Communication Process Failure

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Players
Chronology
Issues
Positions
Conclusion
Reference List

Introduction

The case of Thomas Green is, perhaps, one of the most graphic examples of a communication process going wrong because of a wrong leadership approach adopted and the lack of conflict management skills demonstrated by all parties involved.

Despite the fact that some of the ideas that Green voiced during the meeting seemed rational, they were dismissed because of a poorly chosen communication pattern and the personal issues taking their toll over the professionalism of those involved.

Players

Among the key players involved into the case, Thomas Green himself and the staff of the organization, namely, Frank Davis, should be listed. While the amount of actual stakeholders is much greater and, in fact, includes every single person attending the 2008 Budget Plan meeting, the case features two key sides of the conflict and therefore, two major players, i.e., Thomas Green and Frank Davis.

In a more general sense and on a slightly higher level of relationships analysis, the aforementioned confrontation could be viewed as the conflict between the needs of an individual and the needs of an organization, i.e., the personal issues of Mr. Green and the ethics of the company.

Chronology

The case starts with the exposition shedding some light on the personal issues that Thomas Green was going through at the time. In the course of the conference taking place in 2008, Frank Davis pointed at some of the flaws in the strategy adopted by Green. The latter, in his turn, argued back that the organization’s system of communication might be flawed at its core. The subsequent conflict between Davis and Green was the result.

Issues

As a rule, when defining the issues that a company has encountered on its way to success or, in some cases, an untimely failure, one must pay an especially close attention to the leadership and conflict management issues. Unless a strong and empowering model of leading the organization is introduced, any further attempts for improvement are doomed to failure.

Tomas Green’s case is not an exception: as the case study shows in a very graphic manner, the lack of cooperation between Davis and the staff served as the key factor triggering the following conflicts within the firm: “Davis was visibly upset that Green openly challenged him at the meeting” (Sasser & Beckham, 2008, p. 4).

The staff obviously felt unmotivated and, thus, failed to deliver the product of the required quality and within the required time frame. Moreover, the confrontation between the leader and the staff members was starting to brew, which added to the increasingly vast conflict, as the evidence provided above shows.

Positions

It deserves to be mentioned, though, that the opinions on the Thomas Green case are anything but unanimous. On the one hand, green was obviously trying to bring a breath of fresh air into the organization by challenging its employees to the areas that they have not yet explored. The manner, in which Green suggested the changes implementation, though, left much to be desired in terms of subtlety and understanding of how corporate climate alterations work.

On the other hand, the idea of abandoning the use of charts and a transfer to a more flexible system of information management may have worked once the suggestion had been made in a less bellicose environment. However, the atmosphere was much too hostile and the conflict management process did not go as smoothly as expected.

Conclusion

Because of the lack of conflict management skills, Thomas Green failed to deliver an essential idea to the board during the meeting, as well as justify the choices that he had made in the course of his work. Though the conflict was enhanced powerfully by the personal issues that Green had been traumatized lately, the lack of the corresponding abilities of managing the conflict was obviously the key reason for the communication process to fail.

In addition, the leadership approach adopted by the company failed to prevent Green from projecting his negativity onto the working process.

Reference List

Sasser, W. E. & Beckham, H. (2008). Thomas Green: Power, office politics, and a career in crisis. Harvard, MA: Harvard Business School.

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