Dilemma in Accepting a Job Offer

Lisa is a Harvard business school graduate and was in a dilemma choosing which career path she wants to take. The dilemma was either to work as director of marketing in Right-Away stores where she did her internship a place she was familiar with or to work as an assistant product manager in Houseworld a place where she will be provided with training, and there is room for upward mobility. Upon weighing the options of Right-Away and Houseworld, Lisa chose to work in Houseworld. A choice that disappointed Scot Kingston president at Right-Away who had groomed for the position and even told her she had a mistake in her choice.

If this sample essay on" Dilemma in Accepting a Job Offer" doesn’t help,
our writers will!

Trust an expert

However, Lisa believed the position offered by Right-Away was too much for her, and she needed a place where she will be trained by a proven industry leader. Also, the environment she was exposed to during the interview process was of friendliness, and she believed she was making the right choice in her acceptance of the position in Houseworld as an assistant product manager. Nevertheless, soon she will find out transiting to the new job will be more of a challenging process than she expected. The reasons being Lisa Benton was not well equipped to handle her new team members Deborah Linton and Ron Scoville. Linton embraced a withdrawn kind of leadership style while Scoville was patronizing.

Lisa was distressed and dissatisfied with her work in Houseworld where she started lacking responsibilities and lacking good relationships with her boss Linton, and colleague Scoville. Linton felt she was not accepted by her team and given mostly responsibilities that were not in her job description and did not go through the marketing training that attracted her to the company in the first place. She became more concern about her future in the company and was retaliating on calling Scott Kingston her former supervisor of Right-Away stores. However, to understand more about Lisa problems one has to analyze her relationship with her boss Linton, Scoville, and Vernon.

Home Care Division had adopted a practice of recruiting MBAs from top schools for marketing positions entry levels. Hence, this decision had made it hard for Linton and Scoville to be promoted as they thought their lack of not having an MBAs degree was the cause of that. Therefore they nurtured their negative attitude towards any MBAs holder thereby making it difficult for Benton to impress her boss Linton. During the interviewing process, Benton had received a warm and enthusiastic welcome. However, this was not the case when she joined the company leading to not fulfilling her emotional needs and demotivating her. Moreover, due to her dislike of Lisa, Linton was ignorant of Lisas ability purposely and did not assign her challenging assignments that will make her grow. Eventually, Linton failed Lisa and her reason being she assumed Lisas assignments maturity was low and hindered her development of her expert power. Although Lisa did a wonderful job while in her internship at Right-Away and even had job skills that were qualified for her to develop expertise, she failed to show her full potential because of intimidating talks with Scoville and Linton.

Motivational issues

Despite Lisa being in a struggle with her present boss, she is in possession of significant leadership qualities that renders her a great employee. She has a high sense of drive, and during her time in Right-Away stores, it is indicated Lisa had roll-up-your-sleeves approach to get things done that eventually made her the first woman in the company to become a manager. Without motivation to achieve such things will be impossible.

Additionally, Lisa's cognitive aptness made her become a Harvard MBA at the same time it allowed her to introduce a non-merchandising service successfully at the Right-Away company. Also, her practical knowledge and experience made her be employed as an assistant product manager at home care division of Houseworld. Moreover, one associate during the interviewing process told her, she is the kind of a person Housewoorld was looking for and loved her enthusiasm. Also, Linton failed to notice Lisas fast learning of how Houseworld operated and her written communication skills when conducting her reviews.

Despite having great written communication skills, Lisa lacks strong verbal skills. Consequently, after a couple of struggle with an associate product manager Scoville was bothered by his condescending attitude. Thus, when Scoville question her assumptions Lisa become angry and when Scoville yelled at her loudly in front of the whole floor, she yelled back at him. However, she aired out her views of him and his outburst later on to Vernon. Therefore, this shows that Lisa has a self-regulatory technique meaning she is well equipped to manage this type of circumstance in future.

In spite of heightened sense of drive and strong cognitive abilities, Lisa lacks self-confidence. She refused a job offer in Right-Away store where she did her internship due to the position as a director of marketing was too much for her. Also, after Lintons informal review she felt the results not correlating with whom she was and did not say anything about it. Lisa was unable to be true to herself and let her personality prevail.

