Lisa Benton Case Analysis
Benton is a Harvard educated MBA who chose to work at the Home care Division of Houseworld based upon the classical marketing training in a structured environment from an industry leader over Right-Away which she had interned at. Benton was informed she would become a product manager within 2 to 3 years, yet was not informed of the importance of her performance in the first year. She was informed that the product manager’s responsibility was to groom his or her associates to be “promotable”. Benton was assigned Deborah Linton as her product manager who informed her of her dislike for MBA’s with “MBA’s act like they know a lot more than they do.” & “the only way to learn is on the job and your formal …show more content…

For example, when Vernor asked her if she was happy with her work she had the opportunity to voice her opinion and get help. Yet, she did not out of her desire to not cause problems and her inappropriate loyalty to her upper managers. I also believe that Scoville and Benton are afraid. Without the education of an MBA, it looks as if the company may not advance them due to their desire to have top ranked MBA programs run their programs now which is why they are consistently acting quiet and not including her in their activities. This problem is further compounded by the fact that there is a rumor of an office affair occurring between Scoville and Linton. Several times, Linton has not talked to Scoville or handled the problems with Scoville and Benton and encouraged her to work it out. Although I believe this is good original advice after this occurring several times, it is clear that Linton is biased and this relationship may be real. If Benton was vocal and communicative, she would refer this to HR and have this handled in an appropriate manner. Furthermore, Benton has simply complained to others and has shown little initiative to change her situation. It is inappropriate to cause office “drama” by complaining to others versus handling the issue directly by talking to Linton or Vernor. If she was vocal about her feelings and clearly came in with determined objectives and held