Kimberly Herring - Master Case - We Googled You

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Kimberly Herring We Goggled You

Kimberly Herring
Master Case We Goggled You
VPMBA 652cHR Summer 2014
Due: 7/26/2014
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Problem statement
In the article We Goggled You the CEO of Hathaway Jones, Fred Westen, is faced with a
recruitment dilemma as he has to make a decision that may help or hinder his plans for
expansion in the China retail market.

Back Ground
Hathaway Jones is a luxury apparel retailer with a huge chain of stores in the United States.
Despite their good results in the past, the company sales has fallen and the image is slowly
declining as young American people seem to be out of Hathaways reach. Freds plan is to save
the company by entering the Chinese market and opening three new stores in the three largest
and wealthiest cities Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai. With Freds extensive experience in
luxury brands, he realizes that Hathaway Jones needs a vibrant young and experienced manager
to run the flagship store in Shanghai. A candidate by the name of Mimi is being considered for
the position. Mimi Brewster: majored in Chinese history, MBA degree, four years experience at
the West Coast regional ofce of Eleanor Gaston, the largest clothing company in the United
States, very ambitious and creative. Not only does she have impressive credentials, but she can
bring a unique perspective to Hathaway Jones since she lived in China and understands the
Chinese culture. The high profile position that Mimi is being considered for is very important
because it can make or break the companys success in the Chinese retail market. Aside from
Mimis qualifications she is also the daughter of Freds old friend and college roommate, who
had contacted Fred on Mimis behalf for an opportunity to run the location in China. Fred
believed that it would be an easy decision to for him to fit Mimi somewhere in the organization
given her experiences and his relationship with her dad.
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However after Mimis initial interview with Fred Virginia Flanders, VP of HR, while putting
together a file on Mimi, ran a routine background search on Google. During the search it was
uncovered that Mimi was involved in protests against the World Trade organization as a recent
graduate of University of California, Berkeley. Although these findings alone raised eyebrows
about the candidate, this was not the most disturbing news. As Virginia continued to search on
Google she found a picture of Mimi protesting at the Chinese Consulate about the treatment of a
dissident journalist. Normally political involvement wouldnt have a huge impact on a
candidates ability to effectively perform their job duties. However with this information that
Virginia has uncovered, the CEO needs to make a calculated business decision that will protect
Hathaway Jones success in China. Does Fred hire Mimi because she is qualified on paper? Or
does he deny her for the position in China because of her past political involvements?

Assumptions
1. The company has resources to lead employee development and training programs
2. Mimi will agree to come back in to discuss her political involvement
3. The company has a budget to hire for both the China Position and a new international
business trainer position for Mimi.
4. Fred has the budget to hire a firm to consult him on the Chinese Culture.
5. Strict policy and procedure guidelines has not been agreed to and used for new hires in
the past.

The Issues in this case are:
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1. Lack of confidence in Freds ability to hire the best employee for Hathaway Jones.
2. Freds personal feelings and emotions trump business considerations.
3. Lack of knowledge in Chinas web-oriented culture
4. Mimis lack of tactful and professional experience
5. Lack of policy and procedure in recruitment

