GENEL / PUBLIC

Murat Yücekuş

33190

1. If you were Peterson, how would you respond to Wu's request for an assistant? What factors
would you consider?
It seems that there are three different possibilities including, accepting Wu’s request for an
assistance, rejecting Wu’s request for an assistance, and offering him diffent benefits rather than
an assistance.
It is obvious that the character and working style of Wu does not match with Peterson’s
expectations. She feels that her authority and power on employees may be threatened due to
irresponsible behaviours of Wu. If Peterson accept his request, she will not only deviate from
the company policy, but also loose her authority&respect on the team. To compensate the
situation, she should provide asistant to other employees, as well. In this scenario, the cost of
company will increase.
If Wendy rejects his request, the company will stick its policies and no negative impact will
occur on employees. Their team spirit will thrive. However, the challenging targets to expand in
Chinese markets may not be accomplished without an employee like Wu.
I would rather offering Wu different benefits rather than an assistance. I would try to understand
the reason behind Wu’s such an assertive demand. He may be dissapointed/offended due to the
questioning of Peterson about his decision and wanted to see his value on Peterson eyes. Finally,
he requested an assistant to pull in in his own way. Although I interpret Wu's feeling of
superiority over his colleagues after a successful year as a repulsive behavior, I think that the
culture he came from may have caused this. I believe that Wendy and Wu should give more
effort to find a way to eliminate cultural barriers between them.
2. If you were Peterson's immediate supervisor, how would you evaluate her performance?
Wendy is very talented and hardworking. She works closely with her employees in sales
processes to support them in finding original ideas. While this effort sometimes finds a positive
response, sometimes it can cause employees to work inefficiently. I think Wendy needs to fully
empower and trust others to complete their tasks.
Wendy should learn manage Wu in a different way than other employees. In addition to Wu’s
having different cultural values, each employee must be managed differently because they have
different values, norms, and beliefs toward things and their business strategy. Besides, instead of
giving Wu face-to-face feedback on his first mistake, Wendy could have done it in a different
way. There could have been a misunderstanding about any rule or procedure of the company,
Wendy needed to give more effort to clarify it. However, she took it as a threat to her authority.
She should be more relaxed, flexible and result-oriented.

GENEL / PUBLIC