Your career at Big Tech continues somewhat uneventfully. However, you come into work one day and there appears to be a crisis. A senior vice president, your manager's manager and your manager are in your cubicle (sorry, no office for you yet) and they are very agitated. An important customer claims that the results of one your analyses was based on inaccurate data that you failed to spot and, as a result, they have wasted $ 7 million on ineffective advertising. Not only is the customer demanding a refund of the $50,000 they were charged for the report, they are threatening to move $50 million in business to a competitor, and to sue Big Tech for misrepresentation of their services.

The customer is angry to be sure. but it is not easy to move $50 million in business and none of Big Tech's competitors could handle an account that large so it would have to be spread over several companies, something the customer does not want to do. Further, the data that you analyzed were approved by the customer so if there were any errors in it, they did not come from you. Indeed, you are the person who knows the most about the project, what was done, and why the customer's claims are not accurate.

The SVP, your manager's manager and your manager want an explanation to prepare a response to the customer. They are not pleased in general and they are not pleased with you. They have a face-to-face meeting with the customer in three hours, and they want answers now.

Question 2: Who has more power in deciding how to respond to this crisis, you or your manager or the SVP? Why? (15 points)

1. Again, consider the sources and processes associated with power.
2. Keep in mind, the question is not asking who has more power in general (that would be the SVP), but who has more power in framing a response to an angry customer.