Lack of confidence in Freds ability to hire the best employee for Hathaway Jones
It is critical for a business to work together with its leaders to solve problems or goals will not be
achieved. The CEO of Hathaway Jones has not done a great job in including key employees in
hiring decisions in the past. According to Virgina Flanders, VP of Human Resources, Fred will
rather hire external candidates then to growth and develop the talent inside of the organization.
As CEO of the Hathaway Jones, Fred should be an advocate for employee talent development
programs that will fosters growth for future business leaders. In addition to neglecting internal
talent and hiring externally, Fred downplays the value of the HR staff. This issue seems to be
prevalent in businesses today, where a CEO would take on the responsibly of other key roles in
the organization. Is it because the CEO is not confident in the employees ability to perform their
role functions? Or maybe it goes deeper than that? Maybe the CEO has a hard time relinquishing
control to other people in fear that he or she will lose control? Either way this is a serious issue
that plagues Hathaway Jones leadership. Also the CEO of an organization typically plays a major
role in HR policy implementation. David M. Sikora said it best when he stated While the HR
department typically develops each organization's HR practices, line managers are usually
responsible for the implementation of such practices. Consequently, well-designed HR practices
may be poorly or inconsistently implemented by the firm's line managers. (Sikora, 2014) If the
CEO does not support or constantly downplays the value of HR, line managers will likely rely on
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previous experiences when dealing with employees and this may or may not be conducive to the
goals of the organization. It is obvious that the VP of Human Resources, Virginia Flanders, do
not have confidence in the CEOs decision making abilities and leadership of the company. This
begs the question: Is Virginias animosity for the CEO a result of one unfavorable recruitment
decision or many? Decisions that are made to hire externally can have a negative effect on
employee morale in the organization. We can assume from Virginias demeanor that other
employees share similar feelings of distrust for the CEO, seeing as how employees typically look
to HR for issues in the workplace. Patrick M Wright and others stated that HR executives
constantly try to prove themselves to top level management and uphold the value of HR in the
business.(Wright, 2001) Perhaps the lack of appreciation and recognition of Virginias position
in Hathaway Jones encouraged her non-standard employment screening practices. Lets face it,
not every employer searches 11 pages on Google for dirt on employees. It is not unlikely for
employers nowadays to search online for information, however 11 pages on Google seems a bit
much. With that being said her Google routine, although unlikely, there are currently no laws
concerning Internet searches or how a company can use the information found in its employment
decisions. Therefore as long as there is no discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender,
disability, age and national origin, and all traditional employment laws are being executed, then
Virginia actions are legal. In this case her shrewd screening practices may have saved the
company from making a terrible business decision by hiring Mimi for the Chinas position. Fred
needs to take this experience as a learning lesson and partner with Virginia to develop internal
employees and standardize recruitment practices going forward.

Freds personal feelings and emotions trump business considerations
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Freds leadership style can be defined as transactional primarily because his decisions are based
on emotional feelings about performance. This could be assumed from the article since he only
hires outside of the organization and does not effectively develop internal talent. Could this mean
that Fred only hires those who he has a personal connection with or who has a favorable
disposition? This leadership style may be ideal for an organization that is constantly developing
its employees and have reachable targets in place. As it appears Hathaway Jones does not have
either of these, so measuring performance is truly up to the decision makers perception. Since
hes been in office Fred has made several decisions while relying on his emotions and
perceptions of people, and that has caused key employees to turn against him. Virginia
mentioned that Fred hired his entire executive team from outside of the organization, which
indicates that Fred could not trust anyone whom he had not hired directly. Therefore, the
candidates who he hired may or may not have been more qualified than members of his internal
staff. Fred also showed little regard toward Virginias findings about Mimis because of the two
combative pasts, when he was skeptical about the information she had found. Both Virginia and
Fred obviously have different opinions about the business and how it should be ran. The logical
resolution to maintain a professional relationship is to hire or appoint a mediator to help remedy
their issues with each other, so that they can focus on the business needs. Bano Fakhra Batool
said it best when he mentioned that transformational leadership has higher rating of effectiveness
and satisfaction, higher group performance and higher amounts of effort from subordinates
compared to transactional leadership. This is primarily because transformational leaders
stimulate interest, inspires, builds awareness around the organization and considers the interests
of others over their own personal interests. (Batool, 2013)

