¶ … 3240, Spring 2012, Case Study Viju Raghupathi BUSN 3240, GROUP CASE STUDY QUESTIONS

Group Report Due: 3/21/12 in class

Case: A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products

Alex is female. Alex's rather pushy, aggressive, and go-getter style is likely designed to compensate for her frustrations of working in a male-dominated industry. She tends to like to micro-manage others in an aggressive fashion, to ensure that what she feels needs to get done, gets done. Males, even very aggressive 'Type A' males, tend to be more willing to delegate, since they feel more comfortable giving orders and do not feel a need to prove that they can 'do it all themselves.'

Alex can be very emotional in an aggressive manner, suggesting she is trying not to seem 'soft.' She uses displays of anger to motivate others. This seems to work in...

She feels justified in doing so because she was hired to 'shake things up' by her supervisor. She uses a 'stick' rather than a 'carrot' approach. Alex feels confident that she will be promoted and reviewed well because of her 100% commitment. Alex tries to set an example by finishing everything early, and tries as hard as possible to 'be the best.' Alex believes that her demonstrated merit will prove her worth to her colleagues, rather than honing her interpersonal skills.
Q3. Alex behaves insensitively even when dealing with senior colleagues who have proven their loyalty to the company through their service in the past. Alex immediately tries to take control of the project very noisily and show that she is the boss. She takes over assignments rather than rephrases her instructions, if she feels that things have been done incorrectly. She continually bombards her staff with emails and phone…