Kathmandu University School of Management

Balkumari, Lalitpur

Group Assignment

Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

Case- Mary Roberts

Submitted to

Mr. Bharat Prasad Neupane

Faculty of Problem Solving and Critical Thinking

Submitted by

GROUP-5

Anupiya Kansakar -18740

Demin Lal Kakshapati -18739

Khusbu Agrawal -18706

Russal Maharjan -18757

Sanju Dangol - 18723

Sarita Pandey -18764

Date of submission

7th May, 2021

Synopsis
The case revolves around how senior personnel is not happy with the promotion Mary Roberts
got in a short span of time, as the personnel believed that they deserved promotion more than
her.

Issues
1. The organization has a demotivated work environment and the employees are
uninterested in the work.
2. Due to lack of effort to communicate about Mary Robert’s promotions by the
organization, employees’ sentiment towards the organization is likely to turn negative.
3. The HR department of the organization doesn’t have a concrete appraisal review or
promotional policies.

Facts
1. Mary Roberts is a hardworking trainee who possessed great leadership qualities. Due to her
abilities, she quickly moved up the ranks from joining the company as a Management
Trainee to being assigned as the staff accountant and later getting promoted as tax
department manager. This was possible as she had impressed the senior managers with her
sense of responsibility and her willingness to work hard which made them believe that she
was the most qualified individual deserving of that post even though she was an
inexperienced person compared to those senior personnel with 10 to 30 years of experience
in tax work. This led to a lot of resentment amongst the senior employees who felt they
deserved the promotion in comparison to her because of their years of experience working in
that department as well as possessing technical knowledge which Mary did not hold at the
time. Furthermore, they additionally did not like the fact that Mary a young person was made
department head and she was to lead them especially those senior personnel who were
working in the tax department expecting to be promoted in the view of involvement just
 because of experience despite the fact that they lacked the necessary fundamental required
leadership skills which Mary possessed.

2. Being a management trainee, Mary Roberts was promoted to a staff accountant where she
became the supervisor of ten staffs after her superiors believed that she was a capable
individual who was committed to work and held leadership abilities. Likewise, with the
promotion of the current tax department manager to fill vacancy in financial planning
department, Mary Roberts was promoted as the tax department manager with
recommendation of the former tax department manager mentioning her work was excellent
and she was a very effective supervisor. So, the promotion was given to Mary instead of
those 45 employees which included 3 supervisors, 10 clerical employees and 3 typists who
had probably already been working there for a longer period of time and had gained more
experience and knowledge in that field in comparison to Mary. This showed that there were
no policies in terms of getting a promotion in the organization as the senior staffs who had
been working there for 10 to 30 years with the expectation of being promoted didn’t actually
get a promotion. Additionally the senior employees were particularly upset not just because
they desired the promotion and felt they deserved it but also because the tax manager did not
discuss the promotion with them before handing over the position to Mary.

Analysis

Demotivated Workforce
The case talks about Mary Roberts, and quick ascension to the upper management due to her
exceptional leadership skills and work commitment. However, while reading the entire case, it
becomes visible how there are a lot of things that hasn’t been handled appropriately in the
process.

After reading the case, it becomes clear that Mary Roberts is quick learner and has adapted to the
organization very quickly, and due to her leadership skills as mentioned in the case, she has the
trait of being an initiator, a very important skill for a leader, which also complements with the
other skill that is mentioned in the case, willingness to work hard or dedication.
It has been made evident in the case that the reason for the promotion was the leadership and the
willingness to work. Both leadership and willingness to work goes hand in hand. A good leader
cannot be good without being dedicated or determined in his/her job. It is also mentioned in the
case that the other employees despite having a larger experience and significant knowledge gap
with Mary Roberts, lacked leadership and the willingness to work like Mary Roberts. However, a
point to be considered here is the fact that they have been in the organization for 10-30 years,
and it is pretty fair to assume that a job is likely to get monotonous in long term, specially when
there is a stagnation in personal development. One of the examples of this, is the lack of
enthusiasm and willingness to work in officers in governmental organizations. Governmental
organizations have been notorious for this, and this stems from the lack of challenges and
stagnation of personal growth. Mary Roberts, being new to the organization has a fresh
perspective in her career, and is energetic and hardworking. It is uncertain if Mary Roberts will
continue to work with same dedication and willingness to work, after she has saturated in the
organization. When the case mentions, there is no one in parallel or in competition with Mary
Roberts, it is concerning that no employees despite having more experience and knowledge are
better than a comparatively new recruit. The organization is in fault for not being able to keep
their employees happy or motivated enough to work for the organization with energy and
determination. This hints at the major issue of this case, i.e. the organization has an unenergetic
work environment and the employees are demotivated in the work.

