Dick Spencer: Success as a Sales Person

The purpose of this case analysis is to determine why he was effective as a salesperson but lacked the ability to successfully manage and lead people as he transitioned from one position to another.

Analysis of Critical Issues: Success as a Sales Person Dick was considered the “boy to watch” by corporate headquarters because of his impressive track record as a salesman. He was liked by his peers, had looks, charisma and a natural ability to socialize which allowed him to be successful in his current position.

Dick was also an educated individual. At the young age of 22 he had already graduated from an M.B.

A degree which showed he was driven, self-motivated and had all the qualifications to succeed within the company. His personality and ability in the golf course even allowed him to create a personal relationship with the president of the company, who became very fond of Dick. In my opinion his success as a salesperson came at a young age because he had the aptitude, and the necessary relational communication skills which allowed him to successfully accomplish organizational sales objectives required by his superiors.

Many individuals pursue an M. B. A degree for career advancement opportunities.

In Dick’s case he managed to complete his college education with an M. B. A degree and land a sales position straight out of college. His knowledge and skill set in my opinion were over qualified for a position as a salesman. Broom, Glossy and Ramsey (1998) second this notion that “selling is the required entry-level job in many industries” (p.

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18). At such a young age it was a starting point where he managed to shine against his peers. According to Saba (201 1), “Master in Business administration (MBA) degree holders are considered as personnel who have ample knowledge about various emissions of business field” (p. 08).

A motivated individual like Dick came to this sales position with all the right professional qualities to prosper and more. Klan and Jones (2009), express the importance of how a business school plays an intrinsic role in influencing the professions Of those who obtain an M. B. A degree. Dick’s education might have been essential not only to his career success as a salesman but his development as a business professional and his motivation to keep moving up the ladder. In her research Saba (2011 confirms that “MBA students are generally thought to eave realistic self-concepts and some career directions” (p. 08).

In her study of 1 00 professionals in Pakistan, Saba’s data analysis demonstrates that MBA improves different skills that are the basis for better career opportunities (Saba, 2009, p. 207). His education was partly what made him successful as a salesman, his ability to efficiently communicate with people and interpersonal skills also play large roles in why he was so successful in that field. During the segment that we read on his success as a salesman you can’t help but notice how people describe Dick; he has good looks, has charm, etc.

Even though his sales achievements affect his peers goals they still consider him a “regular guy’ and enjoy his company when they socialize. You also notice how easily he can build a relationship with the president. One realizes that this person has great interpersonal and communications skills, as well as a proactive personality that attracts people and makes him likeable. According to Broom et al. (1998), “relational communication variables are important measures of a salesperson adeptness’s and achievement of sales performance outcomes” (p. 6).

In their study of 239 salesmen the authors clearly highlight the importance of effective communication within sales interactions (Broom et p. 16). Since sales are dynamic, it requires that a salesman adapt to their clients’ needs and behavior and possess a high degree of relational communication. In their study Of 496 employees; Gibbers, Grant and Kramer determine that “proactive individual select and create situations that enhance the likelihood of high levels of job performance” (p. 41 7).

Dick was always traveling to negotiate and effectively close large contracts. He was so hands- on and involved in his business activities that it caused him his first marriage. As Broom et al. (1998) confirm, “As involvement increases, salespeople are more able to perceive customer cues and respond accurately, that increases the probability of closing the sale and attaining sales performance goals” (p. 19). Aside from his success as a salesman, Dick’s ability to play golf seems to get him ahead.

It allows him to network with the president and according to his peers a key factor that helped him close many of his sales. According to Julian Small, the CEO of Wentworth Golf Club in an interview for the Economist, “golf is a fine test of character, when you do business with people, o need to know more about them, and golf rewards players who remain calm under pressure, never lose their temper and think strategically. These are all virtues in business, too (The Economist). ” Dick had a great combination of education, communication, interpersonal skills and self-motivation.

What happens when he starts to climb up the ladder? We will discuss this to an extent in the following section. Tribulations as a Manager From the moment Dick finally gets promoted to production and administrative positions, he develops a reputation for being a cold, cost cutting, calculating reviewer in all the departments he is involved in. Upper management is content with his results and continue to let him grow within the company, but as he transitions from one role to another you see how Dick starts to lose himself as a manager.

He goes from being the easygoing and likeable guy from the sales team to a dreaded superior who ultimately falters in his new endeavors within the Trip-American Company. From reviewing the case literature there are many critical issues leading to his tribulations as a manager, first his micro-management and leadership style leads to low employee satisfaction and resistance to change. Second his self- efficacy went from superior levels in sales to the bottom extreme in his role at the Mudroom Company, finally I believe that he lacked the training and/or knowledge to effectively manage a culturally diverse staff.

