Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail is the recipient of the ‘TR 100” award presented by MIT to 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology
Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail is the recipient of the ‘TR 100” award presented by MIT to 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology
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Organizational Behavior
Note: Solve any 4 Case
Study’s
CASE: I Diana’s
Disappointment: The Promotion Stumbling Block
Diana Gillen had an uneasy feeling of
apprehension as she arrived at the Cobb Street Grille corporate offices. Today
she was meeting with her supervisor, Julie Spencer, and regional director, Tom
Miner, to learn the outcome of her promotion interview for the district manager
position. Diana had been employed by this casual dining restaurant chain for 12
years and had worked her way up from waitress to general manager. Based on her
track record, she was the obvious choice for the promotion; and her friends
assured her that her interview process was merely a formality. Diana was still
anxious, though, and feared that the news might not be positive. She knew she
was more than qualified for the job, but that didn’t guarantee anything these
days.
Nine
months ago, when Diana interviewed for the last district manager opening, she
thought her selection for the job was inevitable. She was shocked when that
didn’t happen. Diana was so upset about not getting promoted then that she
initially decided not to apply for the current opening. She eventually changed
her mind—afterall, the company had just named her “restaurant manager of the
year” and trusted her with managing their flagship location. Diana thought her
chances had to be really good this time.
A
multi-unit management position was desirable move up for any general manager
and was a goal to which Diana had aspired since she began working in the
industry. When she had not been promoted the last time, Julie, her supervisor,
explained that her people skills needed to improve. But Diana knew that
explanation had little to do with why she hadn’t gotten the job—the real reason
was corporate politics. She heard that the person they hired was some superstar
from the outside—a district manager from another restaurant company who
supposedly had strong multi-unit management experience and a proven track record
of developing restaurant managers. Despite what she was told, she was convinced
that Tom, her regional manager, had been unduly pressured to hire this person,
who had been referred by the CEO.
The
decision to hire the outsider may have impressed the CEO, but it enraged Diana.
With her successful track record as a store manager for the Cobb Street Grille,
she was much more capable, in her opinion, of overseeing multiple units than
someone who was new to the operation. Besides, district managers had always been
promoted internally from among the store managers, and she was unofficially
designated as the next one to move up to a district position. Tom had hired the
outside candidate as a political maneuver to put himself in a good light with
management, even though it meant overlooking a loyal employee lime her in the
process. Diana had no patience with people who made business decisions for the
wrong reasons. She worked very hard to avoid politics and it especially
irritated her when the political actions of others negatively impacted her.
Diana
was ready to be a district manager nine months ago, and she thought she was
even more qualified today—provided the decision was based on performance. She
ran a tight ship, managing her restaurant completely by the book. She
meticulously controlled expenses. Her sales were growing, in spite of new
competition in the market, and she received relatively few customer complaints.
The only number that was a little out of line was the higher turnover among her
staff. Diana was not too concerned about the increasing number of terminations,
however; there was a perfectly logical explanation for this. It was because she
had high standards for both herself and her employees. Any Who delivered less than 110 percent at all times
would be better off finding a job somewhere else. Diana didn’t think she should
bend the rules for anyone, for whatever reason. A few months ago, for example,
she had to fire three otherwise good employees who decided to try a new
customer service tactic-a so-called innovation they dreamed up-rather than
complying with the established process. As the general manager, it was her
responsibility to make sure that the restaurant was managed strictly in
accordance with the operations manual, and she could not allow deviations. This
by-the-book approach to managing had served her well for many years. It got her
promoted in the past, and she was not about to jinx that now. Losing a few
employees now and then—particularly those who had difficulty following the
rules—was simply the cost of doing business. During a recent store visit Julie suggested
that Diana might try creating a friendlier work environment because she seemed
aloof and interacted with employees somewhat mechanically. Julie even told her
that she overheard employees refer to Diana as the “ice maiden” behind her
back. Diana was surprised that Julie brought this up because her boss rarely
criticized her. They had an unspoken agreement: Because Diana was so
technically competent and always met her financial targets, Julie didn’t need
to give her much input. Diana was happy to be left alone to run her restaurant
without needless advice. At any rate, Diana rarely paid attention to what
employees said about her. She wasn’t about to let something as childish as a
silly name cause her to modify a successful management strategy. What’s more,
even though she had recently lost more than the average number of employees due
to “personality differences” or “miscommunications” over her directives, her
superiors did not seem to mind when she consistently delivered strong
bottom-line results every month. As she waited in the conference room for the
others, Diana worried that she was not going to get this promotion. Julie had
sounded different in the voicemail message she left to inform her about this
meeting, but Diana couldn’t put her finger on exactly what it was. She would be
very angry if she was passed over again and wondered what excuse they would
have this time. Then her mind wandered to how her employees would respond to
her if she did not get the promotion. They all knew how much she wanted the
job, and she cringed at how embarrassed she would be if she didn’t get it. Her
eyes began to mist over at the sheer thought of having to face them if she was
not promoted today. Julie and Tom entered the room then, and the meeting
started. They told Diana, as kindly as they could, that she would not be
promoted at this time; one of her colleagues would become the new district
manager. She was incredulous. The individual who got promoted had been with the
company only three years—and Diana had trained her! She tried to comprehend how
this happened, but it did not make sense. Before any further explanation could
be offered, she burst into tears and left the room. As she tried in vain to
regain her composure, Diana was overcome with crushing disappointment.
