Situation 2

Answer the questions

Situation

You are an activist working in a fatalistic society. The company you work for has hired you to help it expand its business and get new customers. You have designed a campaign that should result in a 5 percent increase in market share in six months if you can get all the resources you need. You have been spending the last few weeks drumming up enthusiasm and support for your master plan, but to be honest, colleagues and upper management haven't been responding the way you would like. They're quite pessimis­tic about your estimates; to get that kind of increase, they say, will take a lot longer than six months. "Things just don't happen that fast here," you were told by one manager. Your reply was that things can happen as fast (or slow) as people want them to; they just have to make the necessary effort.

Everyone seems to have a reason why the plan won't work, why the potential stumbling blocks are more serious than you think. You realize there will be some obstacles, of course, but you have faced these kinds of obstacles before and know that if people rise to the occasion, they can overcome them. If the company isn't serious, however, if it doesn't commit the person­al and other resources required, this expansion won't happen in six years, much less six months.

You're starting to doubt whether these people are really com­mitted to this effort or if they're just making the right noises. And you weren't encouraged today when your boss told you that some department heads have been complaining about the demands you're making of them, saying that you're not being very realistic. What should you do?

1. Why do you think your colleagues behave this way?

2. What would you say to your boss in such a situation?

3. Do you think it is reasonable to continue the project?

4. Do you believe it is possible to cope with these obstacles to achieve success?

5. What culture do you belong to? Explain your point of view.

You work for an advertising firm in an activist culture to which you emigrated two years ago. While you like your adopted home­land very much, it has been difficult to adjust your more fatalist inclinations to the prevailing mindset, especially at work. You work as hard as anyone else, but you have been accused of giv­ing up on prospective new accounts when you might have won them with more effort. You feel that after you have pitched to and courted clients for a certain period, the rest is up to them, that beyond a certain point there's nothing more you can do. You have even been accused of being defeatist for saying that certain goals were unrealistic.

Last week your boss called you in for your yearly perfor­mance review. He pointed out that you needed to be more ag­gressive in pursuing business and not be so eager to adopt a wait-and-see stance after you have pitched to clients. "Things happen because you make them happen," he said, "not because they're meant to happen." You don't necessarily agree, but you obviously need to adjust your style if you're going to succeed in this organization.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-29