Thomas Green Essay Example for Free

Thomas Green Essay The case starts with the result of a problem that has been brewing for months-Thomas Green’s faltering career has transitioned from the fast track to a destination of potential unemployment. We sought to analyze the factors leading up to this rapid downward spiral and what other challenges were present in the situation. We identified some of the underlying causes, and developed potential solutions and how to apply them to rectify the challenges Green is experiencing. Current Problems:  The tension has developed between Davis and Green in part because of Green’s very public opposition to Davis’s next year’s projections of the 10% market growth, and in part because Green did not meet Davis’s expectations for the person who will be holding his previous position. According to Davis, Green has failed. Both in 1:1 meetings with Green and in interactions with his boss Shannon McDonald his ‘surface’ story has remained the same. He says Green is doing a poor job of communicating; not keeping his boss updated of his travel plans and current location. He also complains that when Green is on the road he doesn’t check in with the office enough and fails to send Davis information he has requested in a timely manner. Moreover, Davis feels that Green’s strategies and way of working with clients needs to be more concrete; that Green needs to provide factual data and reports to his clients instead of just ideas. In addition, Davis refers to Green’s negative attitude (as expressed at the goal-setting meeting) indicated that Green lacked the enthusiasm needed for the job. Deeper Problems Underlying Causes for the Conflict: 1. Power Politics Dynamics at Work: Davis’s public complaints do not reflect the full story. His perspective seems to be skewed by some common fallacies of thought that often plague business organizations. Davis has seen Thomass objection in front of the other employees as challenging him. This may be a case of Schadenfreude where Davis, who now has reason to dislike Green, finds everything possible wrong with his work as a way to discredit him. He may be jealous that Green jumped a few rungs on the corporate ladder, and incensed that he wasn’t consulted in the hiring decisions. Attribution can come into play where, instead of believing that there is a reason Green was promoted and maybe he did have value to bring to the table, a cognitive bias making him think Green’s previous successes were due to luck, and that he is a rookie who can’t be relied upon. That becomes a self fulfilling prophecy of perception, where Davis sees all the little things Green does wrong as insurmountable flaws confirming his original opinion of Green being the wrong man for the job. Many tenured workers feel that ‘paying ones dues’ is an important part of building a career, and that those on the fast track aren’t truly deserving of their positions. Since Green took over Davis’s former position, projection can also come into play, where Davis compares everything Green does to how he would have handled it. Davis does seem to be biased against Green, and rather than helping him to be the most successful he can, he appears to prefer firing him and starting over. A reverse halo effect has come into play, where nothing Green does is right. 2. Structural Problems in Hiring/Training. There are some structural problems in terms of chain of command and in how Dynamic Displays does their hiring and training. McDonald even identified this huge jump in positions and expressed her reservations. She openly admitted that her biggest concern was the increased level of managerial responsibility with no experience. This huge jump bypassed positions of needed training and practical work experience. Upper management had not initially counseled Green on expectations of communication, direction, report, and etc. Davis was not giving Green any real direction and guidance on how he wanted the reports until after it was identified as a problem. Davis did finally show how the other senior market analyst generated her reports and the approved method for relaying data. Another critical error was the fact that McDonald endorsed Greens promotion with no input from Davis. The relationship between Green and Davis was to some extent doomed from the start. When on Green’s first day Division VP McDonald tells him â€Å"Tom, you are walking into a tricky situation with Frank Davis. Frank had expected to choose the new senior market specialist and it would not have been you. You’ll have to deal with any fallout that might result from that. † Davis was not able to pick the person who he may have been molding for the position. This is demonstrated in the incompatibility of work styles and no working relationship between Davis and Green. McDonald did not set Green up for success when it came to working under Davis. The last thing she mentioned to Green on that first day was â€Å"don’t let me down. It would have been more effective should McDonald have included Davis in the hiring process, and meeting with both Davis and Green before or during Green’s first week so they could discuss expectations, and what McDonald viewed as Green’s strengths and areas of opportunity so a plan could immediately be put in place to address them and get him properly trained. 