Nitish@Solutions Unlimited- Iim-a Case
Nitish @ Solutions Unlimited 1. Introduction Nitish (B. Tech and M. Tech , IIT Madras and M. B.
A from XLRI, Jamshedpur) was working with a consultancy firm for two years where he showed great promise. He was well liked by all and appreciated by his boss. He had gained sound knowledge of preparing business plans and had also gained insights into the intricacies of collecting and analysing data while in the consultancy firm. To further expand his career horizon, on the recommendation of his friend Arvind, Nitish moved to Solutions Unlimited, an IT company specializing in software solutions.Despite being a star performer from the beginning, his relations with the Operations Officer, Meena, and the Director Opertions, Mr. Alagu, , were strained.
Hence even though his job was interesting and challenging, he was not comfortable working in the acerbic environment especially around Meena and Mr. Alagu. 2. Section 1: Statement of the problem facing the manager External factors: The main issues that faced Nitish were related to HR as there was no proper communication of the policies and compensation from Solution Unlimited to Nitish due to which he had to suffer financial losses.Also, Nitish faced some organizational issues viz.
there was a lack of formal hierarchy and he was not allotted any specific roles or responsibilities in the company which resulted in dissatisfaction. There were incidents of unprofessional behaviour shown by senior employees in the company. There was also a hint of regional bias against Nitish. Internal factors: Meena was suffering from high degree of Neuroticism and she was easily influenced by the negative emotions. Along with this she also suffered from the perception bias as she formed an opinion about Nitish in the very first meet and thereafter.Meena could not take the feedback given to her by her boss in a constructive manner and harboured ill will against Nitish.
Due to lack of proper organization structure, Meena ended up in controlling the entire HR department without proper training on conflict resolution. 3. Section 2: Detailed analysis of the problem. Most of the external problems emanated from the fact that there was lack of proper organization in the company. This is quite evident as Mr. Alagu who despite being the Director, Operations headed the HR department.
The posts of Director and Associate Director of HR department were vacant which showed the ad hoc and careless attitude of the company. The direct consequences of this culture was that the roles and responsibilities of Nitish and Meena were not clearly defined which certainly caused dissatisfaction in Nitish because he was shunted across various projects by Meena. There were certain HR issues which resulted in serious problems as in Nitish was not properly informed of all the policies of the company and he had to bear the financial loss that arose out of miscommunication regarding the severance pay and the travel expense for his spouse.With Mr. Khurana putting in his papers and Mr. Kapoor being asked to resign, the company seemed to be moving towards deterioration.
The internal problems could be attributed to the personality of Mr. Alagu and especially Meena. Both of them got jealous of Nitish when they found him rising fast in the company and did not hesitate to jeer him which included a hint of regionalism. Meena seemed to be suffering from Neuroticism with very less tolerance for criticism. She became vengeful and tried to create hindrances for Nitish along with Mr.
Alagu. This proved their poor interpersonal skills and the lack of training in people management.The art of conflict resolution was totally missing from the scene. 4. Section 3: Decision criteria and alternative solutions.
Nitish was uncomfortable with the way he was being treated by Meena and as such, wished to break the ice between them. Hence, even though he would ideally have wanted to go to the Amsterdam orientation program a month after settling down in Hyderabad, he still decided to prepone his departure and left within the week to get into Meena’s good books. With the severance issue as well, he decided to compromise taking the middle path and agreeing to pay some of the expenditure for the severance from his previous company.In the meantime, Meena kept trying to hinder his progress in the company by taking him out of the project teams he was working with on two separate occasions. Thus, his stance had been to ask for what he expected and later on, bow down to a compromise. In light of this behavioural trait, one alternative that he could have would be to bear any minor hindrances that may arise in future, the same way he had done in the past.
This would not amount to changing much actively, and would imply sticking to status quo. Passively, Meena and Mr. Alagu might tire of taking pot shots at him in the long run.Also, his performance would probably speak for him and things could take a turn for the better. The second alternative could be to confront Meena out of office about her behaviour personally and putting across his side of the story.
This would imply taking a more active approach to conflict management. The advantages of this approach would be his coming across as an individual who is prepared to take the crucial first step to managing interpersonal conflict. Also his candid approach might cause Meena to open up and their misunderstanding could possibly be sorted out. 5. Section 4: Recommendations.We recommend that Nitish should go against his natural instinct to succumb to a compromise and should actively take up the issue with Meena.
She might be open discussing her problem with him, were he to take the initiative to speak about the issue to her directly. Most interpersonal problems occur due to a lack of effective communication, hence Nitish should try to solve the problem at its root, rather than trying to appease each symptom. Their relation could take a turn for the better and they would be more productive for the organisation. 6. References Organisation Behaviour by Margie Parikh and Rajen Gupta
