A day in the life of alex sander

Case Study 2: A Day in the Life of Alex Sander

Executive Summary

Alex Sander is a Product Manager at Langdon Care Products. He recently had a 360 degree feedback review performed on him and found that despite his incredible accomplishments at Langdon, people didn’t like the way that he was operating. Alex was being rude and disrespectful to employees, as well as using fear to motivate them.

The case data shows that while many people in the company admire Alex’s ability to work hard and his devotion to the company, they don’t like the way he acts towards others and puts other people down. This is true not only for his colleagues and direct reports, but his supervisors too.

It is recommended that Sam Glass require him to go to self-improvement classes, and if he doesn’t show signs of change, then he will have to be fired.

Introduction

Alex Sander accomplishes an incredible amount of work and is very dedicated to Langdon Care Products. Unfortunately, he impacts the company negatively through his unkind demeanor towards colleagues and direct reports. Alex is very unagreeable and not open to new ideas, but he is highly conscientious and extroverted. His emotionality is dependent on whether it’s towards work or people.

Hiring someone like Alex is great because he achieves a lot, has a great example of work ethic, and is highly versatile. The drawbacks to hiring someone like him though is that he is impatient with others, he can impose his high motivation on others, and he often fails to work in a team. He works at a such a high pace because he enjoys the work he’s doing and thinks it’s meaningful. Sam Glass should decide to keep Alex because of his drive, but require him to attend self-improvement classes. If he fails to improve, then he should be fired.

Analysis

Many of Alex’s positive comments can be boiled down to the fact that he gets things done, is confident in his work, and is extremely dedicated. His superiors said that he is, “ Undaunted by any learning challenge,” and that he is, “ Never frozen by indecision.” Those that worked under him said that, “ Alex works tirelessly,” and another said that he, “ Makes things happen.” All of these things are great because it’s having a profound impact on the company. He’s working tirelessly to improve the company. This ambition is great for getting work done and achieving goals within a company but can be detrimental if it’s too extreme. (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008)

This detriment is reflected in the negative feedback that those gave him. One person that worked under him said that he had, “ No work/life balance”, and said that Alex expected some people who worked under him to give up planned vacations to get work done. He also is continually critiqued on his ability to be compassionate and nice to others. For example, one of his superiors said that he, “ Can breed hostility”, while another said that he, “ Reacts too quickly.” One person that worked under Alex said that he is often, “ Belittling others”. Another said that he, “ Stresses the system,” by, “ Ruffling people’s feelings.” In his own personal evaluation, Alex even says that he has a, “ Bad temper”. All of these behaviors can make the work environment less enjoyable and more hostile. If Alex’s behavior gets too out of hand, people may refuse to work with him. (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008)

Alex’s personality does not fit well into a company where he must work with other people. His agreeableness is very low. His general inability to be gentle, forgive others, and work with others makes it difficult for people to work with him. He even says in reference to getting work done, “. . . It’s worth it to me. Even if I have to steamroll over someone’s feelings, or ignore the way a colleague would like to handle a project.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) This complete disrespect of how others may feel or react to his actions is entirely backwards to the success of the company. In order to have productive employees, they must be happy and enjoy their work, but Alex has no regard for this. (Ebert & Griffin, 2015)

He has a short temper and gets very frustrated with people if they can’t do something that he has learned to do. When a twenty-year veteran, Betty Garrison, didn’t complete as much work as Alex would’ve liked, he remarked, “ Listen, it will take me more time to explain this to you than do it myself. I’m going to take the project off your plate so you can focus on other things.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) This shows his lack of regard for other people’s hard work, as well as his lack of desire to teach Betty what she could’ve done better.

Although Alex’s agreeableness is low, his conscientiousness is great. He is able to focus well and balance many tasks that are given to him. For example, the plethora details involved with being a product manager. As one of the employees working under him said, “ Alex has had to continually multitask to launch two products at once. I can’t’ even imagine trying to master that many details, but Alex continually moves at a pace faster than everyone else.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) His ability to manage different projects with many different moving parts is impressive and speaks a lot to his thorough and methodical personality. (Ebert & Griffin, 2015)

Alex’s emotionality is dependent on whether it is in reference to his outlook of the company, or behavior towards people. His emotionality in reference to his outlook towards business affairs is positive. He is able to keep calm and secure and get tasks done. However, if Alex is dealing with other people, his behavior is more negative. He is very reactive to people and the mistakes that they might make. (Ebert & Griffin, 2015)

Alex is an assertive and talkative person. He isn’t afraid to confront coworkers or people working under him about any issues he might have. As one of his direct supervisors (Person C) mentioned, “ Alex is willing to ask the hard questions. . . [He] pushes and pushes for answers. [He] never simply hopes everything will somehow work out”. (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) Alex’s assertive and talkative nature makes characterizes him as an extrovert. (Ebert & Griffin, 2015)

Alex’s willingness to accept ideas that differ from his own is very low. He holds his own opinions and ideas very highly, so he rarely wants to accept ideas from other people because he feels that they aren’t worth his time. He feels that their opinions and new ideas are automatically worse or less efficient than the ones he has in mind. Alex’s willingness to accept the new 360 feedback process was very low. In reference to the 360 process, he said, “ This still seems like a waste of time to me- I’m not going to read anything in the packet that I don’t know already.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) The 360 degree feedback format provides a different way to evaluate workers and provides gives more insight from the company as a whole, not just from supervisors. This lack of willingness to accept new ideas makes Alex’s openness very low. (Ebert & Griffin, 2015)

