Ebranhim Case
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Executive Summary
Ebrahim with high self esteem and a dream to work as consultant supported by great achievements in his high school and university joined Matthews as a summer intern. He started his work with enthusiasm to prove himself to attain the opportunity of being a full time employee in one of the top three consulting firms in the world.
Unfortunately things did not go well as he aimed as a result of lack of communication between Ebrahim and his supervisor Mahfouz. The work environment was full of stress and pressure in addition to heavy work load that should be processed in limited time. The communication model concentrate on the effectiveness of encode and decode information between the sender and the receiver which was not applied in this situation. That result in ambiguous instructions and directions that did not help Ebrahim performing his tasks as Mahfouz requested. The result was relationship conflict added more pressure on Ebrahim who felt lonely without any support. The emails was Ebrahim and Mahfouze used as a communication tool was not enough to overcome this problem as the situation was so complicated to be resolved this way. Add to that, Mahfouze was assertive, aggressive and used his power to threat and push Ebrahim to work harder.
The three clashes happened in two weeks of work as result of mistakes in reports sent to Mahfouz which in his opinion did not match Matthews standard, in addition to short speech with one of client managers pushed Ebrahim to search for solution to his problem that will affect his career as a consultant.
Recommendations were to ask for meeting with Mahfouz to address the conflict to reach a solution that satisfy all parties and to put better communication methods in place so all parties performing the required job within the limited time effectively and efficiently. Escalate the issue to the partner was the second choice that Ebrahim can resort to. Continue working with the strong determination and high spirit to achieve the personal and the assignment goal is what Ebrahim has to do in the remaining time in Abu Dhabi.
Key facts:
Two threats faced consulting companies during the dot-com boom. The first one is the e-commerce experts and the internet.
The above threats lead the consulting companies to restructure to deal with the new environment.
Matthews one of the top three consulting firms with good reputation for producing implementable, data driven solutions for its clients.
Internship and full time placements at Matthews were not easy to attain. Only the best and the brightest will get the internship which may turn to full time job.
Consultants work between 60 to 90 hours weekly with busy unpredictable schedule, lots of travel. As a result no work and lifebalance.
Matthews adopt a one firm or global model which all offices keep their own identity but share resources like expertise and people and all professional were paid out of consolidated bonus pool.
Matthews offers its employees with the best training , exposes them to the best clients and several opportunities including experience in foreign offices, posting to non for profit subsidiary and invitation to worldwide social events.
Matthews Toronto is known for expertise in pulp and paper, mining, forestry, financial service, great customers service and sociable climate.
Because of Ebrahims talent and his greatachievement in his high school, university and practical life, he was offered a summer job in Matthews.
Ebrahim was looking forward to get a full time employment opportunity at Matthews.
Ebrahim had a satisfactory performance review after his first assignment.
Ebrahim with his international work experience and his ability to speak Arabic requested to be transfer to work on Abu Dabi project.
Abu DabiClinet was one of the biggest equity firm the most using of consultation services.
Team of five employees experienced manager, two team leaders and two juniors were composed to work with the client.
Ebrahim started the work as soon as he arrived without enough direction given. He booked and completed 50 interviews in two weeks.
Ebrahim did not get answers to his questions because of the tight time of his supervisor and he started to be overwhelmed without access to friends or family.
Mahfouz with eight years experience one in Matthews and seven in competing firm has a goal to establish Matthews Middle East and to leverage it to partnership in the firm.
Mahfouz always tired, stressed and engaged in too many projects at once.
Even though of Ebrahim hard work, his supervisor Mahfouz was not satisfied and scolded him for his unperfected work in three different incidents within two weeks.
Ebrahim was so frustrated, angry and was not sure how he would continue this assignment or if he has any chance to receive an offer for full time position.
Symptoms:
Ebrahim felt that he was not prepared to handle all this strenuous intensive work.
in spite of his hard work during the first week, all what he got is negative feedback without any comment to mention his effort.
Lots of criticism to his work in a harsh way such as Mahfouz said a trash bout the report Ebrahim submitted or saying that it is not a school work.
Ebrahim felt that his age and lack of experience was part of the problem that he face specially after the client and Singh had spoken to him.
Mahfouz scolded Ebrahim and told him that his work did match Matthews standard.
Ebrahim so disappointed, angry, and start to think about changing his career and counting the hours to go back to Canada.
He wondered what he could do to salvage something positive during his remaining days.
Problem statement:
The lack of communication between Ebrahim and Mafouz and lack of ruls and direction in addition to the lack of Mahfouzs leadership skills, caused conflict affected Ebrahim ability to concentrate of his performance which in return will affect the team performance.
Analysis:
Mahfouze had a goal