The structure of RetailMax, Inc has a hierarchical arrangement, in which executives assign responsibilities, roles, and power in a decentralized manner.
The CEO holds the highest power and position although different departments exercise power according to the roles and responsibilities of their leaders.
Mr. Kessel has more power than Archer as he is the Vice President of the Product Management and Marketing Department at RetailMax, Inc Company while Archer is a salesperson at the moment. According to Clegg, Courpasson, & Philips (2006), power in an organization refers to the ability of an individual to overcome issues while achieving a set of goals.
The potential power shapes a structural position that the individual holds and uses through behavioral tactics. In this respect, Archer has managed to create excellent relationships both with clients and with the company, gaining trust and respect with the VP of sales.
Defining power in a company refers to the ability of leaders to influence and alter their employees’ behavior.
This identifies five distinct forms of power bases, such as power through coercion, power through reward, legitimate power, power through expertise, and power through reference (Clegg et al., 2006).
Reward power is the ability of the manager to give rewards to employees to motivate them. People with specialized skills and knowledge possess expert power.
Archer’s power is represented through her expertise as she has proved to be a valuable employee of the company by turning around the Toys N’ Stuff project that has faced significant problems.
Archer graduated from a leading business school with an MBA degree and attained great expertise in dealing with clients.
The power base of Mr. Kessel is legally determined whereas reward power is represented through his position as the Vice President of the Product Management and Marketing Department.
Stereotyping is the habit of individual adoption of thoughts and beliefs about others. Neither Kessel nor Archer makes use of stereotypical gender roles to expose influence.
When Archer decides to form a new position as Director of Product Marketing in Kessel’s department, the latter agrees with the idea, even though moving Archer into the department is foisted by the CEO of the company (Lippmann, 2007).
Kessel has a strong reputation and experience in software business since he has been working for more than 20 years in the industry. He had developed his own supply chain software company that he sold to IBM.
Additionally, the manager has launched new marketing strategies for several other companies. Due to the fact he has good expertise in the industry, the new CEO of RetailMax was interested in hiring him.
However, the CEO has not made use of his reputation to influence Archer’s decision. Archers do not use her position to affect Kessel’s decision although she is aware of the fact that Kessel is highly concerned with Archer’s agreement.
Since Archer’s performance is proven with the Toys N’ Stuff account, Kessel assumes that Archer is drawn to Professional Services department as a profit center that offers employees bigger upside risks in the form of compensation tied directly to performance.
He assumes Archer will prefer moving to the department as she has the opportunity of developing skills that will foster professional growth.
In her turn, Cam Archer is aware that the new Vice-President has rich experience and good reputation and, although she does not know him well, Archer believes that this person is a valuable asset to the company.
Driven by her need to move and focus on long-term career development, Archer needed to transit to the next position in the company. Archer has a broad view of the company’s vision. She has a remarkable experience in dealing with customers and the company’s sales people.
Additionally, she has also worked with the sales department. At the same time, the position offered by Kessel does not provide Archer with better compensation than that offered by the Professional Services department.
Provided Kessel hires Archer; he can receive multiple benefits for several reasons. To begin with, Archer is considered a promising, motivated, and self-confident person who has valuable experience in sales.
He is also recognized as a diligent and smart person who takes responsibility for the working processes. Therefore, he could serve as a valuable addition to the company’s profitability.
The hiring of an outside employee could positively influence Kessel power if he manages to bring a highly qualified and experienced person on board.
However, hiring someone else from the outside is a very time-consuming process because one will have to make greater efforts at making calls and searching for the person whose professionals skills do no cede Archer’s ones.
Specifically, the new candidate should be able to influence employees by its critical thinking, leadership skills, and professionalism. Although hiring an employee from the outside can be less costly for the company, it does not guarantee organizational success.
Archer has an opportunity of earning between $135,000 $145,000 as a base salary with some other bonuses based on performance tied to department targets. She has a chance of receiving bonuses amounting to more than $20,000.
The professional services equally provide Archer with a chance to promote her career. From the analysis of the documents, archer is the one who used her social power more effectively.
In case Kessel is inclined to hire Archer for the newly created position, the company should think overt the compensation package to attract the new person to the department.
Hence, the calculations and research studies have proved that Archer should be proposed with a 10 to 15 % compensation to make him join the organization.
The problem is that Archer has a high reputation among the clients and, therefore, Kessel should gain a competitive advantage by increasing the salary.
From Archer’s viewpoint, accepting Kessel’s offer was quite ambiguous due to several reasons. To begin with, there were some financial issues that discourage Archer to take the new marketing position.
Second, unlike Mangini’s department with Archer works, Kessel fails to provide any incentives for professional growth. At the same time, there are some benefits of taking the position of the Director of Product Marketing in terms of its uniqueness and opportunities.
This is of particular concern to the unique experience that is possible to receive with RetailMax company. Therefore, Archer should take this position because it provides a new change to advance your skills, as well as greater compensation for professional development.
About the above-presented evaluation, it should be stressed that Kessel was more professional in using social power because he has managed to attract Archer and persuade him of the benefits and uniqueness of the new position.
Specifically, Kessel’s expert research and awareness of personal reputation, skills, and experience have allowed him to predict the company’s new perspectives.
References
Clegg S., Courpasson, D., & Philips, N. (2006). Power and Organizations. New York, SAGE.
Lippmann W., (2007). Public Opinion, US: Filiquarian Publishing, LLC.