It group at kma essay

IT group at KMA Case Afternoon January 29th, 2008On the afternoon of January 29th, 2008, Makoto Fukumi, IT Manager, was sipping a cup of coffee in his cubicle. not great English. Makoto wondered whether he should hire John Roberts or Pallavi Gadupudi or search for another candidate for the Systems Administrator position in KMA’s IT group. Afternoon on January 29th, 2008, Makoto Fukumi, IT Manager, was frustrated with a drink of coffee in his cubicle not great English.

Makoto wondered whether he has has to, or should? to hire John Roberts, Pallavi Gadupudi or another candidate as a Systems Administrator position in KMA’s IT group. If Should Makoto decides to hire John, the IT group may not getexperience any immediate down performancetime since John has already worked more than three years in the IT group.. In additionAlso, Makoto knows him well. However, Makoto could maintain the current performance level of the IT group, since Makoto could not expect John to exceed his current performance lever or to improve his behavior future, due to the fact that John has worked ate KMA for 3 years and very little improvement has been shown  If Makoto would hire John, Makoto could maintain performance at least current level in IT group.

why is this true? In addition, Makoto knows him well. However, Makoto could not John has exhibited continuedal badadverse work behaviors such as placing and receiving private calls withfrom his wife orand checking receiving emails from job recruiterment sites. Also well, he is not  may not familiar with new technologies such as Windows OS, and the expect John to exceed his current performance or to improve his attitude in the future.  only write about what you can observe—and attitude is not observable.  You can refer to what people did or said.

Japanese management peopleteam may not like himrespond well to him. IfIf Makoto were to hire Pallavi, Makoto would expect her to exceed the level of John’s competence Roberts quickly due to her experience and willingness to expandexpands her skills. not sure what this means. However, Makoto will need to provide her with technical training for at least one year to reach the current level  thatlevel thatat which John is currentlyperforms his duties. In addition, by replacing John with another candidate it may affect other employees’ emotionsmorale or decrease motivations to improve their current performance levels.

If Makoto would hire Pallavi, Makoto she may expect her to makemake better output expectations than John in the future not sure what this means. However, her current technical skills are poor. Thus, IT group may confront big performance down for first few months and Makoto will need to provide her some technical training for at least one year to reach the same level as John. In addition, replacing John with another may affect other employees’ emotion or motivation. Good question—just needs some work on the language.

IT group Group backgroundBackgroundKawasaki Microelectronics America, Inc. (KMA), of San Jose, California was founded in October, 1994 as an ASIC manufacture, a subsidiary of Kawasaki Microelectronics, Chiba, Japan. When KMA was founded, Hiroshi Takagawa was responsible for management of the IT group. There were only 5five employees and 5five servers at that time.

In January of 2004, Keith Kawana was  put assigned asin in chargemanagement responsibilities of the IT group,; at that time, time; there were 45 employees and over 50 servers at work for the company. By October, 2004, due to the  increasethe   ofincrease in number of servers, Keith hired a contractor, John Roberts, to function as the Systems Administrator through TKEsystemsTKE sSystems, the nation’s largest single- source provider of information technology and communications staffing and services. Keith had mainly implemented management tasks such as planning or budgeting. while John hadwais mainlyprimarily been responsible for implemented technical tasks including troubleshooting servers, creating user accounts, monitoring systems or, and making system backups. As part of the agreement, KMA agreed to pay the TKE employees the regular hourly rate of $83 orand an overtime hourly rate of $124. 50 to TKEsystemsTKEsystems. For the year 2006, KMA paid a total of $202k, 000 to the staffing firm in return for its services.

Kawasaki Microelectronics America, Inc. (KMA), San Jose, California was founded on October 1994 as an ASIC manufacture as subsidiary of Kawasaki Microelectronics, Chiba, Japan. When KMA was founded, Hiroshi Takagawa was responsible for IT group.

There were only 5 employees and 5 servers. In January 2004, Keith Kawana was put in charge of the IT group. There were 45 employees and over 50 servers. In October 2004, due to the  increasethe   ofincrease of servers, Keith hired a contractor, John as Systems Administrator through TEKsystems, the nation’s largest single source provider of information technology and communications staffing and services. Keith mainly implemented management tasks such as planning or budgeting. John mainly implemented technical tasks including troubleshooting servers, creating user accounts, monitoring systems or making system backups.

