...Thomas Green: Power, Office Policies, and a Career in Crisis What are the work styles and personalities of Thomas Green and Frank Davis? It is clear from the text that Thomas Green has some characteristics of a Machiavellian personality. For example, he has little regard for authority and structure, and prefers face-to-face interactions. Most importantly, once the ends cease to justify the means he loses motivation. This reaction is made evident when Thomas’s performance declined as a result of what he considered to be an unattainable goal. In his mind, failing to reach the goal regardless of how much he tried did not justify putting in the effort. Meanwhile, Frank Davis portrayed elements of a Proactive personality. He was constantly vying for improvement in Thomas’ behavior, pushing for better strategies to meet his ambitious projections for the next year. Instead of shying away from the challenge, Frank strived for positive change within his team in order to achieve the goals he set. How do the actions of Thomas Green differ from the expectations of Frank Davis? Green’s actions are not in line with Davis’s expectations. Davis laid out his expectations of Green from the very beginning and reinforced them during their first performance meeting and email to McDonald such as spending time to prepare for client meetings and develop supporting details for his proposals. In addition, Green openly challenged Davis’s sales projections, which Davis considers key in Green’s...
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...Short answer question:- 1) When the stakes are very high and we have too many variables, it is very unlikely that one person will know and can comprehend all the details about all the variables. A group of knowledgeable people or experts of involved variables can help to bring up much perspective about the present situation, which could have been impossible if one person was taking decision. a. One of the positive outcomes of the team decision is that all the team members are committed to the goal and everybody tries hard to achieve the goal, leading to a higher probability of success. Moreover at some point of time when one person in the team is at the breaking point, others come in and encourage him to hang in there, this helps to achieve his personal success as well as team success. It is like many people helping you to achieve your goal, once we all have the same goal. b. One of the most common pitfalls of the team decision making is that there could be too many voices and team goes on discussing and are not able to reach consensus. Personally I noticed it too much in our leadership Odyssey. In absence of one person to call for final decision, every individual in team is only trying to prove his/her point and final outcome is something which none of the team members wanted. 2) There are many things organizations do to nurture creativity, I would like to quote two which I have experienced and has worked. a. “Hire people who make you uncomfortable or even those who...
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...Case Analysis Questions: 1. Describe Frank Davis’ strengths and leadership style. What is important to him in a work setting? What motivates him? What does he expect from his colleagues and direct reports? How does he want to be treated? 2. Describe Thomas Green’s strengths and leadership style. What is important to him in a work setting? What motivates him? What does he expect from his colleagues and manager? How does he want to be treated? 3. How is Thomas’ new role different from his previous role as an account executive? What different talents and strengths are required in the new position? Is this new job a good fit for Thomas? Why or why not? 4. What is creating the tension and conflict between Thomas and Frank? How has McDonald contributed to the situation? 5. What is your analysis of Thomas Green’s actions and job performance in his first five months? What has he done well? What mistakes has he made? 6. What actions, if any, would you take if you were Thomas Green? 7. What is necessary to build a productive relationship with your boss? How does an employee effectively “manage up?” Answer 1] Frank Davis, marketing director, is an excellent strategic player. He sorts through all of the possibilities, though short term, and find the best effective way to move forward. As he had just been promoted from the position of a senior market specialist he for sure was competent and experienced in the way things should be done....
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...Case Analysis by Raj Kiran D Thomas green as I could see is a person who is promoted from a sales role, directly to the market specialist role. His hunger for growth is high. He has broad plans and ideas, his ideas were liked by his clients and people who don’t closely work with him. He was put on observation by the VP McDonald and after she got satisfied that he would be a good fit for the role, he was promoted. However when his boss Davis who worked in the same role previously asked him about his strategy and plans he turned a deaf ear. Not only had this he even gone to the extent of avoiding and bad mouthing about his boss. The point to be considered here is if a person is truly talented, being liked by many of his clients and on top of everything appointed directly by the VP of marketing does things like this, it gives me two doubts * Is he worthy for the role he was chosen or is there any underlying plan for him to be promoted * Is he really talented or is a bluff he is playing all the while After going through the case I initially felt that he is good and it’s just that he lacks in two things * Approach and * Visibility How Ever after discussions at length on this topic I understood that he is manipulative and doesn’t really possess the skills that are required at that role. This drives us to the question WHY THEN?? I think that McDonald is trying to achieve some greater means by using Mr. Green as a pawn in her game. She through green wants to teach...