Question:
1.
Within
the framework of the emotional intelligence domains of self-awareness,
self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, discuss the various
factors that might have to led to Diana’s failure to be promoted.
2. What
competencies does Diana need to develop to be promotable in the future? What
can the company do to support her developmental efforts?
CASE: II Buddy’s Snack Company
Buddy’s Snack Company is a family-owned
company located in the Rocky Mountains. Buddy Forest started the business in
1951 by selling home-made potato chips out of the back of his pickup truck.
Nowadays Buddy’s in a $36 million snack food company that is struggling to
regain market lost to Frito-Lay and other fierce competitors. In the early
eighties Buddy passed the business to his son, Buddy Jr., who is currently
grooming his son, Mark, to succeed himself as head of the company. Six months ago Mark joined Buddy’s Snacks as a
salesperson, and after four months he quickly promoted to sales manager. Mark
recently graduated from a local university with an MBA in marketing, and Buddy
Jr. was hoping that Mark would be able to implement strategies that could help
turn the company around. One of Mark’s initial strategies was to introduce a
new sales performance management system. As part of this approach, any
salesperson who receives a below average performance rating would be required
to attend a mandatory coaching session with his or her supervisor. Mark Forest
is hoping that these coaching sessions will motivate employees to increase
their sales. This case describes the reaction of three salespeople who have
been required to attend a coaching session because of their low performance
over the previous quarter.
Lynda
Lewis
Lynda is a hard worker, who takes pride
in her work ethic. She has spent a lot of time reading the training material
and learning selling techniques, viewing training videos or her own time, and
accompanying top salespeople on their calls. Lynda has no problem asking for
advice and doing whatever needs to be done to learn the business. Everyone
agrees that Lynda has a cheery attitude and is a real “team player,” giving the
company 150 percent at all times. It has been a tough quarter for Lynda due to
the downturn in the economy, but she is doing her best to make quota during
this past quarter is not to lack of effort, but just bad luck in the economy.
She is hopeful that things will turn around in the next quarter.
Lynda
is upset with Mark about having to attend the coaching session because this is
the first time in three years that her sales quota has not been met. Although
Lynda is willing to do whatever it takes to be successful, she is concerned
that the coaching sessions will be held on a Saturday. Doesn’t Mark realize
that Lynda has to raise three boys by herself and that weekends are an
important time for her family? Because Lynda is a dedicated employee, she will
somehow manage to rearrange the family’s schedule.
Lynda
is now very concerned about how her efforts are being perceived by Mark. After
all, she exceeded the sales quota for the previous quarter, yet she did not
receive thanks or congratulation for those efforts. The entire experience has
left Lynda unmotivated and questioning her future with the company.
Michael
Benjamin
Michael is happy to have his job at
Buddy’s Snack Company, although he really doesn’t like sales work that much.
Michael accepted this position because he felt that he wouldn’t have to work
hard and would have a lot of free time during the day. Michael was sent to
coaching mainly because his customer satisfaction reports were low; in fact,
they were the lowest in the company. Michael tends to give canned presentations
and does not listen closely to the customer’s needs. Consequently, Michael
makes numerous errors in new sales orders, which delay shipments and lose
business and goodwill for Buddy’s Snack Company. Michael doesn’t really care
because most of his customers do not spend much money, and he doesn’t think it
is worth his while.
There
has been a recent change in the company commission structure. Instead of
selling to the warehouse stores and possibly earning a high commission, Michael
is now forced to sell to lower-volume convenience stores. In other words, he
will have to sell twice as much product to earn the same amount of money.
Michael does not think this change in commission is fair, and he feels that the
coaching session will be waste of time. He believes that the other members of
the sales team are getting all the good leads, and that is why they are so
successful. Michael doesn’t socialize with others in the office and attributes
others’ success and promotions to “whom they know” in the company rather than
the fact that they are hard workers. He thinks that no matter how much effort
is put into the job, he will never be adequately rewarded.
