ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND DEVELOPMENT

(UBSE 1123)

HBR CASE STUDY ANALYSIS

CHALLENGE THE BOSS OR STAND DOWN?

Lecturer:
Dr Harcharanjit Singh
(harcharanjit@ibs.utm.my)

NO NAME MATRIC NO EMAIL

1 Syerie Noer Hidayaty Binti Muhamad MBS151129 syerie@gmail.com

Basir

2 Sharifah Shafiqah Binti Syed Mustaffa MBS 151120 sh.shafiqah@gmail.com

3 Wan Nuraida Binti Wan Ahmad MBS 151126 nuraidahmad@gmail.com

4 Irna Farizah Binti Ramle MBS 151145 irfas_87@yahoo.com

5 Noor Adilah Binti Ismail MBS 151141 nooradilahismail@gmail.com

Submission Date: 8th October 2016

 TABLE OF CONTENT
NO TITLE PAGE

1 CASE OVERVIEW 1-2

2 OBJECTIVES
2.1 Analysing leadership skills in an organization 2-3
2.2 Impact of superior attitude towards employees 34
2.3 Assessing steps to be taken when disagreement with 5

superior/employer
3 CAUSES 6-8
4 SOLUTIONS & EVALUATION
4.1 Solutions For Tom 8-9

4.2 Solutions For Frank 9

4.3 Solutions For Shannon & D7 Displays 9

5 RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Recommendation for Improvement of D7 Displays 10
Kiosks Service
5.2 D7 Displays - Outlook for Improvement 10 - 13
6 REFERENCES 14

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1.0 CASE OVERVIEW

Frank Davis (Frank) is a Marketing Director in D7 Displays, a company established in

1990 based in Atlanta, United States. Its main business is self-service kiosk which it majorly
supplies to airports. Frank Davis is a superior to Thomas Green (Tom), a senior marketing
specialist who was just promoted from account executive as he was the fastest rising star in the
company. Shannon McDonald (Shannon) is a Division Vice President in the company, who
recommended for Tom to be promoted without discussing the matter with Frank.

In the case, there are few issues which need to be addressed. The conflict started when
Tom was promoted to the senior marketing specialist post by Shannon. The promotion did not go
through Frank and Shannon was in favour of Tom due to the fact that both of them studied in
University of Georgia hence are alumni of the university. The promotion appeared to be of a
personal one, rather than based on experience and skills.

Second issue arose when Tom did not perform up to Franks expectation which Frank
visibly expressed to Tom as Tom did not yield a prodigious outcome since he was promoted to
the senior marketing specialist post. Tom was rather focusing on kiosk services development
project.

The matter became sombre when Frank and Tom had different views in growing the
companys sales of self-service kiosk and ensure that the company is able to sustain in the
industry. Tom being an enthusiast young man, preferred for the companys self-service kiosk to
offer unique advantage to its customers and clients, while Frank was of the view that growth of
sales could be achieved by focusing on airline, hotels, and car rental markets.

Due to different views on methods to strive for the companys boost of sales, both Tom
and Frank conveyed their disagreement to each other in the strategy planning meeting which was
attended by other senior sales and marketing team. This had caused a heated disparity between
the two. Frank refused to address Toms concern over the proposed marketing strategy. This had
resulted the both of them being severely upset to each other. However, Frank who was sternly
dismayed by Toms attitude and decided to escalate the matter to Shannon.

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 Issues addressed above led to a greater concern to Tom, which is whether he should
challenge Franks requirements or to follow Franks suits as his superior. Tom was obviously
unhappy with the fact that Frank was questioning his whereabouts, and felt intimidated by it. He
wondered if he made the right decision on purchasing new house and car, as he was stuck in a
sticky situation.

Due to corresponding differences with each other, the case showed an apparent
communication breakdown in a team which would be unhealthy for an employee to work in. It is
an irrefutable fact that teamwork and cooperation leads to success of a department in specific and
the organisation as a whole.