Another problem with Lisa is her lack of desire to lead. In most cases, it is common that bosses are the only one expected to lead this is a misconception, and it is important for the employees to lead and manage their bosses or superiors effectively. Lisa Benton is clearly having difficulties with her boss Deborah Linton. At the onset of their meeting, Linton made it clear to Lisa that she abhors Harvard MBAs since they think they know everything and she said with her busy schedule she would not have enough time for Lisa. Lisa disappointment and continuous feelings that Linton ignored her heightened. With time she started feeling like fifth wheel, and after six weeks in Houseworld, she did not know what her objectives and goals were. Hence, rather than depending on Linton to forward her career, Lisa could assume the responsibility of her growth and ways of comprehending Lintons preferred work style.

Recommendations

For Lisa to be successful in her position, she has to be conscious of her feelings, motivates and those of her boss Linton. Emphasize on good conflict resolutions and avoid hiding her emotions- she should be true to herself. For instance, rather than remaining silent and saying she is not familiar with when asked questions in meetings, Lisa could simply ask or present her ideas to see the consequences. She did not participate in the meetings due to her avoidance conflict resolution style. Another instance was when she was yelled at by her boss this was a perfect opportunity to raise her issues but instead opted to remain silent. A third instance when she could have aired out her troubles is when Vernon asked her if she was fine. Instead of telling him the whole truth she only told him about Scoville and opted to remain loyal to her boss, and with this, she continued being miserable.

To help with starting on a good page with her boss, Lisa should create a team charter and present it to her boss. The charter will provide an outline the responsibility of each member (Lce.com, 2017). The team charter at its initial stage it focuses on the aims of the team that is necessary and covers a wide range of subjects that define better how the team will operate. It also covers the type of customers they are serving, the ground rules and regulations that they have to establish, and the objectives and goals that the team members are expected to accomplish. The team charter should be designed by all the team members since it sets forward the overall acceptance of the team and results of performance that the team members are expected to achieve.

Lisa can also approach Vernon and request him to help her manage her situation with Linton, her boss. Nevertheless, Vernon has noticed already that Linton and Lisa lack a good working relationship between themselves. He is also aware how much is affecting Lisa's professional growth. Therefore, needs to have a private talk with Vernon to brief him on the projects she has worked on and the progress she has made so far in her present role. She will, however, need to prove to Vernon, and when he sees their relationship is not productive, he can then step in to alleviate the situation. The duty of Vernon is to ensure that product managers are nurturing top talent and have professional growth. Therefore, if he cannot help in reconciling Linton and Lisa's working relationship, then he can transfer Lisa to another group. Furthermore, for Lisa to be a successful product manager she has to take control of her career path in Houseworld.

Conclusion

The case study describes events surrounding Lisa Benton and her dilemma in accepting a Right-Away job as a marketing director or Houseworld job as an assistant product manager. Upon considering her long-term goal in career, Lisa accepted the position offered by Houseworld despite Right-Away having appealing offers. With only a few months in her position in Houseworld, Lisa feels uncomfortable with her job, and she is even reconsidering the Right-Away offer. The uneasiness is brought about by her boss Deborah Linton and associate product manager Ron Scoville.

Lisa seemed to contribute to her miserable life at work. First, she lacks the self-confidence to voice out her concerns and fails to confront her boss on her informal review that was not inconsistent with the real her. Also, she lacked verbal skills and yelled back at Scoville, and she depended on her boss more for her professional growth. Despite her weaknesses, Lisa had strengths such as she had good written communication skills and strong cognitive skills that enable to her to acquire Harvard MBA. For Lisa to be successful, she needs to develop a team charter and present it to her team members. The charter describes the roles of each member and the objectives and goals of the team. She also needs to check on her conflict resolution skills and take control of her professional growth and talk out her problems to Vernon.

Reference

Team Charters: What are they and whats their purpose?. (2017). Lce.com. Retrieved 8 March 2017, from https://www.lce.com/Team-Charters-What-are-they-and-whats-their-purpose-1219.html