3. Thomas Green is not a blameless victim in this circumstance. There are a few areas in which he tripped up that have contributed to the severity of the current situation. This is an excellent case identifying the Peter principle where a great salesman is identified for exemplar performance and promoted to a position of incompetence within the company. Perhaps because (aptly named) Green was so new, he did not fully understand the dynamic of the specific situation he walked into. The 2008 Budget Plan Meeting did not appear to be an open forum, and Green misjudged it. Normally applicable to managers and coaches, the ‘Praise in public, criticize in private’ concept would have been useful in this case as well. Many of the most successful corporate climbers recognize the benefit of making ones higher-ups look good. Publically disagreeing with Davis in that open meeting was an act of insubordination. If Green knew the subject of the meeting and that Davis would be speaking for him, a certain onus fell on his shoulders to know what the goals were being set at ahead of time and giving him a chance to discuss in a more appropriate setting with Davis. Power conflict/ Stylistic Differences: Communication between Davis and Green was not the only issue. There were multiple misunderstandings between Davis, Green, and McDonald in terms of really acknowledging the issues at play. Green was a bit misled with regard to what was most important to his direct manager. The sample PowerPoint slides and organizational charts one of the other market supervisors had created should be something Davis showed Green early on, while setting expectations of those types of reports being created on weekly or monthly basis. Going over communication expectations is also really important, as that varies widely from manager to manager. Green’s autonomous â€Å"I’ll get it done my way† attitude clouded his ability to see why it might be important to keep communication up with Davis. He should have asked Davis the best way to check in with him and how often that was expected. Davis should be more clear-if he asks for a report while Green is on the road, be specific about the expected turnaround time or due date for the information. Green’s ego and inexperience hurt him in the transition to such a responsible and politically sensitive role. He is intelligent and talented but he was also over confident and he abused his â€Å"Legitimate Power which is defined as the position power based on a person’s holding of a managerial positions rather than anything the manager is or does as a person† (Phillips Gully, 2012). Green did things his way rather than respecting the path laid before him, and the superiors with tenure who had legitimate advice to give. Davis possessed a mix of Expert and Coercive powers. Expert power is a personal power based on an individual expertise in some area† Davis has done the same job in the past and he presented the successful projections for the company marketing future. â€Å"Coercive is a position power based on fear or a desire to avoid punishment† Green did not follow directions and rules, Davis reported this to McDonalds and threatened to end Green’s position. McDonald holds the ‘Reward power’: â€Å"A position power that involves the use of rewards to influence and motivate followers. She is the one who appointed Green at this position based on his intelligence and talent. Phillips Gully, 2012). Applicable OB Theory Two of the most fundamental aspects of Organizational Behavior are process, where there was a communication breakdown, and behavior in terms of evaluating, rewarding, and managing, as well as managing conflict/power and politics. Because Green wasn’t properly trained and mentored he was unable to do the job according to Davis’s preferences. The company seems to have a classic Scalar chain of hierarchy in place, that was upset by McDonald hiring Green for a position he wasn’t prepared for. The chain of command started off broken because it jumped over Davis. Innacurate assumptions followed, as Green thought McDonald would look out for him and retained a direct connection to his career, where in fact the traditional hierarchy was back in place without Green realizing how he fit in. The other thing that is easy to miss when analyzing this case is the positive opportunities that exist. McDonald ‘took a chance’ on Green because she felt the group needed a new perspective. The company did have the chance to improve results from what Green brought to the table, but his natural talent needed to be harnessed to take best advantage of that potential. Davis’s initial dislike and distrust of Green set the relationship off on the wrong foot, and at some point Green was more focused on keeping his job than on improving sales and helping the company. If Davis were focusing on making the most of Green as an employee, he would work on ways to accomplish multiple goals while encouraging Green to do his best work. Green is motivated by success as measured by his relationships with clients, ability to connect with company higher-ups, and having the autonomy to keep up that momentum. Davis’s management style does not reward Green’s independent thinking. Also