In addition to the above, the case had evidently described behaviour of certain problems
in leadership of organisations these days, which is favouritism. Knowing Tom as a young man
with inadequate experience, Shannon had promoted him which is a blatant favouritism on her
part since she holds a high post in D7 Displays. Little did Sharon know, her unethical behaviour
would come to bite her one day. Atrocious issues laid above will be deliberated in the latter part
of this paper.

2.0 OBJECTIVES
The objective for this case study analysis is to focus on analysing leadership skills within an
organization, impact of superior attitude towards employee and action to be taken if
disagreement arise.

2.1 Leadership skill in an organization

This case study shows different leadership skills in one organization which complement
each other in order to get things done. Based on Fiedler Contingency Model, it matches the
leadership style with situational or contingency through leader-member relations, task structure
and position power. Each leader shows different charisma through transactional and
transformational leadership.

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 The transactional leadership is also known as managerial leadership which most
manager implies on this. They are result driven based leader as they need to achieve certain
target. However, transformational leadership are normally inspired and lead extraordinary
effects to the followers and normally being implemented by the top management.

In Fiedler Contingency Model, Franks was described as a task structure leader as he

was focusing on job assignments given to the subordinate and their performance. Furthermore,
he appeared to apply transactional leadership when he wanted Tom to be supervised while doing
his job and everything should be reported to him in order for him to evaluate Toms performance.
Furthermore, he threatened his subordinate when he did not perform or meet his expectation as
Tom was warned about his performance after the strategic planning meeting.

On the other hand, Shannon appeared to be as a position power leader due to the fact
that she has imminent power to hire, fire, punish, promote and increase salaries of employees in
the organisation. She made the decision to promote Tom just after their dinner together without
discussing with Frank, whom is the immediate boss of Tom. It occurred again when Shannon
reminded Tom to be cautious of his performance in order to maintain his new position. Being in
a high position in the organisation, she implied transformational leadership as she observed
Toms previous performance which would add value to the company as Tom has creative idea,
fresh perspective and a fast learner which would definitely be of an advantage to the company.
This is one of the reason she agreed to give him the promotion.

2.2 Impact of superior attitude towards employees

Second learning objective is impact of superior attitude towards employees. In

organization, employees can be affected by superior attitude and vice versa. As in this case, Tom
was in dilemma when Frank was dissatisfied with his performance and this leads to emotional
labor situation which employee should express organizationally desired emotions at work.

Tom could solve it by differentiating between felt emotions and displayed emotion. Felt
emotion is individual feeling whereas displayed emotion is required emotion in organizational

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and considered appropriate in given job. Tom was not happy with Franks instruction when he
was assigned to prepare strategic planning for extended business line for their kiosk.

His new promotion as senior marketing specialist put him in comfort zone at high
positive affect after the promotion. As shown figure 1, the structure of the mood shows that his
action would be happy and excited with the promotion. This was reflected when he decided to
get himself a new car and house. However, this leads to low negative affect as he became less
focused with his new role and task which required him to be involved in strategic planning for
his unit.

Furthermore, Frank tends to be aggressive in the meeting when he stated that the new
sales projection for Eastern Region by 15%. This situation pressured Tom severely and led to
high negative affect when he became tensed and felt that it was impossible to achieve that target
because there are a few obstacles that Frank refused to address.

Figure 1: The Structure of a Mood

However, in decision making, positive moods and emotions play an important role in
helping managers to make a sound decision. Positive mood aspired to convey the right message
to subordinate as a leader. This suit with Shannon when she offered a promotion to Tom with
high confident that he will bring a fresh perspective to the marketing team. She responded by
giving him another chance to improve himself after Franks evaluation of his performance.

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2.3 Assessing steps to be taken when disagreement with superior/employer

Another objective is to assess steps to be taken when in disagreement with superior or

employer. In order for Tom to deal with his ordeal with Frank, he should assess Frank by
referring to The Big Five Personality Model. Frank has a personality of low agreeableness
which was the reason of his firm decision of the sales projection for Tom to achieve.

