XLRI HRM A OB II Group 1

Ancy (H14008) | Ankit (H14011) | Anurag (H14013) | Ashish (H14017) | Ratna (H14037) | Vivekananda (H14060)
CASE 1: KAY SUNDERLAND: MAKING THE GRADE AT ATTAIN LEARNING
1: Describe Sunderlands management and work style. What are her sources of power?
Kay Sunderland is formal, and efficient, always setting expectations at the outset of a project.
Meticulously finding the crux and hitting the bulls eye, by creating a map between the expectations of
the client and delivering the same to the content team and keeping in check that the things do not
digress from the expectation map of the client. Given her job profile of being face of the company, she
is more relationship oriented and that may be the reason why she could not accept what Morgan did.
However, her experiences complement her expertise and confidence for managing massively, high-
profit accounts, and she also has a great strategic mind-set and provides insightful critiques along with
suggestions.
She pushes her team to develop the best products for their clients. However, she is criticized for being
somewhat inflexible and overly demanding at times. Her personal power is evident in her actions
Expertise and Confidence from her experiences in managing large high profile accounts. She is
sensitive towards Mikes tendency to challenge clients ideas and develop out of the box proposals
when she states that I admire Mikes content development talent She is focused and has high
energy and stamina as she is actively working with three other high profile clients simultaneously. At
the same time, her positional power is evident in the respect that she commands and her relational
power as a highly valued and admired manager.
2: Describe Morgans management and work style. What are his sources of power?
Mike Morgan, Content Development Director at Attain Learning likes to lead his team. He is a creative
person and values creativity. Morgan is a type of person who wants freedom and authority in his work.
He is quite enterprising and takes complete ownership of his tasks. He wants people to trust his
judgments. His management and work style is of a supporter and partner. He supports his team very
well, which has led to loyalty in his staff. He boasts his team with a high morale, even though they
XLRI HRM A OB II Group 1
Ancy (H14008) | Ankit (H14011) | Anurag (H14013) | Ashish (H14017) | Ratna (H14037) | Vivekananda (H14060)
have to work overtime. He takes initiatives and likes challenges. He is not afraid of pitching in
whenever needed. Given that he goes overly critical when Kay or John pushes for something
unrealistic, he is a person with realistic work style. He is a very development oriented person.
Mike has an innovative and creative work style and is a valuable and indispensable resource for his
organization being the only content director in the company. His important designation, competence
and mastery of his work gives him immense positional and individual and control and power in his
workplace. His good terms with his subordinates give him good network strength in the organization.
3: What is going on here? Why did Morgan call Nunez? Why did Nunez call Sunderland?
Difference in the working styles, perceptions and specializations of Kay and Mike has led to a problem
as Morgan directly called Nunez without taking Kay into the loop. Kay Sunderland as the Account
manager is responsible for talking to clients. Kay had been very busy in her work preparing for the
deployment of the programs of two high profile clients and arranging a meeting with a new client. At
the same time, Morgan had some queries regarding the Gramen project. When Morgan tried to contact
Kay, she was not available and so, he directly called up Nunez to discuss the training program case
without informing Kay. Nunez felt pestered with Morgans voice messages. He informed Kay that he
does not have time or interest to deal with Morgans calls. He also made it clear that he is only
interested in final solution designed by them and not their internal arguments of the same.
4: Evaluate Morgan and Sunderlands relationship.
Kay Sunderland is a conventional and investigative person while Mike Morgan is an artistic,
realistic and an enterprising person. This is a direct reflection of the nature of their jobs. Due to
this difference in working styles, Morgan feels that Sunderland is very rigid in her requirements
and must give him some autonomy. This, he feels must also be communicated to the clients as it
may not be always necessary to fulfil their requirements.
XLRI HRM A OB II Group 1
Ancy (H14008) | Ankit (H14011) | Anurag (H14013) | Ashish (H14017) | Ratna (H14037) | Vivekananda (H14060)
Another aspect about their management styles is that Sunderlands work demands her to be
relationship oriented whereas Morgan is more task oriented. In the situation given in the case,
Sunderland was engaged in preparing for a meeting with a new client whereas Morgan was busy
making content for Garmen Equipment. Morgan might have felt that Kay is not realising the
seriousness of the work owing to divided attention. Given the fact that Sunderland had worked for
four years and almost two years more than Morgan and that she had a closer relationship with
Chama and Nicholas, Morgan hesitated to approach Chama with his issues.
5: What should Sunderland do? Please be specific about the approach and tactics she should use.
Sunderland has a crucial issue at hand which needs to be dealt with very tactfully. She has an
agitated prospective client whom she cannot afford to lose. She also has a colleague, Mike, who is
creative, unconventional and innovative in his approach. Mike is also an indispensable resource
since he has proved his merit and he is also the only content development director in the
organization at the moment. She can follow the below steps to make important relationships work
at this crucial juncture:
Call Juan and assure him of Attains commitment to Gramen and try to pacify his anger
Immediately set up a meeting with Mike and make him aware of the current developments. She
should hear out Mike and then make him understand that losing out Gramen will not be in the
best interest for anyone. Hence, it is important for Mike to not draw any unnecessary fire from
the client and follow the conventions since the matter has gone out of hand.
She should also keep Chama looped in and inform him of the developments.
She should also be swift in her actions so that the matter can be brought under control
immediately without causing any further damage.