Assignment:
Communication Dilemma-Getting Credit
Refer to the Case Study titled "Communication Dilemma-Getting Credit". In addition, use the Internet or Strayer Library to research the gender communication structure in three (3) countries of your choosing.
Create a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:
Propose three (3) lessons you can learn from gender communication in business
Suggest two (2) ways that gender communication in business can affect a business as a whole. Justify your response.
Compare and contrast Robert's and Claudia's styles of communication. Next, speculate on three (3) ways that their communication styles impacted their handling of the situation. Provide support for your response.
Imagine if you were in Robert's shoes. Suggest three (3) ways that you could deal with the situation with Claudia. Next, imagine that you are Claudia.
Suggest the main actions that you would take in this situation. Justify your response.
Compare and contrast three (3) ways your selected countries' gender communications are similar or differ.
Next, identify one (1) common element from your selected countries' gender communications; then, suggest two (2) reasons why this element is prevalent in all of your selected countries. If your selected countries' gender communications do not share any common elements, suggest two (2) reasons as to why this is the case. Justify your response.
Use at least two (2) quality resources
Case Study: Communication Dilemma-Getting Credit
Security Financial Corporation is a Fortune 500 company located in New York. It specializes in financial analysis, stock and mutual funds, and investment banking operations. Claudia Pearson had worked her way up the corporate ladder to a position of director of sales management development, reporting directly to the vice president of human resources. In this position, she was responsible for training all financial sales advisors and sales managers. The job was demanding; typically, Claudia worked 65 to 70 hours a week and traveled to various Security Financial sales offices around the United States. She had graduated from Columbia University with a double major in English and economics. She had worked for Security Financial for 12 years, starting her career as a training manager. Eight staff members reported to Claudia, most of whom were training managers responsible for working with sales managers and financial sales advisors.
Claudia worked closely with both the marketing director and the sales director because each had input into her programs. She met weekly with the sales director, Robert Norville, a man who had been in the financial industry for 25 years. All of the eight regional sales managers reported to him. His main responsibilities were meeting the national sales force numbers and hiring and retaining sales advisors, who were vital to the business. She had less contact with Ken Peterson, the marketing director, but nevertheless he was an important person for her to consult with before she designed any programs for the sales personnel. At age 35, Ken was about 15 years younger than Robert. Claudia often characterized Robert as "old school"-he had worked his way up in the business to a prominent senior job; and Ken as the "young turk"-he had held several marketing jobs before joining Security Financial and was full of new ideas. Although Robert, Ken, and she were all peers, Claudia felt that Robert needed to feel like he was of a higher status than she was. When they met together, she allowed him to feel like he was in charge simply because she found that this was the best way to get along with him. She reminded herself that this wasn't really an issue as long as he didn't make her feel subordinate when others were around. She had tried to deal with him as an equal and it simply didn't work as well as allowing him to feel like he was making all of the decisions. Her relationship with Ken was more collegial and equalitarian; neither of them seemed particularly interested in flexing their "authority muscles."
Claudia and her team had been designing a new program that consisted of 12 courses to be delivered over a year; one course would be offered each month in every sales office. The project had been extremely time consuming, involving many meetings to determine the content of the program and, once designed, deciding how to launch it with the sales force. This was the biggest training effort the company had ever undertaken, and Claudia was very proud of the result. Each training session had self-study sessions that were downloaded from the Internet, video clips, and classroom exercises. She met with Robert to review the schedule of training sessions and to discuss the roles her managers would play. She showed a draft of a letter that she intended to send out to all sales managers announcing the new program.
A few days after her meeting with Robert, Claudia was going through her inbox of e-mails to find a message that Robert had copied to her. To her amazement and fury, it was nearly the same letter she had drafted and shown to him two days before. The letter was written on Robert's letterhead and signed by him. It announced the program and highlighted the 12 individual training sessions with a timetable for each office (see Appendix 7.1). Although it mentioned that Claudia's team would be delivering the training, the letter seemed to insinuate that the effort was Robert's. Claudia was livid and decided it was high time to confront him.
It was routine in the company that managers sent e-mails or memos out announcing only those activities that they had initiated. She thought that this had been a deliberate move on his part to take credit for something she had worked on for nearly a year or at the very least to look like somehow he had been supervising her efforts.
The Confrontation
Claudia decided to confront Robert the next day. She called his secretary to get on his calendar. He was free at 2 p.m. and would meet with her over a late lunch. Their conversation began cordially with small talk. Robert told her how excited he was to begin the training program and how much he appreciated her work on the project. This left an entrée for her to discuss the issue of the letter with him.
"Robert, I have to tell you that I was upset with the memo you wrote to the field organization. As head of the training department, that memo should have come from me." Claudia waited for him to respond.
"I thought it was important to get the news out right away. The sales organization has been waiting a long time for the program. I certainly didn't mean any harm by it. Everyone knows that this is your program. I think you're being a little sensitive."
"Robert, it was important to me that the memo came from my office. In this company, when a manager is in charge of a program, the news about it comes from that person. Besides you copied it to our CEO!"
"Calm down. I certainly didn't mean to upset you. How is the pasta salad? I would have ordered it, but I have to slim down. I'm afraid it's lettuce salads for me for about the next month. I have to rush. I have another meeting at 2:30. Let's talk after the first program is rolled out to review the results."
They finished their lunch in silence. Claudia left feeling angrier than ever.