it is interesting that one of Davis’s criticisms of Green is that he is â€Å"thinking like an account executive† when in fact most of their struggles stem from Green being a ‘big-picture’ thinker, and from Davis taking a detailed line-by-line approach. Solutions: There are two angles that should be addressed: both how the key players in this case should have handled things, and what can be done now and going forward. Green should have handled the Budget Meeting differently. He was wrong to talk about the issue to others in the company in that forum, even if unintentional; it did appear like he wanted to make Davis look bad. Green should have requested a one-on-one meeting with Davis to talk about the issue and to try to understand why things went so wrong. Because he feels strongly that those projections are unreasonable, he will also need to collect information to support his opinion about the numbers. He must try to build a relationship with Davis; recognizing that he put his boss in a bad position and what that did to him politically, he needs to eat some crow and work to rebuild a strong working relationship with Davis. This is the time to take McDonald’s original advice to heart, and ask for help. His going to Davis might feed into Davis’s ego enough to help: he can re-tie his success to the experience and knowledge base of his boss. Only then will the two of them be able to communicate and will Green have a chance to have his opinions heard. 1. Mentoring/training Both for Thomas Green at this moment, and for employees in the future, there needs to be a priority of setting up a more formal manager training and mentoring program. Part of Expectancy Theory states that the first level requirement of managers is to ensure employees are adequately trained and ave a clear understanding of what is expected of them. It seems Davis and Green were consistently not on the same page because of a failure to properly lay the groundwork during Green’s first few weeks on the job. For Green, McDonald’s advice of â€Å"I am hoping you compensate for your lack of experience by seeking out guidance from some of your more seasoned managers† was lacking in form and direction. A more formal mentoring program put in place could be very successful. Managerial training that includes working for a short time in the positions that were bypassed by the promotion would be particularly effective. The company should also assign one of the other senior market analyst as a mentor. Green could shadow with that senior market analyst for a short time to get a feel for company politics and best practices. In the future when a candidate is promoted from a sales role into management, they should be assigned a mentor who can help and guide them in the realities and expectations of the new position. There should also be a transition period if at all possible to easy the new manager into a position before giving him free reign. 2. Level setting  Because of Green’s nontraditional career path, additional guidance on the front end was required to set him up for success. Initial counseling on performance and work ethic expectations was a necessary piece that was missing in Davis and Green’s interactions early on. Clear expectations on preferred communication methods such as report presentations including charts and graphs should have been given to Green right away. Green should have been provided a thorough job description and clearly defined goals. The first few weeks in the new position were critical in showing Green what was important to upper management. Davis bringing Green on joint client appointments emphasized being hands on and meeting the right people. Davis missed an opportunity to show Green the type of detailed numbers and reports he would like to see. Also, rather than thinking Green needed reports to present at those meetings, should have partnered with him to create the concrete data he feels is most effective to use in working with a potential client. That was the only training Green received, and it was unfair to expect he would inherently understand an expectation that was not expressed to him by his boss. Davis should also have coached Green on his other expectations including form and frequency of communication. Assumptions were detrimental to the relationship; some of which may have been due to generational differences leading to varying expectations. This could have helped with the communication issues between all three parties due to their age differences. 3. Structural changes within Dynamic Displays In the future Dynamic Displays needs to adjust its hiring practices to set everyone involved up for success. It is short-sighted to think that employees must always take the most traditional path, as out of the box candidates come up at times and can benefit the company. They should make the hiring process more structured to avoid this type of issue in the future. The promotion process needs to be reviewed and improved upon. All parties who will be affected by the promotion should have input on the decision. Had Davis been included in that choice and in brainstorming on ways to get Green up and running, this issue may have been avoided altogether. Work relationships clearly can have a huge impact of production.