KMA pay regular hourly rate $83 or overtime hourly rate $124. 5 to TEKsystems. For year 2006, KMA paid total $202k to TEKsystems. In February, 2005, Keith askedrequestedindicated to his supervisor his willingness to return to his previous position as a CAD design manager, and the request was accepteapproved. In July of 2005, Makoto Fukumi joined KMA as replacementto replace for Keith’s position.

After Makoto  had joined KMA as (NOTE you should put the title you started with) Systems Engineer, Keith returned to the CAD group and was no longer supervising John’s Roberts daily activities, activities; however,  Keith, Keith continued to sign John’s time card because Makoto was not yet a manager. Since Keith was located on a different floor, he did notnever checked the accuracy of John’s time card.  John’s bBackgroundJohn grew up in Southern California. After receiving his high school diploma, he joined the United States Navy for 6six years after his high school diploma.. After being discharged from naval servicethe Navy, heJohn received an Associate Degree in Computer Science at Antelope Valley College, in Lancaster, California. He Tthen, he has worked asin the capacity of Systems Administrator with several firms for more thanthe next  20 years.

Since October of 1998H he has workedused to worked for at Sun Microsystems, in Newark, California since October 1998, but,. H he was laid off from Sun Microsystems oin July, 2004. He joined at TEKsystemsTKE sSystems on July 2004directly after his discharge from Sun Microsystems, and he has worked at KMA, through TEKsystemsTKE sSystems, since October of 2004.

In February 2005, Keith asked his supervisor to return to his previous position as CAD design manager, and the request was accepted. In July 2005, Makoto Fukumi joined KMA as replacement to Keith. After Makoto joined KMA, Keith moved to the CAD group and no longer supervising of John Roberts,  however, however,  Keith, Keith continued to sign John’s time sheet weekly because Makoto was not a manager. Since Keith was at different floor, he has not checked the accuracy of John’s time sheet.

John’s backgroundJohn was growngrew up in Southern California. After his high school diploma, hHe joined the United States Navy for 6 years after his high school diploma. After the Navy, he received an Associate Degree in Computer Science at Antelope Valley College, in Lancaster, California. Then, he has worked as Systems Administrator with several firms for more than 20 years. He has worked at Sun Microsystems, in Newark, California since October 1998, but, he was laid off on July 2004. He joined at TEKsystems on July 2004, and he has worked at KMA through TEKsystems since October 2004.

John’s pPersonalityJohn seems to exhibit behavior that is alternately friendly and standoffish, depending upon his mood or the circumstances. For instance, Iin order to build communications orencourage interactions amongst its KMA  employees, KMA has startedinstituted a Ppizza party biweekly onevery other alternative Friday evenings. in order to build communications with each other. ManyMost of KMA’s management  suchmanagement staff, such as the CEO, CFO, and General Manager, are Japanese.

At theone such pizza party, Makoto observed John enjoying talking with Americans, Chinese and Indian employees of KMA,; however, Makoto never sawwitnessed John speaking with the Japanese management team, which includinged Mamoru Tsunoda, Director of Engineering, and also Makoto’s supervisor.  This blatant disregard for the Japanese managers did not endear John to his superiors. Good—this is specificJohn sometimes talks aboutspeaks of his private life to Makoto oras well as several a few American employees at the firm. He sometimes visits Makoto’s cubicle and likes to talks about histhe vacations he has enjoyed. He particularly seemed to enjoyed relish sharing his visits ofhis grandson, and he happily told about playing at atot Disneyland or Lake Tahoe, withaccompanied by his grandson, with Makoto.

John used to visithas visited Keith’s cubicle to get approval of his time cardsheet at evening of every Friday evening, but that ritual ended when Keith moved to a different department. Makoto saw thatwitnessed Steve[C1]  tried attempting to talkspeak with Keith friendlywith a friendly approach; however, Keith talkedresponded to with him in a sullenly manner, which perplexed Makoto. In addition, Keith has suggested to Makoto several times that Makoto has to replace John. (NOTE: Why whould Keith say that?)In December 2006, Makoto decided to apply to the Executive MBA program at either the University of Southern California (USC) or the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  Makoto personally liked to apply USC; however, he would like to consider the overall reputation of each school. Makoto had asked John about both USC and UCLA since he had grown up in Southern California. John answered they are both good schools, and their reputation is almost same. Then, Makoto decided to apply to USC.

