Thomas Green: Power, Office Politics, and a

Career in Crisis- Case Study Analysis

Management of Organization

Prepared by
Group# 04
ZR1801005 | ZR1801018 | ZR1801025
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 1

2.0 Different work styles, personalities, and expectations of Davis and Green....................................... 1

2.1 Different work styles and personalities of Davis and Green .......................................................... 1

2.2 Difference between the actions of Green and the expectations of Davis ....................................... 2

3.0 Possible underlying agendas for Davis and McDonald ....................................................................... 3

3.1 Agendas of Davis ................................................................................................................................ 3

3.2 Agendas of McDonald ........................................................................................................................ 3

4.0 Recommended actions: What Thomas Green should do .................................................................... 3

5.0 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 4

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1.0 Introduction
The case describes the dilemma of a Senior Market Specialist, Thomas Green, who, after being
rapidly promoted, is harshly criticized by his boss, Frank Davis. Green and Davis disagree on
work styles and market projections. Green believes the sales goals set by Davis are based on
"creative accounting" and grossly overstate the current market environment. A mood of silent
conflict develops quickly between the two men, and Green is concerned that Davis is building a
case to fire him. Green's situation is one in which his failure to adapt his work style and fully
understand the demands and boundaries of his new position may lead to his discharge. A factor
in the background is Green's relationship with his boss's boss.
2.0 Different work styles, personalities, and expectations of Davis and
Green
2.1 Different work styles and personalities of Davis and Green
Thomas Green is a practical person who follows the traditional well-defined rules and
regulations with abundant experience in sales field. On one hand, Green is an ambitious,
innovative and confident person and is concerned with practicality of a decision. In essence,
Green would like to under-promise and over-deliver. He was interested in the end result
performance but not in the detailed plan. On the other hand, Green’s strong talent made him love
the challenge of meeting new persons and winning them over. He likes to work independently
and is more of a face to face person when delivering his ideas to client and recommendations to
Davis. He prefers verbal communication over written form of communication and does not like
to present his thought through presentations, reports etc.
However, lacking of experience in marking analysis and lacking of formality in business
dealings are something cannot be ignored, making him difficult to work smoothly in Dynamic
Displays. He has short term focus and lacks long-term strategic decision-making skills, making
himself not well adjusted with the politics and putting himself in a disadvantage situation in the
company.
Frank Davis, marketing director of Dynamic Displays, is an excellent strategic player and has a
micro-managing, intense style of leadership. To put it in other saying, he is an achievement-
oriented person who is serious in details and less social in relationship. He is also a good reader
because he prefers written content over others. Davis’s excellent analytical strength along with
his 17 years of experience enabled him to come up with a 10% market growth. Additionally,

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Davis likes to make decision based on fact and his working style seems to be direct and to the
point, therefore, he prefers taking support of reports, memos and presentations where
recommendations and strategies should be justified using hard data rather than relying on verbal
conversation.
Moreover, Davis wanted the team to be in a positive mindset in order to keep moral up. He is so
aware of the office politics and pays attention to strong effects and enthusiasm of the employee.
He is a transactional leader who is good at setting goal, sales projections and expectations. For
one thing, Davis values team work, for another he also values good communication with status
update and quick responsiveness. As the leader of marketing Specialist team, Davis was
expecting a precise plan of every detail, schedule and documentation from Green and wanted
him to provide recommendations for changes in attitude, behavior, and communication.
2.2 Difference between the actions of Green and the expectations of Davis
There are lots of differences in the actions of Green compared to the expectations of Davis. First
of all, Green’s previous position of Account Executive was conservative and his priority was
only to communicate with the productive clients and meet the sales target. After Green
skyrocketed rapidly tot eh position of Senior Market Specialist with McDonald’s appreciation,
Green did not transfer well in market sense and work style. Frank Davis expected Green to be a
reliable and professional person who could identify industry trends, evaluate new business
opportunities and establish sales goals. Specifically, Thomas Green not only needs to develop
general market and specific strategies to help the account executives to enhance sales and meet
the target results, but also needs to be strategic in identifying patterns, predicting problems and
providing relevant solutions.
On the other side, Davis is unsatisfied that Thomas Green did not build an effective
communication channel with him. To be more precise, Davis was not aware of Green because
Green never informed Davis about his schedules. It is well known that one of the major tasks of
Senior Market Specialist is to follow up market information but Green failed to give feedback on
the supporting data that required to be put on memos and presentations before the required
deadlines which is violating Davis’s work standards. What's more serious, Green was not
enthusiastic and wasted time by complaining on the problems he faced. Davis was irritated by
Green’s negative attitude as he expected his subordinate to be optimistic and responsible to
official work.

