Jack Thomas Case Study

Questions for the "Jack Thomas" case

1. Discuss the context and the issues in the case from the point of view of Thomas, Donahoe, and Ford.

Thomas is a new employee at Arcon. He has recently graduated from Harvard Business School, and has known he wanted to work at Arcon for years. He works under Donahoe, who is works for Ford. Thomas has a terrible relationship with Donahoe, but he has an excellent relationship with Ford, who was influential in hiring Thomas. Thomas worked in Morocco, and published a newsletter that was partially responsible for getting his previous boss fired. He got in contact with Arcon and began working for them in Geneva. He was then approached by Ford to work in New York under Donahoe. He viewed this opportunity to "marry the company" as a stepping-stone to a higher level within Arcon.

Donahoe had no influence in hiring Thomas as his employee. The first assignment given to Thomas was to look through the finances for the last six months, where he found many errors. These errors were reported to Ford, who came down on Donahoe for being over-budget. From there Ford continued to ask for information about Donahoe's department from Thomas, without Donahoe's knowledge.

Ford is doing his best to not look bad to his superiors. He continues to pass much of the blame onto Donahoe for the project being over-budget, but he gives little support when he hears about things not being Donahoe's fault. He continues to ask Thomas to, in essence, spy on the marketing budget and gather information about the problems within the division.

2. What are the power and political dynamics at Arcon? Does Thomas perceive these dynamics accurately?

Thomas wants to move up within the company, and he perceives helping Ford as his best option for moving up in the company. It appears as though Donahoe and Ford have bad blood and that Ford uses his hierarchical power to influence Thomas to do work that could lead to Donahoe getting fired. Ford also uses motivational techniques of moving up Thomas to Donahoe's position to influence Thomas to do as he wishes. Meanwhile, Donahoe has been kept out of the loop on the majority of this situation.

It appears that Thomas is aware of some of the politics that are going on. He understands that it is possible that Ford is setting Donahue up for failure, but it seems as though he may not realize that Ford is taking advantage of himself as well. Also, by beginning this pattern of helping Ford, he could be rewarded in the short run, but he will also become Ford's underling

3. How would you assess Thomas' interpersonal influence capability and behavior?

Thomas does not seem to be influencing anyone in the decisions he is making. He does not