1.0 Throwing Away a Golden Opportunity – Introduction - Prassanna

Roger Senevirathne the number one Sales person at ABC Company was highly predicted by other staff that he would become the Managing Director of the company one day. Roger had another opportunity to become the General Manager of the company and he was not sure whether to take it or not in another two years of time and at the same time there was another opportunity opened up for Roger to move to Europe to head the new branch of the ABC company over there. The current General Manager Sarath Silva discouraged Roger when he told him that he want to take up the Europe branch operations. Sarath stressed that Roger is doing really well in Sri Lanka and to continue the same over here and very soon he can become the Managing Director of the company.

Since Roger was not convinced with Sarath he approached their Managing Directress and she was very interested in Roger’s ideas about International marketing. She promised that she will recommend Roger to that respective International job but, at the end there was another person who was picked to head the Europe branch of ABC Company and the Managing Director tells Roger that Sarath has influenced the selection committee that Roger is really undecided about the entire international scenario and he’s not sure about the decision. Furthermore, Managing Directress stresses to Roger that he didn’t sell his idea properly to Sarath.

1.1 Question 1

Who had power in this organization? What type of power did Sarath Silva have?

Organizational power is referred to as the ability to get things done despite the determination and struggle of others to or the capability to win political fights and outmaneuver the opposition (Luthans, 2011). This has negative impact in many organizations because certain managers use their power and attempt to use organizational resources for their personal benefits and to achieve their personal goals at the expense of others goals.
Sarath Silva is a great example who used his power at the expense of Roger’s goal of moving to the Europe market by. It’s evident that Sarath Silva had more power at ABC Company than the Managing Directress because he was able to influence the board by manipulating them and have superiority over them not to pick Roger but someone else to head the Europe office of ABC Company.

Moreover, Sarath Silva had a Bureaucratic authority based on acceptance. According to Barnard (1938) authority is the character of a communication (order) in a formal organization by virtue of which it is accepted by a contributor to or members of the oraginzation. In this case Sarath Silva had the authority to convince the board not to pick Roger Senevirathne for the Europe office.

Robbins (1996) states that out of all the bases of power available, the power to hurt others is Coercive Power. The power Sarath Silva used at ABC Company. According to Luthans (2011) the person with coercive power has the ability to impose punishment or aversive consequences on another person to make threats that he believes will result in undesirable outcomes. When Roger first approached Sarath he totally discouraged him and has said that Europe is no place for him. Sarath from the beginning wanted Roger to listen to him and didn’t want him to go to Europe. In expectancy motivation terms, Sarath’s expectation on the part of Roger’s stay in Sri Lanka was challenged by Roger by the initiation of his Europe tour.

Moreover, when Roger mentioned to Sarath that he approached the Managing Directress and she encouraged him, Sarath didn’t like the one who worked under him (Roger) approaching his Boss (Managing Directress) about his Europe opportunity. He waited till the board meeting and used his coercive and personal power to influence the board that made the decision. Sarath has a lot of surveillance over the others. According (Bowdich et al. 1997) Sarath reacted used his power because he had fear that he will lose his reputation among the staff if Roger gets selected to go to Europe beyond his word.

1.2 Question 2

Do you think Roger played company politics well? If so, why didn’t he get the international sales job?

According to Rosenbloom (2005) Organizational politics is defined as the intentional behavior that is designed to enhance or protect a person’s influence and self-interest. Politic is not a simple process, beside the age of the participants, politics can vary from organization to organization and even from people to people (Luthans, 2011). To survive in an organization one should understand who has the power and play the politics accordingly.

Roger Senevirathne didn’t play the company politics well. When he approached his boss Sarath Silva about his plan of moving to Europe he didn’t realize who had the power in the organization. When Sarath discouraged his idea Roger thought he can use the politics wisely by approaching the Managing Directress of ABC Company. But, he failed to understand who had more power in the organization to use the tactics to target that person. In this case it’s Sarath Silva. The reasons why Sarath Silva was using his politics against Roger is given below with what went wrong from Roger’s side to secure his international sales job.