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3.0 Possible underlying agendas for Davis and McDonald
3.1 Agendas of Davis
Davis was ambitious and climbed up the career ladder to the position of Marketing Director
since he joined Dynamic Displays in 1990. However, Davis was not a shining eye catcher
compared to McDonald who joined the company later than him but got promoted faster than
him, it is tough for Davis to accept the fact that McDonald got a senior position as Vice President
which he believes should belonged to him as being service the longest in Dynamic Displays and
having more work experience.
More than this, it is unacceptable for Davis that McDonald did not consult Davis and made a
decision to promoted Green to Senior Market Specialist, the position where it took years for
Davis to reach whereas Green got easily in just six months and that Davis had expected to
choose someone else but Green. Therefore, the most underlying agenda of Davis is to prove that
McDonald was serving her own personal interest to hire Green rather than being sincere with the
success of the company on merit basis. By exposing her manipulation of bureaucracy to the
CEO, the possibility for Davis of replacing the position of McDonald as Vice President will
greatly increase.
3.2 Agendas of McDonald
McDonald, in lieu of the benefit of the Travel and Hospitality Division, possesses the sufficient
power in her hands to demonstrate and take decision. Compared to Davis and Green, McDonald
is so clever and familiar with the politics in the organization. She was also aware that Davis may
be threatening and had all the intention to find her mistake and weaken her position in the
company. What’s more, McDonald was pretty good at playing politics and using people for her
own good as she knew that Green was from her own state and graduated from the same
university. There are so many advantages that McDonald could take and she could easily control
Green compared to any other employees. Therefore, it is obvious that McDonald’s motive is to
enhance her position, increase her network and enforce her influence by getting information of
Davis’ department from Green.
4.0 Recommended actions: What Thomas Green should do
Considering the scenario of Thomas Green, there are few points that could be recommended as
follows:

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 A. Communicate and consult with McDonald First: Since it was McDonald’s decision to
hire Green, McDonald would never let this kind of situation go worse, or her reputation
and authority will be terribly affected. By far, Green should urgently setup a meeting with
McDonald, clarifying all the misunderstanding and wrong perception and consulting
advices to develop a further roadmap for him in the company.
B. Prepare a formal and detailed email to McDonald: In order to improve the situation,
first and foremost, Green should accept all his mistakes that has led to the present
misunderstanding and promise to find ways to improve the relations. Secondly, he should
state all the achievements still date, all the marketing strategies that he had conducted, all
the sales tactics that had increase sales of the eastern region. Lastly, he should come up
with a detailed and comprehensive plan and schedule in a very professional and
respectful manner.
C. Manage his supervisor in a smart way: Green should take into consideration Davis’s
strengths and weaknesses, analysis his work styles, and then follow his order and foot-
steps in a preferred work style. Since, he has no experience with forecasting whereas
Davis is expert in this field, he should ask for advice to get more exposure and training
from Davis.
D. Create networks in workplace: Green should seek suggestions from other Senior
Market Specialists in the department. Having good and cordial relationship would benefit
him in his progress as he would have people to support and guide him.
E. Adapted to the politics in a quick way: No one cannot just ignore the political
environment and survive well without paying attention to it. If necessary, Green may
expose the sales unrealistic figures in a suitable way to McDonald and show evidence to
prove that Frank’s projection was wrong and his anticipation was right.
5.0 Conclusion
The case study analysis of Thomas Green provides a look into how the use and misuse of power,
and the engagement in politicking, can drastically affect an organization, and one’s own career.
Playing politics can be a dirty thing, but if used legally and ethically, it can bring success to not
only an individual’s career, but also the organization as well. Our motivations to help ourselves
inevitably help others, but when we use others in a hurtful or egregious way, we tarnish our
reputation.