Tom on the other hand, is of proactive personality when he approached Shannon for a
promotion. In this situation, he should have identified opportunities and showed initiative to
fulfill the teams target. He should stay focus and be proactive to gain his superiors trust.
Furthermore, Tom should start improving his analytical and thinking skills because he had been
promoted and not sitting at his old role as account executive.

In order to change Franks perception towards him, Tom should change the way he
judged his superior. At the first place, he was using hallo effect in judging Frank because he felt
that Frank will remove him from his team. In furtherance to the above, Tom should be ready to
learn new perspective in order to enhance his skills at his current managerial level.

Other than that, Tom should review his degree of professionalism and personal interest
towards the organization. In term of professionalism, he should comply with the companys
vision and goal in a long run. Furthermore, he should have a sense of responsibility and respect
towards his new team rather than focusing on his individual self-centred interest. As an
employee, Tom has great advantage as he has skills persuasion, sales and creative thinking,
which should be utilised to achieve companys vision and goal.

Based on objectives identified above, in regards to Toms dilemma whether to challenge

Frank who is boss or whether to stand down and follow Franks instruction, we are of the view
that Tom should stand down and act in accordance to Franks requirements.

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3.0 CAUSES

There are obvious root causes detected from this case study. First and foremost, Tom was
promoted by Shannon instead of Frank, his new immediate superior. Secondly, Tom disagreed
with Frank on the new market penetration and projection proposed by Frank. Next, Frank felt
disrespected with Toms behaviour for challenging him publicly and he was disappointed with
his performance and lastly, Frank watched Toms daily activities, which Tom felt intimidated
with and felt that Frank was planning to get him fired.

The issue started in this case study took place when there are favouritism between top
management and employee. Favouritism occurs when we see an employer favors another person
of the same environment than the rest. It shows an unfair support from one person who has
authorities to others.

In the case, Tom was an account executive before he was promoted as a senior marketing
specialist for the Eastern North America region by Shannon who is division vice president at D7
Displays. As they both were alumni of University of Georgia, Shannon felt that Tom is the right
person to hold the position as senior marketing specialist without discussing it first with Frank.
Tom on the other hands was taking advantage on Shannon to be on that position as she could be
his ticket to the fast track. He showed his best effort when he made multiple trips to Shannon at
headquarters office and showed her the potential clients and his strategies for winning them. The
promotion seems to be a personal interest rather than professional because Shannon had failed to
consider Toms experience and skills.

Second cause for the problem in the case study was when Tom disagreed with Frank on
the new market penetration and projection proposed by Frank. As a marketing director, he
needed Tom to be responsible in developing market strategies for his region and Frank had high
expectation for Tom to be better prepared when he is on his own for the performance of the
Eastern region. The first issue between Tom and Frank was when both disagreed with each
others idea. As Tom was thinking through his kiosk-services development project, Frank

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rejected his idea and he told him to hold his project because Frank needed Tom to focus on the
market-strategy meeting so that Tom could strategize the development for his region.

At the same time, Tom did not agree with Frank in regards to the new market penetration
and projection proposed by Frank. During the meeting, they were supposed to review and
analyse the sales projections for the coming year as well as performance expectations for the
senior marketing specialists together with their teams. However during that meeting Tom argued
with Franks idea regarding next year of growth goals for Eastern region. According to Frank,
Eastern region should be more aggressive and more viable and they have fixed the growth targets
at 15% for the airline, hotel and car rental markets for that region which Tom objected. He
believed that their projection on future performance of 15% will not work if they still offer the
same products. His suggestion was to do something different from others and offer other benefits
that web services cant offer and the company should produce new offers in order to compete in
the business.

