Karen LearyEssay Preview: Karen LearyReport this essayISC 309Case Paper #1Karen LearyThe case mainly describes the conflict between the resident vice president and general manager at the Elmville branch of Merrill Lynch, Karen Leary, and a Taiwan-born financial consultant under Leary, Ted Chung. The most significant problem in this case is that he threatens his superior, Leary, to let him have a private office. He thinks that he deserves a private office and says that he will leave Learys branch if not allowed. However, his superior, Karen Leary, does not think that he needs more experience and education to have a private office.
The problem was briefly addressed in the very first part of the case. After the short paragraphs, backgrounds of Merrill Lynch, Karen Leary, and Ted Chung and management style of Leary follows. These followings let readers know the exact situations and thoughts of Leary and Chung, so that I can infer which problem they are in. The additional information also even delivers minor emotions or gestures, so that I can vividly imagine about the problem.
I both agree and disagree with what was done regarding the problem. First, I believe that Leary did very well to convince Chung that this is not the appropriate time to have a private office. She logically explained why his demand cannot be satisfied. At first, she explained that nobody had had a private office within his or her one year career as a financial consultant. Also, she added that allowing Chung to have a private office is not fair to other financial consultants because some of them have careers of 10 years or more and still do not have their own business. She did refuse his request, but she acknowledged how well he worked. She did not say that she would not accept his demand. She explained that he needs more experience before his independence.
However, I somewhat do not like Learys behavior toward financial consultants under her. I am not saying that she did a bad job on delivering her points to Chung. He kept nodding on her words and Learys explanation was very understandable. The case shows that Leary has her own special management style, which is monitoring market indicators and current events on Quotron screens. She continuously does a lot of informal coaching and counseling like asking consultants questions about what they are working on and that rather they know about new tax-free bonds up or not. The case notes that the business increased by 30% during Learys first year. There is no doubt that her management style is very effective.
Nonetheless, this might not make a perfect match with Chung. In the case, Chung is described as a successful salesman for a real estate company. He appears mature, stable, and responsible. He had his own moving business and was well westernized even though he is an Asian. He also performed an outstanding job in the intensive four-month training program. Chung not only seemed successful, but also proved his capacity by bringing in a 6 million dollar account. Throughout these points, I believe that he is a man who has a high pride on himself. For example, he does not let anyone to use his desk and tries to have a distance among other consultants and Leary. Therefore, Learys caring might be misdelivered as a disturbance to him. As an example, the case shows that Chung kept assured Leary that he is going to develop relationships for substantial accounts. This seems
s a far worse case of deception for Chung. On the one hand, I think it is important to give Chung a chance to learn firsthand that he has some strong qualities. Secondly, a large number of other Asians were not willing to take up positions that would allow him to get a contract. They were very skeptical about the possibilities of Chung working in one of his companies. One of them even took Chung to see Hong Kong headquarters as a work project. Another took the job on his own. In all of these situations, a person might find that Chung is too much of a burden and too slow in his work. Furthermore, the fact that a large number of Asian people are still not quite comfortable with Chung as a man would mean that, even if they had to change their behavior, Chung would still be the best man. However, an attempt at change is possible only with good leadership and good management. With the right kind of human spirit, Chung is able to develop a much more stable and professional relationship. The truth is that at the moment, these two are both still in their early stages of development but Chung, who is quite mature, has shown great maturity and has a lot of experience (at least that I have seen). The problem may have to do with his poor interpersonal and business relations. Finally, Chung was very generous and kind to him. He went to China and stayed for a month. During that period, he asked several of his relatives if he could send him money for his daughter’s first birthday. If Chung’s response was “Yes”, those relatives might not even believe him. Even though Chung promised that he would send his daughter, the relatives did not trust Chung and his company. As a result, they did not want to invest at all that much money in Chung. Thus, Chung’s family was left with limited means of making that money and making the money. But this is all due to his very good work management attitude. Chung and his family are very good at taking care of themselves, especially their child. As a result, I believe that Chung is probably able to use his business contacts to turn around his business situation. They may have a special sense of “one day”, the day he becomes really good and the day the money disappears. In other words, in a very real situation, there’s no guarantee that his business will prosper and his business will be good. If Chung does not have the money that would come from his family’s trust, it might not be in his interest to sell the business business for a future generation. Moreover because of his great reputation, Chung has not shown this very much. On the other hand, his good attitude was of great interest to other Chinese businessmen and many of them, as well as some Chinese, are now making decisions in their hearts that seem quite like he’s doing them on his own terms. I believe this would be a difficult situation. Therefore, I would rather his management at the moment still have the control over Chung. I think at the moment the main problem for Chung is what kind of person Chung is. If he wants to act as an entrepreneur, he would rather have to be someone who really understands a lot of Chinese business, someone who understands the problems that Taiwan does and knows a lot about Chinese businesses (and he knows it too; so he can use them to his advantage). However, it’s just not possible for this person to do anything like Chung, who can only