Name Shivam Gupta

Question 1

Lack Of Interest and Disrespectfulness - In the case study after being offered the Assistant
product Manager Lisa Benton by Product Manager Richard Clark she met her new boss
Deborah Linton they are being talking about the workplace and everything during this
conversation Benton felt Linton was least interested, as she was asked to get to know her
way around and objectives would be discussed in a couple of weeks. Also, Linton was very
disrespectful to her insulting her degree by saying “MBAs act like they know a lot more than
they do” and she hated Harvard MBAs, even Scoville an Associate Product Manager felt the
same to which politely made a statement telling them she would like hard to prove herself.
This caused a friction between her and her superiors because she felt she was treated like all
the others Linton and other MBAs they met in their time before her.

Disappointed by the Product she was assigned to:- After she had her meetings with Linton
and Scoville she was handed over a large stack of reports to copy which she finished by 7pm.
While she was on her way from the she started to review her first day of and that’s when she
felt disappointed by the product which is Pure & Fresh. She wanted more interesting job like
furniture and its maintenance which she liked the most.

Lack Of Support - Benton had few doubts in the Pure & Fresh case and wanted to talk to
Linton to get clarity so she visited her office to find out that Linton and Scoville were sitting
close and almost an intimate manner discussing something this is one time where she felt like
an intruder on the fourth day when she went to Linton again but this time she knocked on the
door and Linton was writing something and she closed immediately after seeing Benton and
said I am busy right now can you come later? She replied to which she felt intruding, to which
she felt disappointed by her boss’s lack of support to her.
Question 2

Write your answer for Part A here.

Trait Example supporting the answer

Extraversion– He is an introvert; during a meaningful social interaction with Benton,

Introversion he said he has been considered a Cooperate Misfit in the company
he only reserves his meetings with Linton and other departments
unless and until it is ‘inward-turning’ and tend to be thought-oriented,
enjoy deep and meaningful social interactions. He usually does not
attend lunch meets from other department staff.

Sensing–Intuition He prefers Intuition, as he pays more attention to things like

patterns, impressions. He was more attentive about what people
felt about him and he assumed and abstracted a theory around it.

Thinking–Feeling He is a Feeler; he feels for every small think and doesn’t have any
thinking capacity about the situation. He felt when he was not given
the promotion, he felt when Lisa didn’t do his work. Instead of
thinking he feels for the situation.

Judging–Perceiving Judging Character, he is judging character he usually does not

understands and judges them very easily. He does not understand
the person’s and is very quick in judging one such instance is
during the copying incident when Lisa has asked for time and when
she says she will do it in a while he snapped at her by judging her.
1. Being More Open about who She is: Lisa can make him understand who she is instead of
him judging her character as he is a judge, and he judges about you it is better you set
yourself straight instead of letting him and her feeling bad about herself. To avoid these, she
must be expressive. 2. Being Very Clear about her workstyle: She needs to be very clear and
calm about how she works in the company, she is analytical, she completes her tasks but as
he is a feeler, he feels for any delay that happens in the office and she can explain him by
saying in a very calm voice that she will get the work done.

Question 3

Using Johari Window this situation represents Hidden Area/Façade as she did not express
herself completely to her team leaders or members.

3A.She can improve this situation by being her true self instead being silent in things she is
good at like for instance, she considered this job instead Right Away because she never had
a female authority there but when she got the opportunity, she is not using her potential
completely because how opiniated Linton and Scoville are about the Harvard MBAs. 1.
Talking to her bosses about what she feels about something that does not feel right during
meetings is one way to improve her status in the team, she needs to talk her heart out even
though she feels she’s being left out most of the time during team meetings, but she needs to
figure out a way to express herself. This makes her boss understand her true thinking
process and can showcase her hard work which she gained as an intern in Right Away and
her knowledge she gained during her time in HBS.

3B.Benton is a very analytical person, and this is what she is hiding from both Linton and
Scoville. During her meeting with Brenner where she said she has given her first presentation
after three months after joining the company, to which Benton felt she is way too early to give
presentations to the group even this is what is been hidden to her leaders. They are
absolutely clueless about her talents and ideology as she is hiding them remembering the
 “Learning Mode” comments which she needs to let go to make any good impression to
Linton.