Besides than two causes stated above, there are other causes for the issues rose in the
case. The cause for the problem in this case was when Frank felt disrespected with Toms
behaviour and he disappointed with his performance. The problem occurred when Tom
challenged Franks authority publicly at the meeting. He should not challenge his boss in front of
other staff even if he was sure that his idea is correct. As a subordinate who is lack of experience,
Tom should follow Franks suggestion and later on provide feedback to Frank as a room for
improvement of the sales growth. Instead, Tom argued with the sales projection performance
proposed by Frank publicly in the meeting and it gave bad impression to Toms performance in
the future. After the meeting, Frank warned him not to exceed the limit and never challenge him
publicly again. In this situation, Tom may believe that hierarchy is nothing in todays corporate
world, but not for the bosses that still love the sort of difference that validates their status in an
organization. In addition, Tom failed to deliver an important report on time and he is not keeping
Frank informed about his work in general.

Lastly, Tom felt intimidated when Frank watched Toms daily activities. As Tom
challenged Frank in the meeting, Frank took action by keep watching Toms daily activities. He

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needed Tom to update him on his detailed plans and schedule on a daily basis and Tom has to
update Outlook daily and return message from the office promptly. Tom also was required to
update and deliver the reports in a timely manner and he must prepare all the specific client-
communication strategies before sales calls. Frank has to review all sales collateral in advanced.
At this stage, Tom felt that Frank was planning to get him fired as Frank showed him a copy of
the email he sent to Shannon and he was required to send email to her to explain about how he
can improve his performance in the future.

4.0 SOLUTIONS & EVALUATION

This part will discuss about the solutions and evaluations that should be taken by Tom, Frank and
Shannon in order to tackle the issues in D7 Displays

4.1 SOLUTIONS FOR TOM

In order to maintain his position in the company and for the sake of his career
development, Tom should stand down by doing these step by step solutions. First, Tom must
apologize to Frank for challenging him publicly. Since Frank has been the marketing manager
in D7 Displays for almost 20 years and managing all the managers from different regions, he
must be really experienced and more knowledgeable about the market situations compared to
Tom. Tom must learn to respect and acknowledge his superiors expertise.

Secondly, Tom must try to achieve the market goals set by Franks. By doing so, Tom can
prove to Frank that he is capable to hold the position of senior marketing specialist. In addition,
if he can secure his position, he may continuously enjoy his new car and house without wild
doubts at the back of his mind.

Thirdly, since Tom is not the choice of Frank to hold the said position, he must try to gain
trust and respect from Frank. Tom should adhere to all Frank's advice starting with updating his
schedule on a daily basis and make a return messages or calls from the office promptly.

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 Lastly, Tom must explain to Shannon, details report what he have been doing so that
Shannon will get vividly clear idea of what is really happening between Tom and Frank.
Furthermore if Tom able to follow Franks leadership, in the future they can work together in
developing a better marketing plan for D7 Display. This cooperative behaviour between the two
will boost the sales and profit of the company. If things go well according to plan, Tom might be
given the opportunity to be promoted to a higher position.

4.2 SOLUTIONS FOR FRANK

Frank should be more of a good listener and try to receive new ideas from
younger generation like Tom. In order to maintain his credibility as a superior to his
subordinate, he must act professionally in the meeting by giving space for Tom to express
his ideas and suggestions. If he thinks that Toms ideas are not appropriate he can meet
Tom personally to discuss about it.

Considering Tom was still new in the marketing department and Frank wanted to
keep his eye on Toms work, Frank should assign one senior specialist to guide Tom and
the team. By doing so, he can monitor Toms development from distance. This will
reduce the conflict between Tom and Frank. Frank can also offer some rewards to Tom
as motivation if he succeed.

4.3 SOLUTIONS FOR SHANNON

Seeing that Tom was promoted from a different department, Shannon must create a
mentoring program, to train Tom. Through this program, it will help Tom to adapt with the new
environment and have better understanding about his new job.

