Jamie Turner Essay Example

other’s ideas and giving them control of certain aspects of the company. . Cardullo may have different managerial styles than Jamie or even a lack there of. In the world of today it is always nice to have a technical background such as Cardullo’s, but to be a great manager and leader it is necessary to have emotional intelligence. It seems that Cardullo lacks in many aspects of emotional intelligence which may lead to poor managerial styles and problems within the MLI workforce. Also detrimental to Cardullo’s managing of employees is his lack of recognizing what matters to his subordinates.

It is essential to realize what matters to your employees in order to best keep them motivated and interested in their work; this is called recognizing the mattering maps of your employees, a concept that Cardullo seems to lose sight of. Cardullo’s lack of emotional intelligence and deficiency in the ability to see mattering maps adds to the disconnect between Turner and other employees at MLI. 4. Rational decision making is a quality of a good leader and it is something the Cardullo lacks.

Cardullo seems to value only his opinion and doesn’t take into consideration Jamie’s ideas or the ideas of others in the company. This process of decision making creates adversity and conflict throughout the company. Analysis 1. The poor psychological contract between Turner and Cardullo is creating turmoil in their relationship. While Turner was in the process of hiring on, he and Cardullo never developed an adequate psychological contract. This led to each of them having separate assumptions and expectations of one another. Jamie performed his daily activities based on the assumptions he had

made about MLI.

One example is how Tuner assumed that volume of sales was important, his pricing reflected this assumption. However, Cardullo undermined him and took control of pricing and stated “when did I ask you to worry about volume”. Similar to breaking the psychological contract is Cardullo’s breaking of commitments. Before Turner was hired, Cardullo expressed many of his opinions and managerial commitments. Cardullo believed in managing by objectives, good communication among the top executive team, and that managers should run their own area with minimal help from other functions.

To me these seem like positive beliefs that would help a company, the problem was Cardullo didn’t keep these commitments. Turner was promised the autonomy he had been seeking, but Cardullo constantly intruded on his work and in the end even took back control of pricing which was suppose to be part of Turners job. Many times Jamie tried to communicate with Cardullo, only to be turned away with an insufficient response. Another commitment Cardullo broke was when Jamie inquired about entering a certain market to sell generators.

Cardullo was interested in the idea, but after talking with other executives he went back on his word and told Jamie it wasn’t going to happen. The more Cardullo undermined Jamie the more disconnect was created between them. In the end Turner felt like he was supplying the leadership at MLI but without understanding what Cardullo expected of him. 2. Personal style issues add to the problem between Turner and Cardullo. Cardullo is from the Boomer generation, this alone creates disconnect between the two.

Jamie being from the late X early Y generation acts and makes decisions differently than Cardullo.

Many Boomers see X’ers as “disconnected, cynical, disloyal, and unwilling to accept challenge and responsibility”, I believe that Cardullo has underlying feelings similar to these and in turn does not trust Turner’s insight or decision making. Like these generational differences, both men have separate identities, Cardullo has the objective of climbing the ladder and becoming COO, while Turner is going from job to job to find one that suits him best.

Another personal shortcoming Cardullo has is that he sees people from only two perspectives, either competent or incompetent; this creates conflict and negative attitudes within MLI. One example is how Cardullo framed Tim Kelly, the 25-year sales veteran as incompetent just because he had to look up answers to questions before giving them to Cardullo. On the contrary, Jamie saw Kelly as a regimented, loyal and dependable, and a big help as he took over the sales department. Competing commitments are another personal issue of Cardullo’s.

In the beginning Cardullo planned to give Turner autonomy and full control of the marketing and sales of MLI. But after a few months Cardullo’s competing commitment that prohibits him from allowing others to make important decision within the company began to show through. He constantly undermined Jamie’s decisions on pricing and sales and eventually this commitment lead to Cardullo taking back full control of these decisions. Also, I believe Cardullo has a competing commitment against technology.

In two cases this commitment was expressed, first in the warehouse there was new technology that allowed the inventory to be stored more efficiently without the need to be visible; Cardullo didn’t like this and ordered it be changed back within a month. Second,

Cardullo wanted Kelly to spend one day a week at the office in Kansas even though it would be much more cost effective to use email and voice conferences. In this second example Cardullo shows a deficiency for decision making; after Turner argued that Kelly is more helpful in Chicago, Cardullo’s only response was “remember I’m still the president of this division”.

