Question 4 | What is your impression of the final situation with Matthew McRae? Focus on: his resignation, his desire to rescind the letter and departure, and his willingness to restructure his compensation package. What should the Ivanovics do about McRae and his team? How should the organization go forward in its pursuit of excellence? (Nada)
From his resignation letter, McRae’s impatience and anger are portrayed. It is clear that he was acting out of violence and that he could not control his temper, something that good manager should be able to do. However, rescinding the resignation letter means that he took time to think about his actions and weighed what he stood to gain or lose from his actions. Also, the desire to restructure his compensation package as a condition for him to come back to work shows his greed for money and his unwillingness to solve the actual problem at hand. In pursuit of excellence, the organization should dismiss McRae from his position together with all the other managers because he hired his friend without permission from Ivanovic. This decision proven that he does not care about the company. Moreover, the organization should appoint a new manager. The manager should be slow to anger, success-oriented, and ready to subject him or herself to authority and scrutiny. The manager should also be willing to nurture the traditions established by Igor and Ludmilla. Collective responsibility ensures that all responsible managers step aside as the company takes time to perform due diligence. The company should stop accepting new customers and go back to its initial and primary methods and structure. The company should evaluate which aspects of cost of goods sold are core to differentiation, and which can be re-thought. Furthermore, they should also develop processes for compensation and promotions that are still mission-aligned but scalable. An arbitrary method doesn’t work when you are scaling as fast as they are.
Key Points:
- Person mode.
- The impression is that McRae is taking advantage of the situation and that the case will not be rectified.
- Dismiss McRae from his position. Dismiss all of the other managers.
- The company should Stop accepting new customers for a time and go ‘back to basics’ until they fix the damage from McRea.
- Once the organization regains its footing, everything is leveled, and employees are happy, take a different route to creating a scalable managerial structure.
- Evaluate which aspects of cost of goods sold are core to differentiation, and which can be re-thought.
- Develop processes for compensation and promotions that are still mission-aligned but scalable. An arbitrary process doesn’t work when you are scaling as fast as they are.
McRae gets hired to a position of Chief Operating Officer by the company owner that is Igor and Ludmilla Ivanovic. McRae has only been with the company for not more than six months when he tenders a resignation letter showing that he is not a reliable leader. When a manager wants to resign having worked for a short time, it shows that he gets tired so quickly and gives up upon encounter of challenges in his department. A chief operating officer is a tight position, and daily operation of the company solely lies on McRae’s shoulders. Trust that Igor and Ludmilla has, makes them hire McRae in the company giving him the most senior position and giving him some degree of freedom to spearhead the company operations (Wilson, 2017). The way McRae conducts himself upon grabbing a high post shows he is a proud person and unwilling to follow any guidance by the company owners. When managers cannot stand the norms of a company, they tend to quit. Junior company employees of Iggy’s are used to understanding each other personal background, and they stay like family. New ways of running daily company operation are received by employees in a hostile manner making them less motivated to perform their work. McRae is entitled to a better salary as he has contributed to a positive change in company sales and good profit return within a short time span. McRae resignation could have been due to poor remuneration despite his handwork and determination to make the company successful (Kang, Solomon & Choi, 2015). For McRae and his team to understand the company norms the company owners should call them for a meeting to teach and show them their importance thus leading to happy junior employees. When the management and junior employees communicate and emphasize on teamwork, daily work routine becomes easier thus making sure customers get quality products on time.
References
Kang, J. H., Solomon, G. T., & Choi, D. Y. (2015). CEOs’ leadership styles and managers’ innovative behavior: Investigation of intervening effects in an entrepreneurial context. Journal of Management Studies, 52(4), 531-554.
Wilson, F. M. (2017). Organizational behavior and gender. Routledge.
