Essay About Edward M. Hallowell And Vandelay Industries

Information Systems
Essay title: Information Systems
With over five years experience in the field of information technology consulting for
various businesses, I have been contacted by Vandelay Industries to advise them based on the
review of two case studies. The two case studies are “The Human Moment at Work,” by Edward
M. Hallowell and “Restoring Trust at WorldCom,” by Jay W. Lorsch and Ashley C. Robertson.
I am now prepared to share my analysis of them along with some suggestions for an alternative
strategy that I feel is imperative for Vandelay Industries. First however, I will give a brief
synopsis of Vandelay for those of you unfamiliar with this company. Following that, I will give
a summary of each of the case studies that I was asked to read in order to formulate my
suggestion. Finally, using not only the case studies, but also the knowledge I have acquired from
other sources, I will formulate a long range suggested course of action, along with
recommendations for Vandelay Industries.
Vandelay Industries is a publicly traded company who is in the latex industry. They
manufacture and sell latex to wholesalers. Vandelay has been in this business for over 30 years
and their President and Chief Operating Officer is Kal Varnsen. Mr. Varnsen just recently took
over the company and has indicated to me, he is looking to find ways to change Vandelay from
their “old school” way of operating. Vandelay was previously run by H.E. Pennypacker who
was president of the company from the beginning. Formerly an industry leader in the latex
business, Vandelay has seen their enterprise fall behind the competition in several key areas.
“The Human Moment at Work,” by Edward M. Hallowell was published in the Harvard
Business Review in 1999. In this article, Hallowell takes an interesting view of how the growing
age of information technology can negatively affect the workplace. Hallowell’s background is
not as an executive, but yet in psychiatry where he has over twenty years experience. Time and
time again, Hallowell discuss the human moment, even in the title, which he defines as, “an
authentic psychological encounter that can happen only when two people share the same
physical space” (Hallowell, 1999). Hallowell also explains that for the human moment truly to
occur, their must be a person’s physical presence along with their emotional and intellectual
attention. In his opinion, these “human moments” are beginning to disappear from the work
place and life in general and that these absences could be destructive (Hallowell, 1999).
Hallowell focuses his article on some specific examples on how the absence of the human
moment in an organization can really be destructive. One of the examples that I found to be
insightful dealt with a gentleman named Ray who was a senior systems manager in a large
investment company. It was Ray’s opinion that not talking face to face with people as much as
he had in the past led to damaging results (Hallowell, 1999). He felt that electronic mail
communications have led to large misunderstandings with people’s feelings being hurt as well as
the focus being on the wrong information. Ray cited an example about an email he received
from a co-worker where a supervisor was copied on the note and in his opinion the e-mail had a
“peremptory tone” (Hallowell, 1999). In response to this note, Ray decided to send a pompous
letter back where he copied multiple individuals explaining what he had done. The result of this
response was that Ray had become this gentleman’s adversary, as opposed to what needed to be