Leading Global Workforce - Case Study Example

Leading Global Workforce: Case Study Brief Discussion Rising Entertainment is world’s one of the three top leading multimedia production and distribution houses, and its operations are led by the CEO Sam Smithstone. Sarah Bennett is the marketing head of the Rising Entertainment’s movie division. Ashok, Josh, and Jessica joined Rising Entertainment after they were graduated from the University of Southern California and currently they work as associate employees under various departments. Josh assumes the roles of a marketing associate in the movie division of the company and is obliged to follow the guidelines and directions of Sarah, the marketing chief of the movie division. Currently Sarah and Josh are working on the promotions and branding of the next Fire Force Five film but their ideas and strategies regarding the work are extremely contrasting. When Sarah relies on traditional promotional strategies like TV ads and print campaign, Josh wants Sarah to adopt non-conventional approaches such as online promotion. For this, Josh approaches the company CEO directly without the consent of his departmental head Sarah and gets the permission to present his ideas in the next management meeting. Now Sarah is furious at the conduct of her young marketing colleague as she could not accept his disobedient behavior. Critical Discussion of the Causes While analyzing the case scenario, it seems that a combination of different factors has contributed to an unhealthy worksite relationship between Sarah and Josh. Mainly, the age difference between them and the different contexts in which they started their career have influenced their ideas and worksite behavior. To illustrate, Josh is a 23-year-old marketing associate who was graduated recently from the University of Southern California. Josh’s vision is to make films that communicate strong social messages –like Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth or Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me (Erickson, 2009, p.1). He also aims to distribute those films on open platforms so that he can convey his social messages to the greatest number of people. Josh believes that employing unconventional distribution and promotion channels is a potential strategy to implement the current project more effectively. Sarah, the 37-year-old marketing chief joined Rising Entertainment 10 years ago and she grew her career in the company from an entry-level copywriter, to marketing associate, to head of the 22-person film marketing unit (Erickson, p.3). Sarah had worked with all the three Triple-F movies that were released and generated more than $2.4 billion in box-office over the past 10 years. Hence she has a vast experience in film promotion and distribution. In addition, Sarah cultivated strong relationships with reporters at Entertainment Weekly, Variety, and other magazines during her decade-long work at the Rising Entertainment. Sarah used those relationships to promote the behind-the-scenes and making-of feature articles and thereby to enhance the chatter among the Triple-F fans (Erickson, p.3). Josh thinks that he cannot pursue his career goals if he sticks to the plans and policies of Sarah. Possible Solutions An open communication between Sarah and Josh is inevitable for them to resolve the current worksite issue and to work together more effectively in future. The case context reflects that Sarah is a rigid personality that believes strongly in traditional marketing campaigns, and therefore she is unwilling to adapt to the changing marketing cultures. It is advisable for Sarah to be a more flexible leader who listens to her subordinates and adopts their ideas that seem useful to improve the profitability. At the same time, Josh must respect his boss’ vast industry experience and should believe in her strengths and abilities to develop and implement a project successfully. Similarly, Sarah must be ready to work more closely with Josh so that he would be convinced of her strategies to perform a particular task or to achieve a specific goal. In other words, Sarah must find enough time to convince Josh about the appropriateness of a strategy or plan and to appreciate his efforts to accomplish organizational objectives. When they work together in close relationship, there is no chance of an emotional conflict between them. Referring to Myers (2004, p.236), it is also advisable for Sarah to assign Josh more responsible tasks that would help him get rid of monotonous job tasks and to be creative in his work. Evidently such a work environment would motivate Josh and hence he would be able to perform his duties and responsibilities enthusiastically. Hence, this strategy can assist Sarah ensure that Josh is satisfied in his work and is loyal to her. Recommendation Considering the different solutions discussed above, it is recommendable to facilitate an open communication between Sarah and Josh to build a collaborative worksite relationship between them and to combine their efforts to achieve organizational goals. This open communication strategy may assist Sarah to keep Josh informed of the intensions and feasibility of her various plans. When Josh is satisfied in his boss’ approach to manage a particular project, he would not try to come up with contrasting ideas and strategies. In short, this recommendation seems to be effective to avoid worksite clashes between Sarah and Josh and this would foster them to work together more cooperatively. Implications of the Recommended Solution The recommended solution is beneficial to align the views and perceptions of Sarah and Josh together and to promote the establishment of a positive worksite environment where they can effectively combine their efforts to accomplish long-term organizational objectives. In addition, this solution can assist the organization to minimize the unproductive employee time resulting from the mental tensions between the marketing chief and her young associate. According to Kloppenborg (2014, p.111), an open communication may also benefit the marketing department to complete its projects timely meeting the needs of the audience in an efficient way. Finally, the proposed recommendation can aid the top management to deal with employee relations in a better manner. Personal Conclusion From this case study, it is identified that open and effective communication is the key approach to promote manager-employee relationship in the organization that can avoid unwanted worksite conflicts to a great extent. The market contexts in which individuals began their career may influence their work approaches and way of operations significantly. Finally, encouraging employee creativity is very important in the modern organizational environment to ensure active employee involvement. Above all, these steps will improve the overall organizational productivity. References Erickson, T. J. (2009). Gen Y in the workforce. Harvard Business Review, Feb 2009. Kloppenborg, T. (2014). Contemporary Project Management. US: Cengage Learning. Myers, D. W. (2004). 2004 U. S. Master Human Resource Guide. US: CCH Incorporated. Read More