John has had also helpedbeen helpful to Makoto in the past. wWhen heMakoto was faced with a problem had an issue to updatinge his driver’s license withafter his  I-94 visa expiration inexpired in July of 2007., it was John who visited the DMVDepartment of Motor Vehicles with Makoto,.  and heJohn patiently explained to DMV about Makoto’s I-94 status to the DMV employee in order to fix the issue. and Makoto really appreciated this kindness. John’s personalityKMA has started Pizza party every other Friday evenings in order to build communications with each other. Many of management people at KMA such as CEO, CFO, or General Manager are Japanese.

In the party, Makoto saw John enjoying talking with Americans, Chinese or Indian employees, however, Makoto never saw John speaking with  Japanese management people including Mamoru Tsunoda, Director of Engineering and Makoto’s supervisor.  Good—this is specificJohn sometimes talks about his private life to Makoto or a few American employees. He likes to talk about his grandson, and he happily told about playing at Disneyland or Lake Tahoe with his grandson. In December 2006, Makoto wondered to apply Executive MBA program whether at University of Southern California (USC) or University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).  Makoto personally liked to apply USC; however, he would like to consider the overall reputation of schools. Makoto asked John about both USC and UCLA since he was grown up in Southern California. John answered they are both good schools, and their reputation is almost same. Then, Makoto decided to apply to USC.

John helped Makoto when Makoto had an issue to update his driver’s license with I-94 visa expiration on July 2007. John visited DMV with Makoto, and he explained to DMV about Makoto’s I-94 status to fix the issue. Makoto really appreciated his kindness. John’s bBehaviorsJohn’s behavior at work has been less than exemplary. Makoto has seen him John accessing to porn sites online at least 20 times.

, and When Makoto asked him the reason he why he would do such a things at work, he but he said said, John replied, ‘“’’I do not know why the porn site popped up and my PC may be infected by a Vvirus.”’’’. When Makoto found outdiscovered that  Johnthat John had received emails sent from DICE, a career site for technology professionals, heJohn merely responded by politely explaineding politely what DICE was.

Also hisHis wife calls him at least 5five times every daydaily. OnIn average, he speaks at least 5 to 10to her five to ten minutes per call, although and sometimes the conversations are over 20 minutes in length.  Thus, in total, he speaks nearly 1 hour every day. Makoto ishas been taking MBA courses on Friday s and Saturdays every other week since August 2007, therefore, he is not in the office on Fridays while he is attending the MBA classes.

Makoto had not approved that John could work online from his home, whenile Makoto is attendingattends the MBA classesschool. On Friday, October 19th 19th,  19th2007 during a break between MBAhis classes, Makoto received a call from Mamoru, saying that all the servers were down with a power failure but John was not in the office. Makoto called John’s cell phone, and he answered.

John responded  that he iwas working online from  homefrom home.  When Makoto questioned him about working online, and then he confessed to Makoto that he had been working  onlineworking onlinedoing so without permission when Makoto has the MBA class since this past August.  Wow! In October 2007, Mamoru requested Makoto to sign John’s time card instead of Keith since Makoto had been promoted toas IT Manager. Makoto checked John’s past time cards by accessing  TKEsystemsaccessing TKEsystemsTKEs Systems “” netCenter Time & Expense”” page online, and he found out there were many inaccuracies on past time cards.

On September 10th, 2007, John came to the office around 11: 30 amAM, but he wrote down 9: 30 amAM on his time card.  Makoto remembered this instance clearly because Makotohe had dealt  withdealt with serious network troubles that morning of that day, butwhen John was not in the office to help him. In November 2007, Makoto has discussed John’s behaviors with Christine Mao, Account Manager at TKEsystemsTKE sSystems, and. Makoto requested her toshe  discussoverview proper business etiquette with John’s in order to improve his behavior in the office. how can she do this? SheChristine promised Makoto that she willspeak with ask John to improve his behaviorsabout this. After thatshe did, Makoto no longer observed John accessing to porn sites or submitting incorrect times on his time card, however, afterwithin one week, he resumed speaking to his wife byover the phone thefor the  same amount of time as he did before.

, and Makoto also noticed John continued to checks emails sent from DICE. John’s attitudebehaviorsMakoto has seen him accessing to porn site least 20 times, and Makoto asked him the reason he would do such a thing at work, but he said I do not know why the porn site popped up and my PC may be infected by a Virus. When Makoto detected that he checked his emails sent from DICE, a career site for technology professionals, he explained politely what DICE is. His wife calls him at least 5 times every day. In average, he speaks at least 5 to 10 minutes per call and sometime over 20 minutes. Thus, in total, he speaks nearly 1 hour every day.