Additionally, as a person in a managerial level, Shannon must settle the conflict between
Frank and Tom amicably. She should act as a mediator and call both parties for an open
discussion. This is to avoid the problem become worse and affect the companys performance.
She must not be biased, and learn to hear all the opinions and suggestions from all the
employees.

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5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1 RECOMMENDATION FOR IMPROVEMENT OF D7 DISPLAYS

As a company that was launched nearly 30 years ago focusing on providing ATM with
1,500 self-check-in stations in 75 airports, this can be considered as a huge success for the D7
Displays. However, with a rapidly changing of business model and competitive market, D7
Displays should change their business-operating model in order to compete with other service
providers in order to serve the clients effectively.

Nowadays, the markets are saturated with competition of web-based check-in services
and D7 Displays appeared to lose their market share and clients. It is becoming a trend in airlines
sector to automate everything that eradicates customers interaction services. The company
should expand its markets and products rather than just be dependent on the self-service kiosk
business. Morphing into integrated mobile solution is seems to be a good approach as
smartphone is more relevant since it became one of the most important things in life and the
internet can be assessed anywhere at any time.

A mobile application for online check in can be a platform for the customers to check-in
at their convenience, upgrade their seats, or even pay for the lounge. Online check in would
contribute in saving customers time at the airport. Looking at this, the company should consider
to move forward by eliminating the kiosks and concentrate on other added value services to
serve the customers at their best rather than just focusing on the self-service check-ins only.

5.2 D7 DISPLAYS - OUTLOOK FOR IMPROVEMENT

Happy employees can produce a productive employees. In rapidly changing of business

environment, a good organization must devote a greater effort in order to increase their
capabilities. However, to achieve this goal, a highly motivated and innovative human resources
are needed. Human resource is the most important arm in an organization as they are the
important assets that determine the success or failure of a company.

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 Employee empowerment is one of the ways of how to manage the human resource and
fully utilized them. It is a participative management that involve employees who are responsible
to the working process and people who knows what are the processes, the good about it and
where the quality starts. One of the definitions of employee empowerment is by creating a
positive working environment among employee and let them to have a feeling of ownership in
specific tasks and projects (Fryer). Conger and Kanungo (1988) as cited in Kumar Sahoo and
Das (2011), states that empowering the employee is a good move as the organizations allow the
employee to have a sense of freedom, competence and control in order to achieve the goals that
the organization had set up at the very beginning.

As mentioned earlier, according to Fiedler Contingency Model, Franks was described as

a task structure leader since he was focusing on job assignments given to the subordinate and
their performance. His nature of being a transactional leadership has led him to supervise Tom
while doing his job and ordered Tom to directly write a report to him. In this case, there is no
employee empowerment given to Tom as he has no sense of freedom to express and show his
capability of doing his tasks. As living in the competitive worlds, every organization need to
make a transformation by moving towards people-based process which is focusing more on
giving freedom and motivation to their employees as this would prevent employees
dissatisfaction similar to situation between Tom and Frank.

Generally, interpersonal skills can be defined as the skills that is being used by human to
interact with others. In business world, the ability of employees to work and get along with
others while completing the task is best to describe the interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills
such as communication, listening, and decision-making are important in an organization as it
portrays the true colours of employees that work within. Employees that show good interpersonal
skills seems to be highly productive and able to achieve job satisfaction compared to those who
are showing poor interpersonal skills in an organization.

The ability to motivate, communicate and building a team among managers and
employee is complementary in order to have a fully engagement between employees and achieve

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the goals for organizations. At this point, in order to be a good leader, the leader should capable
to motivate their employees to get the work done and this is where the communication skills is
required because it involves the interaction between the superior and the workers in organization.

