Introduction
Lisa Benton, a Harvard MBA, has accepted a job offer at Houseworld’s Home Care Division as an Assistant Product Manager after turning down another job offer at Right Away Stores. Since the beginning of her current career at Houseworld, Benton encountered disputes with her boss Linton and associate Scoville due to the lack of attention and assistance from Linton, as well as the domineering and patronizing personality of Scoville. She often felt underutilized in projects and meetings because she was rarely inquired for her opinions. Due to these feelings of exclusion, she hesitated to give insight and abstained from requesting more responsibility to avoid being perceived as an “arrogant” MBA. Benton began to have some doubts …show more content…
And although every character here is both a victim and contributor to the overall problem, for the purpose of this analysis, we will focus on dichotomizing Lisa’s actions in relation to Linton and Scoville (with some digression to the institution). In Gabarro and Kotter’s “Managing Your Boss”, it is essential to know yourself as well as your boss. During the critical introductory phase in a “boss-subordinate” relationship, it is important to learn about your boss’s goals, expectations, pressures, strengths, & weaknesses. Lisa struggled to recognize this, and also struggled to identify and expand upon her own strengths and weaknesses. Especially after the countless anti-MBA remarks, Lisa would have benefitted from pressing to understand her boss’ workstyle, challenges, and objectives so that she could better align herself with these and achieved mutual …show more content…
For a company known for providing “excellent marketing training”, there were no formal mentoring or training processes. Although considered “customary”, there were no requirements for the 3-month evaluation and scuttlebutt about affairs traveled the workplace. Again, Lisa’s inability to act upon seeing multiple red flags propagated the ambiguous environment. Several more alerts should have prompted conversations including the fact that she was Linton’s first assistant and Linton has only been in her position for 8 months. Linton likely needed some guidance on how to mentor Lisa in the first place. In addition, Linton’s lack of time, perceived lack of sleep, and secretive notes and conversations also brought concern to her wellbeing. Other issues include Scoville’s admitted frustrations with the lack of vertical mobility, stagnant growth, and the conflicting philosophies between Linton and Vernon. All of these should have cued Benton into having an alignment meeting with Linton, Scoville, and Vernon. Finally, what further exacerbated the situation was Lisa’s inability to capitalize on opportunities to address the above challenges. Every meeting with Linton was an opportunity to push the conversation instead of accepting the
Lisa Benton, a Harvard MBA, has accepted a job offer at Houseworld’s Home Care Division as an Assistant Product Manager after turning down another job offer at Right Away Stores. Since the beginning of her current career at Houseworld, Benton encountered disputes with her boss Linton and associate Scoville due to the lack of attention and assistance from Linton, as well as the domineering and patronizing personality of Scoville. She often felt underutilized in projects and meetings because she was rarely inquired for her opinions. Due to these feelings of exclusion, she hesitated to give insight and abstained from requesting more responsibility to avoid being perceived as an “arrogant” MBA. Benton began to have some doubts …show more content…
And although every character here is both a victim and contributor to the overall problem, for the purpose of this analysis, we will focus on dichotomizing Lisa’s actions in relation to Linton and Scoville (with some digression to the institution). In Gabarro and Kotter’s “Managing Your Boss”, it is essential to know yourself as well as your boss. During the critical introductory phase in a “boss-subordinate” relationship, it is important to learn about your boss’s goals, expectations, pressures, strengths, & weaknesses. Lisa struggled to recognize this, and also struggled to identify and expand upon her own strengths and weaknesses. Especially after the countless anti-MBA remarks, Lisa would have benefitted from pressing to understand her boss’ workstyle, challenges, and objectives so that she could better align herself with these and achieved mutual …show more content…
For a company known for providing “excellent marketing training”, there were no formal mentoring or training processes. Although considered “customary”, there were no requirements for the 3-month evaluation and scuttlebutt about affairs traveled the workplace. Again, Lisa’s inability to act upon seeing multiple red flags propagated the ambiguous environment. Several more alerts should have prompted conversations including the fact that she was Linton’s first assistant and Linton has only been in her position for 8 months. Linton likely needed some guidance on how to mentor Lisa in the first place. In addition, Linton’s lack of time, perceived lack of sleep, and secretive notes and conversations also brought concern to her wellbeing. Other issues include Scoville’s admitted frustrations with the lack of vertical mobility, stagnant growth, and the conflicting philosophies between Linton and Vernon. All of these should have cued Benton into having an alignment meeting with Linton, Scoville, and Vernon. Finally, what further exacerbated the situation was Lisa’s inability to capitalize on opportunities to address the above challenges. Every meeting with Linton was an opportunity to push the conversation instead of accepting the