Makoto is taking MBA courses on Fridays and Saturdays every other week since August 2007, thus, he is not in the office on Fridays while attending the MBA classes. Makoto has not approved that John could work online from his home, when Makoto attends the MBA classes. On Friday, October 19th during a break time of the MBA classes, Makoto received a call from Mamoru, saying that all the servers were down with power failure but John is not in the office today. Makoto called John’s cell phone, and he answered that he is working online at his home.

Makoto questioned him about working online, thenand then he confessed to Makoto that he had worked by online without permission when Makoto has the MBA class since this past August.  Wow! In October 2007, Mamoru requested Makoto to sign John’s time sheet instead of Keith since Makoto had been promoted to IT manager. Makoto checked John’s past time sheets by accessing  TEKsystemsaccessing TEKsystems “ netCenter Time & Expense” online, and he found out there were many inaccuracies on past time sheets. On September 10th, 2007, John came to the office around 11: 30 am, but he applied as 9: 30 am.  Makoto remembered this instance clearly because Makoto worked with serious network troubles that morning of that day, but John was not in the office.

In November 2007, Makoto has discussed John’s attitude behaviors with Christine Mao, Account Manager at TEKsystems, and she promised Makoto to requesttalk Johned her to improve hisJohn’s attitude behaviorshow can she do this?. After that, Makoto never see John accessing to porno sites or submitting incorrect time on his time sheet, however, after one week, he resumed speaking to his wife by phone same as before, and , and Makoto saw noticed himJohn  checkings email sent from DICE.   John’s pPerformanceKMA currently has a total of 66 servers which are installed with two kinds of Operating Systems (OS). One is Solaris OS, developed by Sun Microsystems , and the users generally input command with with text- based user interface.

The other is Windows OS, developed by Microsoft,  and users usually input with command with GUI (Graphicalgraphical- based uUser Interface)interface. There are 46 Solaris OS servers and 20 Windows OS servers at KMA The most important servers at KMA such as NIS, DNS, Proxy, orand FTP servers are run the Solaris OS serverssoftware. John has routinely implemented technical tasks, such as creating new user accounts, allocating disk space, and DNS map updating, withusing Solaris OS servers very wellin a competent manner such as creating new user accounts, allocating disk space, or DNS map updating. In addition, he could implementdohas demonstrated the ability to quickly  troubleshooting problems with   protocols of the Solaris OS servers quickly.

In December 2006, Flextronics InternationalFlex, in San Jose, California, one of KMA’s most important customers, requested KMA to enhance security features between FlextronicsFlex’s E-mail server and KMA’s E-mail servers by encrypting e-mail messages. To implement this, Makoto asked John to install TLS encryption modules on KMA’s E-mail servers. The installation was challenging and complicated. Makoto has asked him the status of regarding the installation every day, daydaily;, however, there he received were no updates from John within regarding the project in the space of  two weeks. Finally, Makoto installed the modules on the server himself. Also, Makoto has also assigned John other challenging tasks, such as Ttrunking between the Nnetwork switch and Ffiler server. However, heJohn has not implemented never completed these tasks..

TheIn current technology trends, Microsoft Windows has become the mainstream server software in most companies. Consequently, Makoto has replaced some of the important Solaris OS servers with Windows OS servers software, such as Aanti-Vvirus server orand Aauthentication Server. Also, Makoto will purchase new servers with only Windows OS. Since John is not familiar with Windows OS, Makoto implementcarry outscarries out these technical tasks with these servershimself. Once, When when Makoto  attendedwas attending his MBA class on Fridayclass the , evening of Friday, December 16th 16th, December 16th, 2007, the the E-mail servers shut down due to not enougha problem with insufficient disk space. However, John could not fix the trouble. The E-mail servers could not be recovered until Makoto came back to the office on SundaySaturday night since John could not fix the troublethis problem.

. Mamoru seriously demanded ofsternly asked Makoto to consider countermeasures tofor such risksto prevent this situation from happening again. In additionAlso, Keith has also suggested to Makoto several times that Makoto has tohe replace John sincebecause  he has not been satisfied John’sof his unsatisfactory performance. John’s performanceKMA currently has a total of 66 servers which are installed with two kinds of Operating Systems (OS). One is Solaris OS developed by Sun Microsystems, and the users generally input command with text base. The other is Windows OS developed by Microsoft, and users usually input command with GUI (Graphical User Interface).

