Chapter $13$ Organizational Behavior Case study on Carol Tome

$1$ substantial problem faced by UPS hiring Carol Tome are identified, and stated in terms that are actionable by the company$$s leadership.

Analysis includes all of the following:

$*$ The team identifies $$root causes$$ of the problem

and discusses them in depth.

$*$ Relevant information from the chapter is clearly

and thoughtfully integrated into the problem

analysis. Several $(3+)$ concepts are integrated.

Think: What concepts will your audience need to

know to evaluate the alternative courses of action?

Introduce$/$discuss them.

$*$ Research is used to support claims identified in the

problem statement$/$ analysis. At least three

citations in the problem analysis

What I would do is assume the year is $2020$ and Tome is just taking over UPS. She is coming from Home depot where she spent the last $25$ years in a few executive roles and helped grow the company. She is coming into UPS at a time where revenues have been relatively stagnant $($take a look at the stock price, and year$-$over$-$year revenues in their financial statements$).$ There is not a clear direction for the future....Carol, however, has a number of new ideas to improve revenues and cut costs $($via shedding unprofitable services$).$ Think about how you could implement the changes she is proposing, as well as any additional changes you think would be beneficial in addition to what Carol would like to do $($proposing additional changes is an example of going above and beyond and is $"$A$+"$ level work$).$ The main idea that I would like you to capture is how a new CEO can come into a company and implement changes using the different sources of power they possess and different influence tactics.

The context is complicated in this case given that she is the first female CEO, an outsider, etc. This will make it more challenging for her to implement wholesale changes as employees$/$ shareholders may be resistant. If you were hired in as a consultant right after her hiring, how would you advise her? What bases of power are at play? What influence tactics would be most appropriate? How exactly would you have her communicate her vision? Via memos? Weekly video updates to employees? Employee town hall meetings? Craft three alternative pathways that Tome could take. Maybe one alternative focuses on legitimate power, another focuses on expert power? This is just an idea on how the three alternatives might have a theme$/$ overarching idea behind it$.$

For your second question, yes Tome has legitimate power as she is CEO and was selected from a pool of very prominent candidates. However, her legitimate power may be somewhat hindered by the fact that she is an outsiders, first female, one of the only female CEO of fortune $500$ company, etc.

Her expert power is derived from her experience at Home Depot. Because she was so successful there and ran several initiatives, she will have power based on the fact that she has been here before and been successful $($i$.$e$.,$ been there, done that$).$ So employees may be more likely to trust the process because of her track record of being successful. Her expert power comes from her experience transforming an organization from a few stores in Atlanta, Georgia to the largest home goods retailer in the world. From the presentation, I don't remember hearing anything about her accomplishments at home depot and how that might benefit her as she communicates her vision for UPS. That level of connection$/$ research will be important to give more context and really sell the problem$/$ need for alternatives.