Power, office, Politics: Thomas Green and McDonalds Case
INTRODUCTION
Thomas Green has been very successful in his previous positions. After joining Dynamic Displays, he was promoted to a Senior Market Specialist and received a 50% raise. The Vice President, Shannon McDonald, was the one who promoted Green after Frank Davis, who was the Senior Market Specialist before Green, was promoted to a director position. As a Vice President, McDonald abused her power when she hired Green because she did not consult with Frank Davis. She told Green that he lacked experience in management and also warned him that Davis already has someone else in mind but still gave him the position. This may had something to do with the fact that Green and McDonald were both alumni of the University of Georgia.
Later, during a budget meeting for Green’s region, Frank Davis presented the sales targets for the year since he held Green’s position before his promotion. Green wasn’t happy about the 10% growth projections that Davis presented and expressed his disagreement with Davis during the meeting. Davis wasn’t impressed with Green’s behavior during the meeting and conveyed his disapproval of Green to McDonald through an e-mail message. Davis did not approve of Green’s work ethic and thought that he was not the right candidate for the position. After learning that Davis and McDonald were displeased with his performance, Green understood that his job is at risk and started contemplating on how to fix his mistakes.
What are the work styles and personalities of Thomas Green and Frank Davis?
Green and Davis’ work styles and personalities differ dramatically.
Davis is an experienced strategic team player. He went along with McDonald’s hiring decision even though he did not agree with the selection. Recently promoted to a director position, Davis is organized, highly detailed and prefers to use analytics and data to make decisions and sales projections. He seems to be strict, direct and expects his subordinates to provide him with updates on the state of the business. Instead of using gut feelings, Davis wants to see all decisions justified with data. Green on the other hand, prefers to meet face to face with clients and win them over with good, long-term ideas that benefit the client as opposed to detailed planning and preparing financial statements and hard data. He used up a lot of his time on developing new software for the airline industry that would generate additional revenue for the airlines. Green prefers to work independently. He also seems more arrogant and impulsive than Davis and has a hard time adjusting to Davis’ expectations. For example, Davis asked Green to provide him with data on different clients multiple times yet Green always had an excuse as to why the request was never attended to. Green had much less experience than Davis but really wanted to prove himself to upper management.