LDR w4a1 Essay - 1344 Words

Date: July 29, 2015

To: Kevin McCullagh, Professor

From: Jana Riedmann

Subject: De la Vega and Bussard relationship

Case study #1: De La Vega vs. Bussard

I believe De la Vega indeed waited too long to make his mark within the company; he should have been little bit more aggressive from the beginning. “… new position came with its own set of frustrations as he tried to plunge into the rapidly changing technology while simultaneously fitting into the organization and tip-toeing around Tony Bussard’s ego. (Daft, p. 217)”. This statement sums up where De la Vega approach during his initial months with the company, which turned into continuous motion for months to come. De la Vega was initially hired as an expert within his field with a vision for the company, which the hiring committee found appealing for the company, yet turned into a pragmatic survivor in order to avoid upsetting Bussard.
While De La Vega may have been slightly overwhelmed by his new position, as his previous experience seems to be purely in technology development and managerial and somewhat lacking in leadership skills, it seems De la Vega did not manage up properly and timely as he was afraid his action might anger and alienate the CEO. However by failing to assertively earmark his position and area of responsibilities early on, he will face a rather difficult task to change the current status quo and earn the trust of his followers as well as the CEO’s respect.
If I were in De la Vega’s position (and I have been) I would first ask Bussard’s opinion on a new project and how it should be executed. If Bussard continued to avoid verbal conversation, I would sum up the project outlines in an email, propose course of action and asked for his blessings. If I received no response from Bussard, I would orally check in with him to see if he saw my email and what he thought about it. If he continued to be nonresponsive, I would follow up with another email indicating we need to move ahead while asking him one more time to weigh-in. And after implementing the proposed approach, I would provide objective ongoing progress reports to Bussard while being prepared to bear the brunt of his anger/disappointment/distrust, which would inevitably come. This is an approach I have adopted over the years with m elusive bosses and found it helpful.
For example, I knew that my immediate supervisor was nearing his retirement and was basically waiting out his time in his current position. As such, he did not want to be bothered with day-to-day HR problems while at the same time he hated to be surprised by inquiries from the Ambassador during his weekly meetings. Therefore, every Tuesday morning, I would send my boss a short email with brief description of all HR issues along with what has been done and timeline.
While De la Vega’s initial strategy is understandable given he was in rather challenging position given Bussard’s inclinations to retain as much control as possible, De la Vega should have exercised courage to assume responsibility. De la Vega probably did his homework and knew what Bussard likes (and dislikes) and he should use this knowledge to build a solid working relationship with Bussard no matter how difficult. I kept wondering why Bussard was so elusive – is it because he felt uncomfortable and unsure within De la Vega’s field of expertise to the point of trying the avoidance technique? Did he hire De la Vega as subject matter expert and expected him to run his department alone without much input from him? It is critical for De la Vega to find answers to these questions, something that should have been abundantly clear from his initial research of Bussard when applying for the position and after being hired, because these answers may provide key to the relationship between Bussard and De la Vega.

Case Study #2: Jordan vs. Whitfall

I believe these two examples were chosen to show direct contrast between the transformational and

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