Reference no: EM133135710

The Incident:

Setting: You are the manager responsible for operational analysis at a national company that processes citrus fruit into juices, concentrates, oils and essences, pulp cells, and dried fruit. The company has several processing plants and specific measurement metrics are applied to determine their efficiency and effectiveness. The company's executive team increasingly relies on your quarterly report and other analyses you provide to make important decisions regarding future investments, product changes, budgets, and so forth. In fact, your ability to provide timely, high-quality operational performance information has raised your reputation and influence in the organization. Your quarterly reports depend on each production facility to supply you with the raw data identified in a well-developed As per the established schedule, senior management expect to receive your next quarterly report later this week. However, Ben Estobar, the manager of grapefruit production at the Florida facility, has not yet submitted key information for you to complete your report. Ben did not reply to your email reminders, so you give him a call. During that conversation, Ben says he is too busy to get the required information within the next couple of days. He explains that his delay for another week or two is due to the busy season for grapefruit processing, even though the data have never been submitted late in the past. You remind Ben that his information is critical to completion of your report, which is vital to senior executive decisions and the company's long-term success. You have a higher position and more seniority in the company than Ben Estobar. Ben is friendly and rarely aggressive in any way, but he has been known to twist facts to make his position look more favourable

Alternative Actions:

1- Tell Ben Estobar that you understand his difficult work deadlines, and try to prepare the report by estimating what his data might have been, such as by extrapolating last quarter's numbers.

2. Meet with Ben Estobar and other managers to discover a longer term solution that would almost completely avoid the risk that one or more managers fail to submit the operational data on time.

3. Give Ben Estobar an ultimatum that he must submit the required information by tomorrow afternoon. If he fails to do so, you will ask the chief operating officer (to whom you and Ben Estobar's manager reports) to compel you to provide the operational data this week.

4. Choose a middle ground in which you ask Ben Estobar to send you the most vital information (about half of what is required) and you will use your judgment to fill in the missing information.

5. Ask the senior executive team if they would be willing to have your quarterly report postponed for a week or two, if possible.