The Two-Boss Problem On May 15, 2011, Brian Richards was assigned full time to P
ID: 329145 • Letter: T
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The Two-Boss Problem On May 15, 2011, Brian Richards was assigned full time to Project Turnbolt by Fred Taylor, manager of the thermodynamics department. All work went smoothly for four and one-half of the five months necessary to complete this effort. During this period of successful performance, Brian had good working relations with Edward Compton (the Project Turnbolt engineer) and Fred. Fred treated Brian as a Theory Y employee. Once a week Fred and Brian would chat about the status of Brian's work. Fred would always conclude their brief meeting with "You're doing a fine job, Brian. Keep it up. Do anything you have to do to finish the project." During the last month of the project, Brian began receiving conflicting requests from the project office and the department manager regarding the preparation of the final report. Edward Compton told him that the final report was to be assembled in viewgraph format (i.e., "bullet" charts) for presentation to the customer at the next technical interchange meeting. The project did not have the funding necessary for a comprehensive engineering report. The thermodynamics department, however, had a policy that all engineering work done on new projects would be documented in a full and comprehensive report This new policy had been implemented about one year earlier when Fred Taylor became department manager. Rumor had it that Fred wanted formal reports so that he could put his name on them and either publish them or present them at technical meetings. All work performed in the thermodynamics department required Fred's signature before it could be released to the project office as an official company position. Upper-level management did not want its people to publish and therefore did not maintain a large editorial or graphic arts department. Personnel desiring to publish had to get the department manager's approval and, on approval, had to prepare the entire report themselves, without any "overhead" help. Since Fred had taken over the reins as department head, he had presented three papers at technical meetings A meeting was held among Brian Richards, Fred Taylor, and Edward Compton. Edward: "I don't understand why we have a problem. All the project office wants is a simple summary of the results. Why should we have to pay for a report that we don't want or need?"Explanation / Answer
Answer:- The main issue in the case was mainly the conflict of the interests of bosses by which they want the work to be done. Work which has to be completed was similar as mentioned by both the bosses but real issues arise when the way the work has to be completed or dine was mentioned completely different by both the bosses and there was a lot of confusion about what has to be implemented.
Answer:- In order to overcome such kinds of situation, the best method can be seen as effective and free communication. These types of issues can be prevented or overcome by clarifying and notifying each detail of the project at the beginning itself.
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