Kanakavelan Gothandaraman
DeSales University
Professor: Dr. Alok Chakrabarti
CR505 – Organization Management (Winter-2015)
Table of Contents
1. Case Abstract 3
2. How did Turner get himself into this predicament? What is going on for Cardullo? 3
3. What did Pat Cardullo and Jamie Turner each initially bring to the situation at MLI that would seem to ensure success? Failure? 4
4. What were the key choice points where either of them could have done things differently? 4
5. How, if at all, should Turner approach Cardullo at the end of the case? 5
1. Case Abstract
Turner is a bright young man with a MBA from a top rated university; who wants to grow faster in sales and marketing department and he joined Wolf River as product manager. With the positive attitude he wants to test himself but he realized that Wolf River has strong hierarchical controls and it will be hard to take innovative approach. Also, he realized that has limited chance to grow up in the organization. Hence he started looking for other opportunities, after worked as a VP of planning and marketing in Lambowland.com; he found his home at Modern Lighting Industries (MLI), Inc as a VP of marketing and sales.
After working at MLI for a short time Jamie Turner is confronted with differences between the president, Pat Cardullo, and himself. Jamie is concerned that the relationship between he and Pat has grown to be unpredictable and frustrating, which is causing much uncertainty.
2. How did Turner get himself into this predicament? What is going on for Cardullo?
Turner directly reports to Cardullo, the President of MLI, who believed firmly in management by objective and stressed the important of good communication among the top executive team. At the same time, he thought each manager should run his or her own area with minimal help from other functions.
The reason Jamie and Cardullo’s relationship may be declining is because they have different expectations. As we know, different people with different values, assumptions, beliefs and expectations will lead to conflicts. If there is a gap between what we observe and what we expect, we have a problem. As the case said, Jamie left previous company Wolf River because he felt himself stagnating in product management and started to think about going up in his carrier. His value is in pursuit of high social status and autonomy. So when he entered the MLI, he attempts to show himself in front of others and let his supervisor accept his ability. He soon began building a product management capability and recruited people to create a productive team. It’s clear that he is also arrogant; Jamie had the impression that he knew more about the specifics of sales and marketing than Cardullo did after they finished the interview. However, Cardullo worked for the company for a long period; in other words he is a senior in this company.
Another conflict that came about was when Juanita Swenson brought Jamie Turner a spreadsheet which showed some cash flow concerns. When they approached Julie Chin about the situation she gave an explanation and stated that the cash flow of MLI is strong. Unsatisfied with the explanation, Turner went to Cardullo and they all had a meeting that afternoon. Pat could not see the problem and disregarded the matter as unimportant. This incident diminished the relationship between Julie and Jamie. Following the incident he made a unanimous decision to cut the price of halogen without even informing Cardullo which made Cardullo furious.
While it’s brewing, Cardullo told Turner he should send Tim Kelly to Kansas City, instead of trying to understand the reason, Turner start protesting about the decision; which made Cardullo angry.
Similarly, Cardullo wants to move on to the next level as COO, at the same time his relationship with his peers at Triple S is strained. He wants to spend more time to prepare himself, so hired Turner, a young and ambitious guy.