I believe Cardullo has a major problem of accepting other viewpoints and should not be the president until he can acknowledge and listen to the ideas of others. 3. Along with the different personal styles, I question the managerial style of Cardullo and think he lacks competency to be in the position he is in. In my opinion Cardullo lacks the emotional intelligence that makes good leaders stand out. He is lacking in many of the components of emotional intelligence including, self awareness, self regulation, empathy for others, and social skills.

There are many instances when Cardullo loses control and is profane and unprofessional. His swearing and door slamming show incompetence in self awareness and self regulation. Cardullo lacks empathy for others, he can’t see emotion and therefore either dodges a situation or handles it improperly. He also lacks the social skills and communications skills to find common grown with others and build rapport; this is seen in almost all interactions with Turner. Also damaging to Cardullo’s relationships with others is his deficiency in seeing the mattering maps of his employees.

Not once does Cardullo sit an employee down and ask what is important to them or what they would like to get out of the job. By ignoring the mattering maps Cardullo is creating more

of a disconnect between him and the employees of MLI. Unlike Cardullo, Turner can see mattering maps; an example of Turners ability to see matting maps is when he is looking into the situation at the Kansas office. Turner has empathy for the people there and can recognize their mattering maps as well as the feelings Tim Kelly has about the situation, even though in the nd he still has to make the decision to let them go. If it were Cardullo he would put business above everything and not have the slightest empathy for the people there. I also get a slight feeling that Cardullo sometimes manages by fear. For some reason the controller of the company, Chin follows and acts synonymously with Cardullo. In the beginning she is helpful to Turner and accepts his new position, but as soon as Cardullo stopped behaving as he was first perceived Chin follows and becomes difficult to deal with.

I believe she may be afraid that she will be held accountable for problems and therefore wants to stay on Cardullo’s side. An example of this is shown when one of Turner’s people finds a problem with the cash flow. When Turner brought it up to Chin, she dismissed it as false and said there was no problem. I believe she dismissed it because she was afraid of being held accountable for the problem. This method of managing by fear can be extremely disastrous because employees may hide problems rather than bringing them up to be fixed. . I believe Cardullo has a poor and irrational process to decision making. Basically if he didn’t come up with the

idea then it isn’t relevant, or if he disagrees with somebody then they are wrong. This is seen in the example I gave about the inventory in the warehouse, even though the new way of storing the inventory was better, he did not accept it. Also, in the example about sending Kelly to Kansas, Cardullo disagrees with the idea Jamie has about the situation and therefore says I’m the boss do it my way.

This hard nosed method of managing completely separates Cardullo from Turner and creates conflict in the company. Recommendations I have a few recommendations that could improve the situation at MLI, Inc. First, Jamie could document all the problems he is having with Cardullo. He could then go to the CEO and try to get Cardullo demoted or fired. Although this alternative is technically actionable, it is likely that the CEO is going to side with Cardullo rather than a brand new employee, and Jamie will be the one without a job. Second, Jamie could leave MLI and search for a new job.

Again the problem here is, Jamie is left unemployed and MLI is not fixed. Most likely this alternative would be the worst for Jamie and MLI. Third, and which I believe is the best alternative is to have a meeting between Turner, Cardullo, and the CEO Alan Oliver. In this meeting Turner will have the opportunity to discuss his concerns with a mediator present. At the beginning of his employment, Turner had the wrong perception of Cardullo and the position at MLI, this led to assumptions and expectations that were not congruent between both sides.

Now both sides have the chance to

start over, Cardullo needs to provide clear job responsibilities and clearly state his expectations of Turner. Alan needs to mediate the conversation and insure that the two sides focus on the future and what positives will come rather than the past negatives that have already happened. Also, whatever commitments and expectations that are decided must be kept by both sides or the past will repeat itself. On top of that, Cardullo needs to have trust in his employees, he must learn to step back and listen rather than having the “my way or the highway” mindset.

Although I’ve pointed out many issues with Cardullo, I believe that most stemmed from the poor beginning that he and Turner experienced. A close eye should be kept on Cardullo to ensure he is more receptive of other’s ideas and that he is more empathetic towards the employees of MLI. If problems do occur they need to be brought to the forefront, I believe good communication is the most important aspect in working with others. This recommendation is actionable and if done properly should yield a much more harmonized relationship between Cardullo, Turner, and the employees of MLI.