Here, we can assume that the employees in the organization have no motivation to work, and
have stagnated with their routine job roles. This should be a bigger concern for the organization,
since employees are most integral part of the operations for any organization. Not only this will
hamper organization’s efficiency, it will also restrain them from achieving organizational goals.

Lack of Communication
Even though the promotion could be completely reasonable, the issue is the lack of
communication among the employees in the company. In the case, there were several employees
who were more experienced than Mary Roberts who were against the decision of her being the
manager of the tax department. The company should have discussed this decision making
process with all the employees of the company. The upper level also should have consulted with
the other more experienced employees and the employees who worked for 10 to 30 years in tax
work. There has been seen lack of communication or the flow of the information to most of the
employees of the company which has created the conflict among the employees among the
company as a whole.

The organization not communicating with the probable employees who were in the organization
for a very long time, is likely to affect the organizational culture. This shows an implication that
organization doesn’t care about those employees, even after them serving the organization for a
long time. This is also likely to turn employees’ sentiment towards Mary Roberts sour, as it will
seem as Mary Roberts has colluded with the senior employees behind the back to land a
promotion. This is likely to generate negative sentiments by employees towards the organization,
who might even feel cheated after learning about Mary Roberts promotion afterwards.

It can be justified that Mary Roberts was promoted due to her dedication, skills and leadership
quality which is a major trait required in the manager. This should have been communicated with
the other employees of the company so that they would understand why she was chosen instead
of them which would have solved the conflict of the company as a whole. But, we can see that
the conflict among the employees have raised due to the lack of the information flow and lack of
participation of the employees in the decision making process. If only the organization had
communicated with the old employees about the promotion. As this is not happening in the
company, the conflict has raised in the company which has impacted the company and
employees in a negative way.

Lack of proper Human Resource Management:

As per the case, we came to know that she had better skills and great sense of responsibility.
But, the other employees of the organization were not happy about her promotion because, they
thought she was inexperienced and there were other employees, who were more experienced and
had better qualification for the promotion.

Lack of Human Resource Management is one of the problems that can be identified in the
organization. HRM is the strategic approach to the effective management of people in a company
or organization such that they help their business gain a competitive advantage. Here, in this case
the HRM role is not properly fulfilled. HRM should be able to convince the other employees of
the organization as why Mary Roberts is better suited for the promotion.

It seems the HR management values leadership and determination above other traits while
considering for promotion. These two traits have been the primary factor in promotion of Mary
Roberts. However, assessing leadership and determination can be subjective and differ person by
person. So, the HR management could come up with the appraisal more quantitative and
measurable, that is fair and transparent.

Secondly, one of the most important traits required in the senior managers is decision-making
skills and wisdom. Although the line managers and middle managers have responsibilities more
operational, as one moves up the hierarchy, decision making skills and conceptual skills become
more important along with human skills like leadership as shown in the figure below. Such
decision making and conceptual skills comes mainly from experience. The case has not
discussed Mary’s decision making or conceptual skills, and only mentioned to have considerable,
(not exceptional) skill while being an inexperienced trainee. So, to assume Mary Roberts also
possesses enough conceptual skills for decision making is a far stretched assumption. The HR
management has not considered any other traits apart from leadership and determination which
could be lack of foresight in the long run. The HR management should be able to explain the
reasons why Mary Roberts was promoted before the other senior employees.
Even though there were candidates working for so many years, they haven’t experienced any
promotion which made them resentful regarding the decision to make Robert the tax department
manager. This shows lack of job satisfaction among employees as the job lack motivation for the
employees. The HR should be able to motivate the employees so that the organization can have
better productivity and efficiency. HR shouldn’t take any decisions that implies favouritism , like
promoting Mary Roberts, without notifying employees. Such sudden promotion will lead the
employees towards feeling unfairly treated or discriminated. However, if some kinds of
competitions were held, the senior personnel, in this case, would at least get a chance to prove
their capabilities and wouldn’t be dissatisfied. Through this, both the senior employees and Mary
Roberts would have a credible promotion based on their results and there wouldn’t be such kind
of conflict in the organization.