Kyle
Sherbo
For three of the last five
years Kyle was the number one salesperson in the division and had hopes of
being promoted to sales manager. When Mark joined the company, Kyle worked
closely with Buddy Jr. to help Mark learn all facets of the business. Kyle
thought this close relationship with Buddy Jr. would assure his upcoming
promotion to the coveted position of sales manager, and he was devastated to
learn that Mark received the promotion that he thought was his. During the past
quarter there was a noticeable change in Kyle’s work habits. It has become
commonplace for Kyle to be late for appointments or miss them entirely, not
return phone calls, and not follow up on leads. His sales performance declined
dramatically, which resulted in a drastic loss of income. Although Kyle had
been dedicated and fiercely loyal to Buddy Jr. and the company for many years,
he is now looking for other employment. Buddy’s Snack is located in a rural
community, which leaves Kyle with limited job opportunities. He was, however,
offered a position as a sales manager with a competing company in a larger
town, but Kyle’s wife refuses to leave the area because of her strong family
ties. Kyle is bitter and resentful of his current situation and now faces a
mandatory coaching session that will be conducted by Mark.
 |
| Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail is the recipient of the ‘TR 100” award presented by MIT to 100 young innovators who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology |
Question:
1. You have met three employees of Buddy’s Snacks.
Explain how each employee’s situation relates to equity theory.
2. Explain the motivation of these three employees
in terms of the expectancy theory of motivation.
CASE: III Sabeer Bhatia: An Icon Of Creativity
Sabeer Bhatia, the co-founder of Hotmail
is the recipient of the ‘TR 100” award presented by MIT to 100 young innovators
who are expected to have the greatest impact on technology in the next few
years. He has won several laurels—‘Elite 100’ list of top trendsetters in the
New Economy by Upside Magazine, ‘People to watch’ in International Business by
TIME (2002), ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ by a venture capital firm Draper Fisher
Jurvetson (1997), and one of the ten most successful entrepreneurs by San Jose
Mercury News and POV magazine (1998). One
needs to know what has gone into making him a highly creative person. Born in
Chandigarh, India, he completed his early schooling at Bangalore, in schools
with ethical values. His parents were both professionals; father, Baldev, a
senior officer in Ministry of Defense, and mother, Daman, a senior official in
the Central Bank of India, who attracted great value to education. He has been
a brilliant student who would solve problems on the blackboard. He was a
perfectionist and would feel miserable if he was unable to write everything he
knew in his answer book during an exam, due to limited time. He has also been
entrepreneurial during his school days and once opened a sandwich shop. He
joined the Birla Institute of Technology, which he left to study at California
Institute of after winning full scholarship. He completed his masters from
Stanford University and joined Apple, where he worked for nine months. He had
an urge to do something unique using the net, and he came up with javasoft—a
method of using the web to create a personal database, where people could
preserve their personal things. He shared his plan with his colleague Jack
Smith, who suggested to e-mail to javasoft. Bhatia worked the whole night to
develop the business plan. The two tried various options and came up with
‘Hotmail’ as their final choice, and a brand was launched in 1995. After a
year, Microsoft approached them, and Hotmail was sold to Microsoft for $400
million. Bhatia worked with Microsoft for a year, and has launched two more
products: Arzoo and BlogEverywhere. From the above account it is obvious that
Sabeer Bhatia is brilliant, persistent, and innovative, and has scientific and
technical knowledge. His friends find him “persistent, focused and
disciplined”. To top it all, he is a perfectionist and entrepreneurial at
heart. He has an unquenching desire to create new ventures, and bubbles with
new ideas. He feels Indian IT companies can be more creative. Creativity seems
to be his motivation in life; he is still single.
Question:
1.
What competencies are needed to be creative?
2.
Identify methods through which creativity can be
nurtured.
CASE: IV Women Leaders In
The Corporate World
There are not many women in the
position of leadership in corporate India.
