Thomas Green: Power, Office Policies, and a Career in Crisis

What are the work styles and personalities of Thomas Green and Frank Davis?

It is clear from the text that Thomas Green has some characteristics of a Machiavellian personality. For example, he has little regard for authority and structure, and prefers face-to-face interactions. Most importantly, once the ends cease to justify the means he loses motivation. This reaction is made evident when Thomas’s performance declined as a result of what he considered to be an unattainable goal. In his mind, failing to reach the goal regardless of how much he tried did not justify putting in the effort.
Meanwhile, Frank Davis portrayed elements of a Proactive personality. He was constantly vying for improvement in Thomas’ behavior, pushing for better strategies to meet his ambitious projections for the next year. Instead of shying away from the challenge, Frank strived for positive change within his team in order to achieve the goals he set.

How do the actions of Thomas Green differ from the expectations of Frank Davis?

Green’s actions are not in line with Davis’s expectations. Davis laid out his expectations of Green from the very beginning and reinforced them during their first performance meeting and email to McDonald such as spending time to prepare for client meetings and develop supporting details for his proposals.
In addition, Green openly challenged Davis’s sales projections, which Davis considers key in Green’s strategic planning; however, Green disregarded Davis’s input and complained continually to his co-workers about expectations. Davis expects his Senior Market Specialists to keep him in the loop of what they are working on, but Green continually fails to do so. Another shortcoming of Green’s is that he does not answer Davis’s calls in a timely fashion making him look unavailable to “the Company.” Davis expects Green to fulfill the same requirements expected of the other Senior Market Specialists such as developing market and client strategies, but Green has refused to accommodate the request.
In general Thomas Green has not been willing to follow Davis’ guidelines, nor has convinced him that the he is the right person for that position.

What is your analysis of Thomas Green’s actions and job performance in his first five months? What mistakes has he made?

Green’s actions and job performance have not been above reproach. Even though his actions can be understood when taking personality traits into consideration, such as narcissism, risk-taking, and proactiveness; he has not complied with the expectations set by Davis. For example, Green’s justification for not being in Orlando was valid; however, he should have communicated to Davis his change in itinerary and should have answered his phone or called him back as soon as possible. Green also never addressed why he missed the deadline for the brief that Davis had requested.
Green’s actions throughout the case have not been distinctive or shown consensus with the actions of his peers; his lack of communication, continual disregard for materials requested by Davis, and his inability to meet deadlines are consistent leading us to believe that internal factors are influencing Green’s behavior.
A major mistake Green committed, which seems to have been the turning point in his relationship with Davis, was to challenge Davis’s sales projections publically. Being the “new kid on the block” and knowing the sensitivity around his hire, Green should have been more considerate of Davis; if he had a real issue with Davis’s projections, Green should have gathered data to prove his point and presented it to Davis in private. In addition, it seems Green did not change his perspective from sales to management; he was advised by McDonald to seek guidance from more seasoned managers, which Green never did within his own department. Green should have been more concerned with establishing a strong relationship with Davis than challenging him. Green disregarded all the feedback Davis gave him resulting in a conflict over Green’s performance. Green’s conflict-handling intentions were at first competing and then avoiding; his approach should have been more collaborative or at least more accommodating, so that he could preserve a good relationship with Davis.
Overall, Green’s actions, though innovative, should have been more focused on proving himself and establishing a good relationship with Davis than confrontational/competing. Davis’s perception of Green’s attitude as negative impacted his perception of Green’s work/approach.

What are the possible underlying agendas of Davis and McDonald?
The most obvious underlying agenda of Frank Davis would be putting together a strong case against Green with concrete facts like the following: * Present a summary about his successful/failed efforts in the Eastern region. * Compare his performance against his colleagues' in other regions. * Show no recorded strategies or materials created by Green to support and enhance his presentations to the clients.
Basically, Davis is trying to demonstrate that due to the lack of strategic sales methods and evident results, Green was not doing an efficient job.
Another side of this agenda would be focusing on Green’s managerial style and questionable relationship with Davis: * Being reluctant to reporting his whereabouts and not updating his calendar was perceived as Green not being available when Davis or “The Company” needed him. * Ignoring Davis’ request of developing/creating reports and charts within a deadline, which are viewed as necessary to developing market strategies. * Being outspoken about his disagreements with his boss in inappropriate contexts. * Failing to prove with data his projections of growth in his region. * Not making progress after receiving performance feedback from his boss.
McDonald, on the other hand, is biased because she is responsible for hiring Green, and seeing him fail would prove her wrong and put her in an awkward situation. She probably doesn’t want to fire Green and will strive to fix the conflict between Davis and Green by hearing about the problem from both sides. Finally, McDonald will probably suggest that Davis train Green and for Green to be more receptive to Davis’s feedback and expectations. Whichever agenda she chooses, it will always lean towards avoiding Green’s dismissal.
What actions, if any, would you take if you were Green?
As Green, I would write to Shannon MacDonald giving a feedback on my review and brief explanation as to my differing opinions on Davis’s forecasted sales figures. I would then request a week to put together my version of the sales forecast, alongside a marketing strategy based on my initial ideas expressed prior to my promotion. I would take into consideration the new information I have gathered from 5 months of work experience in this position and use market data to support my argument.
I should also acknowledge and work towards negotiating a resolution to the conflicts I have with Davis while being open to constructive criticism.