Case Study Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis Essay Example

clients and talk through issues face to face, while Davis would rather to prepare memos and presentations when a meeting was set up. Moreover, both Davis and Green didn’t seem to trust each other very much, thus Davis had to require Green to keep updated on his progress. What my recommendation to Green is thinking through his behaviors since he had taken on the job, as well as Davis’s evaluation to him. And then he should write an email to McDonald about those analyses, as well as striving for her understanding and asking for a chance of improvement.

Factors: *Communication: Despite Green’s relationship with Davis as a subordinate, they were less connected with each other for their job progress and they didn’t communicate well. *Synergy: A common goal hadn’t been set by Green and Davis. Green didn’t agree with Davis’s opinion in forecasting sales projection that he had proposed for Green’s region. *Trust: The environment in Dynamic Displays lacked trust. On the one hand, Davis required his subordinates to keep him informed of their progress and schedules. On the other hand, Green didn’t trust Davis’s evaluation and he suspected Davis had an intention to get rid of him.

*Organization structure: The information flow structure of Dynamic Displays was not beneficial for superiors gathering timely materials. Plus Green made numerous expressions about his concerns about Davis to people outside the group and no feedback was stated. Therefore, it was obvious that Dynamic Displays lacked regulation of information delivery and performance evaluation systems.

Alternative Solution: Solution 1: Green accepts Davis’s criticism, acknowledges his deficiency and asks Davis and McDonald for a chance of improvement.

Solution 2: Green denies Davis’s criticism, and

writes an Email to McDonald about Davis’s over-estimated forecasting sales projection that had been assigned to Green, with an intention to convince McDonald that Davis’s criticism wasn’t pertinent.

Comparison of Solution: The first solution has more possibility for Green to keep the job and it may cause an improvement of the communication, synergy and trust factors, even Green’s notification of the structure limitation may contribute to a development. However, the second solution has a higher risk for Green to lose his job, if Green is lucky enough to keep the job, the communication, synergy and trust between he and Davis will not only become worse, but also the structure will probably stay the same. As a result, the dissension between Green and Davis hasn’t been solved and a new dissension will come forth to make situation worse. (See Exhibits 1)

Implementation Plan: Based on the above comparison, I consider that the fist solution is achievable for Green to solve his dilemma. As Davis said in his last email sent to McDonald, he expected Green would materialize his promises in a month, which means that Green still had an opportunity to mend the situation. If Green still holds the position, the next step of rebuilding relationship with Davis and strengthening their communication is available to take. At the same time, Green should pay attention to office politics and adapt his work style. As well as, it is necessary to talk with Davis about how to achieve the 10% growth in the Eastern region.

Even though the proposal finally turns out to be unachievable, I believe that more understanding has been created between Davis and Green. Moreover, in order to

avoid further problems, Green should inform his superior about the defects in organization structure and contribute more efforts to build official relationships, instead of concentrating on selling goals. That is the plan I have for Green, and I believe he will do a good job by following these suggestions.