Motor Parts Corp

MOTOR PARTS CORPORATION

Bob Marvin, the president of Motor Parts Corp. (MPC), is feeling very frustrated and has an internal conflict since he is not sure about how to deal with the behavior of Al Shepherd, one of his key employees.

Bob is a shy, formal and a reserved person; he is controlling, a micromanager and a perfectionist and comes across as stiff, dry and cold. Bob is also very insecure and worries most of the time, but he is also known for being caring and brilliant.

Al Shepherd is an executive vice president who has the second most important job at the company; his role is critical as he has most of the departments reporting to him.

Al is a nice, friendly and positive person; he has a laid back personality, barely worries about the future and genuinely enjoys helping and caring about his subordinates. His mentality was of not controlling his team as long as the job was done.

Al's wife, Ruth, recently discovered that a malignant brain tumor she had two years ago, just reappeared and she has minimal chances of survival. Al is absolutely committed to support his wife in her fight against cancer; much so, that he has become an expert in the disease related issues and has put her health as a priority ahead of his job.

Some of Al's staff and peers started complaining about his behavior and his unavailability, lack of contact and the increase of problems working around him.

Bob was very concerned and was trying to be supportive, but the work had to continue, and to be fair, other people within the organization had also difficult personal problems, but none acted as Al did. Bob never confronted Al because he did not want to be perceived as a careless person, and after all, he was a family man as well.

Mike Jones was a management professor, and consultant working on different projects with Motor Parts Corp; he was, in addition, Bob's long time friend. Mike was also very close to Al and knew him pretty well, therefore, Bob asked Mike to talk to Al and give him an assessment.

One of the primary issues from the case is Bob's communication approach. Per definition, Communication involves sharing information between two or more people to reach common understanding, and it is successful when the receiver understands the message in the way the sender intended. This is the first step towards successful communication and in the case of Bob, that information is not even shared or at least not verbally, since Bob is using a non-verbal interaction to send signals to Al.

Another main issue is the communication pattern at Motor Parts Corporation; since Bob is such a structured and controlling person, he expects a highly centralized network with all communication and decisions passing through a central person like Al or him, following "The Wheel" or "Y" pattern. This makes