50 Case Studies for Management and Supervisory Training

Case 5: “Looney Tunes on Parade”: Part 2

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Case 5 (continued)

Changing the Guard

Sam Benson had been head of the Strategic Management Division at Republic Insurance for

nearly six years. He served well in this capacity, capping a 30-year career with Republic by retir-

ing in April 1988.

Sam was replaced by Henry Carpenter, 41. Henry had been with Republic for almost three

years, serving as chief information management officer. Henry moved into Sam Benson’s office

during David Randle’s eleventh month with Republic in May.

It seemed to Peter Gilmore that from that day forward, David spent a lot of time with Henry.

He could often be found in Henry’s office, no matter what time of day it was. They would have

lunch together or go out for drinks after work. Beyond these social contacts, Henry began

assigning projects directly to David. Often these assignments were made without Peter even

knowing about it. Peter, who suspected as much, was too busy to give the matter serious thought.

“What the hell,” he told himself. “Let Henry work with him, too.”

Not long after, though, when David was on vacation, an incident occurred that convinced

Peter that his vague intuitions about something not being right with David were well founded.

Sometime earlier in April, David had conducted a performance evaluation of Betty Moore, one of

the cost analysts in David’s Pricing Unit. During the evaluation, David promised to make Betty a

supervisor and arrange for her to receive a 20 percent salary increase. (In fact, Republic had a

policy that the maximum salary adjustment to which anyone was entitled during a six-month

period was 14 percent.) By May, when Betty saw no change in her salary, she met with Peter pri-

vately. Betty had worked with Peter for over four years.

Betty began: “You know, David did my performance appraisal two months ago, and he prom-

ised me a supervisory promotion and a 20 percent salary increase. But I haven’t received either yet.

Is there something wrong?”

Peter was surprised. “David promised what?” he asked in astonishment. He was very aware

of the firm’s policy on salary increases and knew that David was also aware of them.

Betty repeated her comments. As Peter listened to Betty’s explanation, his anger rose. When

Betty finished, he called Bill Schmidt to join them. Bill was Betty’s colleague and the other cost

analyst that David supervised.

Peter said, “Bill, Betty has been telling me some things that I find very distressing about

David’s management practices. Tell me what’s going on there.”

He got an earful. The analysts told him that David never gave them any work to do on any

kind of regular basis. They did not know what he did with the assignments he received from Peter

or Henry, but every so often, David would give them a real rush job on a big project and then

pressure them until it was finished. When David finally received their report, he would put his

name on it and pass it along.

Peter now became very angry. He thanked Betty and Bill for their honesty. As soon as they

left, he walked into Henry’s office and made three points: “One, I don’t trust David, and I may

want to fire him. Two, I think you and David are getting way too close. And three, in the future,

tell me if you make any assignments directly to David.” Peter’s irritation was obvious, and Henry

patiently waited for him to calm down. Peter then told Henry what he just learned from Betty and

Bill.