A Tough Call

(Case & Group Assignment)

[This fictional case is inspired by a case written by Dalton E Brannen, Simon K Medcalfe and
Roland B Cousins, and published in The Case of Research Journal, USA, in 2014. The
original case was built on real events in a leading B-school in the US. MM Monippally]

Background
Professor Shankar Malhotra is the Chairperson of Finance and Accounting Area,
International Institute of Management, Delhi (IIMD), one of the top 10 business
schools in India. Along with other Area Chairs and Dean-Faculty, Prof Malhotra has
been trying hard to hire bright young academics with a PhD, especially from
abroad. The Director has been pressing the Area Chairs to be aggressive in
recruitment because ranking depended heavily on the Institute’s Faculty – their
diversity and research output. In the past, there were a few instances in which
IIMD’s highly desirable faculty applicants were lured away by leading business
schools in Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Kolkata because IIMD was slow
– taking two to three months – to finalise and communicate its offers. To avoid a
repeat of such losses, Area Chairs at IIMD have been trying to complete the
recruitment process in under four weeks. During the last two years Prof Malhotra
managed to recruit three high quality PhDs in accounting – two from the US and
one from Delhi. He is happy that all three of them, including Dr Alka Waghela, the
latest to join, are performing very well.

In the short period of nine months that she has been with the Area, Dr Waghela has
earned a good reputation. The students appreciate her pleasant personality and
high-quality teaching; the colleagues appreciate her graceful behaviour. She had
just finished her PhD in accounting at Kelley School of Business, Indiana University,
one of the top 20 American doctoral programs in Accounting. She says that three of
her papers are in the pipeline for publication in A category journals. At the time of
recruitment she had said that her original plan was to continue in the US for a few
years but decided to return to India immediately after her PhD because of constant
pestering from her widowed mother.

Prof Malhotra fast-tracked Dr Waghela’s formal application last year partly because
it arrived just three weeks before the start of the summer vacation and partly
because he and his colleagues in the Accounting Area had been thoroughly
impressed by her CV and scans of glowing testimonials attached. That she was a
woman made the decision easier – the Accounting Area had not attracted any
women faculty for almost five years although the Director and Dean-Faculty were
pressing all the Area Chairpersons to do something about the low percentage of
women faculty. At the conclusion of her visit to IIMD, she had also hinted that she
had two other offers, one from Bengaluru and the other from Hyderabad although

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her preference was for IIMD because she liked its academic culture and focus on
research. Any delay in confirming the offer would certainly have resulted in losing
her. Professor Malhotra was particularly pleased that she preferred IIMD.

A Bolt from the Blue

Recently Prof Malhotra presented a paper at the International Conference on
Accounting and Finance, Orlando, Florida. During the breaks he introduced himself
to several delegates and chatted with them hoping to get leads on bright young
doctoral candidates who might be interested to work in India. When one of the
delegates introduced himself as David Watson, Professor of Accounting at Kelley
School of Business, Indiana University, Prof Malhotra told him excitedly that Dr Alka
Waghela, one of their recent PhDs, had joined IIMD and that he was very happy
with her performance. Prof Watson said that Kelley School was fortunate to have
several brilliant Indian doctoral students but couldn’t immediately place her
probably because she might have taken a long break after the coursework or got
her PhD during the year he was away on sabbatical. Prof Malhotra thought nothing
more about it. Quietly he congratulated himself on grabbing the brilliant PhD from
Kelley School before other top B-schools in India did.

Back at IIMD, Prof Malhotra was scanning the scores of unread emails in his inbox.
One sender’s name caught his attention: David Watson, Kelley School of Business.
He opened it eagerly. After a very brief, courteous first paragraph recalling their
meeting at the conference came a bolt from the blue: Kelly School of Business
never had a student by the name Alka Waghela or Alka Vaghela. In fact, a search
on the entire Indiana University alumni database, not just that of Kelley School,
turned up only two Waghelas and one Vaghela during the last 25 years – all three
male undergraduate students. One majored in Biotechnology, another in Fashion
Design and the third one in Cognitive Science. Prof Watson ended his email with the
observation that he was disturbed that Alka Waghela had dragged Kelley School of
Business into her fraudulent scheme and he hoped that IIMD would expose her
immediately and stop her horrid fraud for good.

What to do?
Alka Waghela was not who she claimed to be. Although the students were delighted
with her teaching, most probably she did not qualify to be on IIMD’s Faculty. Even if
she had a PhD in accounting from somewhere, she was hired based on her false
claims and forged documents. Prof Malhotra was sure she should be asked to go.
But when? How?

There was enough evidence to dismiss her immediately, but her dismissal would
make the sordid story public. It would raise a thousand uncomfortable questions
from all quarters including the faculty and board of governors. Rival B-schools
would sneer at IIMD, and – worst of all – the media, especially social media, would
fill the cyberspace with sarcastic posts. The ensuing spectacle would irretrievably
tarnish the Premier Institute’s reputation. The mainstream media also would

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ridicule IIMD’s intellectual giants who had been so easily fooled by a woman for a
whole year and pontificate on how institutes of management should manage
themselves before advising others how to manage.

As the Area Chair who drove the entire hiring process, Prof Malhotra felt that he
would easily become the scapegoat at the Institute and a butt of jokes in social
media. There was also the challenge of finding a suitable substitute to step in,
teach the five sessions left before the end of the year, set the final exam paper,
evaluate the answers, and grade the students. Any disruption in the process can be
disastrous.

It occurred to Prof Malhotra that a quieter option might be to let her continue until
the end of the term and confront her with evidence of fraud once she handed in
student grades. She could be persuaded to resign quietly and leave citing some
personal developments such as marriage or mother’s ill-health. This would save
everyone’s face. An additional advantage of Waghela’s resignation, he felt, was that
he would not need to inform anyone except the Director about the fraud. Thus he
can put the lid tightly on this horrid affair.

Professor Malhotra wrote a detailed email to Director Mukherjee explaining the

background and the Institute’s predicament. He ended the email with a request for
a confidential meeting to take a quick decision and adopt a fail-safe action plan.

*** *** ***

Group Assignment

During the class there will be a roleplay: a 10-minute meeting between Prof
Malhotra and Director Mukherjee. Here is how you should prepare for it.

Study Groups 1, 3, 5 will assume the role of Prof Malhotra. They will meet (each
group separately, of course), discuss, and decide what suggestions to make to
Director Mukherjee during the upcoming meeting to deal with this hugely
embarrassing and damaging fiasco.

Study Groups 2 & 4 will assume the role of Director Mukherjee. They will meet
(each group separately, of course), discuss, and identify what decisions to push for
during the upcoming meeting with Prof Malhotra to deal with this hugely
embarrassing and damaging fiasco.