Alex’s self-motivation is incredible. He is able to persevere despite the immense challenge that he is faced with, such as launching two brands at once. This is very admirable and incredibly useful in the business world; it makes Alex an incredible asset to the Landon Care Product team. (Ebert & Griffin, 2015)

What makes him more of a liability to the company though is his lack of empathy towards others. He doesn’t sympathize with the people he’s working with and their feelings. He expects people to put work above everything else. He says that, “ What really bothers me is lack of commitment – for example, if a long-time employee isn’t willing to put in extra hours to meet an important deadline.” What Alex doesn’t consider is the employee could be having a very hard time outside of work. They could have just had a family member died, or perhaps they just moved and are going through a lot of stress and pressure outside of work too. His lack of empathy towards the people he works with is unfortunate and makes him seem like a worse person. (Ebert & Griffin, 2015)

Hiring an employee like Alex comes with both advantages and disadvantages. One advantage of hiring an employee like Alex is that he is able to accomplish an incredible amount. This is evident in his ability to succeed in launching to corporations at once. He also sets a great example for work ethic. He is very dedicated to the company and works extremely hard. This can motivate other employees in the company to work as hard as him, and potentially increase productivity. Alex is highly adaptable and quick to learn new skills. Going into the job, he didn’t know much about the market that Landon Care Products was in, but he was able to quickly learn and excel in his position as Product Manager.

Although there are many benefits to benefits and advantages to hiring someone like Alex, there also are disadvantages that make him quite troubling to the company. Alex is very short with other people that he works with. As one of his supervisors said, “[He] must learn to treat other people (and other people’s choices) with more respect.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) One of his colleagues also said, “ Alex continually ruffles people’s feelings. A lot of time is spent getting things back on an even keel.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) If Alex continues to be disrespectful and unkind to other employees, he may get fired or other people in the office might leave.

While Alex’s high motivation can inspire others to work hard, but he can’t expect the same whole-hearted dedication from everyone. As one of Alex’s supervisors put it, “[He] expects team members and direct reports to work extremely long hours and be willing to give up holidays or even planned vacations.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) This sort of expectation can be draining and stressful for other employees and could serve as another reason for them to leave the company.

Alex’s inability to work in a team is also another disadvantage of hiring him. One of his supervisors stated that, “ Though Alex typically has the right answer, every time Alex comes up with the right answer without involving the team, a lot of people feel undermined.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) If he doesn’t value feedback or opinions from anyone on the team, there seems to be little point to being on his team. Alex also doesn’t trust his colleagues and direct reports to get the work done. As one of his direct reports described, “ Alex needs to trust that other people do actually know how to perform tasks they have been performing for a while and they do not need to be told every single step. That demotivates people.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008)

This leads to the issue of having an unmotivated team, so he must pick up the slack. As another one of his supervisors puts it, “ To be a leader, Alex must learn how to delegate and to motivate others to excel. Alex’s heroic measures create results, but I fear other employees are getting burnt out.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) If Alex only takes matters into his own hands, he will be limited in his ability to produce for a company. A whole team is much more effective than one person.

In a study done in 2010, it was found that the top five motivation factors for employees were as follows: interesting work, good wages, good working conditions, a full appreciation of work done, and promotion and growth. (In-Class Worksheet) I think Alex specifically was motivated most by more interesting work, and wages. As he said in his interview with the alumni magazine, “ As an account executive, I never felt I was developing a finished product. . . That’s the main reason I accepted a job at Landon. Landon is a pretty small shop, and I’ve been involved in every detail of my product launches.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) Alex wants to work at a job that has challenging work and gives him a good sense of accomplishment by creating a product from start to finish.

Money is also a definite motivator for Alex. He said that “ I’ve always made the same amount or more than my peers. I expect it and demand that level of compensation.” (A Day in the Life of Alex Sander: Driving in the Fast Lane at Landon Care Products, 2008) If Alex isn’t receiving pay that is equivalent to his colleagues, he feels he is being undervalued and would be significantly demotivated.

Recommendation

The performance evaluation tells us that Alex has been wildly successful. Despite this, he has some personal issues that he needs to sort out to be even more successful. He needs to work on his leadership abilities, interpersonal professionalism, and his anger and general quickness to react. If I were Sam Glass, I would invest time into helping Sander continue to progress at Landon.

I would first ask him to attend a leadership building workshop because he has failed to work effectively as a team. I would then ask him to attend a workplace professionalism workshop because he often fails to be respectful to employees. Lastly, I would ask him to attend anger management counselling due to his consistency to lash out and react quickly in the workplace. If he refused to attend these classes, I would fire him, and if he didn’t show signs of improvement after a few weeks, he would be fired from the company. It’s important to try and keep him at the company because he’s a very valuable asset, but if he can’t work on his personality a bit, then he would have to be off the team.

Conclusion

All in all, Alex has a great personality in terms of work ethic, but his personality towards other people in the workplace is very negative. His conscientiousness is and extraversion is high, his agreeableness, and openness is low, and his emotionality is dependent on work or people. Hiring an employee like Alex is great because he accomplishes a great amount, sets a good example of work ethic, and is highly adaptable. However, he is short with others, expects equal extreme dedication out of other employees, and is unable to work on a team. If Alex works on his leadership ability, interpersonal professionalism, and anger issues, he will be a driving force behind Landon Care Products.