Question 4

During her meeting with Carol Patlin, she figured out that she needs to get a performance
evaluation which is customary in the organization, so she goes to ask Linton for performance
evaluation to which she says she is busy and one fine day she takes Benton to a nearby
restaurant and she takes out a paper to show her evaluation about Benton in which she says
she is happy with progress she made with other department and staff members and gaining
maximum knowledge about the company in such short time and her communication skills. But
then she started pointing out her weakness by saying she is unassertive" and "lacking in
initiative and confidence".

This evaluation seems very premature considering the amount of time Linton spent with Lisa
during this tenure. Linton should have considered few things to make an evaluation as Benton
was knowing for her confidence and imitativeness, 1. She should have given Benton a proper
platform to express herself in the organization, she was termed as a Harvard MBA and Linton
has no soft corners Benton was scared to be herself as she thought she would fall into that
category, but Linton should have not used that sentence way too early and take away Benton
confidence as she is scared to express, also Scoville mentioned everyone needs to go
through this Learning Period to which she completely shut herself off and made sure she did
not initiate anything new but kept doing what was assigned to her. She should not have
stripped away her confidence and should have been supportive when she approached but
she had no time for Lisa.

2. She said she was unassertive to which she should have at least heard to Benton thoughts,
she was always busy for Benton and Benton felt like she was intruding into her work, during
her meets with Staff Groups and Ad – Agency Benton was silent as she had no confident and
she felt like she did not feel much to offer in the meetings as there were Linton and Scoville
taking the charge even she had some thing to say as she had always deferred in thoughts
from those two her being a very analytical person she never had a perfect platform to express
 who she really is and started feeling that she is not a brand member this is what Linton should
not have done feeling like a fifth wheel can strip one’s confidence.

Linton should not have used Legitimate power as she is the boss of the group but treating
Benton as a just a newcomer could have been avoided, She should not have used Expert
Power over Benton and should properly have asked her for opinions and ideas in the
meetings. She should not have used Referent Power over Benton terming MBAs think they
know more and her sour respect towards Harvard MBAs.

Question 5

Carve Out Career Paths and Provide Opportunities for Growth: Lissa was never given a
proper career path in the company she was treated in ways she did not except, she was not
provided with an opportunity to grow in the company as she was asked to minimal tasks like
copying and all which is also a part but not the exact job to which she chose House world’s
home care Division. She was assigned to a project that she has no idea about her interest
lied in the furniture sector and she was never asked about it and was asked to understand the
entirety of the production line instead of her usual expertise. Linton never had a proper one
on one with Lisa to know her expertise and was blindsided by her hatred towards Harvard
hatred and was she never even gave time to talk and express herself and her values and
ideas to Linton and opportunities given to Lisa every small and the platform to grow was
never there for her. Linton never bothered to ask what Lisa wanted to be, Lisa path is to
become a marketing director in future and being a woman Linton should have been more
supportive in her case.

Hold Yourself Accountable:- Make sure managers, HR heads and executives lead by
example. If employees feel like the office rules only apply to a select few — or only apply
when it’s convenient for leadership — they’ll begin to distrust management. An inkling of
distrust between team members is a slippery slope that can lead to a negative work culture. A
toxic office environment and culture can disengage employees and this has been the case
with Linton and her actions against Lisa, Linton felt she can use her power over Lisa and she
did and has failed miserably in making a what are Lisa’s important months miserable in the
 company, even Scoville wasn’t true to his actions as he was berating Lisa to work at pace
and work like the he works and this needed to change and Lisa herself should also held
herself accountable for hidden herself from her managers and agreeing to everything they
have talked and doing whatever small work assigned to her which led to a very poor
performance in her first three months.

Allow for Honest Feedback:- First, create a platform or system that enables employees to
share their thoughts and ask questions of the right people. This will most likely be your HR
department, but c-suite executives should also be accessible to all employees, even if it is
only for a few days out of the quarter and by appointment only. Second, use your team’s
feedback. Nothing will frustrate and disengage your employees faster than if they feel they’re
wasting their time-sharing matters that are truly important to them. Listen to what your team
members have to say and act on it. In this case Lisa was never given a platform to give her
feedbacks during the meetings by Linton or Scoville. Linton needs to implement to make sure
she gives this a thought and make sure Lisa is feeling motivated to work in the organization.

Question 6

6A.Soft tactics that Lisa can use :

● Impression Management : A way of getting someone to see us likeable and trustworthy while
increasing the influence that we have on them . As Lisa is aware about the relationship between
Linton and Scoville , she can have trust from both of them by making sure that she performs the
given task properly and even letting Linton know that she has utilized her time efficiently on desk
and the reference she has in other departments that can be used positively .
● Exchange information : Accepting a point of view while exchanging the resources is a mutual
trust that goes hand in hand .Lisa had an experience in her summer internship , she can use
that experience in marketing strategies to Scovilles as he doesn’t have much knowledge in
marketing due to his previous department change from operations.

