Shannon McDonald, Frank Davis and Thomas Green - Case Study Example

 Table of Contents Introduction 2 Analysis & Research 3 Probable Solutions to the Problem 6 Conclusion 9 9 References 10 Introduction The aspect of office politics mostly occur due to the disagreements amid employees working in distinct hierarchical positions due to their differing opinions, ideas and personalities which often result in severe conflicts within the workplace. Apart from workplace conflicts, the occurrences of office politics also impose considerable impact upon several other aspects like that of innovation. The impact of office politics might impose considerable impact upon the idea of innovation in a business firm creating a negative influence over the cognitive skills possessed by the employees along with increasing mental stress. The immense rise of office politics usually means that the working personnel of a business organisation will be frightened to bring up innovative ideas or debatable issues encouraging development amid the workforce. However, the issue of office politics can be diminished through powerful leadership and open communication within the business organisation by certain level (Dobson & Dobson, 2001). The discussion in this paper will focus on analysing a case study based on the impacts caused by office politics involving three individuals, namely the CEO of Dynamic Displays, i.e. Shannon McDonald, Frank Davis, the Marketing Director of the organisation and Thomas Green, the recently promoted Senior Market Specialist. Analysis & Research It was in the year 1990 when Dynamic Displays was established in Boston as a supplier of self-service options to the banks through the application of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). The business of the Dynamic Displays performed well and soon it launched a new business section aiming at the travel as well as hospitality industry in the year 1994. Later, by the year 2007, the market share of this particular business segment increased considerably to 60% along with possessing more than 1500 self-service kiosks in execution at over 75 airports (Sasser & Beckham, 2008). This particular case study is about a 28 year old person named Thomas Green who was recruited as an Account Executive in Dynamic Displays and was later promoted to the post of Senior Marketing Specialist of the company in order to effectively manage its expansion in the Travel and Hospitality Division. Even though his promotion was based on his performances and personal traits, Thomas had to face a few problems in terms of office politics with his superior, Mr. Frank Davis. Frank Davis has been associated with the organisation since the year 1990 in the position of the Marketing Director for the Travel and Hospitality Division. Frank Davis did not expect Thomas Green to be in the position of Senior Market Specialist and felt quite dissatisfied with his working performance after the promotion. Subsequently, Frank Davis e-mailed his concerns to the Vice President, Shannon McDonald stating about the unsatisfactory working performance of Thomas Green. Being notified about the fact, Thomas Green felt quite worried about the situation and failed to find any solution to explain his perspective to Shannon McDonald. According to the perception of Thomas, the cause of such allegations and negative appraisals from his immediate superior was his open depiction of contrary views towards the financial planning proposed by Frank Davis in the general meeting. Frank was quite upset with the behaviour displayed by Thomas, being his junior in the hierarchy. Thus, he began identifying the negative traits possessed by Thomas deliberately creating a hostile environment and mental pressure on him (Sasser & Beckham, 2008). Hence, this particular scenario apparently indicates towards the occurrence of office politics resembling conflicts and other negative influences on the individual level. Thomas Green became the Senior Market Specialist for the new eastern area based Travel and Hospitality Division of the Dynamic Displays being promoted from the post of an Account Executive. However, in this regard, Thomas Green had to report regularly to his superior, Frank Davis. While being promoted to the post of Senior Market Specialist, the vice president of the division, Shannon McDonald informed Thomas Green about the fact that he might face problems while performing his duties as Frank seemed to be favouring another individual for the post which could become a significant reason to cause office politics issues. In relation to the case study, the ethical dilemma was generated due to the fact that both Frank Davis as well as Thomas Green strongly assumed that they possess the dynamic power in their respective working functions in a better form as compared with each other. The scenario became more complex due to the lack of practical and judgemental actions taken by Shannon McDonald on behalf of the feedback forwarded by Frank Davis regarding the working performance of Thomas Green. Frank alleged that Thomas’s working principles were not suited for the company’s future goals which created significant problems within the work process. In this context, Frank had decided to send a mail to Shannon about the unsatisfactory working performance of Thomas. He stated in the e-mail that Thomas had failed to keep himself advanced about his working plan and showed deficiency in maintaining follow-up to provide updated business information lacking enthusiasm. Moreover, Thomas was also alleged that he used to set his own working guidelines and acted upon them instead of abiding the rules of the company (Sasser & Beckham, 2008). Certainly, the feedback given by Frank Davis to his superior, Shannon McDonald, indicated towards punitive measures for Thomas which was however ignored by her. This again depicts a considerable extent of biasness from Shannon towards Thomas based on their common sphere of belonging to the same university and native place in Georgia. Besides, the highly individualistic personality traits possessed by both Thomas Green and Frank Davis also contributed towards the occurrence of the ethical dilemma within the organisation (Sasser & Beckham, 2008). According to the case study, the personality traits possessed by Thomas indicates him to be quite egotistical as well as overly confident. However, it has also been learnt that he is quite talented and intelligent and can also excel with highly challenging job responsibilities. Due to these particular reasons, he was given the chance to move up the corporate ladder but he presumed that all including his higher authority officials are the same. In contrast, the personality traits possessed by Frank Davis can be observed as a visionary one being majorly worried about the upcoming business working activities of the company. Hence, it can be stated that both Frank Davis and Thomas Green intended to create their individual legitimate power within their workplace which subsequently collided. Both the individuals had the desire to accomplish the similar goal i.e. to present their own business power, however their pathway or strategic implications indicated towards different working procedures. In accordance with the case study, it has been observed that Thomas Green, Frank Davis and Shannon McDonald possessed individual