There are 46 Solaris OS servers and 20 Windows OS servers at KMA The most important servers at KMA such as NIS, DNS, Proxy, or FTP servers are Solaris OS servers. John has routinely implemented technical tasks with Solaris OS servers very well such as creating new user accounts,  allocating disk space, or DNS map updating. In addition, he could implement troubleshooting of Solaris OS servers quickly.

In December 2006, Flextronics InternationalFlextronics, in San Jose, California, one of most important customers of KMA, requested KMA to enhance security features between Flextronics’s E-mail server and KMA’s E-mail server by encrypting e-mail messages. To implement this, Makoto asked John to install TLS encryption modules on KMA’s E-mail servers. The installation was challenging and complicated. Makoto has asked him the status of installation every day; however, there were no update within two weeks. Finally, Makoto installed the modules on the server. In addition, Makoto has assigned other challenging tasks including File sever turning or RSA agent installation with John, however, John has not implemented the tasks. On technology trends, Microsoft Windows has become the mainstream. Makoto has replaced some important Solaris OS servers with Windows OS servers such as Anti-Virus server or Authentication Server.

Also, Makoto will purchase new servers with only Windows OS. Since John is not familiar with Windows OS servers, Makoto implements technical tasks with these servers. When Makoto attended his MBA class on Friday, evening of December 16th, 2007, the E-mail server shut down due to not enough disk space. However, John could not fix the trouble.

Thus, tThe E-mail server could not be recovered until Makoto came back to the office on SundaySaturday night. Mamoru seriously demanded of Makoto to consider countermeasures to such risk. Company dDirection cChangeMamoru had attended toseveral periodic management meetings at the end ofin December 2007. which included the CEO, and all VPs of the company, and Mamoru were in the meeting.

The CEO announced that in fiscal year 2008, estimated sales of KMA would decrease 10% to $92 million from 2007the prior year. The CEO requested the management team to restructure or downsize to account for this deficit. In response, Mamoru decided to lay off two employees in the CAD group.

In addition, he was would likeasked  to cancel the contract with TEKsystemsTKEs Systems since KMA had paid over $200k, 000 in the in last year to themfor these contracted services while . Tthe average base salary offor a Systems Administrator position in San Jose iswas $85k, 000. KMA generally pays benefits such as medical for instanceinsurance oandr 401(k) plans, which amount to is 30% of base salary. Mamoru visited Makoto’s cubicle on December 3rd, 2007, and  andhe asked Makotohim to make a decision whether to hire John as a regular employee or find a new person for theJohn’s position as regular employee as earlysoon as possible.

Company direction changeMamoru had attended to periodic management meetings at the end of December 2007. CEO, CFO, General Manger, all VPs, and Mamoru were in the meeting. The CEO announced that in fiscal 2008, estimated sales of KMA decrease 10% to $92 million from 2007. CEO requested the management team to restructure or downsize. In response, Mamoru decided to lay off two employees in the CAD group. In addition, he would like to cancel the contract with TEKsystems since KMA paid over $200k in last year. The average base salary of Systems Administrator position in San Jose is $85k.

KMA generally pays benefits such as medical for insuranceinstance or 401k is 30% of base salary. Mamoru visited Makoto’s cubicle on December 3rd, 2007, and he asked Makoto to make a decision whether to hire John or a new person for the position as regular employee as early as possible. John’s Employment RequestsOn December 4th, 2007, Makoto asked John whether he would like to join to KMA as a regular employee. HeJohn immediately said “ yes” citing three reasons.

First, TKEsystemsTKEs Systems hasdoes not provided him with any benefits. If he would join to KMA as a regular employee, KMA would provides him benefits. Second, if KMA would cancel the contract with TKEsystemsTKE sSystems, heJohn would assuredly be transferred to another firm through TKEsystemsTKEsystems and he would rather notpreferred not to change positions becausesince he would need to start over and learn a new environment and the technologies being used there in the next position.

Finally, he stated how he likesenjoyed the relationships and friendships he has made at KMA, since he has worked more than three years at KMAwith the company. Makoto asked John what he expected his salahis expected salary would bery to be if KMA hired him as a regular employee. He answered: “ my expected salary base iswould be salary $82k, 000 plus benefits.

” Also, heJohn also stated said that he had asked Keith to hire him as a regular employee before Makoto joined to KMA, but, Shigeyuki Kondo, former CFO, did not accept theapprove this request. John’s intentionOn December 4th, 2007, Makoto asked John whether he would like to join to KMA as a regular employee. He immediately said “ yes” with citingwith three reasons. Firstly, TEKsystems has not provided him with any benefits. If he would join to KMA as regular employee, KMA provides him benefits. Secondly, if KMA would cancel the contract with TEKsystems, he would be transferred to another firm through TEKsystems and he would rather not  change positions because he would need to start over and  learnand learn new environment and technologies in the position.