Dick comes from a position where he practically makes all his own decision to close sales and is in charge of his professional environment, he moves up the latter with this notion that he himself has the vision to know what is best for the organization. From his trouble shooter phase, you can see that Dick does not particularly cares about the employees within the departments he intervenes. He cares about systematically improving and reducing costs to make the organization flourish without really considering who gets affected by his decision making and monotonous behavior.

As Alveolus & Sovereign’s (2003) confirm in their study, some managers’ sense of leadership is to “work on strategies and visions and refrained from focusing on details or directing people” (p. 962). From the cases text, we learn in his first transfer out that he is received with reservation by both the community and plant life in London and from his new plant manager role in Birmingham he initially purged the Taft and “operated much as he had in his troubleshooting job for the first couple of years. In a sense these first two narratives prepare us for his lack of knowledge to effectively direct personnel, empower them and his tribulations as a manager when he was made the manager of the Canadian Mudroom plant. It is during his final transfer that his tribulation starts with his tightfisted style of leading people. Bad management is frequently categorized as ‘micro-management. In other words, “Micro-management is about when you take away the decisions from the people that should take the decisions” Alveolus & Sovereign’s, 2003, p. 973).

From the case text we learn how Dick is constantly strolling around the organization, he would walk out of his office and appear anywhere on the plant floor. Supervisors, managers and foreman did not feel at all comfortable with his actions. Keeping his thoughts to himself he would later comment on things he would like to see changed or implemented in future meeting with the management staff. A foreman expresses his feelings of his visits with utter frustration, “l wish to hell he’d stay up in the front office where he belongs. ” Negative attitude towards Dick where slowly rising.

As conveyed by managers from different institutions in Alveolus & Sovereign’s (2003), the superior has to have the vision and ability not to tell subordinates what to do in detailed levels, one has to have the ability to learn to delegate and trust people in their particular field of expertise (p. 973). By him interfering in work that is better understood by managers down the lines, he was becoming a burden on the shoulders of managers who instead focusing on the task at hand were increasingly becoming more concern with his presence on the floor and his behavior that at some levels they did not understand.

There is a clear relation between dervish style and employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction. It is evident that Dick is causing more harm than good as he is constantly interfering in all day to day operations that go on throughout the plant. This is clearly evident when he overheard the accounting staff members as they criticize, “for a guy who’s vice president, he sure spends a lot of time breathing down our necks. ” In Father Humidifier (2006) study it is clearly express that quality of the leader-employee relations has a great deal of impact over the employee’s level of job satisfaction and overall self-esteem (p. 14).

Dick is constantly avian meetings with his management team that keeps them away from their duties. He always brings up situations or “improvements” he would like to see implements or changes that affect the morale of his team. Overall, “employees are more satisfied with leaders who are considerate or supportive than with those who are either indifferent or critical towards subordinates” (Humidifier, 2006, p. 14). Negative relationships between upper management and workers within an organization can significantly reduce efficiency which can be seen at the Mudroom Plant as they are behind schedule to previous planning of current activities.

Dick’s micro-management and leadership style had influenced his staffs overall level of satisfaction and caused them to be constantly looking over their shoulders. They felt more threatened than actually supported by Dick’s overall headship. His actions on the Siding Department specifically caused a resistance to change because of how he handled the situation. According to Starr (2011), “major change requires people to give up feelings of comfort, long-held values or beliefs, and established routines” (p. 47). As he told his workers that the narrow bands of scrap where bendable and easily fitted into the disposal barrels, he refused to ear the workers and the foreman’s message of “we have always done it this way. ” He refused to listen how bending the bands carried certain issues and problems that only the foreman understood. What he found out a few days later was that the workers kept on cutting the strip scraps even after the fact that he took away the saw machines like an angry child.

As Starr (201 1) emphasizes in her study, ‘ nee major change challenges attitudes, values or assumptions it becomes a threat to identity and makes resistance inevitable (p. 647)”. The foreman and his staff ignored Dicks request completely, undermining his authority. As Dent & Galloway (1999) confirm, “more often, the obstacle is in the Organization’s structure that makes people choose between the new vision and their own self-interest (p. 26)”.

The way Dick handled the situation caused the foreman to storm out of his office and the Siding Department team to resist his challenge the status quo because his request challenged a previous effort they knew was more adequate for the task at hand. More will be addressed on how Dick could have handled the resistance to change in the Siding Department incident specifically in the recommendations section. Another important piece to his tribulation as a manger had to greatly with his self-efficacy which was greatly challenged at the Mudroom plant.