business power structure within the company which further fuelled up the negative influences within the workplace (Filmore, 2010). Goldstein (1999), with respect to the occurrences of office politics, connoted that differences in terms of power possessed by various individuals within the organisational hierarchy can have a significant impact over such issues. Some of the power dimensions can be termed as the ‘reward power’, ‘referent power’, ‘coercive power’ and ‘legitimate power’. The conception of ‘reward power’ refers to the capability of delivering benefits or rewards for the purpose of influencing others. Similarly, the concept of ‘referent power’ can be defined as the ability of influencing others taking the advantage of being admired by them. The facet of ‘coercive power’ is principally based upon the idea of generating compulsion to be faced by the fellow employees and is often related with punitive behaviours. The notion of ‘legitimate power’ is further described as the capability to judge situations based on the sentimental values which are considered to be not strong enough to influence others (Goldstein, 1999). For instance, Shannon McDonald who is acting as the Vice President of the Travel and Hospitality Division of Dynamic Displays possesses the ‘reward power’ being the only responsible person for the promotion of Thomas Green on the basis of his deciphered talents formerly acting as an Account Executive. Moreover, Shannon also holds the ‘referent power’ being admired by Thomas due to their similarities in terms of their native place, i.e. Georgia and university. In this similar context, the power structure of Frank Davis can be viewed as a ‘coercive power’ on the basis of his actions or behaviours that he performed in relation to Thomas Green’s performances. The report and the e-mail that was forwarded by Frank to Shannon, against Thomas about his non-cooperative and unfavourable working performances, ultimately justify the coercive power held by Frank by a significant level. While analysing the power structure of Thomas Green, it can be stated that he possesses the ‘legitimate power’. He was ordered by the management to execute the various data offered by the company in order to attain the expected business objectives of the company enhancing its overall performance within the division. However, Thomas, instead of using the valuable information of the company, executed his own opinionated information and also neglected to admit the role of his immediate superior, Frank Davis (Filmore, 2010). Probable Solutions to the Problem On the basis of the above discussed grounds, it can be stated that Thomas Green had misused or ill-treated his legitimate power that ultimately raised huge problem for him within the company. Furthermore, the facet of power politics can also be viewed as one of the major problem that was faced by Thomas Green within the company influencing the overall organisational operations of the division. It can be evidently identified with reference to the fact that the office politics took place when Frank gave a negative feedback to Shannon through mail regarding the working performances of Thomas Green that was sent through the medium of interoffice mail. As a result, the feedback about the working performance of Thomas was distributed in the entire office which ultimately imposed significant affect upon the working career of Thomas (Filmore, 2010). Another possible solution that can be suggested to Shannon is to act as a mediator between Frank Davis and Thomas Green. Shannon McDonald can individually converse with both of them and must attempt to convey their various viewpoints to each other for the purpose of generating a win-win situation within the company. She can also support Thomas in order to gain the perception of Frank about any sort of valuable managerial counsel needed for the improvement in his skills simultaneously motivating him to assist Thomas from a highly professional bent of mind disregarding any personal grievance. It would have been better if an adequate training can be provided to Thomas in order to comprehend the essential managerial skills that are required for his position. This could have certainly enhanced the cooperative behaviour within Frank and Thomas generating a scope for both to apply their skills identifying their lacunas and competencies. The various organisational guidelines as well as rules should have been explicitly conveyed by Frank making use of his power and position in order to motivate and improve Thomas’s skills. Through the implementation of this strategy, Frank could have been successful in avoiding such circumstances. In addition, it is worth mentioning that Frank could have avoided the circumstances if he would have focused on rendering adequate training and monitoring guidance to Thomas Green about improving his working style and behaviour with regards to his job roles in the current position. By considering this fact, it can be stated that Frank had focussed upon his personal grievances more, rather than having a conversation with Thomas in relation to the job description of the new position i.e. working for the company’s value. Finally, the other probable solution to the problem identified in the above illustrated scenario can be suggested as the removal of Thomas Green from his current position. In this regard, Shannon, the Vice President of Travel and Hospitality Division in Dynamic Displays can decide upon repositioning Thomas Green from his current post either in other division or in any other zone apart from eastern area. This will not only prove beneficial in mitigating the conflicts arising due to the contradictory personal traits possessed by each Thomas and Frank, but also render an opportunity to understand the lacunas as well as potentials of both the professionals from an unbiased point of view. Conclusion After the detailed analysis and discussion made in regard to the case study, the major learning perspective of the case portrays that the introduction as well as the implementation of office politics, if not treated appropriately, might generate negative influences in terms of dilemmas within the workplace hampering the overall organisational process. Moreover, this particular case also provides an insight about the role of power distance that can create significant problems within an organisation in terms of ethical issues and biased judgements. However, it can be concluded that the aspect of proper communication is essential between the different members in order to resolve such vulnerable situations caused due to office politics and ethical dilemmas. References Dobson, M. S. & Dobson, D. S., 2001. Enlightened Office Politics: Understanding, Coping With, and Winning the Game--Without Losing Your Soul. AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn. Filmore, C., 2010. How Job Promotions in Today's World Can Be Based On Playing Office Politics Rather Than Merit. Top Article. [Online] Available at: http://www.helium.com/items/1986138-office-politics-promotions-and-office-politics-office-politics-case-study [Accessed June 07, 2012]. Goldstein, A. P., 1999. The Prepare Curriculum: Teaching Prosocial Competencies. Research Press. Sasser, W. E. & Beckham, H., 2008. Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis. Harvard Business Publishing. Read More