Moss and McAdams Accounting Firm

1. Explain how you would respond if you were Bruce Palmer at the end of the case.

It appears as though Palmer was operating in a weak matrix structure where he had indirect authority to expedite the project and very little influence over the staff assigned. If I were him in this situation, I would express to Ruby Sands the office manager that this situation was beyond my control as a result of Olds being assigned to a task that was very demanding of his time and him not being able to balance that with the expectations of the Johnsonville audit. I would confirm awareness of the importance of the Springfield consulting project to the company's strategic objectives i.e. to grow its consulting services by 40 percent within 5 years however, I would suggest that for a venture as important as Springfield the team should be chosen carefully and a compromise worked out by management in the event staff must be shared.

I would also bring to her attention that the Johnsonville audit was behind schedule as a result of the decision to assign Olds to Crosby's project which resulted in him being consistently late due to the demands of the Springfield project. I would inform her of the times that was wasted when Olds should have been working on the Johnsonville audit and instead worked on Crosby's assignment.

I would recommend that Sands communicate with management to make them aware of the new developments so that the situation is not used against me for future promotions in the event I am not able to complete the audit within the projected time. Also I would try to negotiate a replacement to fill Olds spot so that we can deliver on the expected date or request that an extension be given based on the change of events.

2. Discuss what Palmer could do, if anything, to avoid losing Olds.

Had Palmer been fully aware of the importance of the Springfield project and how it tied into the strategic objectives of M&M, he would have realized it was not a wise decision to share Olds with Crosby since that project would be more time consuming, and asked Ms Sands to assign him another team member. He could have been more proactive as well instead of waiting until the situation got unbearable; he should have sought the assistance of Sands sooner and reported the issues he was having with Crosby. His lack of assertiveness allowed Crosby to gain tashe upper hand by disregarding their initial agreement and ignoring his complaints. Had he been documenting the issues that arose from the outset, he could have avoided many of the delays he encounter by getting a replacement or some other remedy to diffuse the situation.

Palmer should have been more assertive in dealing with Olds on those occasions when he caught him working on Crosby's project and checking emails as this contributed to the delays he experienced and possibly could have been avoided. By allowing this behavior to continue, it caused Olds to lose respect for him as a boss and also created a situation of disloyalty.

The fact that Crosby was able to provide perks to his team members (baseball tickets, lunches, etc) indicates that he gave them an extra incentive to perform and that was his way of building a rapport with them; this is something Palmer could have done to keep his team loyal to him. Given that Crosby's project was in line with M&M's strategic plans it is possible that management may not have given Palmer's project much importance hence, his complaints may not have been addressed.

3. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of a matrix type organization that are apparent in this case.

According to (Grey and Larson, 2008) a matrix structure is a hybrid organizational form along two chains of command i.e. functional and project,