Name Mukul Milind Joshi

Question 1

The friction caused between Lisa and her team members Linton and Scoville:

 Linton:
o Linton had clearly expressed her dislike towards people from MBA
background. They are arrogant and think that they know more than anybody
else in the business. This made Lisa that Linton had a set mindset towards the
MBA graduates which is hard to change.
o Even though she had promised that there will be goals setup for Lisa, she had
not done the goal setting for a long time, which wondered Lisa what was her
actual job in the organization.
o The above 2 incidents had already frustrated Lisa and made her think of her job
choice of choosing House world over Right-Away,
 Scoville
o He was not happy with the MBA people either and especially from Harvard
o His condescending attitude towards Lisa
o His assignment of non-important tasks like getting approval from all the
departments, copying of papers, etc. made Lisa frustrated.
o Also, the incident of Scoville bashing at Lisa which was audible on floor had
embarrassed Lisa.
 Above are some of the incidents that created the friction between Lisa and her
team mates.
Question 2

Write your answer for Part A here.

Trait Level: High/Low Example supporting the answer

Openness to High 1. Shifted from Operations to Marketing,

Experience to get overall exposure of business.

Conscientiousness Low 1. His saying that he is smarter than most

of the people at Homeworld and not
impressed by MBAs from Harvard.
2. Asking Lisa to get approvals for his
artwork from various departments and
failing to get others done bidding for
himself and doing the job by himself.
3. Unable to finish his job in given time
period.
4. The above 3 statements show that he
was a bit arrogant and over confident
about himself. Also, he was un-
organized about his work and changing
the things at last moment.

Extroversion Low 1. He used to hate the other colleagues at

work.
2. He used to have his lunch by himself
and never interacted with any other
guys at work.
Agreeableness Low 1. He used to hate people from MBA
background especially from Harvard.
2. He thought, he was the only smart guy
in the vertical and never cared for
others.
3. Yelling at Lisa in front of everybody and
complaining about her to Linton.

Neuroticism High 1. He was never able to complete his

assignments on time. Always use to
make last minute changes to his work.
2. He also challenged Lisa on her working
on the price strategy for the freshener
product.
3. His anxiousness was seen through his
attitude like I am a corporate misfit and
hate office politics.

1. Lisa can act as a bridge for Scoville and other departments in the organization. She
can help others in understanding Scoville and vice-versa. In this way the working
relation between Scoville and Lisa will improve.
2. Lisa can improve the relation with Scoville by doing his small work/ project tasks. In
this way Scoville will start trusting Lisa and will gain confidence in Lisa’s work and
strategies and this will ultimately help Lisa to grow in the organization.
Question 3

Johari window- Hidden area

The feedback given by Linton to Lisa was purely based on Linton’s observations during
meetings and interactions with her. Though Lisa was acting in this manner upon instructions
from Scoville.

Hence, Lisa should cautiously make effort to voice her opinions in the meetings in manner
which doesn’t offend Scoville and at the same time also impresses Linton.

Also, rather than acting under somebody’s influence or guidance, Lisa should act according
to her true nature and personality. This will help Linton in understanding her work caliber
and can explore Lisa’s true work potential.

Question 4

The feedback given to Lisa could have been in more polite manner:

1. Instead of saying “unassertive and lack of confidence and initiative”, Linton could
have said that Lisa should live up to her MBA degree during the meetings and in
project discussions. She should prove to others that why having an MBA degree
matters.
2. Also, Linton should have guided her through her own experience related to the
initiatives to be taken proactively by Lisa which will boost her confidence.
Question 5

Physical Engagement: The organization should have held some orientation sessions for new
employees like Lisa, which will give her idea about the working of organization and how they
have a platform to voice their ideas and feedbacks on the current developments. This would
have given a sense of physical engagement to Lisa with the concerned co-workers and would
have boosted her confidence in the work.

Cognitive Engagement: Linton and Scoville would have welcomed Lisa in their group and
would have clearly set goals for her aligning their vision with company’s vision so that Lisa
would have felt motivated to start the work. Also, at the same time they should have briefed
her about the projects on which they are working and how Lisa could contribute to that. This
would have helped Lisa to build a good working relationship and rapport with both. Also
sharing things with Lisa would have helped Linton and Scoville to gain more knowledge
through her expertise which would have helped them with more creative ideas for the project
coming from the fresh mind.

Emotional Engagement: On joining the organization, Linton should have welcomed Lisa
warmly which would have helped Lisa in getting connected with Linton on emotional front.
Since, Lisa didn’t have a warm welcome and Linton not appreciating Lisa of her MBA degree
and scolding Lisa for her not to do work attitude (which was not true) and giving direct
negative feedback made Lisa less connected on emotional front with Linton.