Self-efficacy (also known as social cognitive theory or social learning theory) is a person’s belief that he/she is capable of performing a particular task successfully (Lundeberg, 2011, p. 1). As a salesman Dick had high levels of self-confidence, he truly believed in his ability to accomplish his sales objective with assurance. I believe his self-efficacy came crashing down to the lowest levels in Canada. At some point he even became paranoid hinging ‘the president and his friends in the home office where waiting for Dick to prove himself or fall flat on his face. He lost track of time, dates, pushed away his family, at his lowest point he left a meeting without his shoes. He started to remembered how his worst fields during the M. B. A where accounting and human relations. As Lundeberg (2011) mentions in his study, “self-efficacy is a powerful determinant of job performance” (p. 2).

At some point he talks about how there were moments in that position that he thought about crying confirming Lounger’s (201 1) notion that emotional uses can be so powerful that they can dictate attitudes, assumptions and if they persist may become associated with inefficient results (p. ). The last reason believe Dick had tribulations as a manager where impart because he lacked the training and/or knowledge to effectively manage a cultural diverse staff. Symptoms of this believe are apparent when he worked in Britain and confirmed at the Mudroom Plant. His workers did not understand his ways even mentioning “you know how these Americans are”. This leads me to believe that the Trip-American Company did not have trainings programs for Manager who were going to operate outside of the United States which could affect manager-employee relations because of lack of culture identity.

Edwards & Turnbuckle (2013) express in their study that “leadership development programs pays insufficient attention to the way that learning to lead becomes embedded and affected by the cultural context within which leaders and leadership operate” (p. 46). Dick mentions it himself how he felt the “Canadians” he worked with resented his presence, how he just came in over their heads. No plan was set in motion to make Dick’s transition to the Canadian company as smooth as possible avoiding these types of conflicts. He had to create a bond with his management team which instead resulted in bad situation for all of them.

If Dick would have had some previous training, he could have had a “broader organizational impact that can be understood by a more culturally based approach” (Edwards & Turnbuckle, 2013, p. 47). There is a clear link between leadership and culture, if there would have been a higher level of importance put under this notion maybe Dick would have understood his staff better, avoided uncomfortable circumstances and lead hem in such a way that they would label him as a guide and support leader instead of an antagonist.

Recommendations

Decision Making and Problem Solving: In reviewing the case study of Dick Spencer, you can say he did a lot of “good” for the departments he made flourish, but what about the people? Think that Dick in his quest for ultimate glory and SUccess forgot that people are the heart of an organization. Without people there would be no plant for him to come in and do all his cost cutting procedures. Do not get me wrong believe operating efficiently is important; after all we are all in this field to generate venue and maximize profits. However, there needs to be a balance between efficiency and organizational culture.

Dick moved from his troubleshooting days to a V. P position; he needed to emulate leadership in order to maximize outcomes and include those around him. Dick basically barricaded himself in his office at the Mudroom plant. What could he have done differently? I believe the first thing he needed to do was become a transformational leader not a micro-manager; second he needed to challenge the resistance to change in a different way, and finally I believe he had to acquire more knowledge on cross cultural approaches to leading an international staff.

In order for a company to run in an efficient and effective manner, every business needs human capital. In a sense, the success of an organization comes from the hard working people in the operation lines and from their supervisors. In fact, “personnel are important in context of achieving goals and objectives of an organization” (Bush, Susan & Unpaved, 201 1, p. 261 Being behind schedule on the expansion project of the Mudroom plant which is destined to generate large amount of profits had everyone, specially Dick, on the edge.

Instead of micromanaging his staff, Dick had to renovate his methods into transformational leadership, which is defined as a system of changing and transforming those around you in a positive manner (Bush, Susan & Unpaved, 201 1, p. 261 According to Bush et al. , transformational leaders “adopt an attitude that support employees, provide them a vision, cultivate hope, encourage them to think innovative, individualized consideration and broaden the communication” (2011 , p. 261). Every meeting with his managers ended in yelling and fighting.

There seemed o be no effective communications styles between him and his staff. Instead of empowering them to accomplish their goals he discouraged them and wanted them to do their jobs as he commanded. Transformational leadership in top managerial positions is an important concept, because “employees who are satisfied with their jobs tend to be more creative and innovative that help businesses to grow, flourish and bring positive changes” (Bush et al 201 1, p. 261 Dick needed to entrust his staff to do the job they were hired to do by guiding them and encouraging them in developing organizational commitment.

