Nayeem, a mid-level executive with a large technology firm, was on his way home

after attending a day long executive development program at a leading institute in

Hyderabad. He started late after finishing the necessary formalities of collecting
the certificate and a valedictory dinner. The last session was on 'Power and
Political Behaviour'. The session resource person Professor Venkat Swamy
discussed explicitly the mode of power play and gamesmanship often exhibited in
organizations. During the session itself, memories of his previous organization
haunted him. By the time he reached home, it was 10 pm. He tried to reconcile
himself by freeing himself from the clutches of anger and frustration that he felt as
he remembered his stint at the previous organization. He left his previous
organization due to foul play by some of his colleagues and he was trying to draw
linkages with the last session and understand the power dynamics in operation in
organizations. He was constantly asking himself, "Why people play games at the
cost of relationship with others? Is self before the others a universal phenomenon?
How can organizations overcome the seemingly impossible conundrum? He
struggled hard to find an answer to this seemingly unending puzzle.

Nayeem was an engineering graduate from a reputed technical institution of

Madhya Pradesh. He was known as an affable and introvert individual. He
diligently executed his responsibilities. His workaholic nature and precision had
earned a reputation of being an able doer. He had never associated himself with
any coterie nor indulged in selfish motives. He always extended all possible
cooperation to his colleagues at the workplace. He had around 15 years of
experience, out of which he spent 10 years working in the US and Europe. He
worked in a large semiconductor company as manager in the US, and earned rich
exposure in his career.

He also received several awards for his outstanding performance. He kept his team
highly motivated. He had completed several seemingly difficult projects either on
time or ahead of time. The top management was very happy with him, and didn't
want to lose him at any cost. The team under him was also credited with good
number of patents. He was considered as an expert in his field. Due to some
personal reasons, he wanted to return to India and hence decided to quit the job.
The top management tried to negotiate with him but he stayed firm on his decision.
He submitted his resignation and took up a job in India as a senior manager in a

Bhopal based semiconductor company. Nayeem was very happy to be back in

India, particularly his home town in Bhopal, with a promotion. In his new role, he
was assigned a fairly large team to handle. Nayeem reported to the location project
leader Ravikant who looked after the IndCont design centre. Ravikant was very
cooperative and allowed Nayeem to work with a fair degree of autonomy. He
didn't interfere in the routine team matters, even facilitated the selection of some of
the resources as needed by Nayeem. This way, he was able to finish some of the
important projects in record time. He worked hard to get the projects to IndCont
design centre. It had been 11 years, the company operated in India but only block
level work was done. His efforts were widely recognized and his team got the
'Team of the Year' award in a special function by the project head of the company.
He also earned the highest incentives consecutively for the first two years.

There was some restructuring that took place in the company in the beginning of
his third year at IndConts. Ravikant was shifted as the head of another SBU of the
company. The new project leader Chalapati Rao was an old hand in the company,
having completed a decade handling projects successfully. Nayeem was
disappointed as he was expecting a promotion as project leader due to his
continued success over the past two years. However, he reconciled soon enough
and offered all his possible support to Chalapati Rao.

Chalapati Rao had a very good equation with the top management. Nayeem
realized that there was a parallel manager to him named Robert who also reported
to Chalapati Rao. Robert had around 10 years of experience out of which five years
were spent in IndCont. He had roughly the same number of people reporting to him
as Nayeem, and both teams had similar job functions. Both Chalapati Rao and
Robert were wary of Nayeem. They always treated Nayeem as a potential
competitor for the project leader position. Chalapati Rao wanted to stabilize in the
new assignment while positioning him to take all credit for result of teams under
him. Robert also expected a promotion next year. Both Chalapati Rao and Robert
were good friends and tried to form a strong coalition to help each other.

However, Nayeem was unmindful about the development. It was not so simple for
him to continue at the same pace due to the changing equations. His counterpart,
Robert began to feel jealous as he was getting covert information that some of his
team members liked Nayeem as a leader and also wanted to report to him. Robert
could sense this in his team members. He started using both strong arm and
gamesmanship tactics. Chalapati Rao gave him another product project to maintain
the balance in the team. Robert missed the deadline and the project was delayed by
a month. It was finally completed with some degree of difficulty and assistance
from Nayeem.

One day, Chalapati Rao came to Nayeem and told him that Robert needed some
more resources. He even asked Nayeem whether it would be possible to spare
some resources on the project from his team. He explained that it would even work
better from the organizational perspective as people would have a chance to work
with other teams. Nayeem agreed and he assigned two of his resources on that
project. Now things became somewhat challenging for Nayeem since Robert
directly dealt with two of his resources. In the meantime, Nayeem was busy
looking after his own projects. Robert gave him weekly updates and projected as
though as everything was going on as scheduled.

