Reference no: EM13184979

Case: The Sundale Club

Background

The Sundale Club is the largest athletic/social club in the city. It has been established for many years and has a prestigious reputation. Currently, the membership is slightly under 1,000. Sundale once had a waiting list for those wishing to join, but in the past few months the list has been exhausted and the director, Bob Watts, is considering a membership drive to fill unexpected membership vacancies.
Alice Smith was thinking about her modeling job on her way home that evening. Today had been dandy. Ted Ellis, the athletic director, had fired Pat Franklin, who had worked for Sundale for nearly nine years.

The Problem

The whole mess started five months ago when Ellis hired Chuck Johnson to become the men's activity manager. Shortly after Johnson arrived, rumors started that he was a homosexual. Two of the members complained to Frank Havens, the assistant athletic director, that Johnson had made verbal passes at them.
Ted Ellis and Johnson were close friends, so Havens was reluctant to approach his boss with this problem. During the next few years more incidents involving Johnson's behavior were reported by various staff members to Havens, in addition to complaints from club members.
Havens could sense that his staff was wondering why he had not done something about the situation, and he was aware that seven of the male members had withdrawn from the club. Finally, he requested a meeting with Ted Ellis.

The Meeting

The meeting with Ellis did not go well. Ted Ellis was extremely defensive about Johnson and shouted, "Chuck Johnson has more savvy about this business in his little finger than the whole bunch of you put together."
That night, Frank decided to go over Ellis's head and talk to Bob Watts. Watts was due to retire next year, so he did not want to rock the boat in the final days of his tenure with Sundale. Watts tried to convince Frank that it was just a silly rumor.
Frank's working relationship with Ellis was very strained, and he continued to receive pressure from below. That week Frank quit the organization and went to work in the same capacity for the competition. The next day, Johnson, who had been working for Sundale five months now, was promoted and became the new assistant athletic director.

The Incident

Pat Franklin was bent! The entire athletic department, was the exception of Ellis, was shocked. Pat had been very dedicated to her job and the organization. There had never been any doubt that she would get Frank Haven's job when he moved up.
Pat Franklin burst into Ellis's office and demanded to know why she had not gotten the promotion. The next few minutes were rather ugly. Pat left Ellis's office, went to her own office, and began to cry. A knock at the door stopped the flow of tears, but when she entered the office, Alice Smith could tell immediately that something was wrong. Pat explained that she had just been fired, which started the tears again. Alice was soon crying with Pat.
On her way home, although very concerned about Pat, Alice was also concerned about her own future, and her part-time job as a model. Pat had allowed her to miss up to eight hours a week from the Sundale Club to pursue her modeling duties. Although Alice did not really need the modeling money, the job itself was very important to her from a personal satisfaction standpoint: she had to keep trim and well groomed, which kept her thinking young. And besides, the glamour aspect of the modeling profession satisfied her ego.
Carol Happ, the social director, was also starting to feel the effects of the turmoil in the athletic department. Most of the Sundale Club's income was derived from its social activities. Jim Mercer, the mixer activity manager, had noticed the impact of the turmoil within his own department.
Carol, acting on her own behalf, spoke privately to all the athletic department managers with the exception of Ted Ellis and Chuck Johnson. She had hoped to arrange a meeting with Bob Watts but found little support from that department because of their fear of Ted Ellis.

Is the introduction of teams the right invention at Sundale? (At least 250 words).