Thomas Green
The report is about Thomas Green who was an accountant for Dynamics Displays which provides self-service options to banks by using Automated Teller Machines. Various issues came to the limelight after he was promoted to senior market specialist. His boss Frank Davis was not satisfied with his work and aired this to the vice president McDonald. Two meetings were held between Green and his immediate boss where issues of concern were raised and deliberated upon. The report’s main focus is the ethical and human resource issues, an evaluation of actions described in the case, and finally my recommendation to issues of concern in the company.
According to Beauchamp et al., 2008 one serious issue concerning human resource is the manner with which Green was recruited to his current position. It is evident that the procedure used to promote him although was based on his competitive performance in the accounts section, the position was not advertised and the right procedure of short listing, interviewing and recruitment not followed. Frank was keen to look for a competitive person to fill the position of a senior market specialist. However, since McDonald was the company’s vice president and graduated from the same University as Green and hailed from the same State she used her position to promote him. This is unethical and fails to follow the best practice in human resources (Beckham & Sasser, 2008). It is a fact that Green and McDonald held several informal meetings in which the former learned of the open position, and using his association with the vice president he campaigned to be considered for this position.
Another ethical issue is with regards to how Green criticized the sales projections of his immediate boss. After airing his concern in the meeting where the projections were being made, Green went further telling every Tom, Dick, and Hurry that his problems with his boss are rooted to him openly refuting his projections. Additionally, Green failed to behave according to the regulations of the company; that of reporting to his immediate boss. For instance, it was unethical for him not to answer a call when he was in Orlando. Green was not even in Orlando at the time, he had gone to Atlanta a day before presumably to meet his girlfriend although he said he had gone to meet a vice president of purchasing client. He also failed to update and give relevant information to his boss (Beckham & Sasser, 2008).
On the same note, it was unethical for the second mail which was sent to McDonald by Frank to find its way to Green. This means that information secrecy within the organization is not guaranteed. In my view, if the stern action taken by Frank against Green is purely based on the fact that Green was promoted to his current position by the company vice president then this is not right.
I believe the action taken particularly by Frank Davis is satisfying. When he realized that Green had a negative perception about his sales projections, the failure of the latter to adequately inform him among other issues, he first called Green and talked about the issues. Additionally sending the mails to the VP and Green was another important action as it showed the correct channel of communication. The action taken by Green of telling other managers and employees of his problems was not well informed. On the other hand, the vice president took a rational action by demanding an explanation from Green. However, she failed by not taking the right protocol when promoting Green (Beauchamp et al., 2008).
My recommendation to the company are; newly promoted employees need to be taken through the procedures and guidelines demanded by their positions, office politics should be kept at bay, recruitment process opts to be left to the relevant authority, there is need to consider experience when hiring or promoting workers and formal meetings opt to be arranged between bosses and their subordinates in a regular basis.
References
Beauchamp, T. et al. (2008). Ethical theory and business. New York: Prentice-Hall.
Beckham, H. & Sasser, E. (2008). Thomas Green: Power, office politics, and a career in crisis. Harvard Business Publishing, 3(2): 1-11.