Dick’s leadership in such a multilevel project as the expansion of the Mudroom Plant required him to be in harmony with his managers and staff to accomplish the goal of keeping up with schedule. According to Stop (2006), researchers have found that employees who are pleased with their supervisors/leaders, feel that they are being treated with respect and are valued by their management feel more attachment with their organizations (As quoted in Bush et al. , 2011, p. 261). Therefore organizational commitment is an important piece Of the puzzle.

How committed were the employees of the Mudroom Company under Dick’s direction? Dick had to direct with guidance while motivating his employees. This would have developed higher levels of job performance; since a leader even in rough times has employee loyalty to ultimately reach organizational goals and objectives. The siding department incident is a genius conclusion to this case because it just comes to show the low levels of personal and professional quality Dick was displaying in his current position.

The foreman and his team completely ignored his demand; it was apparent that he was not being taken into account the many operational activities that were going on inside the Mudroom Plant. Just with the fact that he took the saw machines from the department like a “bully” provided evidence that he did not handle this specific case correctly. As stated by Dent & Galloway (1999), “employees may resist the unknown, being dictated to, or management ideas that do not seem feasible from the employees’ standpoint” (p. 26).

There are two prescription concepts that believe Dick could have applied to avoid this embarrassing incident and effectively deal with the situation. First he needed to develop a new job definition; instead of just telling the Foreman and the employees about the generation of the new idea or concept” actually provide a formal document to the generation and implementation of the new method (Dent & Galloway, 1999, p. 35). By having formally introduced the concept he has supported documentation of the necessary implementation he has requested.

The foreman then could have formally introduced a communication of why his new method was not feasible. Talking about communication brings me to the second prescription concept which is to revise the role of the administrator. By having implemented formal communication with only the foreman, Dick would have seen himself only as a primarily facilitator of communication, rather than as someone who checks up, delegates and follows through, and applies pressure to actually perform the process (Dent & Galloway, 1999, p. 35).

Dick in all the senses was wrong to discuss the changes with lower level employees and worst of all tell the service department to physically remove the saw machines out of the siding department. This incident shows the lack Of communication with his staff and why there was resistance to change. As heavily discussed by Dent & Galloway, a manager cannot just expect changes o happen instantly, not until there is way communication amongst all parties. You cannot simply impose the change but suggest and discuss them to see if it there is better alternative to current methods (Dent & Galloway, 1999, p. 36).

Modern day business has called for the expansion of leadership development programs for global managers. Leadership at the “cross country level” has become a critical issue for companies that wish to expand and be successful around the globe. In fact there is necessity of substantial guidance for leaders who are going to operate internationally not only because of preference in ethnicity, language or culture, but also by the international nature of culture and leadership (Spoon, 2009, p. 62) If you look at Dick’s case, both countries he traveled (Britain and Canada) are not that different to the United States.

He could speak English with the staff there was no true culture shock; so what went wrong? What Trip-American failed to identify was the need for Dick to learn and develop specific leadership interaction skills within a different cultural context. Spoon (2009) study demonstrates the need for global manager “to address this relationship using a dynamic and interactive approach, viewing leadership as a social construct (p. 62)”. This contributes to the notion that by understanding a new perspective of interaction with a diverse team Dick could have developed essential leadership skills necessary in a culturally diverse atmosphere.

Trip-American Company could have provided a leadership development program considering “culture” in more depth through imparting knowledge of the history, education and dialogue related factors that might affect employee behavior within international companies. This could have improved Dick’s understanding of his own necessary modification of his definition of dervish to add Reese the management styles or behaviors within international countries (Spoon, 2009, p. 77).

Conclusion

This case study is particularly interesting because we see the two faces of the coin.

On one side you get this young professional who is successful in sales, impresses everyone and has hunger to go out for more. Then you face the 14 year veteran who starts doubting himself and completely begins to lose himself as a manger and to some extent as a person. Do believe the problems of the Mudroom Company were basically handed off to him, but like any good manager he should have relied on his trained staff and incommunicado with them to get the job done. Dick was practically determined to impose himself on every aspect of the company.

He failed to realize that up to some extent you need to trust and rely on the work of others to reach company objectives. As the V. P, he should have been there for guidance and support; instead he criticized and was a burden. A major part of being a manager is learning when to delegate and trust your people. One has to remember that they are experts in their given area and we can’t do the job for them. This case study allows you to see how important people are to organizations.

Without their high morale, loyalty and organizational commitment you can expect poor results which will ultimately lead to your personal and professional failure. My motto as a manager is lead the way, empower people and criticize constructively; but always show respect. I think as Dick moved up the ladder he forgot all those essential qualities that made him successful at the beginning. At the end as he mentions to his buddies all you can do is laugh. Eventually one has to see their errors in order to learn and grow from them and make sure to avoid them or act differently in future circumstances.