* Resources – There is a direct relationship between the amount of politics and how critical and scarce the resources are. In this case Sarath would have felt the scarce of skilled sales person like Roger and he leaving Sri Lanka would be a burden on Sarath Silva to handle the sales. Roger would have understood the possible scenarios of Sarath discouraging his ideas and gave him an assurance of coaching, training the existing sales staff/manager to full fill his tasks. This would have ensured his International sales job.

* Decisions – Pfeffer (1981) states that ambiguous decisions, which has lack of agreement, and uncertain, long term strategic decisions lead to more politics than routine decisions. The decision Roger made to move to Europe is a long term decision. Sarath on the other hand felt that Roger was uncertain about his decision of going to Europe or staying in Sri Lanka. Roger would have cleared this uncertainty in the beginning by talking to Sarath and making it a point of his interest towards international marketing.

* Goals – The more ambiguous and complex the goals become, the more politics there will be Pfeffer (1981). Sarath considered Roger’s goal of going into International marketing was crazy and he doesn’t wanted Roger to make some end runs. Roger would have immediately reacted on this by clearly defining his goals by using an Information Strategy by providing and lobbying his awareness and expertise on international marketing to Sarath. This would have made some impact. Failing to do so Roger has lost is Europe opportunity.

Moreover, Roger would have understood and be aware of that power and politics influence peoples behavior in ABC Company and he would have developed skills to be able to understand and manage them properly. The main issue was is ignorance of the power Sarath Silva had on the board. Roger should have analysed the source of power before he approached anyone in his function, division and organization. Failing to do so resulted losing his international sales job.

1.3 Question 3

At this point, what would you do if you were Roger? What political strategies could be used?

It’s very important to understand organizational politics. Feldman (1988) indicates that there are few very specific strategies can be identified to help members of organizations to more effectively acquire power and defense the politics. Part of using power organizations is engaging organizational politics to influence others to achieve ones personal goals. Roger would have used this to lobby the board members to vote for him in terms of his International sales job.

If the board knew his interest and clear vision of taking over the Europe branch of ABC Company they would have surely picked him for that respective job. He failed to understand the powerful people in the organization. The points given below indicate the various different strategies Roger would have used to secure his International sales job.

* Forming a winning coalition (Maintaining alliances with powerful people) – Arrangement of coalition is critical to the acquisition of power in an organization. Roger should have had good relationships with other important departments other than sales and top level management. He has only spoke to his Managing Directress about his International idea. If he would have spoken about this to the other board members they would have voted for him and Sarath Silva would have failed.

* Make a quick showing – this involves looking good on some project right away in order to get the attention of people. If Roger knew this before from the day he planned of moving to Europe he would have grabbed the attention of his board members. Once he gained the positive attention his task would have been so easier and secured his international sales job.

* Change opinions – Roger would have put some effort in finding out what’s Sarath Silva think about him moving to Europe through his collogues/friends. After he gets to know that Sarath is not favorable about his movement he then would have worked on ways to change his opinion. Because it’s always important to seek out the opinion of people who oppose ones opinion or discourage an idea. Roger failed to understand Sarath’s opinion beforehand.

* Exhibiting confidence – Roger would have shown enough confidence in his decisions and convinced Sarath on how deeply he’s interested in International marketing. Also, Roger would have shown his confidence, skills, expertise on International marketing to other board members as well to secure his job.

* Developing expertise – Roger has already proved himself as the best sales person in Sri Lanka but, failed to show any experience, qualification, and awareness about International marketing in Europe. If everyone at the ABC Company knows that he’s an expert in international marketing they would have voted for him in the meeting. And also he would have used some research data to support his knowledge on international marketing.

Other than the above mentioned strategies Roger would have used some tactics such as pressure tactics using demands, or intimidations to convince the board to comply with his request to head the Europe operation. Moreover, Roger would have used rational persuasion using logical arguments and factual evidence (Schein, 1977) to persuade Sarath to recommend him for the international sales job.

Therefore, it’s evident from the case that Roger hasn’t used any of the political strategies or tactics to secure his International sales job.