BUISNESS COMMUNICATION case study

1. How was the relationship between Landon and Grace in the early days? And how would you describe their relationship at the end? What Changed? 2. What is professionalism? Who is behaving unprofessionally in this situation? 3. Is it ethical to bypass your manager and complain to senior manager? Grace paused with her finger hovering over her mouse, deciding whether to click "Send." Her friends were calling her to leave for lunch, so she didn't have much time to make her decision. She knew that everything she had just written was true, but she also had to acknowledge that sending this email was potentially dangerous. Her boss, Landon Washington, had made it pretty clear that she wasn't supposed to be contacting the vice-president (VP) of their division directly, and he sure as heck wouldn't like what this email said. She sat back in her chair, undecided. She felt that she would explode if she didn't do something. Grace was sick and tired of waiting for what she deserved. She just wasn't sure if she had the nerve to actually send this email. When she started working for 8SK Consulting (SK) 15 months before, Grace could not have predicted she would be facing this type of dilemma. 8SK wasn't the biggest consulting firm around, but it had a strong reputation as a good place to work. With almost 800 employees across five divisions, it seemed there would be lots of room to grow. And several people had told her that she was lucky to get Landon for a boss as he was well-connected. He had been with the firm for 14 years and had been the manager of the department for the last eight. For a while, her job seemed to go well. Grace was a new graduate when she started and didn't have much of a clue about how to fit in to 8SK. Sure, she had done a couple of internships at similar firms, but working was a lot different when you were a permanent employee. People had higher expectations. Landon was the one who showed her around and shared his ideas on how to succeed in the industry. No one was more surprised than Grace at how supportive he was in the early days. He seemed to make a point to stop by her desk every day with an encouraging word or two. He also was known to give her a break here and there. Grace still cringed when she thought back to the day a few months after she started when she had managed to annoy a long-term customer. The client had called in asking for some backup data connected to current project. Overwhelmed with the logistics of juggling other work, Grace wanted to push the request to a support staff member. While the plan to give the task to an administrative person was not a problem, her choice of words to the client was. Grace was clearly a little too honest when she said, "I'm working on something more important right now, but I will try and find someone junior to get that together for you." Not an ideal thing to say. Grace knew it as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Not surprisingly, the client preferred to think that his company should be considered important to the firm, and his hackles were raised. He called Landon to complain about the less than preferential treatment. Even though Landon personally pulled the data together for the client and delivered it without delay, the client raised the issue with the divisional VP at a charity fundraiser a month or so later. Grace was very embarrassed. Lucky for her, instead of freaking out, Landon brought her into his office and explained why that kind of comment was likely to hit a nerve. He told Grace some stories about how he had clashed with clients back in the day, and they ended up laughing about it all. Grace came away from the meeting with a better idea of how to manage client relations. In fact, Landon spent a lot of time helping Grace get up to speed on how things worked in the company and beyond. He had been a strong mentor. Grace didn't particularly like people telling her what to do, but she admitted to her friends that Landon was usually low-key about it. Still, as time went by and Grace's knowledge grew, she felt the urge to take on bigger challenges. As her one-year anniversary with the company passed, she began to think harder about how to grow her career and make a name for herself beyond her little work group. She had come up with two plans designed to get things rolling, First, she identified a problem that needed to be fixed. Right from her first day, Grace had been on the lookout for a way to have an impact. Someone had once told her that promotions went to those who rocked the boat but brought it safely to shore. Within a few months of starting, she realized that many people were unhappy about the project management software the company had in place. Staff members at all levels were often heard complaining that it didn't do what they needed it to do, or it was too slow or it was hard to manage. The scheduling and costing functions were particularly outdated. In truth, she thought the whole system should be tossed out. And Grace knew just which program should be brought in to replace it-she had learned about a great system at one of the companies in which she had interned a couple of years before. It seemed to her that bringing in a new program and solving so many people's problems in one fell swoop would be a brilliant way to show she was a top contributor and should be on the fast track to promotion. It also wouldn't hurt that if the system was brought in, she would automatically be the resident expert since she would be one of the few people who had any experience with it. To get things rolling, Grace booked a conference room and asked Landon for some time. But even though she had prepared a full presentation with charts and graphs and a detailed implementation plan, Landon didn't get behind the idea. He just shook his head and listed all of the reasons why a junior employee couldn't push through such a thing. It just wasn't done. According to him, the Information Technology (IT) Department was the only one that ever made those types of changes. He explained that he was going to be busy dealing with some quality issues that were new to him and would have no time left to get involved with any other big projects anyway. Grace's exasperation was apparent; later that week, she was overheard in the lunchroom complaining to some peers that Landon was too scared to stick his neck out. But Grace was not about to give up. If nothing else, she was persistent. She brought it up with Landon every chance she got. She knew there must be a way to get around this roadblock When she visited other departments, she often asked people what they didn't like about the project management software and told them about the one she thought they should be using instead. Several employees had not realized that there were better options available, and some did end up asking their bosses why the company couldn't invest in better tools. Grace encouraged the buzz as much as possible. She knew grassroots support could only help her cause The second plan that Grace had in mind to further her career was to get to work on a high-profile assignment. Up to that point, she had only worked on routine projects that didn't require a lot of