FinallyThird, he likes the human relations at KMA. Since he has worked more than three years at KMA, he has made good relationship with some employees. Makoto asked John what he expected his salary to be if KMA hire him as a regular employee. He answered: “ that my expected salary is base salary $82k plus benefits.

” Also, he said that he asked Keith to hire him as regular employee before Makoto joined to KMA. But, Shigeyuki Kondo, former CFO, did not accept the request. Pallavi ’s interviewInterviewOn January 4th, 2008, Makoto had a lunch with Raghu Malladi, Director atof Rational IT. Rational IT is a vendor and staffing service provider, provider and Raghu contacted Makoto to discuss new business opportunities in December 2007. During the lunch, Makoto asked him if he knew someone who would be a good fit for the Systems Administrator position at KMA.  He answered that Pallavi iwas a good candidate, and she currently workswas working at Crest Point Solutions, in Pleasanton, CA through Rational IT. Since there are some financial issues at Crest Point Solutions are poor, she iwas looking for a new employment opportunity.

On January 21st, 2008, Makoto had an interview withinterviewed Pallavi for 40 minutes. For the first 20 minutes, Makoto asked her background questions, including job and academic experiences, and her future career goals. She answered Makoto’s question briefly and clearly. Also, Makoto receivedgot the impression that she iwas unpresumptuous. As described in her resume, she said that shereiterated her vast had many technical technical experience, which was a s requiredment at for the position. Then, in During the last 20 minutes of the interview, Makoto requested herPallavi to takeanswer some basic technical practical questions of practical application, such as how to makingperform a system backups or allocatinge disk space.

She could implement only three out of the ten questions correctly. At the end of the interview, Makoto asked her about her current salary and herthe salary she expected salaryat KMA. She answered,:  ‘“ mMy current base salary is $72k, 000, and I’m not a greedy person and so,; I do not know my expectedwhat salary to expect.’”. After the interview, Makoto introduced her to Mamoru. At the end of the day, Mamoru visited Makoto’s cubicle, and he said that she seemsed to be a good candidate and thought she may well fit with KMA’s needs. EndingOn the Mmorning onf January 29th, 20008, Makoto noticed John was setting up a job interview with Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of IT professionals, by email when he visited John’s cubicle.

Although Mamoru asked Makoto for thhise hiring decision almost two months agoprior, Makoto has not madeyet to make a any decision. Makoto, since he has been troubled about this decisionby it. Pallavi ’s interviewOn January 4th, 2008, Makoto had a lunch with Raghu Malladi, Director at Rational IT. Rational IT is an IT vendor or IT staffing service provider, and Raghu contacted Makoto to discuss new business opportunities on December 2007. During the lunch, Makoto asked him if he knew someone who would be a good fit for the Systems Administrator position at KMA.  He answered that Pallavi is a good candidate, and she currently works at Crest Point Solutions, in Pleasanton, CA through Rational IT. Since financial issues at Crest Point Solutions are poor, she is looking for a new opportunity. On January 21st, 2008, Makoto had an interview with Pallavi for 40 minutes.

For the first 20 minutes, Makoto asked her background questions including job and academic experiences, and her career goals. She answered Makoto’s question briefly and clearly. Also, Makoto received the impression that she is unpresumptuous. As described in her resume, she said that she had many technical experiences required at the position. Then, in the last 20 minutes, Makoto requested her to take basic technical practical questions such as making system backups or allocating disk space.  She could implement only three of ten questions correctly.

At the end of the interview, Makoto asked her about her current salary and her expected salary. She answered:  ‘ myanswered:” my current base salary is $72k, and I’m not greedy person and so, I do not know my expected salary’salary”. After the interview, Makoto introduced her to Mamoru. At the end of the day, Mamoru visited Makoto’s cubicle, and he said that she seems to be a good candidate and she may fit with KMA needs. EndingOn Morning on January 29th, 20008, Makoto noticed John was setting up a job interview with Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of IT professionals,  by, by email when he visited John’s cubicle.  Although Mamoru asked Makoto for the decision almost two months ago, Makoto has not made any decision. Makoto has worried about this decision.