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...Management in Organizations Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis Case Analysis Questions: 1. Describe Frank Davis’ strengths and leadership style. What is important to him in a work setting? What motivates him? What does he expect from his colleagues and direct reports? How does he want to be treated? 2. Describe Thomas Green’s strengths and leadership style. What is important to him in a work setting? What motivates him? What does he expect from his colleagues and manager? How does he want to be treated? 3. How is Thomas’ new role different from his previous role as an account executive? What different talents and strengths are required in the new position? Is this new job a good fit for Thomas? Why or why not? 4. What is creating the tension and conflict between Thomas and Frank? How has McDonald contributed to the situation? 5. What is your analysis of Thomas Green’s actions and job performance in his first five months? What has he done well? What mistakes has he made? 6. What actions, if any, would you take if you were Thomas Green? 7. What is necessary to build a productive relationship with your boss? How does an employee effectively “manage up?” Answer 1] Frank Davis, marketing director, is an excellent strategic player. He sorts through all of the possibilities, though short term, and find the best effective way to move forward. As he had just been promoted from the position of a senior...
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...W. Earl Sasser and Heather Beckham prepared this case solely as a basis for class discussion and not as an endorsement, a source of primary data, or an illustration of effective or ineffective management. This case, though based on real events, is fictionalized, and any resemblance to actual persons or entities is coincidental. There are occasional references to actual companies in the narration. Copyright © 2008 Harvard Business School Publishing. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business Publishing. Harvard Business Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School. W. EARL SASSER HEATHER BECKHAM Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis Another long day at the office had drawn to a close. Thomas Green felt the pulsing in his temples that usually preceded a migraine. As he stepped outside Dynamic Displays’ corporate headquarters in Boston, the brisk air made him catch his breath. It was now February 5, 2008. Green could not believe that in five short months his dream promotion had turned into a disaster. When Green had been promoted to his new position in September...
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...discuss the case study of Thomas Green, we will discuss how Thomas made got to the position he is in and what power bases were used to try and influence him. We will further discuss how these power bases could have been used better to gain compliance from Thomas. The use of power in the case study is apparent through the actions of Thomas’ boss, Davis and the division Vice President McDonald. Thomas Green holds the position of Senior Market Specialist with Dynamic Displays, a company that provides self-service options to many different organizations. Green was promoted to this position after six months of working for Dynamic Displays. Green was selected for promotion into this position by Shannon McDonald, the Travel Division Vice President. Green reports to the Marketing Director, Frank Davis, Davis has been with Dynamic Displays for 17 years. Davis was slightly upset by McDonald promoting Green into the Senior Market Specialist position, as he believed that he would be selecting the person to be promoted. When McDonald promoted Green she informed him that she was apprehensive because of his lack of managerial experience and his new position was very different from his past sales positions. Less than a month into his new position Green attended the 2008 Budget Plan meeting presented by Davis. This was Green’s first time seeing the planning and forecasting process. In the meeting Davis presented a growth for Green’s region that he did not agree with and Green spoke up about...
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...Work styles and personalities of Thomas and Frank Davis are poles apart. Frank is the Marketing Director and Green is freshly promoted senior marketing specialist . As we read the case study, we could observe that Frank Davis focused on sales goals where as Thomas would focus on clients and their needs. Frank depicts that with planning and great sales strategies , the sales targets would be achieved and there would be boost up in the growth of the company. However, Thomas only focuses on the ideas of the product and tries to convince how the product would generate profits. Frank's work style included presentations , spreadsheet models and market survey and data , where as Green's was approaching clients personally. Answer 2 - As observed in the case study, we could say that the actions of Thomas did differ from expectations of Frank Davis. Being the Market director , Frank expects information regarding plans and schedule of his subordinates. However, Green doesn't provide the information of schedule of his meetings with clients and meets them without any notice given to Davis. Moreover, Frank expects to receive follow ups by Green when it is requested ,yet Green doesn't level up to the expectations. Frank Davis expects everyone in the department to have a positive attitude towards sales target and achievement , but Green doesn't possess such quality and has negative attitude which is not acceptable to Davis. Answer 3 - Thomas Green joined Dynamic displays as an account...
