Office politics are an area of opportunity at Dynamic Displays. The first example of this came when Thomas Green was promoted to the position of senior market specialist once occupied by Frank Davis, without considering Frank’s opinion on the matter. Regardless of the amount of success Thomas had achieved so far in his young career, Shannon McDonald’s decision to place Thomas into the role without allowing Frank an opportunity to offer his opinion on the matter, put Thomas into an awkward position from the start as he would now be reporting to someone he didn’t know, and was not selected by. However, Thomas’ arrogance and poor political behavior became evident after he assumed the role of senior market specialist, only souring his reputation and relationship with Frank. Thomas’ charismatic personality should allow him to be effective in the world of office politics, however his poor relationship with Frank Davis is partially due to his arrogance and inability to adhere to the formal power that Frank has over him as his boss. After their first week of meetings together, Frank informed Thomas that he believed the clients responded well to Thomas’ ideas, but he imagined the clients would have appreciated more market data to back up his claims. He then informed Thomas that while he is on his own, he expected a significant amount Thomas’ time would be dedicated to preparing for client meetings and developing supporting details for his proposals. Thomas however, did not adhere to these wishes.
One example of political tact occurred on October 8 2007, when Frank Davis presented the sales projections for the upcoming year. In a room full of co-workers, Thomas publicly expressed doubt that the projections were too high, instead of privately discussing his concerns with Frank. As a result, Frank’s already microscopic view towards Thomas narrowed and he explained to his boss, Shannon McDonald, that he believed Thomas to have a “negative attitude”.
Thomas’ bad political behavior was again observed after his meeting with Frank Davis on October 15, 2007. During that meeting, Frank highlighted several inconsistencies with Thomas’ performance, including his inability to keep Frank informed of his whereabouts, bad follow through on requests, and lack of organizational charts for clients. Instead of adhering to this feedback on his performance Thomas ignored Frank’s comments, explaining to another manager that he felt Frank was singling him out due to Thomas’ comments during the Budget Plan meeting.
Thomas’ arrogant behavior continued over the next several months, and his political tact continued to suffer. He admitted to deliberately ignoring interactions with Frank Davis whenever he could and eventually admitted to peer’s outside of his group that he did not agree with Frank Davis’ projected sales figures. In a final meeting with Frank Davis on January 28, 2008, Frank continued to offer Thomas feedback on his performance, showing him another senior market specialist’ presentations, spreadsheet models, and associated e-mails that were used to supplement her work efforts. Instead of adapting to this style requested by Frank, Thomas once again dismissed this type of activity as “political” claiming that he could not work effectively that way.
Thomas Green’s charismatic behavior and inability to adhere to office politics have led to a deteriorated relationship with his boss, and had a negative effect on his performance in the role.