Analysis Makoto has three choices for this situationoptions. He may could hire John Robert, Pallavi Gadupudi, or search for anothera completely new candidate.  John has relationship issues with the Japanese management team. John is a likeable and friendly person and he has enjoyeds talkiconversing with other employees. Makoto also likes him since hJohne helped Makotohim with some personal issues in the past. Also, he may like it is possible that heHe feels John most likely reciprocates the feeling  likes Makoto ssince he talks to Makoto about his private life. Thus, the relationship between Makoto and John is good., and it is “ stage 3” (NOTE I do not know what ‘ stage 3’ is) culture in IT group.

However, heJohn does not have a good relationship with the never talks friendly to other Japanese management personnel, including Mamoru Tsunoda (Makoto’s supervisor) orand Keith Kawana (John’s previous supervisor). In addition, Shigeyuki Kondo (previous CFO) did not acceptapprove John’s request to become a regular employee. Thus, the management team does not think highlywell  of him. John has had many behavior issues. After Makoto had requested that Christine Mao (Account Manager at TKEsystemsTKEsystems) discuss the standards of professional behavior with John help him to improve his behaviorin order to improve his work performance. HeJohn at the office  still not sure what this means, he has improved some; however, he has still continued to display some bad behaviorsof his bad habits, such as checking emails from job recruiter site . sites.

In addition, we have issue with John’s integrity. He has deliberately submitted the incorrect time on his time card since Keith Kawana (John’s previous supervisor) had not checked the accuracy of the time cards. John is not familiar with new technologies and he does not implementrespond well to being assigned challenging tasks. John has displayed a good skill set withworking with the Solaris OS servers, but not with the Windows OS software employed on some of the servers. C, although currently, the majority of servers at KMA are theuse the Solaris OS serversystem.

However,  Since Makoto is going to purchase new servers with only Windows OS dDdue to new technology trends, the number of Windows OS servers will be increased over time while  at KMA, and on the other hand, the nuthe number of Solaris OS servers may reducewill be reduced. Thus, the scope of John’s tasksskills may be reducedchallenged in the future. In addition, John may not be capable toof implementing challenging tasks such as an upcoming enhancing security enhancement project with Flextronics International. Flex, and Tthus,, John’s  his skillscapabilities will notare not expected to improve andnor will he will notbe expected to exceed his current performance. Pallavi’s current technical skills are much lower than John’s. Thus, iIf Makoto wouldwere to hire her, Makoto will needhe would need to provide her technical training before she could begin work.

Thus, the overall performance of the IT group will decreasewould suffer until her technical skills becomwere raised to the the same level as John’s, currently. However, she seems to be capable of learning quickly, since she answered Makoto’s questions quite clearly. Thus, sShe may acquire technical skills quicklyhave the ability to and  exceedand  exceed John’s technical ability in the near futurea small amount of time. Although Makoto does not know her personality well since he talked with her for only 40 minutes during the interview, he is not familiar with her personality, Makoto feels he may haveenjoy a personable good relationship with her since she is not unpresumptuousarrogant. In addition, Mamoru likes her.

ShePallavi may have an issue of integrity, however. She described manymuch technical experiences on her resume and interview;, however, during the interview she could not implement properly answer many basic technical questions. Since We may doubt her actual experiences listed on her resume.(NOTE: no integrity issues for this?) She described many technical experiences on her resume and in her interview; however, she could not implement many basic technical questions. We analyzed that she really wanted to get the position since her currently employer has financial issues. Thus, she unwillingly (really??) lied about her technical experiences. John does not get alonginteract wella  with the Japanese management team, and theywhich arehe is now at Stage Two. John may have complaints against the management team , and vice versa , the management team they, as well, will most likely expresshas dissatisfactions against with him.

Thus, The risk is that John maywill continue his unprofessionalbad behaviors and , not learnimplement new technologies or, and not implementundertake challenging tasks since he has lost his motivation bythrough disappointment with the management team.  At fFirst, Makoto should try moveto improve the relationship from Stage Two to Stage Three with by makinginstituting better communication between John and the management team. Makoto has to ask both John and the management team whatmust determine their complaints, dissatisfaction, ands or expectations of both John and the managers. If John wouldis able to improve his performance or behaviors by moving to Stage Three, Makoto should considers hiring him. Other wise, Makoto has towill need to hire Pallavi. Makoto’s motivation should be to should always consider organizinge a highly motive and effective and motivated IT group by moving to the upper Sstages, which will positively for contributinge to the expansion of KMA businessand its continued success.