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...Introduction This is a case about Thomas Green, a 28 year guy, who was recruited in Dynamic Displays as an account executive got promoted to senior marketing specialist within few months was finding difficulty in adjusting with immediate boss Frank Davis. The conflict between the two now had reached its limit affecting the enthusiasm of Thomas Green and can result in termination of Green. This case throws light on role of politics, dynamics of the power and importance of communication within an organization. Company's Background Dynamic Displays was founded in 1990 as a provider of self-service options to banks via Automated Teller Machines (ATMs). In 1994, Dynamic Displays launched a new division at the Travel and Hospitality Industry, and developed their first self-service check-in kiosk for Discover Airlines. These kiosks not only reduced costs but also improved customer service, shortened passenger wait times, and provided valuable information to these travelers. But now due to web check-in facility is kiosk is facing a danger of lacking behind. Current scenario /Problem The main problem is that Davis and Green both believe that they have the power to perform their job better than the other. Lack of proactive action taken by McDonald as she never the mail regarding Green's performance seriously. Davis want of maintaining the power distance was also one of the problems. Highly individualistic nature of both Green and Davis. Role of Key Players Shannon...
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...|Critique Thomas Green’s Career Management | |Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis | | | |ID: 13908636 | |11/2/2014 | |This document presents the analysis of dilemmas faced by Thomas Green in his new role and offers the solutions to resolve them. | Background of the case The case describes the dilemma of a marketing manager, Thomas Green, who has rapidly been promoted to a new position, is harshly criticized by his boss. He was promoted from account executive to his new position as a senior market specialist by by-passing colleagues and getting a 50% raise. Green and his boss, Frank Davis disagrees on work styles and market projections. Green believes that the sales goals set by his boss are based on “creative accounting” and grossly overstate the current market environment. A silent conflict (cold war) develops quickly between Green and his boss...
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...2011 Case Study #3 – Thomas Green Summary: In “Thomas Green: power, office politics, and a career in Crisis”, It depicts the dilemma of Thomas Green who works in a company called Dynamic Display. After five months of working as an account executive, Green was directly promoted as the Senior Market Specialist by the vice president of the company’s travel division Shannon McDonald. However, Frank Davis, Green’s boss, did not intend to choose Green as the new senior market specialist and he is very unhappy about Green’s performance and working attitude three months after the promotion. After Green learned that his boss had been emailing McDonald regarding his concern about Green’s performance, Green was very worried about the situation and did not how he should explain his perspective to McDonald. Analysis: Although Green is willing to achieve a high selling growth for the company, he concentrated too much on achieving the goal instead of observing the surrounding situation. Moreover, Green did not have enough managerial experiences so he was not able to deal with issues based on a structural and long-term view; that's why he decided to avoid interactions with Davis instead of making improvements or rebuilding his relationship with Davis after Davis first criticized him. Their divergence in work style and personalities also contributed to the problem. For example, Davis prefers using memos or presentations when a meeting is set up, while Green would rather...
