Thomas Green | Power, office Politics and a Career in Crisis

Name: Abdus Sami Khan
ERP#: 13450, MBA - Evening
Course: Organizational Behavior and Leadership
Facilitator: Dr. Shahid Mir

INTRODUCTION: THOMAS GREEN

In this case study, we look into the use and influence of positional power in an organization, aspects of office politics and a glittering career of young and ambitious sales professional getting dented by these. Thomas Green is a young sales and marketing professional having a few years of experience of sales and then getting up to a  strategic position of sales and marketing. Thomas Green is a 28 years young sales and marketing professional who began his career as an account executive for National Business Solutions in Atlanta, Georgia. Before joining Dynamic Displays in March 2007 as an account executive in their Travel and Hospitality Division and then very quickly leap frogging to the position of senior market specialist, he worked for six years as an account executive in National Business Solution’s Banking Division, selling ATMs to regional banks throughout the Southeast. Green graduated from University of Georgia with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics in 2001.

PROMOTION TO SENIOR MARKET SPECIALIST

While working as account executive, Thomas caught the attention of senior management very soon and was selected for a corporate training at Dynamic Display’s headquarters. There he was sought out by Shannon McDonald, travel and hospitality division Vice President, and Mary Jacobs, National Sales Director, soon after that, Thomas learns about a newly emptied position and secures the position of senior market specialist.

RELATION WITH LINE MANAGER: FRANK DAVIS

Upon assuming the new position, McDonald tips Thomas about his line manager, Frank Davis, who is marketing director, a 17 year veteran, and was at Thomas’ position before getting promoted, that Frank wanted to bring someone else. So Thomas needed to be careful in maintaining a good relationship with Frank.

During Green’s first few months on Davis’ team, it was apparent there was a personality conflict between the two. Davis, a 17-year veteran of the company, felt the need to have everything Green was working on documented and wanted “prompt” communication with him. Davis also was aggravated that Green didn’t make use of his Outlook calendar as to the updates of where he was traveling. When Davis confronted Green about the issues at hand, Green’s response was that he has all the info “in his head” and that daily emails, Outlook calendar updates, and documented work updates were simply not his style, and just “politics”.

Thomas even had a conflict with Frank during Budget Meeting at the point of setting next year’s sales goals. Thomas did not hold back in putting up his argument and challenged Franks proposals and predictions.

WORD WENT OUT AND UP:

Soon after that, Thomas and Frank met several times for performance reviews, during which Frank showed absolute dissatisfaction. Later the word of conflict went up the level of McDonald after performance reviews and Frank even proposed to lay off Thomas, had the things not work out as Frank would have wanted.