By the time Nayeem realized that Robert was exploiting his two resources, it was
too late. Both of them resigned. Nayeem got to know that Robert assigned them
some non-routine work and they were not given any role in the real project. When
asked in the management review meeting about the project status, Robert pointed
out that he used Nayeem's resources who were not equipped enough to carry out
the task efficiently. He blamed Nayeem for the mess and said that Nayeem did not
provide enough motivation to his team members. Robert could not be held
responsible as they were not his direct reportees.

That's what made Nayeem concerned and he could smell a rat. Nayeem began to
gather information and got to know that Robert was like a lovable fool for
Chalapati Rao. He did all kinds of tasks to remain in Chalapati Rao's good books.
Chalapati Rao was also used to taking Robert's side to protect him from being
blamed. Since Robert had a strong personal equation with Chalapati Rao, he at
times acted like a bully. None of his team members could report to the HR
knowing well that the skip-level supervisor was very close to Robert. However, it
was a matter of fact that nobody was happy with him.

Another incident which created confusion among the ranks was the departure of
Shankar Rao, one of the key members of Nayeem's team, when an important
project was underway. A year before, Shankar Rao had approached Nayeem to
recommend him for a higher grade assuming that his earlier boss Ravikant and
Nayeem were in good terms. Nayeem had asked him to wait for the right time so
that he could take up the matter at the appropriate level. Robert in turn advised
Shankar Rao to look for opportunities beyond this organization as the world
economy was in the upswing. Nayeem was taken for a surprise when Shankar Rao
expressed his decision to resign.

Nayeem asked himself, "How could he do this. He seemed fine till a day before."
Shankar Rao was one of the key members of the project and his deliveries were
critical to its success. His exit might have put the project into serious jeopardy. He
called Shankar Rao to his cabin. "What is this Shankar?" he asked casually.
Shankar Rao mentioned about the better opportunities outside and the fact that he
has a lucrative offer in hand. Nayeem said, "But I thought that you were happy in
your current role',

"How did you assume that?' said Shankar Rao, 'Did you ever ask me if I was
happy? I am a key member of your team and you have neglected me all the time."

"Oh my God! How did you come to that conclusion," said Nayeem in a surprised
tone?

"It is pretty clear. I have not received any communication from your side that you
have taken up my request for a promotion with the higher ups despite your
assurance last year. You sometimes even sent appreciation mails to the juniors, but
never to me. Should I not feel disheartened?", quipped Shankar Rao.

Nayeem was aghast. How could Shankar Rao compare himself with juniors in the
team? He was an experienced professional and knew better than any one of them.
"Well done at your level is different from a well done at their level," said Nayeem,
"They are freshers and need motivation. I was only trying to encourage them. It has
nothing to do with you." The conversation did not go as planned and rather ended
abruptly, though Nayeem promised to take up the matter with Chalapati Rao and
the location HR. Nayeem was surprised that Shankar Rao was leaving the
organization for such trivial matters. Shankar Rao was also angry as he assumed
that Nayeem hardly bothered about him, whereas Robert cared more about him,
despite not being connected directly.

Nayeem was worried that he was losing a critical team member and spoke to
Chalapati Rao and the HR about his retention. The HR leader had a brief
conversation with Shankar Rao. Later Nayeem was told that Shankar Rao was
asking for higher compensation or a promotion to stay back. Both demands were
not acceptable as they were much higher than they could offer at his present grade.
Finally, it was decided to let him go. During the exit interview, Shankar Rao
blamed Nayeem, and questioned his leadership style. He even mentioned that
Nayeem promised a lot but could not deliver, while the leader of the other team
Robert never made any false promise to his team members. Doubtless to say, he
was tutored by Robert before the exit interview.

Soon after the departure of Shankar Rao, Nayeem was in trouble. He could not
complete the project and had to spend many nights at the office. Sadly, he even
missed the deadline by two weeks. He was expecting good ratings knowing the
fact that despite all odds, he could complete a very important assignment. To his
surprise, he was rated as three out of five (Five-Excellent and One-Poor) while
Robert was rated as four. In his appraisal note, he was even asked to focus on team
synergy and raise the motivation level of the team. He was also denied a major
portion of the incentive while Robert's incentive was substantially higher for the
year.

During the feedback session, Nayeem tried to convince Chalapati Rao, his skip-
level supervisor and the HR location leader about his achievements despite all
odds. However, they were not ready to buy his side of the story. He also mentioned
the gamesmanship role played by Robert which was promptly snubbed by
Chalapati Rao. The HR leader seemed indifferent and adopted a laissez-faire
approach. Nayeem had reasons to be worried. He was convinced that he was being
pushed towards the wall. He resolved to 'no more to gamesmanship' approach and
decided to quit with a heavy heart.