Reference no: EM132178823

Read and respond to the following Case questions in a single Microsoft Word document. Your paper should be at least 1 single spaced page and include the questions in the last paragraph with your responses in complete sentences after each question. Respond to the questions in first person, as if you were the employee in the narrative.

Change or Status Quo - CASE (Adapted from "Change or Status Quo" Wiki-Cases in Management by James Clawson)

"Just make it look good for the third floor," Dan said as he passed a sticky note over the cubicle wall with week's task. It was no secret that Dan, my boss and the head of investment banking, did not get along with his boss Bob, who gave him the task. The truth is we could not blame him; Dan was hamstrung by his boss shortly after the launch of the investment banking department two years ago. Bob, Dan's boss and the head over investment banking and research, did not allow Dan to make the kinds of strategic moves he wanted to make to improve our fledging investment banking operation. Furthermore, Bob had no real experience in investment banking and often appeared to be out of touch with the reality of the business.

I often received tasks from Bob that turned out to be proverbial wild goose chases. By now we all knew the drill, did the requisite amount of work, and passed it back up to our boss to never be heard from again. The problem was, just as Dan was managing for his boss, Bob was managing for his bosses: the partners. As a private firm, the partners could basically do what they wanted with the business. And I often speculated that since the partners were traders, they thought like traders, and could not think long term enough to see the establishment of an investment banking department through. Traders thought in the short term: if I invest this, I should get two or three times that amount soon... as in a few months. In addition, as a trader, win-win situations do not exist when one is trading with a counterparty. If one wins, the other loses. Investment banking, on the other hand, required the building of relationships and the investing of time and energy for a longer-term payout that might come years later. While the trading side of the business had become very large and successful over time, the move into investment banking seemed to us half-hearted and perhaps doomed to failure. Thus Bob would get a harebrained idea passed to him. Bob would, in turn pass it to Dan, who passed it to us with a wink and a note: "this is from the third floor."

The questions that ran through my mind were:

1. What should I do  about it? Should I continue going through the motions with these tasks, or should I agitate for some greater strategic changes that could actually bring about success for our department?

2. If I take the action I have identified in the first question, what will the likely impact be to the organization and to my own career? (In your response, note both potential positive and negative impacts for each).

3. Even if I thought I should do something, what could I do  as a junior person in a firm that did not necessarily see the long term benefits of the actions I would suggest?