CASE study on BOUND BY THE STRUCTURE

Eloise joined Events Are Us with 5 years of excellent experience working for a small events planning
company. She had had the opportunity to see and do all parts of the business and now needed more
and bigger challenges. The family-owned business where she used to work was great, turned on a dime,
and served many private events and small companies, but it provided no promotion opportunity. Events
Are Us was located in Southern California and had grown considerably in the past few years with
branches in six Western and Southwestern states. The company had contracts with major companies
and sports organizations for their big events and provided a complete menu of services from expert
event planners to catering and facilities, photographers, and even decorators and architects as well as a
variety of other services. They also still served some private customers with events such as weddings.
Most of their large clients had a predetermined set of events every year, often complicated and big
affairs, and needed consistency and reliability with a hint of adventure, things Events Are Us provided
very well. Eloise signed on! There was lots to do and lots to learn and, with close to 1,000 employees,
lots of room to grow.

Eloise was the creative type and loved to work with clients from the ground up, and because of her
broad experience, she was quickly assigned to the Event Planning department to report to the assistant
case manager, Jeremy, who reported to the case manager, Melina, who reported to the VP of events,
Ms. Bellizzi She went through 3 days of training with HR, most of which was focused on learning the
policies and procedures, as well as the extensive benefits employees had. Once she completed
orientation, she was pot on a team of four planners who all reported to Jeremy and who handled
several big clients. Each planer a part of each project. The most senior one, Adam, worked directly with
the clients to help them with their planning once Jeremy had signed the contracts. Jeff took the work
from Adam and organized the catering and facilities and worked with Sarah who handled the
entertainment along with Kim. Eloise's job was to handle the paperwork, all the accounts from the client
and suppliers, and work with the balling department The team met every day for 1 hour to review cases,
and Eloise met with her manager once a week to report on her work.

Her team members were great; they all really knew their stuff. After just a couple of weeks, Eloise had
many ideas that she brought up during the daily meetings. Her team members said it all sounded great
and told her to share them with her manager, which she did. Jeremy thanked her and said he would
pass them on as appropriate. After several attempts at making suggestions that did not seem to go
anywhere, Eloise put them in writing and sent them to Adam in a memo. He forwarded them to Jeremy
who reminded Elise that she needed to go through him since Adam was not her supervisor. Eloise was
getting both confused and frustrated. She knew her ideas were good; her colleagues were all telling her
so. She did not understand why she had to go through all these steps.

Although Eloise rarely met with clients directly or face to face (just lots of phone call and emails), she
happened to go with Adam to one of his client meetings. The clients had a lot of repeat business with
Events Are Us, and Eloise suggested several changes to what had already been proposed regarding their
big company retreat. She was very excited; finally, a chance to do some creative work and talk to people
again! The client loved her ideas and asked for her e-mail so she could get more details. Adam looked
very uncomfortable and cut the meeting short. He was very quiet during the drive back to the office
As soon as she got back to the office, Eloise put her ideas in an e-mail and made sure she copied Adam
and Jeremy. The client was still very interested. The next day, Jeremy's assistant called Eloise in for a
meeting with him. Jeremy told Eloise that she had overstepped her bounds, that she should not have
contacted the client, and should not have embarrassed Adam in front of her. Eloise was confused: "The
client loved the ideas, right? And they actually will increase our billing? I did this with Adam, he was right
there. I didn't go over his head or behind his back. I don't understand what the problem is?" Jeremy
reminded her it is very important that she follows the procedures and respects the authority of more
senior people and asked her not to do this again.

At the next morning's team meeting, Adam did not seem upset. Jeremy had convinced the client to go
back to the original plans and all was back on track and on schedule. He encouraged Eloise to continue
to suggest ideas in the meetings, but make sure that she stayed "in her box" when it came to the work.
He told her: "We all have a job to do. I can't do yours and you can't do mine. It confuses the clients and
our suppliers, messes up the schedules, and makes it hard for us to finish our projects when things are
disorganized. We need to know who is responsible for what."

Eloise was doing well at her job and except for being told that she needs to "stay in her box” several
more times by her teammates and her boss, she was getting good reviews. The work was not very
exciting, but there was the distinct possibility of a promotion soon to lead another team. She missed the
excitement of the small company she used to work for where everything was done quickly and everyone
jumped in to do whatever was needed when it was needed. Yet, at Events Are Us, she had the chance to
move up...if she could just stay in her box.

1. What are some of the strategic contextual elements for Events Are Us?

Events Are Us was located in Southern California and had grown considerably in the past few years.
in six Western and Southwestern states. contextual element for events are organization contracts with
major companies and sports organizations for their big events planners to catering and facilities,
photographers, and even decorators and architects as well as a variety of other services. Most of their
large clients had a predetermined set of events every year, and the hint of adventure, big affairs,
consistency and relief so in these things events are provided very well.

2. How well does the structure fit the other elements?

Eloise's job was to handle the paperwork, all the accounts from the client and suppliers, and work
with the balling department The team met every day for 1 hour to review cases through the structure
she fits for the other wants also she normally not meet the clients directly or indirectly through phone
call and she happened to go with Adam so in the client meeting she given the several change regarding
their big company retreat she got chance to the creative work and talk with people clients where
impressed with her suggest.

3. What is the impact of the structure on Eloise?

So the client where impressed with her ideas and she put her ideas in email, clients still very
interested. The next day, Jeremy's assistant called Eloise in for a meeting with him. In that meeting
Jeremy told Eloise to there with her box she confused
She asked clients were lined her ideas, right? He said to follow the procedures and respects the
authority and also said to not change the plan it’s the impact of structure on.
Eloise next she had meeting with clients but Jeremy already said to her to there “Stay in her box” she
gave the confusing reply to the clients so they decided to reject the changes in project so it had it down
the creativity of Eloise.

4. What do you think Eloise should do?

So she is very talented girl so she need not to depend on same company to explore her skill and
knowledge if she wants none her. Self from company then she have the opportunity to “move up from
her box”.