Case Analysis of Jamie Turner at Mli, Inc.

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to “Praise in public, censure in private”. These two competing styles cause increased conflict between Turner and Cardullo.

Proposed Solution

Jamie Turner was never given sufficient information in his initial meetings with Pat Cardullo to fully understand the people or finances going on at MLI. Turner essentially joined the company based on his impressions of Cardullo. The fact that once he arrived at MLI, Cardullo has repeatedly undermined his authority and proven to be a volatile factor in the organization. This has left Turner disillusioned and stressed. A possible solution would be for Jamie and Pat to do a reset meeting. At the meeting Turner and Cardullo would have to agree to clearly articulating their personal styles and how they can be most effective moving forward. Gaining an understanding of how each other manages and what they value are critical to the goal setting process. Additionally, Turner and Cardullo need to establish a timeline to effectively onboard Turner into the different areas that he is going to be charged with managing. This will give Turner time to properly learn all the ins and outs of the areas and develop relationships with the people in those areas that he will manage. Cardullo has been avoiding having the conversation so it may be important to bring in the CEO to help ensure that his vision and goals remain at the forefront of the reset. Cardullo needs to understand how his volatility has impacted the company and led to some of the issues of the team not meeting its goals.

Conclusion

The author of our text, Ricky Griffin, says that managers must engage in “activities directed at an organization’s resources with an aim of achieving organizational goals in an efficient and effective manner” (Griffin, 2012). In the case of Jamie Turner at MLI, Inc. it was clear that there were a myriad of problems facing Turner and keeping him from meeting this standard. The biggest of those issues being role ambiguity and differences in personal management styles. Establishing clarity of roles and responsibilities as well as conducting a reset with both Turner and Cardullo and possibly a mediator at the table would help to ensure that these issues would be resolved and MLI, Inc. could move forward with the right managerial talent in place to take it to the next level.

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References

Gabarro, J & Kaftan, C. (2011). Jamie Turner at MLI,Inc. HBS No. 4254. Boston, MA:

Harvard Business School.

Griffin, R.W. (2012) Management. Texas A &M: Cengage Publishing.