Thomas Green Paper: Power, office Politics, and a Career in Crisis

Thomas Green Paper: Power, Office Politics, and a Career in Crisis

Vanessa D. Goins

Grand Canyon University

LDR-610-0101 Power, Politics, and Influence

Brian Lahargoue

July 20, 2013

Thomas Green 's actions as a senior market specialist was not meeting Frank Davis's expectations A senior market specialist job is responsible for identifying industry trends, evaluating new business opportunities, and establishing sales goals(Sasser & Beckham, 2008).Shannon McDonald had hired Green because she was counting on him to do a job well done, instead he lacked the managerial experience in his job position .McDonald and Davis wanted Green to think strategically and outside of the box , but Green was only concerned with the sales target. He listened to Davis but was very doubtful of his expectations for him. Davis thought that Green would do his duties as a senior market specialist, but Green was not keeping Davis informed of his schedules, not answering his cell phone, not turning in reports, and not being able to be located of where he was supposed to be. During the meetings with Davis, Green would display a negative attitude and that was not good for the company. He felt as though that he was doing everything right and not be lacking anything, his negligence of the expected duties that Davis needed him to do was putting his job in jeopardy. The individual agendas of Davis and McDonald were to think strategically as a senior market specialist and be able to handle the different functions of the corporate office. The agendas were also to spend a significant amount of time preparing for client meetings and developing supporting details for proposals (Sasser &Beckham, 2008).Each person Green, McDonald, and Davis wanted to be treated with respect in their positions. Green wanted to be treated like an employee that knows how to do the job as a senior market specialist that can get the job done. He wanted Davis to let him do things his way and he wanted him to trust him that he could make the sales happen. McDonald, as the division vice president took Green under her wing expected for him to treat her like a leader, someone who is willing to help him be successful in his new position so that it will help the company grow. Davis, as Green's boss wanted Green to treat him like a boss and follow the job requirements that were expected of him as being a senior market specialist. He also wanted Green to respect the fact that he was only looking out for his best interest and agree to do focus more on his job expectations and come to the meetings having a positive attitude instead of having doubts and negativity against what Davis was saying.

Pfeffer (1992) suggests that power, as a function of a position and or unit in the organizational structure, is reflected in the control and use of resources. The personal power of bases that I believed that were used in this case study was legitimate power, reward power, expert power, and coercive power. McDonald uses legitimate power and reward power, as vice president, she had the power over the