Essay on Stephen’s Heroic Quest in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Ma

Stephen’s Heroic Quest in Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ...His mother said: -O, Stephen will apologise. Dante said: -O, if not, the eagles will come and pull out his eyes.    This utterance, which comes at the climax of the short first passage that Joyce presents to us, defines the heroic quest that Stephen (and/or his latent identity as mythic Daedalus) must undertake. He is, in this instance, bound by a strict commandment from "above" (from the towering grown-ups above him, from the air-borne, attacking eagles), from the poets of the past , and - most superficially   from his elders, to perform an act of "apology". Stephen seals this cosmic agreement with his little song:    Pull out his eyes, Apologise, Apologise, Pull out his eyes.    Apologise, Pull out his eyes, Pull out his eyes, Apologise.    Stephen internalizes his predicament   or legacy - by chanting the words that descend to him from layers of higher authority. He shapes the received words with his own voice (whether it be "out loud" or only inside his head), compresses /extractions phrases from the longer syntax, and utilizes rhyme in a patterned repetition. (In short, he has applied a "craft".)    If his mother, a temporal and merely parental figure, initiates young Stephen's artistic covenant in a mundane way, "Dante" (whose "real" identity in Stephen's world is sparsely revealed in this passage) is the accidental and incidental avatar of an old poet, or the "poetic tradition", or the artist-creator that Stephen (or Joyce, if we treat this work as autobiographical) must become. The implied historic Dante serves as a representative, for Stephen and Joyce, of the poetic c... ...e University of Windsor Review.   vol.1,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   no. 1.   Spring, 1965.   1-15. Rpt. in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism.   ed. Dennis    Poupard.   Detroit:   Gale Research Company, 1985.   16:229-234.    Litz, A. Walton.   James Joyce.   New York:   Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1966.    Peake, C.H.   James Joyce:   The Citizen and The Artist.   Stanford:   Stanford University Press, 1977.     Ã‚  Ã‚   56-109.    Pope, Deborah.   "The Misprision of Vision: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man".   James Joyce.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   vol.1. ed. Harold Bloom. New York:   Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 113-19.    The World Book Encyclopedia.   New York: World Book Inc., 1987.   3.    Wells, H.G.   "James Joyce".   The New Republic.   March 10, 1917.   34-46. Rpt. in Twentieth    Century Literary Criticism.   ed. Sharon K. Hall.   Detroit:   Gale Research Company, 1980.     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   3:252.   

The Pacific Legend-Maui

Introduction The gods played an important part in the daily lives of Polynesian in early pacific islands. Perhaps the most deeply loved of Polynesian god is Maui. Although the legend of demi-god Maui is always be descript as the mischief maker or trickster god, but the Maui story probably has a larger number of unique and ancient myths than that of any other legendary character in the mythology of any nation. â€Å"There are three centers for these Maui legends, New Zealand in the south, Hawaii in the north, and the Tahitian group including the Hervey Islands in the east. (â€Å"LEGENDS OF MAUI† 2007) Following are versions of summary â€Å"THE GIANT EEL† told on the island of Maui, Hawaii. Summary of â€Å"The Giant eel† (from the book of â€Å"Maui Mischievous Hero† 1969) As Maui had grown to manhood, his mother went for a lengthy stay on the island of Hawaii. Maui began making the long trip to see his grandmother in Haleakala. Besides, there are always had good things to eat! Plenty of bananas, breadfruit, coconuts, poi, and fish of all kinds. Grandma said â€Å"what are grandmothers for, if not to look out for grandchildren who come to see them? † One day a cloud hung suspended in the air like a misty pillar.Like an omen that frightened him. Grandmother said â€Å"It’s a cry for help, be quick, Maui! That is the Ao-‘opua, the Warning Cloud. Your mother is in danger! † He grabbed the magic axe ran so fast that he couldn’t stop, he reached the ocean and jumped into his canoe, paddle across the channel to save his mother. At last, he arrived his mother’s cave. He saw his mother’s enemy, the giant eel Kuna Loa. Kuna Loa had once asked Maui’s mother to marry him, and when she refused he was so angry that he swore he would get even with her. Maui throw the hot lava rocks into the river tried to scare the giant eel Kuna Loa away.When he made his way back to the cave, he expressed t he missing affection to his mother, and hope his mother can come back with him. However as grandmother said â€Å"Maui’s mother is a roving soul† As the result Maui’s mother refused to go back with Maui. Back on Maui