The efficacy of managing the employees can be shown through the managers confidence
level and also the ability to listen and understand the order. In this case, the communication
breakdown is clearly occurred between Tom and Frank. Frank was unable to build a good
communication while interacting with Tom. He wanted Tom just to listen his order without
allowing Tom to express and share his thoughts and ideas. Good leaders must have the ability to
tolerate with the co-workers and subordinates and be considerate in win-lose situation. In this
case, Frank however needed to negotiate well with Tom in order to ensure the job was completed
instead of being autonomy. As for Tom, he shouldnt challenge his boss during a strategic-
planning meeting that cause Frank to feel threatened towards him. A transparent communication
between Tom, Frank and Shannon is essential in avoiding further conflicts that can affect their
organization.

Besides the empowerment of employee and improving interpersonal skills among

managers in organization, one should provide a good employee training programs for their
employee in ensuring the job is smooth. An employee training programs is essential in every
level of management team in the organization, as it will enhance the productivity of employee
and increase their job satisfaction.

According to Mel Kleimen (2000), the most effective employee training programs are
constructed based on three parts that included the orientation, management skills as well as the
operational skill for each of the employees. The main objective of providing the training
programs are to ensure that the employee to get to know more and understand the culture of their
organization as well as to increase the job satisfaction that finally can lead to a successful of the
organization. A different type of training programs that can be offered to the employees are by
offering scholarship to them to further their study to improve their knowledge and education in
related field.

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 An accomplishment of the organization is definitely relying on the performance of
employees itself no matter in which sector they are. For every employees, they are seeking for
security in jobs. A good organisation will have the initiative to retain employees and has low
turnover rate. By providing a career development for the employees, it will contribute capability
to sustain their employment. This is interrelated with the training and career development of the
employees. Organization that are willing to spend some amount of their money to their
employees will be appreciated and cared for compared to companies that are not willing to invest
on their employees.

Conversation between Shannon and Tom clearly showed that Tom doesnt have any
managerial experience despite his potential fresh perspectives. Thus, Shannon directly favored
Tom that he needs to seek for guidance through the senior managers in D7 Displays in order to
achieve his goals. Intensive training programs for employees should be introduced in D7
Displays as it gives mutual benefits to employees as well as the organization. As for Tom, if he
was offered to go on for the training, he should take initiative to use all those opportunities
offered for his betterment and his future career.

In addition to the above, he was in dilemma whether to stand down and leave the
company when the conflicts arose between him and his superior, Frank. Shannon should have
taken the opportunity and get involved in solving the problem between Frank and Tom. It is a
waste for failing to appreciate a talented employee like Tom, as he is young and energetic with
highly potential through his brilliant ideas. However, it is unfair to put on the blame on Frank, as
he is one of the top senior managers in D7 Displays. His experience is priceless and his
aggressive goals in reaching the companys goals were needed. Thus, a mutual understanding
between Tom and Frank is the best solution for this situation as it can benefit the organization
and both of them as a whole. Plus, by applying a performance appraisal for both parties, Tom and
Frank, the management team will have a room to close any possible gaps by performing
evaluation of their job performance. A good performance appraisal can indicate whether an
employee is satisfied or upset with their working environment, job scope and superior.

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 References
1. Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (n.d.). Organizational Behavior (16th ed.). Pearson Education
Limited.
2. Conger, J. A. & Kanungo, R. N. (1998), The Empowerment Process: Integrating Theory and
Practice, Academy of Management Review, 13(3), 471-482
3. Interspersonal skills. Investopedia. Retrieved from
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/i/interpersonal-skills.asp
4. Mel Kleiman (2000, January). What happens if you dont train them and they stay? Occupational
Health and Safety, 69 (1), pp. 18, 70.
5. Sahoo. K., C. Das. S. (2011). Employee Empowerment: A Strategy towards Workplace
Commitment. European Journal of Business and Management. 11(4). 46-54. Retrieved from
http://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/EJBM/article/viewFile/714/613
6. The Definition of Employee Empowerment. Lashon Fryer. Retrieved from
http://www.ehow.com/about_5081891_definition-employee-empowerment.html

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