What is noticed at the beginning of the case is Jeremy Frazer, the associate at the investment bank, Hudson and three other members working on the deal, Jean Fenster, Rich Patten and Payton Edwards, have been keeping their experiences of working with Chip Mazey to themselves. The case reveals that they finally confided in each other about how it was like to work with Chip Mazey. Associates and Analyst at Hudson were experiencing something far more than just a competitive and stressful work environment. Jeremy Frazer along with some of his other colleagues directly under Chip Mazey’s leadership was experiencing a broken culture and disruptive work life. The present culture at Hudson proves to be one of hostility between the employees and VP, Chip Mazey. Mazey has been with Hudson for 10 years, the case reveals that he followed his demeaning and derogatory or “kiss up, kick down” style of working. How is Mazey’s work style affecting the culture of the associates and analyst at Hudson? Mazey’s work style introduces us to our first presenting issues. Mazey attitude affects his work style and the work life of many employees at Hudson. The company provides a 360-degree feedback system, which presented Mazey as having a nasty reputation amongst the analyst and associates at Hudson. Analyst and associates at Hudson are clearly not happy and have not been for the past ten years. Mazey was considered a solid banker at Hudson that gave him the reputation through the organizations that he was something different from his reputation. In the financial industry one who is a solid banker includes one who is: smart, hardworking, capable of working both independently and as part of a team, have attention to detail, can present themselves well to clients and are fun to be around. This is discrepant from who Mazey actual is or what many of Hudson associates and analyst believe who he really is and become after he was promoted to VP after it being postponed a year earlier.
After receiving VP, the case reveals that Mazey work style became worst; His promotion to VP leads us to our next two presenting problems. The first presenting problem here is that based on the feedback from the 360 feedback system, the comments only postponed Mazey’s promotion to VP. How meaningful is the 360 feedback system? Why was the feedback regarding Mazey not taken seriously? If the feedback system revealed Chip Mazey’s negative work style to top management, why was her promoted a year later based on him being a “solid banker? The other presenting problem that follows through top management not looking at the feedback as a resource when considering Mazey for promotion is the lack of HR and senior management tracking Mazey’s performance after he became vice president. Although he always had trouble interacting with his peers, now as VP, things have become worst, the culture at Hudson had taken another downward leap, leaving everyone more vulnerable to Mazey’s derogatory and demeaning leadership. These presenting issues are huge because they connect with the continuation of top management allowing Chris Mazey to continue being employed at the organization. The promotion in itself is important because this exacerbating the original problem, which is Chris Mazey. Promotion to VP, created more hostility than originating, leaving associates more vulnerable to experiencing Chip Mazey’s work style.
The next presenting issue is reputation that a career in investment banking upholds. This is critical because I think it plays a part in why associates and analyst tend to deal with Chip Mazey’s behavior rather than going to top management or Human Resources. The reputation is critical when we connect it to the way top management handled the feedback they received about Chip Mazey in regards to promoting him a year later. Are analyst and associates becoming used to what the case reveals of a Type-A personality or Chip Mazey or is top management aware of the reputation the career holds and have not been using its resources such as the 360 feedback system to properly get rid of the negative reputation that umbrellas over this career field?