own island, he heard a faint wailing sound that uttering a chant of fear, Maui’s mother is in trouble again. As swiftly as before, he journeyed to Hawaii Island again. This time Maui wasted no time he used the magical axe struck again and again, the giant eel was cut thousand pieces. It is said that these bits where they became the eels that are found in it today. Come, Mother† Maui held her still and asked again,† when are you coming home, where I can take proper care of you? † â€Å"Some day, â€Å"she said lightly. â€Å"some day I’ll come. † Conclusion â€Å"There are many Maui legends appear with variations throughout of the Pacific islands. The details of the stories also vary with different cultures b ut the underlying morals and role model remains much the same† (Dean Web1). In the legend of â€Å"The Giant Eel† its shows the Maui’s mixture of human and godlike qualities. The affection between his mother and his grandmother, reflected the family relationship in nowadays tribal society.The parents are the â€Å"roving soul† trying to find a good job and leaving the hometown, and the grandparents are the next kin to taking care of their young children without doubt. As well the channel as the barrier that become generation gap in the family. At last, the giant eel symbolized temptations of modern society which are danger but cannot be avoided. However, every time an omen or sound of chant comes, Maui will be a hero to save his mother but every time his mother also refused to come back and offered an unachievable promise that seems to comfort Maui.Therefore, in the end of story as godlike as Maui only can be desperately watching his mother as she went bac k toward her cave and helpless. Legends of Maui have been told and retold for so many centuries, and I believed the legends will reminiscence and encourage in very ways for the later generation. Also help us understand people who lived long ago. References: 1. W. D. Westervelt (2009) â€Å"Legends of Maui†, a Demi-God of Polynesia. Preface. 2. 9-11 2. Lyons, Barbara. (1969) â€Å"Maui :mischievous hero†. The Giant EEL. 25. summary. 3. Dean, n. d. Web. â€Å"Legends of Maui. † Review. Web log post. Legends of Maui. .

Women In The Civil War - 1674 Words

Women Who Fought In the Civil War Submitted By: Tierahnee Balfour History 2010 Enhanced Mrs. Teresa Prober 19 October 2012 It is an accepted convention that the Civil War was a man’s fight, but to the women in that time period, it was not. Many women sacrificed their lives to fight for their family and for their country. The Civil War is symbolic in American history because it shaped society, as we know it today, â€Å"Free of slavery†. During the Civil War, women were mostly confined to the domestic sphere and were not allowed to serve in combat. Researchers have noted that women did indeed disguise themselves as men just to fight. During this time period, women felt strongly about staying in their courters†¦show more content†¦After this incident Cushman was forced to stop her work. After the war Cushman begin to act again. She used her experiences with the war, in the plays, dressing up in her uniform used in the Union. She supported herself as a seamstress and after having an illness she became addicted to morphine and died of an overdose at age sixty.5 Before the 1900â€⠄¢s and The Civil War, women had limited rights. Women could not speak for themselves, vote for themselves, they never had a say so in any economic issue. Researchers could say that women have been fighting this battle before the dawn of time. According to Patricia Haynes, â€Å"because of a man being known to be dominant in the society, this brought tragedies and uproars within women.†6 When the Nineteenth Amendment was passed women got the right to vote, and they were able to voice their own opinions and their opinions mattered and counted towards society. The struggle women had for equality was a long and hard battle. Most women during that time either gave up or died believing they would never have the chance to speak in society. Researchers have noted it was not hard for women to disguise themselves as men, but it was very difficult to uphold such a role. According to Bonnie Tsui, â€Å"women had to hide out all the time just to keep private, they had to bind down thei r breast, cut off their hair to wear caps, and they also had to deal with rape issues to continue to fight in the war†.7 Women survived theseShow MoreRelatedWomen Of The Civil War885 Words   |  4 Pages For women in the 1860s it was predictable wisdom that a â€Å"woman’s place is in the home,† but the Civil War challenged this view (Civil War Academy, 2015). There were many women who played an important role in the Civil War. It is normal to think the Civil War was a man’s fight. However during the war, many women challenged the role of the women and took on different roles. While the men marched off to war, the women had to work hard and try to provide for their families. 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