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...Thomas Green Paper Who is Thomas Green? Thomas Green graduated from college with his Bachelors in Economics he stared his career a t Dynamic Displays as an account executive with their south west division for travel and hospitality division. Green started his career there ad showed great promise to climb the adders of the company fast. Not only was Green good at his job he was promoted at the age of only 28 to Senior Marketing Specialist only after working for less than a year with the company. Actions of Green vs. Expectations of Davis When Green took the position of Senior Marketing Specialist his directives were to identify industry trends and develop new business opportunities and also establish sales goals Sasser & Beckham (2008). Davis expected him to communicate with him on his projects and travel schedule he also wanted his presentations to be back up with market data. Green on the other hand acted independently visiting prospective clients and not following any directives given to him by Davis to ensure that he used data as well in is meeting with clients. Individual agendas of Davis and McDonald Frank Davis was not happy with the promotion of Thomas Green and to Senior Marketing Specialist as he was not someone that he would have chosen for the position as he was only with the company one year prior to his promotion. Davis felt that Green lacked the experience for the job; however his concerns were over ruled by the vice president McDonald. Davis...
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...Thomas Green Case Questions: (Turn in hard copy in class on Sept. 8th) 1. Describe the work styles and personalities of Thomas Green and Frank Davis. Thomas Green and Frank Davis use different working styles, and their personalities are also very different. When dealing with clients, Frank uses memos, proposals and also uses data to back up his proposals and give the client a better idea on what they are investing in. Thomas is more of a face to face to guy. He delivers is ideas to the clients and expect them to jump on board just by trusting his ideas. In the article Thomas is sketched to be very intelligent and talented and that causes him to be arrogant and overly confident. Frank Davis on the other hand was very concerned about the future of the company. He is portrayed as a visionary that believes in facts to achieve his goals. Even though they were so different in working styles and personality, both Frank and Thomas were trying to achieve the same goal but their methods were very different. Frank Davis seems to be direct and to the point, as well as being very well adjusted to the bureaucracy at this level of management. He knows exactly how to get things done in the most effective and efficient way, and how to exploit the shortcomings of others in these areas. He may not be the most likeable person in the company, but he is probably very highly respected as a straight shooter. When it comes to work style he is meticulous in details and requires that recommendations...
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...BECKHAM Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis Another long day at the office had drawn to a close. Thomas Green felt the pulsing in his temples that usually preceded a migraine. As he stepped outside Dynamic Displays’ corporate headquarters in Boston, the brisk air made him catch his breath. It was now February 5, 2008. Green could not believe that in five short months his dream promotion had turned into a disaster. When Green had been promoted to his new position in September, he was a rising star. Now, he would be lucky to celebrate his one-year anniversary with the company. His boss, Frank Davis, had sent the division vice president, Shannon McDonald, two scathing emails criticizing Green’s performance. Green and Davis had yet to see eye to eye on work styles or market trends. Tension had also risen when Green did not enthusiastically endorse the sales forecasts made by Davis. Green felt the forecasts were either overly optimistic or outright fabrications. Before he left for the day, Green had reread the series of emails regarding his performance and was certain that Davis was setting him up to be dismissed. Davis’s most recent email had made it clear to Green that his position as a senior market specialist was in jeopardy. He did not have much time to rectify the situation. McDonald had emailed a formal request to him that afternoon, asking for his perspective on his performance and how he was going to improve the situation. With this in mind, Green started...
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...Recommendations. Davis could have offered Green a reward system. Such as In a case study of office politics, Thomas Green of Dynamic Displays finds himself engrossed in drama as he struggles to meet the expectations of a boss whose power was superseded in his hiring. Green’s boss Frank Davis would have normally hired for Green’s position; Davis’ boss McDonald had hired Green instead. Although the case study advises the reader that McDonald warned Green that he would be in a “sticky situation” her intentions in putting him in the situation are ambiguous leaving the reader to make their own assumptions (Sasser & Beckham, 2008, p. 3). At best the reader can assume that McDonald’s agenda was to advance the company objectives and she felt that Green was the best new hire for the team although she must have known that he was not a team player. This hiring situation puts Green in an awkward position with Davis and off on a bad foot from the get go. Davis’s expectations were not only very different from what Green anticipated would be expected of him but it also seemed that Davis may have expected Green to perform better than what would have normally been expected considering the hiring circumstances. In addition to this subliminal expectation on the part of Davis, he also seemed to have a very different work style than Green. While Green wanted the freedom to be creative and go where he deemed best on any given day, Davis wanted Green to report frequently and post to his Outlook...
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