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Additionally, Freds initial interview with Mimi took an unprofessional turn for the worst when
he switch from CEO of Hathaway Jones to a friend of the family soon after the two spoke about
Mimis mother and reminisced on the past. By laying down his executive hat during the
interview, Fred allowed himself to become emotionally vulnerable to Mimis ambition while
blinded by her brash demeanor. A leader that is emotionally intelligent has the skills needed to
effectively monitor and manage his or her emotions as well as others. As CEO of Hathaway
Jones, Fred has an obligation to the company to ensure success and long term profitability by
working with HR to recruit the best candidates. Fred considered her experiences and
qualifications for the role while neglecting specific professional weaknesses and personality
traits that may potentially harm Hathaway Jones business culture. This issue speaks to an earlier
point about the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership roles. Perhaps if Fred took the
time to better acquaint himself with Hathaway Joness culture he may have discussed some of
the required personality traits with Mimi during the interview. One trait a great leader should
have is emotional intelligence when it comes to running an organization and discovering other
great leaders. Srivastava K. said it best when he stated that, Emotional intelligence can best be
described as the ability to monitor ones own and other peoples emotions, to discriminate
between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to
guide thinking and behavior. (Srivastava ,2013)

Lack of knowledge in Chinas web-oriented culture
There are many things that can influence the growth and prosperity of an organization. Business
leaders have control over some things like employees and products to market, but little control
over things like external perceptions. Consumers and competitors typically search the web to
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either uncover information or understand more about products and services of an organization.
Since China is one of the largest web oriented markets in the world, negative publicity can be
detrimental to the health of a company entering the market. With that being said, China can be a
great opportunity for Hathaway Jones to grow and target the younger population as they are
struggling with in the US. However before Hathaway Jones embark on this journey into a new
emerging market like China Fred needs to consult with a marketing firm that can educate him not
only on the consumer market, but also on the Chinese culture and how it relates to Hathaway
Jones business to avoid failure. Freds recruitment dilemma regarding Mimis candidacy may
stem from his vivid understanding of the westernize business culture but not of Chinas. While
living in America, Mimi exercised her right to freedom of speech, which so many Americans
take for granted. Whether advocating against discrimination, abortion or animal cruelty, these
women and men can assert their freedom of speech anywhere they choose. However, the Chinese
government does not share similar feelings towards protesters. In fact those who do decide to
protest against the Chinese government are labeled as dissidents of the country, abused and
imprisoned. It is important that he understands that Guanxi, which is a connection and
relationship between people, is essential to the Chinese culture. According to Hongzhi Gao,
Guanxi, the cultural and social concept deeply influences the behaviors of Chinese business
people. This concept places more attention on the personal trust, indebtedness, personal
interaction, family influence and previous social relationships. (Gao, 2012) Confucianism has a
large influence on the way business is conducted in China. If Guanxi is not developed carefully it
can mean trouble for any business looking to expand to the China market. According to Guy
Olivier Faure Without guanxi one simply cannot get anything done (Faure, 2008) Although
Mimi has great credentials and knowledge of the Chinese culture, her political past is not
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something that Hathaway should disregard. If the Chinese government or a competitor happens
to search for information on Hathaway Jones in China and Mimi Brewsters name shows up with
images of her protesting against the Chinese Consulate, it will not be good for the companys
image. However, as Fred stated in the article, Mimi Brewsters qualifications do not walk into a
company like Hathaway Jones every day, so it would be a shame not to create a position where
her skills would be valuable to the company. Therefore, Fred should hire Mimi as an
International Business Trainer for Hathaway Jones. This role will allow him to capitalize on her
skills in the retail business as well as her Chinese influences. She could be directly responsible
for training and development of managers for the stores in China, and consultant to the CEO as
needed. Not only will this decision benefit Hathaway Jones, but it will also provide her with an
opportunity to develop communication skills.