Another presenting issue is that the actual analyst and associates, excluding Jeremy, who have been working in the organizations much long, have learned to work around Mazey’s behavior. The case revealed at that point, that employees that are avoiding and refusing to work with the VP, who in this case is critical to the organization. How could one lead effectively without a willing and engaged team? This presenting issue is critical as it connects to the overall functionality of the organization. The case states that Chip Mazey, made a lot of money for the company. Although he might have provided growth, he is taking away the talent aspect of the companies growth. Associates are not willing to work with Mazey and others are simply avoiding him as much as possible. With the feedback system, top management, Chip Mazey’s work style, the employees that experienced Chip Mazey behavior and fail to transfer those experiences with Top management and HR and HR nor top management willing to track Mazey’s performance after promotion, it seems that the entire organization played a continuing part in the ongoing problem. There are two underlining issues in this case that if solved, could change the organization for the better and eliminate people like Chip Mazey within the investment banking career field. The first underlining issue is the reputation of investment banking. In the case, investment banking is revealed as an industry with people full of the same characteristics as Chip Mazey. In fact, some investment bankers have told Jeremy that the biggest challenge in an investment-banking career was to think outside of the box, go beyond the tasked assigned so that one could enhance top managements work. The case reveals this as investment bankers having a deficiency to manage upward. The reputation of the career has yielded many from coming clean about the culture of the organization. In fact, the culture of the organization is functioning around a reputation. Instead of someone speaking up and transferring to top management that behaviors that Mazey and other people that are like Mazey display is not acceptable. The culture is bad because the reputation that the investment-banking career upholds, therefore the culture continues to remain the same if the reputation continues. The case supports the idea of the investment banking industry carrying some sort of reputation when it reveals that Frazer saw that Mazey had posed many of the characteristics that he had expected and indeed admired on Wall Street. Understanding that Frazer perspective of Mazey was not unique, but shared with his colleagues, what Jeremy admired was the work and the environment of an investment banking career but what he expected were people like Chip Mazey. The other underlining issue in this case is the employees that have experienced Mazey’s negative behavior. Why have they not pushed this problem to HR? Where is the resource that employees can use to protect themselves from taking a stand to Mazey? Who is tracking and holding Mazey accountable for his performance? Mazey has been with the organization for years. For employees to have experience this for years and not have the strength to take the issue to top management gives Mazey the courage and ability to continue his behavior. No one is taking the leadership to provide top management with necessary stories that will truly help top management realize that the behaviors of Mazey are out of control and intolerable. Mazey is living off the reputation that investment bankers are known to be. The employees have not made a strong enough case that would give top management the understanding Mazey is not a solid banker, because a solid banker is more than one who makes the organization money, but one who displays positive behavior and manages upward. The case proves that this is true when the case revealed that Jeremy Frazer would be more worth of a headline because he seemed more willing than most to talk about Mazey’s questionable behavior. Who else was speaking up? Who else was ready for change other than Frazer? Mazey realizes that he can get away with his behavior because he is apart of an organization that accepts it. Mazey knows, if he does not display his behavior directly toward top management and continue to be the “solid banker” they believe he is, Mazey will continue to display the negative behavior that his subordinates and peers do not like. The two underlining issues, if solved could bring ever-lasting success to the organization. Recommendations would include, HR and top management developing a resource employee could use to help them transferring performance issues among their peers, subordinates and leaders. This transfer of information that will go directly to top management and employee relations would help top management and HR gain a more elaborate illustration of performance deficiencies that are displayed across the organization and currently with Chip Mazey. The goal of this resource will be to ensure that Mazey’s performance is tracked and overseas by top management to ensure a positive work environment. Another goal of this resource will be to change the work life of the employees. The case reveals that many employees learned to work around Chip Mazey’s behavior and in one case, one refused to work with him at all. The benefit of HR and top management putting together a tool associates and analyst can use as an outlet to discuss and come clean of the experience they have with working with Mazey would help change the culture of their organization and it will play a part in changing the reputation that the investment banking career currently upholds. If the reputation, one of the underlying issues presented is solved, this could provide a substantial amount of change within Hudson and all over wall street. Although this would take years for one to see that it is fixed or that the reputation has changed, the benefits of changing the perspective that people come into the field with would be completely different from the perspective they currently expect or uphold. The benefits of solving the underlying problem, the reputation of the Investment Banking industry would increase moral of the organization and provide a closure to the understanding that Chip Mazey’s behavior is typical and one must deal with it because of the critical contributions that they might offer to the organization. Moving forward, the immediate goal of Hudson, should be to speak. Communication is key and Jeremy Frazer will not be able to do it alone. With the experiences that others have had with Chip Mazey, the employees will have a strong case to promote a change in leadership and a change in Chip Mazey’s behavior. Communicating his behavior effectively with HR and top management through the tools that will be created will promote transparency and encourage top management to effectively look at their employees under a new microscope to help transform the reputation of the investment banking industry. Bibliography
Yemen, G., & Clawson , J. G. (2007). Tough Guy. University of Virginia . Charlosttesville : Darden Business Publishing .