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OPP | Term 6

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Group 4

Erik Peterson (A) Background: The case deals with the problems that the recently appointed general manager of Green Mountain Cellular Telephone Company (GMCT), a subsidiary of the $200 million CelluComm faces in its implementation phase Problem Definition While Erik Peterson faces a lot of issues in ensuring the timely implementation of the cellular towers and the starting of the service, these all seem to be symptoms of the major problem – Dealing with his subordinates and make them work as per the requirement. The question facing Eric now is what form of power he should use to get the work done and to communicate to Chip Knights, the newly appointed director of pre-operating systems to get his help and support The Issue and their Implications Broad Issue: The failure to complete the work of establishing GMCT on time which has rendered it unable to compete in the market. # 1 2

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Issue Erik’s direct reporting manager was changed from the initially proposed Ric Jenkins (President) to Jeff Hardy (the newly appointed director of Budgets & Plans) Construction of cellular towers by the subcontractors was behind schedule even before Erik joined & moreover there were complaints from the local households Chief Engineer, Curt Andrews was pretty slack in his planning & coordination which was extremely critical to make the project run on schedule. Erik also felt that Curt’s participation in the team meetings initiated by him was fairly low The group dynamics of the team at GMCT was again strained with most people having some issues working with the others

Implication  Violation of the Psychological contract for Erik  Since, Jeff himself was new to the industry, Erik did not get the required support  Set-back for Erik as soon as he joined  Needed to get a new sub-contractor  First instance of clash with the headquarters for any decision  Erik had to oversee the activities of Curt  Lack of competency on the end of Curt led to various last minute orders  Resulted in another major friction with the Headquarters for the replacement of the Chief Engineer  Lack of constructive feedback and poor group dynamics made it even more difficult for Erik to coordinate

Salary differences between two of the newly  While the issue was resolved temporarily with one of joined employees created friction between them the employees taking a pay cut, it was not the best time and in the team for the project to have these problems Communication with the headquarters regarding  This problem resulted in creating relational troubles the usage of the equipments was not clear with the suppliers and also resulted in more delay The appointment of the Construction coordinator  With the headquarters challenging the salaries and and promotion of his secretary created issues other decisions taken by Erik, it not only constrained within GMCT and the headquarters his autonomy but also started developing cracks in his relationship with the headquarters Zoning problem: Erik faced problems in getting  With lack of support and cooperation from his consensus with Hardy regarding the solution for superiors, Erik could hardly do anything to bring the the zoning problem and it directly affected his project timeline on the schedule commitments to the Fire Department

Analysis: The case clearly demonstrates that Erik Peterson on his appointment as the General manager of GMCT faces issues from across the value chain: Lack of support from senior management, lack of cooperation from most of his subordinates, issues in functioning with the sub-contractors, issues in gaining support from the local authorities, lack

OPP | Term 6

[Type text]

Group 4

of technical expertise and support which were coupled by his own inherent limitations in terms of technical knowhow and industrial exposure. Recommendation: In order to get the situation back in control, Erik would need to leverage as much power as he can. The chart below shows the various critical steps involved in the process and how Erik could get things under his control using various forms of power:

Group 4

OPP | Term 6

[Type text] Aaniket Harjai | Nachiket Sane | Raoul Lopes | Ruchik Kirti Gandhi Siddharth Mathur | Siddharth Singhal | Simpson Selwyn | Vartika Aggarwal

Group 4