Mimis lack of tactful and professional experience
When screening applicants employers nowadays look for more than just credentials to
determine a good fit, they also look for personality traits that mesh well with the organizations
culture. For instance, an aggressive personality trait may be ideal for a candidate applying for a
supervisory role in a competitive sales environment but not for a manager in an office
environment. If we consider Mimis letters of recommendations from former employers, she has
been described as aggressively creative, original, opinionated, and a risk taker. All of these
appear to be great attributes for a business manager, but those attributes may not mesh well with
the culture at Hathaway Jones. It can be assumed that Hathaway Jones culture is gentle and
reserved from Virginias reaction to the former employers description of Mimi. Her reaction
confirmed that Mimis personality may be more than what Hathaway Joness employees are
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accustomed to, and that may cause conflicts. This is best said by Shenxue Li when he stated,
Inter-partner conflicts and misunderstanding of each other due to societal differences in work
attitudes, motivational structures, interpersonal norms, and negotiating styles between foreigners
and Chinese often lead to low performance. (Li, 2009)
Although Mimi was being interviewed for a high profile position she did not see the need to be
professional, and showed little regard for Freds position as CEO of the company. She felt a
sense of comfort when Fred opened the interview with small talk about her mother. This
allowed Mimi to open up and talk freely about the business and how she could be a valuable
asset in Hathaway Jones expansion to China. However, during the interview she constantly
talked over Fred to impress him with her wealth of knowledge about the business. See it that
Fred was so overwhelmed with the amount of experience and the emotional connection with her
family; he completely ignored the inappropriate behavior. Mimi unprofessional behavior during
the interview with Fred suggests that she needs more experience in an executive setting. With
implementation of an effective employee development program she can improve these skills
overtime. However, it is best that Mimi is hired for a position behind the scenes to avoid
reputation issues that may stem from her past political involvement with China. The position in
China that she applied for is a high profile one in a place where expatriate women managers are
already stereotyped. Adding an aggressive, opinionated and brash woman with a past to the mix
can be catastrophic for Hathaway Jones business in China. Linda B. Dwoskin said it best when
she said, Finding and hiring the best and most qualified candidates for available positions is
vital to any organizations success.(Dwoskin, 2014) Mimi may be a valuable asset to Hathaway
Jones but not for the position she interviewed for. If Fred would consider Mimi for an
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international business trainer position within the company this will allow him to utilize her
business skills and ideas while maintaining a positive image.

Lack of policy and procedure in recruitment
Since recruitment plays a vital role in the success of any organization, no one can deny that
without a proper procedure for recruitment and selection a company can never achieve its goals.
It is assumed that an interview process is only effective if it has the ability to identify those
candidates who are most qualified for the position which they are applying for. If there is not an
effective process in place the interviewer may rely heavily on personal chemistry with the
candidate as a decision criterion. However, some of these decisions will be successful for the
company and others will result in failure of an unfitting candidate. Most companies choose to
have either multiple interviews or a panel interview for a high profile position like the one Mimi
applied for. In this case, Fred acted on his emotions while setting up the meeting with Mimi and
neglected to involve HR until after the initial interview. According to Mario Fifi, there have
been several studies focusing on the individual interviewer skills and it shows that some
interviews are better than others when selecting the best candidates. (Fifi, 2014) This is
precisely why companies today typically have multiple interviews to ensure that the best
candidate is chosen. The purpose of the interview should be to maximize the chance of making
successful selection decisions. From the article, it is assumed that no other candidates were
interviewed or considered for the position in China. One successful interview with a potential
candidate should not automatically eliminate all other perspective candidates without additional
interviews. The best way to ensure that effective interview techniques are practiced across the
organization is to develop a set of standards that will be used with every recruitment interview.
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Nicolas Dunlap said it best when he said, having the right people in place is key - not only to
the success of an asset but to the success of a company. (Dunlap, 2014) Standards should be
developed with top level management and the companys lawyer to iron out all of the legal
aspects in the hiring process while creating an effective recruitment policy. Additionally, all
hiring managers should sign the new policy and procedures to insure compliance.

Recommendations:
Short Term:
1. Contact Mimi to come into the office to discuss the information found on Google. Then
explain the conflict that her past involvement will have on the business in China, and
offer Mimi an International Business Trainer position instead.
2. Fred should conduct extensive market research on Chinas business practices to better
familiarize himself with Chinas business culture and web-oriented country.
3. Create a detailed job description for the China position that requires applicants to disclose
past business or relationships with Chinas government. To be developed with a Lawyer.
4. A strict hiring Policy & Procedures should be developed with the assistance of the
companys lawyer. In Addition, each manager should be made to signed and agree to
policy and procedures.
Long Term:
1. Develop team building training sessions for everyone in the organization.

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