Reference no: EM133085675

Louise Gagnon was a Senior Manager at NewBuild, which was a large general contracting firm. She was in charge of the Commercial Building Division, and these days she felt the burden of being an effective manager in difficult times. Also, today she had to choose who would become the project manager for a new construction project of the Mirabilia Group. Mirabilia was a longstanding but difficult client, who always wanted something original. Louise could feel the tension building on her shoulders and she hoped she would make the right decision.

The NewBuild Company

NewBuild had enjoyed steady growth since it was founded over 100 years ago, but the recent recession had led to a decreased number of new projects in the past few years. This was making it harder for managers to fulfill the company's mission of high integrity, customer delight, and dedication to each employee's personal career growth, and made it seem like the company might need to pivot to a new direction if they wanted to remain competitive amid the changing times. Also, construction was still a male-dominated industry and NewBuild's employee roster reflected this fact. As one of the few female executives, Louise felt it was imperative that she promote other women at the company. For example, out of the five employees that Louise supervised in her division, three were women.

The Commercial Building Division

Margaret Dixon, an expert with a civil engineering degree, had been at NewBuild for four years, and she had been a project manager in Louise's division for the past two years. She was competent and reliable, essentially acting as Louise's second in command. Louise knew that Margaret was hoping to become a Senior Manager soon. Yinan Wang and Hasan Abdallah each had a degree in construction engineering and they had also been working as project managers with Louise for two years. The newest members of Louise's team, Brad Johnson and Carolina Fernandez, joined NewBuild only one year ago, but they were also technically proficient. They each had a degree in architectural engineering. Besides, as an undergraduate, Brad had helped a professor to conduct research on sustainable techniques in the construction industry.

Louise had been paying particular attention to her two newest employees to get a sense of who was more prepared to be promoted to project manager at the next available opportunity. Through Louise eyes, Carolina seemed more prepared than Brad. For instance, during a recent meeting Louise vividly remembered how Carolina had controlled the conversation, whereas Brad had sat quietly until the end of the meeting. After that, Louise asked her three project managers if they had shared her impression that Carolina was more ready take on the next project manager role. Although they agreed that one of Carolina's major strengths was her dominant character, Margaret had noted that Carolina sometimes spoke more than she listened, which could be problematic when dealing with difficult clients. Louise's project managers also conveyed that one of Brad's major strengths was his ability to listen and to integrate the insights of others to solve problems. Indeed, Hasan had noted that Brad's quiet demeanor could be very effective at pulling together what others expressed and generating sustainable and creative ideas, and he pointed out how Brad had brought out a key observation at the end of the last meeting that had enabled everyone to see the situation with more clarity. Louise listened to what everyone told her and she concluded that it affirmed her original belief: Carolina was more ready to take on a project manager role Brad.

Louise: The Senior Manager of the Commercial Building Division

Louise became a full time employee at NewBuild upon obtaining a civil engineering degree. She quickly became adept at functioning within the male-dominated company, and she found ways to advance up the company ranks. Reflecting on what had attracted her to NewBuild, Louise recalled how much she enjoyed designing new builds and how much she had appreciated the high degree of responsibility and autonomy she had been given, even when she was a young, and less experienced, engineer. Louise believed in NewBuild's mission, was grateful for the opportunities that been given to her, and wanted to continue advancing in the organization. Besides, in the current economy, few other companies were hiring. To support the development of her managerial skills, Louise was completing an MBA, which was being paid for by NewBuild. At this point, Louise wanted to focus on strategic decision-making and she wanted to help take NewBuild in a new direction. Her vision was for NewBuild to become a leading sustainable-construction firm, and she believed that executing this vision was the way for the company to succeed despite the economic downturn.

Who Should be the Next Project Manager for Mirabilia Group?

In choosing a project manager for the new Mirabilia project, Louise knew she had to consider various issues. For one, Mirabilia was known to expect quick answers to their inquiries, and they preferred being able to speak with everyone involved in their project, rather than dealing only with one project manager. So, it was essential to choose someone with strong communication skills and that person would need to ensure that everyone on the team understood the collective expectation to share information. Louise also believed it would be important for the project manager to create a sense of togetherness within the team, so that team members could be aligned in their mission to meet Mirabilia's high expectations.

Louise wanted to stick to the company's mission and past practice, and give Brad or Carolina an opportunity to take the lead, but considering the lack of new projects, Louise also wanted to protect the company's current income and maintain the satisfaction of their longstanding client. Without giving it much thought, Louise decided that the right solution to her problem was to choose the person who had a proven record of success. Margaret was that person. This might delay her promotion to Senior Manager, as well as Brad's and Carolina's promotion to Project Managers, but the client would be satisfied and Louise would not worry about the success of the project. Also, Louise could encourage Brad to develop some unique, sustainable aspects to the build. This would add the WOW factor that Louise knew Miriabilia was seeking, and she would be able to show the senior executives how successful a "green building" could be.

The Meeting

The next day, Louise called her team together. First, she told them about her idea to make NewBuild an innovator in green building, and how she thought that the Commercial Division could lead the company to achieve that goal. She spoke persuasively about her passion for the environment and how she believed NewBuild could be at the vanguard of new approaches to construction. She appealed to the emotions of her team, talking about the importance of protecting the planet, and then presented her plan for how the project at Mirabilia could be their flagship new build, and how it could set them apart from other construction companies. Then, she spoke about who would be the project manager. First, she recognized that Brad and Carolina had brought new ideas and energy to the team, and she noted that each had strengths that would be valuable in completing the project. Then, she announced that the project manager for Mirabilia Group's new build would be Margaret. She reminded the team that Margaret had a proven record as a project manager and she said that she trusted everyone would support Margaret in this role.

Louise's announcement was, at first, greeted with silence. Margaret, Brad and Carolina were all shocked. After working for two years as Louise's second in command, Margaret had been expecting that Louise would announce her promotion to Senior Manager, where Margaret would lead a small division of her own. Brad and Carolina also could not believe that they would not get the chance to lead the project. Both had assumed that leading such a project was their next step. Brad even wondered if he would need to transfer to another division, so that he could get the typical opportunities offered to other men at NewBuild. With his experience in sustainable construction, he could not believe that Louise had not chosen him. All of a sudden, Louise had three angry employees who all felt that she was standing in the way of their career advancement. This was not how she had hoped the meeting would go, and she started to wonder if she was going to be able to get her team on board to conquer this new build and achieve her aspirations of helping to turn the company downturn around by becoming a leader in sustainable construction

Apply the concept of organizational commitment to explain whether Louise is likely to have high or low organizational commitment toward NewBuild. Be sure to discuss all relevant types of commitment and provide information from the case to support your application.