Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

LEAD THROUGH VISION AND VALUES
often work on - site at client locations. A company vision statement hangs on the wall in the
company lobby:
MidState Analytics provides sound, impartial scientific analysis and research in order
to create safe, effective products and services.
381
Although no formal statement of values exists, the scientific backgrounds of MidState ’ s
employees provide them with generally accepted common values of research integrity,
sharing of methodology and research findings, mentoring of more junior scientists, and
treating each other with professionalism.
The company has four divisions – Consumer Products, Health, Information Systems
Support, and Engineering. In early 2002, the director of the Consumer Products division,
Jim Modell, brought in a new practice manager, Gabe Addison, to develop business in
the toiletries and cosmetics industry. Modell and Addison knew each other from brief
interactions at professional conferences. Addison’s track record was impressive – author
of several patents, a stint as a faculty member at the University of Massachusetts, and
publications in top - notch academic journals. In his 10 - year career, Addison worked at fi ve
different organizations, which, in Modell ’s mind, gave Addison a solid base of technical
and managerial experience.
During Gabe ’s interviews with MidState ’s CEO, Gordon Levy, and the rest of the leadership
team, Gabe made sure to mention his many high level contacts at potential client
companies. Levy remarked, “ With Gabe ’s high level contacts, we could easily win new
clients and quickly grow our revenues. ”
Initial success. Levy ’ s impressions proved true, at first. In his first year, Addison secured
four new major clients, allowing him to build a staff of about 50 scientists and tech nicians.
Some team members transferred from within the company, while the majority were new
hires. Addison’s days were spent meeting with the clients and supervising the project teams
who mainly worked on - site at client locations around the greater Chicago area.
A few months into one project for the NPG Corporation, Addison’s staff grew concerned.
After a cursory look at the team ’s analysis, Addison singularly authored a fi nal
report that contradicted the analysis. Karen McKnight, a senior analyst and team lead,
asked Addison to take another look at their analysis. Addison snapped at her, “ NPG needs
to move quickly. These are the results they want. ” When McKnight calmly insisted that
Addison take the results home to read, Addison became irate, telling her, “ I have more
experience than anyone else here. You need to be shown how this business works.”
Downward slide. Over the next few months, McKnight and her team experienced several
similar incidents despite the fact that Addison began visiting the NPG team less frequently.
When he did show up, he became incensed that the team had pressed forward in
his absence. The team became increasingly frustrated and the work pace began to slow
down, resulting in further reprimands from Addison for lack of productivity. Scolding
McKnight in front of her team, Addison shouted, “ Why are you holding team meetings?
Stop meeting and get to work. ” Yet during his next visit, he admonished, “ This project
requires teamwork. How can you work together if you don’t hold team meetings? ”
After one particularly bad day in which Addison snapped at one of McKnight ’s brightest
team members for “ not knowing anything, ” McKnight called MidState colleague and