6B.Hard tactic that Lisa can use:

1.Coalition Formation : As Lisa knew that Linton’s boss and the remaining staff knew about the
capabilities that she had , she can use this as a positive method to transfer information for word
of mouth through the organization . This will help her for her referent power that she has.
2.Information Control : Exploiting information to access someone’s behavior to make things go
in your favor is something Lisa could have done . As she could have not let Linton know about
the conversation she had with Vernon and playing it cool when the topic arises .This would
make Linton anxious and this would have definitely made a change in behavior . This is how one
can access the information and use it when required

Question 7

Yes, there was a breach of ethics by Lisa’s coworkers in the organization, there relation never
grew like a tree it kept creeping away from each other,

1. Personal Bigotry: Linton from day started to attack or degrade Benton. She was not a fan of
MBAs and ha more hatred towards Harvard MBAs. She even said to her in a firm voice that
““MBAs act like they know a lot more than they do” “I’ve Known some Harvard MBAs and I
don’t like them” this is a absolute breach of ethics. We can not attack a person based on. his
religion caste creed or whatever background he/she might come we are employees in the
company and no manager can use his bigotry to degrade an employee.

2. Favoritism and Discrimination: Linton and Scoville were showing partiality to Lisa and are
decimating Lisa in their full capacity. They both are using their powers and are giving hard
 time to Lisa. Linton and have special connection with each other, Lisa walked- in on them
once seeing them in a very intimate position, Scoville is Linton’s pawn and each everything is
either delt by Linton or Scoville or together and Lisa has been left out. This is utter shame as
you can’t just have favoritism as it will hamper others confidence and can make them
question their position in the team. What Linton and Scoville is their personal, but you cannot
do that an employee by withholding the information. This one instance where the breach of
ethics was found.

Impervious In Communication: Linton and Scoville had a personal meeting almost every time
to discuss the ideas instead of a group meeting the group meetings happened only when they
are ready to present the ideas have always been theirs and nothing with the group and when
Scoville was not promoted by Linton he took it out on instead of communicating politely to
Lisa. There was a Copying Incident where Lisa was asked to do some copying work to which
she said she will be in a minute, but Scoville was arrogant and was demanding to which she
snapped and “Ron why can’t you plan your time and do your own copying?” to which he
replied, “Oh I see you are too good for copying?” and Linton has summoned Lisa forever to
which she still had blamed Lisa for everything instead of talking to Scoville about the
promotion that was withheld by her. This is also a breach of ethics such practices will make
work environment toxic and really frustrating for the others and to all in the organizations.

Question 8

Yes, Lisa should continue in House world’s home care no matter what happens in the
organist ion she needs to understand that she is very new to organization and these kind off
politics should not be the reason for her to leave the organization. She needs to remember
the reasons she picked House world’s home care over Right Away which helped her grow
and gain so much exposure in the field. She wanted to prove she belonged to more
complicated organization, Right away being a very small compared to House world’s home
care and she felt she needs to learn how an organization works, she has so much talent and
the way she excelled at Right Away during her intern period and was offered a job role which
every MBA graduate would dream off but she simply turned it down after self-assessing her
strength weakness and picking to start from basics and this is what she has done instead of
directly been kept on top of tree she wanted to climb her way through ranks and being a
Female Right Away does not have many in that terms to help her and that’s one reason to
turn down Right Away offers. Now she has an opportunity to excel, and she has whatever
wanted to have a female in the highest position calling shots and a perfect platform to
express her talent and thoughts. She can use Linton has launch pad to excel to grow in her
career. These politics keep happening, fighting her way and talking to a HR in the
organization would help her sort out so many things that are wrong. Scoville is not a bad
person to be around he is straight sometimes you need it in your life to access yourself in
instead of taking it negatively, she also needs to let go of her Harvard MBA status as you are
just another employee who is paid to work when your inside the organization a part from the
negativity she needs to concentrate on improving her performances in the company and
abide by the rules that were imposed as she is fairly new and she needs some time to get
used to the work culture and what Scoville is doing is also partially right. This is what I feel as
every human in an organization have their opinions about something but that doesn’t mean
you have to leave it instead sit down with people and let them who you are and what you can
do