Recommendations
The organization and the employees in this case can solve the existing and upcoming problems
by following the below mentioned solutions:

• Two-way communication: Listening to employees and their ideas, grievances, values and
opinion can be a great way to solve organization issues. Likewise, communicating the
decisions and plans to each level of the organization can create sense of shared goals
among the employees. In this case, if the decision of promoting Mary Roberts was
discussed with other employees and communicated to all, the resentment among
employees would not arise. Thus, we would recommend it is time for the organization to
be more flexible.

• Transparency: Being transparent is the way to build the trust of employees. Lack of
transparency can lead to mistrust and secrecy which ultimately hampers the employee
performance. Here, Mary Roberts can be transparent with her colleagues in the upcoming
days to avoid any misunderstanding. Likewise, she can practice collaborative plans and
democratic leadership style to prove herself as a better leader.
• Promotional policies: It is also advisable for the organization in this case to form a strong
promotional policy. Having a set of rules and procedures for promotion of employees can
aid in better decision making. Here, the appraisal policy can be considered as appraisals
provide the opportunity to recognize and reward employees and to ensure they feel
valued for the work that they do. Moreover, by monitoring progress against objectives,
employers can assess whether to reward staffs with salary increase, promotions or
bonuses. This is beneficial for the organization because progression opportunities are
attractive to new recruits and likely to retain existing talented employees.

• Handle employee grievances: Since it is quite evident that the employees aren’t satisfied
with Mary Roberts being promoted, it can eventually affect their performance. Thus, it is
prudent for the company to handle their employees’ grievances and make them feel as
important. To do so, various incentives be it pecuniary or non-pecuniary shall be
provided. Likewise, setting aside the time to discuss an employee’s individual ambitions
will also help organizations to spot and develop potential talent. Additionally, taking the
time to listen to employees and address any concerns helps to create a happier workforce
and will continue to fuel a culture of openness and trust.

• Delegation of authority: Mary Roberts, at her end can minimize the resentment of her
department by involving in team works. We advise her to delegate some of her
authorities and responsibilities to other members of that department in order to build
sense of inclusion. Here, she can make her subordinates feel more responsible as well as
improve her skills and talents at the same time.

• Work motivation: A motivated employee is enthusiastic, driven and takes pride in their
work. In this case, it seems suitable for the organization to motivate their employees by
leading them with a vision, make them understand the ‘why’ of everything, recognize
their work, provide various incentives and positive reinforcements. Work recognition and
incentives along with trainings and facilities to the employees can motivate them to work
better despite the dissatisfaction they have regarding Mary’s promotions. It is important
 for the organization to conduct activities that would aid in employees’ development both
personally and professionally. The organization should be able to make employee feel
assured like a part of a family.

• Employee’s sense of responsibility: As important it is for organization to develop

conducive environment for its employees, it is also employee’s responsibility to think for
the best interest of the organization. Here, we think the employees should also understand
the fact that Mary despite being inexperienced, is an asset to the organization. They
should quit having a laid back attitude and show determination towards the job.Thus,
along with just retaliating against the decision, they should also work on enhancing their
skills and show determination and willingness in their work themselves, the
organization’s role here should be to ensure the work environment is healthy and
positive.

Conclusion
Although the focal point of the case is Mary Roberts, it also sheds light on how the company is
operating. The organization doesn’t have a healthy work environment, neither has a concrete
system in communication chain, as well as promotion policies. The employees are demotivated
in the organization and are depicted as incompetent in comparison to Mary Roberts. It shows
how organization has failed to keep employees motivated. Employees have been unsatisfied with
the organization for the reasons mentioned above which will affect the organizational behavior.
Therefore, although it seems employees’ dissatisfaction towards Mary Roberts is the main issue
here, the major issue here is the fact that the company is a slowly sinking ship, unless it brings a
change the way it is current operated.