr. Green aggravated the problem
between them. Mr. Davis wrote a letter to Ms McDonald regarding the meeting and stating that
Mr. Green has taken the criticism in constructive way and will definitely work on it. But Green
was visibly upset and he thought that this nagging behavior was a direct result of his questioning
Mr. Davis forecasts and that he should be more concerned about the bigger picture. After two
months Mr. Davis did another performance monitoring of Mr. Green and sent a mail to Ms
McDonald highlighting the fact that Mr. Green spends a great deal of time complaining about his
situation and believes and Mr. Davis his micromanaging his jobs. He also stressed on the fact
that Mr. Green was not ready to take advise from him when he was shown previous documents
and labeled all as fancy presentations and political. He also emphasized in mail that Thomas

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Green has been given 30 days to turn things around or there is a need for a competent
replacement at his position.

The situation may have arisen because Mr. Thomas Green has always performed brilliantly as an
individual but for the first time he was working in a team. He was also busy to do things in his
own way rather than broadening his outlook. He also had a prior negative impression about Mr.
Davis and always circumspect that Mr. Davis was micromanaging his job as he was not allowed
to choose his subordinate and was not happy with Mr. Green. Mr. Davis could also have
managed the situation pleasantly by having a one on one conversation discussing the cause of
this behavior rather than pointing them out to him. Both could have rest their ego problems aside
and could have worked together for the betterment of the organization.

Problem Statement
How can Thomas Green mend bonds with his boss and other senior for the betterment of the
organization?

Prioritized Criteria
Try to solve the difference between TG and FD
To make TG aware of being a good team player rather than taking up things individually.
Making TG aware of general etiquette of being more adaptable to situations rather than
taking up confined approach
Making FD to be more communicative with his junior colleagues

Options
Close up the communication gap between Thomas and Davis through mediation by
McDonald
Talk personally to Davis and clear the differences between them
Training to be given to Thomas Green with respect to his new position
Thomas should start looking up for a different job

Evaluation of options
Close up the communication gap between Thomas and Davis through mediation by
McDonald
Thomas green and Davis had conflicting ideologies. One was trying to bring in innovation to
kiosk technology and other was trying to follow the conventional method and setting a sales
target to his team.
The communication gap between them has extended to a situation that there werent any
talks between them. So there needs to be an arbitrator between them so that each of them can
hear out each other and resolve the issue.

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 Since both had deep respect for McDonald. She would be the best option as mediator into
this conflict.
Talk personally to Davis and clear the differences between them
If Thomas was to directly head towards Davis and try to resolve the differences to save his
job. Firstly, Davis wouldnt care for Thomas because initially Thomas hurt Davis ego by
open challenging him in a meeting and also Thomas didnt respond to the Daviss requests.
So, in the end Thomas would have to surrender to Davis and drop his plans of innovation on
kiosks which proved to inspire his clients.
Training to be given to Thomas Green with respect to his new position
Thomas had great rapport with the clients and he proved to be an asset throughout his time in
Dynamic Displays. Training Thomas with respect to his new position would be an effective
thingas throughouthis promotion he worked as an individual andnot a team player.
However, this wouldnt be the immediate solution to this situation as Green needs to resolve
his differences between him and Davis and send Thomas for training with consultation with
Davis.
Thomas should start looking up for a different job
If Thomas was to look for a new job. He would search for an equivalent position in different
company. This situation which he is facing now would be a repeat in that company too
because, its not just his bosss negative influence for resigning the company, he personally
lacked interpersonal characters which a manager should possess for a success at his position.

Recommendation
We would recommend that Thomas should write a mail of apologize for his actions to
McDonald. Tell her about his plans of Dynamic Displays and ask her to setup a meeting with
Davis to clear the differences between them. Thomas should also engage in a managerial and
business etiquette programs to know the responsibilities of his position so that a future conflict
like this doesnt occur.

Action Plan
1. To ask Davis and Thomas have a better and relevant communication between them.
2. To engage Thomas in more training programs relevant to his job as he is bit inexperience
for this post.
3. To ask Davis to give Thomas a weekly report on his works rather than micromanaging
his work on daily basis.

Contingency Plan
In case after the action plan there is no improvement in Thomas Greens performance, then he
should go for a job change where his style of work would match with the organizations vision
and then he can also improve on his work and get recognition and appreciation for the same.