Case Study on The nice guy

Submitted by: Bin Ehsan Ishtiaque

Student ID No: 12215202
Submitted to: Professor: Lailana Alcantara
Class: Organizational Behavior

Dated: 2016/05/14

Bin Ehsan Ishtiaque

Student ID: 12215202

Case Analysis
Paul Kennedy grew up in a wholesome family. To his father and mother work and
family was life and Paul spent a large chunk of his time growing up at his parent print
shop. There he learned the work ethics his parents and the other workers displayed and
learned to appreciate their dedication, teamwork and the value of every employees job;
big or small.
For ten years Paul dedicated himself to working at Daner Associates and associated
himself to every level of work. He stuck to the principal his parents taught him and
treated employees, customers and suppliers alike with respect and in return he became a
role model to the workforce and had everyones respect as someone who could get the
job done.
Paul is high on agreeableness as he is compassionate towards the operations manager
who is underperforming due to her mothers terminal illness. Instead of listening to the
advice of his competitor for the CEO post, George, Paul is more inclined towards
lessening her workload rather than finding a replacement. In another instance due to his
operations managers incompetence one of his suppliers is blaming Daner for a mistake
in the production process and is trying to pin the bill on Daner. In this context Paul does
not do anything to criticize his workforce however urges them to be hard nosed to the
supplier to get them to accept their mistake. He then tells his representative that they are
even willing to make compromises considering the long standing relationship the
businesses have giving mixed messages of what is expected of the negotiator. Finally on
the negotiation with Cuyagen Daner is willing to go below company standards for profit
considering the fact that Daner needs to be a part of the Biotech sector. This shows that
Paul is capable of long term orientated thinking when need be. He performs rational
decision making and is first aware of the broader picture before making a decision based
on the best alternative. He was willing to let go of immediate profits in order to stake a
claim in the Biotech industry which would broaden Daners portfolio and bring higher
profits from that industry in the long run. However George was put off by Cuyagens
low counter offer and was planning on sticking to their original offer. Hence what is
disadvantageous for Daner is the fact that the current CEO also has the tendency of
walking away if a project does not appear lucrative at first glance. This shows that
George and the CEO are both intuitive thinkers meaning that they are not willing to
consider all the alternatives and analyse the entire situation before making a decision.
This gun ho style of management might be quick and decisive unlike Pauls way
however it can mean that Daner Associates are missing out on many opportunities.

Pauls Big Letdown

Paul is heartbroken to know that the CEO is considering George over him to take over.
Since Paul is the senior among the two he feels as though he is fitter for the job and has
now become confused about his role and whether he is at all wanted in Daner
Associates. He identifies that the CEO might have availability heuristic which means
since he was spending more time with George drinking and sharing dirty jokes the CEO
is perceiving George as the better option. The CEO also shares the same views as
George in regards to Paul being too easy going and not tough enough. This is a classic
case of anchorage bias from the CEO as George is feeding him information slightly on

Bin Ehsan Ishtiaque

Student ID: 12215202

the negative side about Paul and he feels that he is making an informed judgment and
knows Pauls shortcomings.

Saving Paul Kennedy

In this situation where Paul is unlikely to get the promotion he deserves, he must
reevaluate the characteristics of the CEO and George too who heavily influences him. In
order to secure the promotion he must appeal to their intuition and show a flurry of
activity which from the outside might look cold blooded and drastic but does not need
to be that way on the inside. Paul might transfer the operations manager to a much less
demanding job, this will let her recuperate but in effectiveness is a transfer or
replacement. He can use his personal relationship with the supplier and get them to
accept their mistake in exchange for small compensation. Finally using his plan to use a
study on industry standard rates to get leverage and sign a deal with Cuyagen. But the
key to success for Paul should be to create a stir and get back into the head of the CEO
so that he has someone to compare George to when it comes to the handover. In order to
save himself Paul must regularly report his activities and the benefits they reap for the
company to the CEO. If Paul is able to break the anchorage bias George is creating on
the CEO it is highly likely that he will be chosen over the less successful George.

References
Read, J. D. (1995). The availability heuristic in person identification: The sometimes
misleading consequences of enhanced contextual information. Applied Cognitive
Psychology Appl. Cognit.
Psychol., 9(2), 91-121. doi:10.1002/acp.2350090202
Hofstede, G. (2011). Dimensionalizing Cultures: The Hofstede Model in
Context. Online Readings in Psychology and Culture, 2(1). doi:10.9707/23070919.1014
Boundless (2015). Boundless Management. Retrieved from
https://www.boundless.com/management/textbooks/boundless-managementtextbook/decision-making-10/rational-and-nonrational-decision-making-76/rationaldecision-making-369-8376/