We recommend that Makoto asks Mamoru for more time to make a decision. If he gives Makoto additional time, Makoto should set up interview with other candidates who have solid technical experience, good attitude, and reasonable salary. If Mamoru does not give Makoto any time, Makoto has to choose either John or Pallavi. Since the position is permanent position as regular employee, Makoto may need to think about the next least three or five years.

On based on his analysis, Makoto should not hire John since his behavior continues to remain the same and his expected performance has not grown, despite the length of time at his current position. In addition, the management team does not like him. Makoto has to hire Pallavi. Pallavi needs to have some extensive technical training, and the training may take at least a year. However, her current base salary is $72k, after one year, probably,  the base salary will still be under $80k which is less than average base salary of the position as $85k . Makoto may become busy since he needs to provide training for her and he has to cover the scope of John’s tasks which Pallavi could not implement.

However, she probably will exceed the current level of  John’s performance after the training since she is anxious to start her career and implement her experience along with the new training she will be provided. Replacing John with Pallavi may have an affect for Makoto or other employees’ emotions for a while. However, Makoto will know this decision is right since he would organize effective IT group by the decision which contributes to the expansion of KMA for the long term.

Analysis Makoto has three choices for this situation. He may hire John Robert, Pallavi Gadupudi, or another candidate. He does not have enough time to make a decision since Mamoru Tsunoda requested him to make the decision two months ago. John is likeable and friendly person since he has enjoyed talking with other employees.

Makoto seems to like him since he helped Makoto with some personal issues. Also, he may like Makoto since he talks Makoto about his private life. Thus, the relationship between Makoto and John is good, and it is “ stage 3” culture in IT group. However, he never talks friendly to other Japanese management personnel including Mamoru. In addition, Shigeyuki Kondo (previous CFO) did not accept John’s request to become a regular employee. Thus, the management team does not think well of him. John has had many attitude issues.

After Makoto requested Christine Mao (Account Manager at TEKsystems) to improve his attitude still not sure what this means, he has improved some; however, he has still continued bad attitudes. In addition, we have issue with John’s integrity. He has deliberately submitted the incorrect time on his timesheet since Keith Kawana (John’s previous supervisor) had not checked the accuracy of the time sheet. John has good skills with Solaris OS server, but not Windows OS server.

Currently, majority of servers at KMA is Solaris OS server. Since Makoto is going to purchase new servers with only Windows OS due to new technology trends, the number of Windows OS servers will increase, and on the other hand, the number of Solaris OS servers may reduce. Thus, the scope of John’s tasks may be reduced in the future. In addition, John may not be capable to implement challenging tasks such as enhancing security project with Flextronics, and thus, his capabilities will not improve. Pallavi’s current technical skills are much lower than John’s. Thus, if Makoto would hire her, Makoto will need to provide technical training. Thus, the overall performance of IT group will be down until her technical skills become the same level as John’s.

However, she seems brilliant since she answered Makoto’s question clearly. Thus, she may acquire technical skills quickly and make her output exceed John’s in the near future. Although he is not familiar with her personality, Makoto may have good relationship with her since she is unpresumptuous. In addition, Mamoru likes her.

We may doubt her actual experiences listed on her resume. She described many technical experiences on her resume and interview; however, she could not implement many basic technical questions. We analyzed that she really wanted to get the position since her currently employer has financial issues. Thus, she unwillingly lied about her technical experiences.

We recommend that Makoto asks Mamoru for more time to make a decision. If he gives Makoto additional time, Makoto should set up interview with other candidates who have solid technical experience, good attitude, and reasonable salary. If Mamoru does not give Makoto any time, Makoto has to choose either John or Pallavi. Since the position is permanent position as regular employee, Makoto may need to think about the next least three or five years. On based on analysis, Makoto should not hire John since his attitude has not improved completely and his expected performance has not grown, despite the length of time at his current position. In addition, the management team may not like him. Makoto has to hire Pallavi. Pallavi needs to have some extensive technical training, and the training may take a year.

However, her current base salary is $72k, after one year, probably,  the base salary are still under $80k which is less than average base salary of the position as $85k . Makoto may become busy since he needs to provide training for her and he has to cover the scope of John’s tasks which Pallavi could not implement. However, she probably makes better output than John’s current performance after the training since she is anxious to start her career and implement her experience along with the new training she will be provided. Replacing John with Pallavi may affect to Makoto or other employees’ emotion for a while. However, Makoto will know this decision is right since he would organize effective IT group by the decision which contributes to the expansion of KMA for the long term. [C1]Who is Steve?