The growth of women in the corporate world
has been slow, probably due to the glass ceiling and role stereotypes. Barring
a few females who have made it to the top, others have only reached till the
middle/senior level of management. Family and social support and education
level are important factors for leadership in the business world. Besides,
family has priority over career for women in India. Thus, few women cut through
all the barriers and reach the top. One such example is Naina Lal Kidwai,
Chairperson and Managing Director, The Hongkong and Shanghai Corporation’s
(HSBC) investment banking and securities business in India. According to her,
in India, “There is an extended family of mothers, sisters, and mothers-in-law
ready to step in along with the easily available domestic help. However,
despite these advantages in the urban class in India, women are only now
entering the corporate world.” (Emmons, 2004)
A
graduate from HBS, Naina joined ANZ Grindlays Bank in India in 1982. Having
done her stints in a variety of jobs in merchant, retail and investment
banking, she moved to Morgan and Stanley in 1994 to manage its operations in
India. She has been a high achiever throughout. Naina was ranked 3rd by Fortune
Magazine in their maiden list of the world’s top women in business in Asia
(2000), and later it placed her among the top 50 Women in Business in three
successive years 2001, 2002, and 2003. Time Magazine selected her as one of
2002’s fifteen emerging ‘Global Influentials’. She is Chairperson of various
committees of Industry Associations, and is on the Governing Body of National
Council of Applied Manpower Research as a member. She is also Director,
International Board of Digital Partners Foundation, USA. Naina is not only
successful in professional life, but in her personal life too; she is married
with two children.
Question:
1.
What are the barriers for women to become
corporate leaders?
2.
What competencies are needed by women to succeed
in corporate life?
CASE: V The Excellent Employee
Emily, who had the reputation
of being an excellent worker, was a machine operator in a furniture
manufacturing plant that had been growing at a rate of between 15 percent and
20 percent each year for the past decade. New additions were built onto the
plant, new plants opened in the region, workers hired, new product lines
developed – lots of expansion – but with no significant change in overall
approaches to operations, plant layout, ways of managing workers, or design
processes. Plant operations as well as organizational culture were rooted in
traditional Western management practices and logic, based largely on the notion
of mass production and economies of scale. Over the past four years the company
had grown in number and variety of products and in market penetration; however,
profitability was flattening and showing signs of decline. As a result,
managers were beginning to focus on production operations (internal focus)
rather than mainly focusing on new market strategies, new products, and new
market segments (external focus) in developing their strategic plans. They
hoped to reduce manufacturing costs, improving consistency of quality and
ability to meet delivery times better while decreasing inventory and increasing
flexibility. One of several new programs initiated by managers in this effort
to improve flexibility and lower costs was to get workers cross-trained.
However, when a representative from Human Resources explained this program to
Emily’s supervisor, Jim, he reluctantly agreed to cross-train most of his
workers, but not Emily. Jim explained to the Human Resources person that Emily
worked on a machine that was very complex and not easy to effectively operate.
She had to “babysit” it much of the time. He had tried to train many workers on
it, but Emily was the only person who could consistently get products through
the machine that were within specifications and still meet production
schedules. When anyone else tried to operate the machine, which performed a key
function in the manufacturing process, it ended up either being a big
bottleneck or producing excessive waste, which create a lot of trouble for Jim.
Jim went on to explain that Emily knew this sophisticated and complicated
machine inside and out; she had been running it for five years. She liked the
challenge, and she said it made the day go by faster, too. She was meticulous
in her work-a skilled employee who really cared about the quality of her work.
Jim told the HR person that he wished all of his workers were like Emily. In
spite of difficulty of running this machine, Emily could run it so well that
product piled up at the next workstation in the production process, which
couldn’t keep up with her!
Jim was
adamant about keeping Emily on this machine and not cross-training her. The HR
was frustrated. He could see Jim’s point, but he had to follow executive
orders: “Get these people cross-trained.”
Around
the same time a University student was doing a field study in the section of
the plant where Emily worked, and Emily was one of the workers he interviewed.
Emily told the student that in spite of the fact that the plant had some
problems with employee morale and excessive employee turn-over, she really
liked working there. She liked the piece-rate pay system and hoped she did not
have to participate in the recent “program of the month,” which was having
operators learn each other’s jobs. She told the student that it would just
create more waste if they tried to have other employees run her machine. She
told him that other employees had tried to learn how to operate her machine but
couldn’t do it as well as she could.
Emily
seemed to like the student and began to open up to him. She told him that her
machine really didn’t need to be so difficult and touchy to operate: With a
couple of minor design changes in the machine and better maintenance, virtually
anyone could run it. She had tried to explain this to her supervisor a couple
of years ago, but he just told her to “do her work and leave operations to the
manufacturing engineers.” She also said that if workers upstream in the process
would spend a little more time and care to keep the raw material in slightly
tighter specifications, it would go through her machine much more easily; but
they were too focused on speed and making more piece-rate pay. She expressed a
lack of respect for the managers who couldn’t see this and even joked about how
“managers didn’t know anything.”
Question:
1.
Identify the sources of resistance to change in
this case.
2.
Discuss whether this resistance is justified or
could be overcome.
3.
Recommend ways to minimize resistance to change
in this incident or in future incidents.
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