The Vidsoft Triangle 1

Robert Kennedy College

Midterm exam   in Organizational Behavior – November 2010

Question 1:

Case analysis for “The VidSoft Triangle (A)”

Introduction

Aleji Babatunde, Senior Technical Support Manager of the software company VidSoft, is facing a crucible problem to

solve as a manager, due to a interpersonal conflict between employees in his teams referring to him. The decision he

will have to make will influence on the future corporation in the team and most likely also the effectiveness and job

satisfaction among some of his employees. If he tackles this situation correctly it will also affect the career

opportunities for Babatunde. The conflict has developed between two of his team members after a restructuring of

Babatunde’s department. A restructuring that was well considered by Babatunde and therefore he is also surprised

about this conflict.

The decision is to either transfer Alex Hsu to the other department and no longer report to Jenna Li or keep the

reporting from Alex Hsu to Jenna Li as the new Organizational Chart clearly shows as the reporting line.

Problem Analysis

VidSoft Technologies was founded in 1996 and it rapidly grew to be a medium-size software company. The company

went public in 1999 and the quarterly revenues rapidly grew five times within a year.

The Chief Executive Officer of VidSoft, Keith Nash was a mild-mannered but charismatic leader with a clear motto: “If

you find something that isn’t right, speak up and then go find a way to fix it!” Another highly rated factor in the

company was Teamwork. The teams were awarded bonuses according to how their team has performed and not on

personal performance. Furthermore Nash wanted all managers to promote new managers from within if possible. If

no one from within was suitable they could hire from outside, but the new employees has to have higher skills than

the manager.

Aleji Babatunde was Senior Manager for a team in Technical Support and his team has been the best...
 Vidsoft Triangle 2

Introduction

Alaji Babatunde, a senior manager in Vidsoft finds himself in an unexpected situation resulting out of the business

decision he had taken after a long period of contemplation. This decision has resulted in a friction between two of his

team members, which if not dealt in time could disrupt the harmony and the integrity of his team. He has got three

options on the table- to transfer Alex Hsu to the other department where he does not have to report to Jennah Li or as

the department manager, have Jennah Li decide as she sees fit or involve his senior manager, James White, to step in

rescue him from this gridlock. He is infact, in the clutches of a   possible ‘Crucible of leadership’.

Problem Analysis

As Vidsoft technologies expanded, the number of employees also increased. In an effort to manage the growing
numbers of his product line, Babatunde, decided to introduce another level of management between him and his

team. This carefully planned decision, however, did not turn favourable as

he imagined. It caused tension between the new Manager, Jennah Li and one of her team members, Alex Hsu. Its not

that the decision taken was incorrect but it’s the way it was handled that resulted in the row which could be have been

foreseen or avoided. There are many angles to this. Some covering the elements of   the Organisational behaviour like

leadership, ethics, decision- making and effective communication. and the other - Babatunde’s management style.

Multicultural Team

In the HBR article- ‘Managing Multicultural teams’ by Jeanne Brett, Jeanne talks about four strategies that have

evolved to deal with challenges that arise out of managing or working in or with a team that is diverse, culturally. Out

of the four, three can be used to analyse the current situation:

a) Structural Intervention

Since Hsu has clearly expressed his concerns reporting to Li, Babatunde can change Hsu to the other service line to

report to him (since there is no manager yet)....

Vidsoft Triangle 3

Introduction

Alaji Babatunde, the senior technical support manager at Vidsoft Technologies, has made a decision to promote one

of his team engineers, Jennah Li, to manage one of his product lines. For the other product line, he decided to look for

an external candidate, as the rest of his team were all young lacking the appropriate experience for such role.

Babatunde chose to promote Jennah Li for this role since she had more experience than the rest of the team. Meeting

the expectations, Li proved her abilities to handle the position comfortably. Babatunde and his manager White were
satisfied with her performance. Her team also began to get along well with her management style except for Hsu who

approached Babtunde and asked him to be moved to the other product line which didn’t have a manager assigned yet.

He explained that he wasn’t comfortable with working under Li since she didn’t have a scientific degree, therefore she

wouldn’t understand the difficulties he had to encounter for achieving his scientific degree.

He felt it wasn’t appropriate to report to a non technical manager. He also added that Babatunde’s management style

was the main reason why he joined Vidsoft as he was impressed with it, and that he should not be reporting to

another manager which he didn’t know when he accepted his offer. Besides, with Li’s minimal experience in

management, Hsu questioned the possibility of learning something new from her.

Babatunde felt Li should know about the situation and Hsu agreed to get her involved. Li was shocked when

Babatunde told her the issue and felt she failed in here new role.

After several meetings to resolve the situation, nothing was achieved as Hsu was still insisting on getting moved while

Li saw that by moving him from the team, she would loose her image as effective manager in front of her team and

didn’t accept his transfer.

Babatunde was not sure how to best handle the situation. Shall he respond to Hsu’s request by moving him to the...