With reference to Scoville, Lisa got connected with him initially when he offered her lunch on
day 1. But, as time passed, due to Scoville’s unorganized attitude, he used to offload lots of his
things to Lisa and expected her to finish off them for him. Upon confronting him for his work
style, he had complained that to Linton, which made Lisa rethink her trust in Scoville. Maybe
Scoville should be more careful in future while having a word with Lisa.
Question 6

Soft Tactics:

1. Impression Management:
a. Lisa knew that both Linton and Scoville hated graduates from MBA as both
had a concept that these guys act too smart and think that they know
everything.
b. Particularly, Lisa could have changed Scoville’s misconception by helping him
on his projects and performing small tasks given to her by him without any
complaint. This would have helped Lisa to build her impression in front of
Scoville and ultimately towards Linton, since Linton and Scoville were close to
each other.
c. Also, during their meetings, she would have asked for a permission to voice her
opinion on a subject which slowly would have changed both Linton and
Scoville’s attitude toward Lisa and ultimately towards MBA graduates.
2. Persuasion:
a. If Lisa would have got well with Scoville at initial stage even after his tantrums
and had supported Scoville in his work and other assignments, she would have
been able to persuade her thoughts, opinion to Scoville in the later stage of her
job. In this way, she would have convinced Scoville to take her opinions into
consideration and ultimately that would have benefitted her in the review
meeting with Linton.

Hard Tactics:

1. Coalition formation:
a. Lisa had a positive feedback from Linton’s boss. She could have showcased her
skillset to other colleagues and would have taken their help to send her positive
feedback message across the concerned authority through word of mouth.
 2. Informational control:
a. Lisa could have told Linton about her conversation with Vernon and his
concerns related to kind of work Lisa has to do currently and how he has
granted Lisa the access of talking to him at any point, if she is not happy with
the work or the colleagues. This would have made Linton conscious while
discussing with Lisa.

Question 7

Yes, there have been breach of ethics by Lisa’s co-workers Linton and Scoville at the
workplace.

1. On her day 1 at new office, Lisa was not welcomed with warmth by her boss Linton,
which had already made Lisa’s moral down and confidence low. Also, Lisa was
constantly made aware that she is from MBA background and her boss and colleague
don’t like people from MBA background due to their attitude towards work. This was
clearly discriminating a candidate’s qualification and breach of work place code.
2. Linton and Scoville never gave Lisa an equal opportunity to voice her opinion during
the meetings or her inputs were not considered in the project which made Lisa
wondered about the intentions of both Linton and Scoville. Also, in her early days at
House World, Linton had failed to set the goals and targets for Lisa to perform during
her probation period. This was clear case of ignoring a team member from team and
treating her inappropriately.
3. Since, there was no goal setting done for Lisa, Linton had failed to understand her
capabilities and skills for various tasks and ignored in assigning any challenging tasks
to Lisa due to her biased look out towards MBA graduates. This shows the boss’s
attitude towards her team member and purposefully blocking her growth path due to
biased opinions and legitimate powers.
4. In one instance, when there was a discussion held between Lisa and Scoville related to
analysis and recommendations, initially, Scoville was impressed with Lisa, but upon
 requesting for the thesis to understand how Lisa had arrived at the analysis, Scoville
was unhappy with that and during one of their argument, he had yelled at Lisa in a
voice which was audible on the entire floor. This is a clear breach of work ethics and a
great embarrassment for Lisa.

Question 8

In my opinion, Lisa should leave House World and join Right Away. The reasons supporting
the statement are as below:

1. Though, Right Away is a small organization, it has an excellent work culture and
employee engagement. Hence, Lisa has her full potential to explore here. Working in
small organization will help Lisa getting exposed to every micro and macro activity in
detail and will compensate for her lack of experience. It will also give her an
opportunity to understand every business vertical and overall business of Right Away.
2. The management team at Right Away is excellent and supportive which will help Lisa
in shaping her career along with achieving her goal of heading the organization.
3. Another advantage Lisa has at her disposal is her excellent rapport with Scott
Kingston. Also, she will have the privilege of Legitimate powers, Expert powers and
Referent powers. This gives her freedom to take decisions and implement her ideas in
Right Away without any resistance from management or staff. She will have an on-job
experience at Right Away rather than having a class room approach at House World.
4. To conclude, Lisa has a golden opportunity at Right Away to grow professionally and
financially and achieve her goals.