Case Study - Difficult Transitions

Aminda had just finished his first week at Reece Company and decided to drive upstate to a small lakefront lodge for some fishing and relaxation. Aminda had worked for the previous ten years for the Grady company, but Grady had been through some hard times of late and had recently shutdown several of its operating group, including Aminda's, to cut costs. Fortunately, Aminda's experience and recommendations had made finding another position fairly easy. As he drove the interstate, he reflected on the past ten years and the apparent situation at Reece.

At Grady, things had been great. Aminda had been part of the team from day one. The job had met his personal goals and expectations perfectly, and Aminda believed he had grown greatly as a person. His work was appreciated and recognized; he had received three positions and many more pay increases.

Aminda had also liked the company itself. The firm was decentralized, allowing its managers considerable autonomy and freedom. The corporate culture was easy going. Communication was open. It seemed that every one knew what was going on at all times, and if you did not know about something, it was easy to find out.

The people had been another plus. Aminda had three other managers went lunch often and played golf every Saturday. They got along well both personally and professionally and truly worked together as a team. Their boss had been very supportive, giving them the help they needed but also staying out of the way and letting them work.

When word about the shutdown came down, Aminda was devastated. He was sure that nothing could replace Grady. After the final closing was announced, he spent only a few weeks looking around before he found a comparable position at Reece Company.

As Aminda drove, he reflected that "comparable "probably was the wrong word. Indeed, Reece and Grady were about as different as you could get.

Top managers at Reece apparently did not worry too much about who did a good job and who did not. They seemed to promote reward people based on how long they had been their and how well they played the never ending political games.

May be this stemmed from the organization itself, Aminda pondered. Reece was a bigger organization than Grady and was structured much more bureaucratically. It seemed that no one was allowed to make any short of decision without getting three signatures from higher up. Those signature, though were hard to get. All the top managers usually were too busy to see anyone, and interoffice memos apparently had very low priority.

Aminda also had had some problems fitting in. His peers treated him with polite indifference. He sensed that a couple of them resented that he, An outsider, had been brought right in at their level after they had had to work themselves up the ladder. On Tuesday he had asked two colleagues about playing golf. They had politely declined, saying that they did not play often. But later in the week, he had overheard them making arrangements to play that very Saturday.

It was at that point that Aminda had decided to go fishing. As he steered his car off the interstate to get gas, he wondered if perhaps he had made a mistake in accepting the Reece offer without finding out more about what he was getting into.

Case questions

1. Identify several concepts and characteristics from the field of organizational behaviour that this case illustrates.

2. What advice can you give Aminda? How would this advice be supported or tempered by behavioural concepts and processes?

3. Is it possible to find an "ideal" place to work? Explain.