Jamie Turner Case Study

Problem Statement

Jamie Turner and Pat Cardullo of Modern Lighting Industries, Inc need to recognize and address their interpersonal issues that have created a disconnect between them and throughout the whole MLI workforce.

Hypothesis

1. Jamie Turner and Pat Cardullo have very different assumptions and expectations for Turner’s new position and MLI as a company. This hinders their relationship and prevents effective communication. This may be contributed to a poor psychological contract, the contract was weakly established and has not been maintained throughout Turner’s time at MLI. Also, when Jamie was in the process of signing on, Cardullo implied and even made many commitments; since then he has …show more content…

Another personal shortcoming Cardullo has is that he sees people from only two perspectives, either competent or incompetent; this creates conflict and negative attitudes within MLI. One example is how Cardullo framed Tim Kelly, the 25-year sales veteran as incompetent just because he had to look up answers to questions before giving them to Cardullo. On the contrary, Jamie saw Kelly as a regimented, loyal and dependable, and a big help as he took over the sales department. Competing commitments are another personal issue of Cardullo’s.

In the beginning Cardullo planned to give Turner autonomy and full control of the marketing and sales of MLI. But after a few months Cardullo’s competing commitment that prohibits him from allowing others to make important decision within the company began to show through. He constantly undermined Jamie’s decisions on pricing and sales and eventually this commitment lead to Cardullo taking back full control of these decisions. Also, I believe Cardullo has a competing commitment against technology. In two cases this commitment was expressed, first in the warehouse there was new technology that allowed the inventory to be stored more efficiently without the need to be visible; Cardullo didn’t like this and ordered it be changed back within a month. Second, Cardullo wanted Kelly to spend one day a week at the office in Kansas even though it would be much more cost effective to use email and voice conferences. In