Reference no: EM133306023

Assignment: May Prosper was inaugurated as AirSing's CEO in January 2018. When the Board of Directors selected May, Eaton Hong, a veteran member of the aviation industry who served on the Board for close to 20 years, was adamant that it was a wrong decision He had worked with May before and knew her to be indecisive and weak. He argued fervently against her appointment but his dissent was largely ignored. The other board members were impressed with May's success in turning around an unprofitable air cargo company. While the Board did not accept Eaton's position, they monitored May's performance closely and required her to report back regularly. AirSing has been registering losses over the last four quarters due to fierce competition from budget airlines and increasing oil prices. The pilots and aircrew at AirSing were also disengaged as they were paid lower compared to their competitors. This has resulted in poor service and a few narrowly avoided accidents. And the poor maintenance also resulted in a fleet of A330 aeroplanes being grounded for months Upon taking over as CEO. May set about the task of bringing the company back from the red with a series of cost-cutting measures such as boosting margins from premium services and shutting down AirSing's low-cost business unit However, as she recognises that the business cannot run with pilots and aircrew, she gave in to their union's request for a 15% salary increase after they staged a boycott for a week. To fund this salary increase, May cut the salaries of the ground maintenance crew by 209%. As such, there has been rising dissent amongst this group of employees. At each meeting with the Board. Eaton will question May for the rationale of her decisions and publically voice problems with her decisions. Eaton has been friends with the Director of Ground Operations for many years and is aware of the brewing dissatisfaction. He believes that May is unfit to be the CEO and wants to start a motion to dismiss her. He starts to collect evidence to support his claim through a survey of AirSing employees across departments and seniority. 75% of participants rated May's leadership as "very weak." The qualitative feedback was also rather damning and included remarks such as "May is unfair. She cuts our salary to give to others. What sort of leader does that?" "Look at the recent about-to-happen collisions, the grounding of the aeroplanes, the rising operating costs, and the income shrank. It is all her fault!" "Cost-cutting will not generate profits. She does not know how to create value for the company. She should be called May Not Prosper!" As a board member, Eaton Hong believed that it was right for him to call for May's dismissal due to the low morale. He arranges for a board meeting and presents the quantitative and qualitative date from the survey. Having monitored May's performance over the last year, the board of directors finally agrees to Eaton Hong's proposal to dismiss May. May was fired.

Question:

1. Identify the type of influence exerted by Eaton and describe a theory that could explain the whole process of influence till the point that May was fired. Illustrate the process of influence with examples from the case.
2. Describe THREE (3) factors that impact the type of influence Eaton exerts and illustrate how these factors helped Eaton convince the Board of Directors to dismiss May. 
3. Identify and describe TWO (2) social dilemmas that happened in the survey with evidence from the passage.