Jensen Shoes

1. INTRODUCTION

Jensen Shoes is well-established footwear marketing company in USA, which is also present on international markets. It has reputation of a company that takes care of its employees. In 2004, it has 4500 employees worldwide, NPV of $265 millions and 20% return on Equity in 2003. The company has a highly profitable position on the market for many years comparing to its competitors, but due to static sales growth in the casual wear division, Jensen's executive management decided to develop a major marketing strategy over the next six months. Its strategy concerns defining new opportunities for new markets and new products.

Sally Bridges, VP of marketing, was charged to develop new strategy. Sally has assigned Chuck Taylor, Director of Strategic marketing, to develop a major marketing strategy. Chuck set the reorganization of his group and assigned three Strategic Product Managers, Kyle Hudson, Robert Murphy and Jane Kravitz. Each of three managers would supervise a team of marketing professionals with specific market to develop. Jane Kravitz was assigned to develop the area of casual wear for several vertical markets: African-American, Latino, Mature College, Pre-teens, Man and Women. Jane Kravitz divided her strategic performance objectives (s.o.'s) between Lyndon Brooks, Larry Bunton and Cheryl Abbott.

Lyndon Brooks, (African American ethnicity), joined Jensen Shoes as PhD in Sociology with 8 years of experience in marketing. He went through various assignments during his working experience. At Jensen's he holds position as Manager for Ethics Markets under supervision of Chuck Taylor until 2004. In the beginning, Brooks started out with a great motivation and high expectations about his work environment. However, his supervisors assigned him too big a workload, including two s.o.'s and an environment project. In 2004, because of Taylor's reorganization, he was redeployed under Jane Kravitz supervision. He felts that this redeployment was a punishment for not completing his s.o.'s in Promotion job. He was assigned to work on African American and Latino vertical markets. Misunderstanding appeared between Brooks and Kravitz while they were working on this new assignment due to conflicting perceptions. He is now seriously reconsidering his future at Jensen Shoes.

Therefore, this case study examines the conflict between manager Jane Kravitz and employee Lyndon Brooks, both responsible for preparing a comprehensive marketing plan for African Americans and Latino vertical markets, as a part of overall marketing strategy for the casual footwear market.

2. DIAGNOSIS

According to Equity theory (Adams, 1965), people are looking around and observing what effort other people are putting into their work and what rewards follow them. In our case Brooks is saying, "No one else completed his s.o.'s, but none of them lost their jobs". He was feeling like he is not treaded equal like other managers at his level.

First assumptions in equity theory states that employees expect a fair return for what they contribute to their jobs, a concept referred to as the "equity norm" (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978). People measure the totals of their inputs and outcomes and they make judgment. In our case, Lyndon's measure is that he gives more then he receives. He states, "When completing the project, Jane seemed to go a little overboard recognizing me. Sure I'd done a good job..."Then he went to Chuck, but instead recognition he received criticism. Moreover, he did not get any support by Jane. When individuals find themselves participating in inequitable relationships, they become distressed. The more inequitable the relationship, the more distress individuals feel. According to equity theory, The person who gets too little may feel angry or humiliated. This was how Brooks feels, humiliated. "Employees who perceive themselves as being in an inequitable situation will seek to reduce the inequity either by distorting inputs and/or outcomes in their own minds ("cognitive distortion"), by directly altering inputs and/or outputs, or by leaving the organization". (Carrell and Dittrich, 1978). Accordingly, at the end Lyndon states,"As things stands now, I don't see a future for myself at Jensen Shoes". Primary reason is non-equal treatment perceived by Lyndon.

If we are analyzing Lyndon using ERG theory by Alderfer we can see a number of factors missing, which implies motivation suffer. In this case we can see absence of Growth Needs, because Lyndon has been moved horizontally to another ethnic project, instead to be promoted, as he thought. Moreover, we can see absence of