CASE ANALYSIS

ON
BOB KNOWLTON (A)

Section B

Group - A

Babita Sobhani
2010059
Balwant Singh Rathore
2010060
Divya Jain
2010068
Harsh Vardhan
2010076
 Jyotirmoy
Barman 2010088
Kishan Kumar
2010096
Nirmal Modh
2010099
INTRODUCTION
Beatrice Vincent once said, “The people with whom you work reflect your own attitude. If you
are suspicious, unfriendly and condescending, you will find these unlovely traits echoed all
about you. But if you are on your best behavior, you will bring out the best in the persons with
whom you are going to spend most of your working hours.”

The case on Bob Knowlton, who is the team leader for the project on Multi-channel Integration,
is about task- oriented group, group cohesion and how an individual can influence the group and
leadership. The case shows the impact that ineffective leadership and an unempowering work
environment can have on the performance of individuals and teams.

The term "interpersonal skills" is used often in business contexts to refer to the measure of a
person's ability to operate within business organizations through social communication and
interactions. Interpersonal skills are how people relate to one another. This case is perfect to
illustrate the concepts of team building, situational leadership, motivation, and interpersonal
skills.

Bob is put off by Elliot’s questions and is threatened by his technical expertise. He finds it hard to
integrate Elliot into the project team. The case shows what happens when Elliot, working on his
own without involving the rest of the project team, makes a major contribution to solve a critical
problem. It depicted how Elliot preferred to be individualist and was not concerned about the
team members. He also became abrasive at times. The problem with Knowlton’s thinking,
however, was that when someone more brilliant and driven arrived in his group, Knowlton
ultimately reacted in a way that not only impacted his own career, but the direction of the
company for which he worked.

CASE ANALYSIS
Bob Knowlton was the team leader of the team working on a project that was based on multi-
channel integration in Simmons Laboratories. Dr. Katherine, location head of the organization,
referred Elliot Haywood to Knowlton to get involved with him in his project. Knowlton gave a
very positive feedback of Elliot and this gave Katherine enough confidence to include him in the
team. Elliot was a meticulous worker and he worked day and night to solve the problems faced
by the team on the multi-channel integration problem. For instance he worked with Bob for
multi-channel integration testing and outperformed Bob in his work. Also, Elliot enthusiastically
plunged into an excited recital towards the solution of Link’s patterning problem.

Bob was a kind of leader who strongly believed in Group cohesion and motivated team members
to actively participate in the meeting so as to maintain good inter-personal relationship. Whereas
Elliot’s attitude was based on self-concept. He used to relate importance on affirming his own
self esteem and identity. Despite of the fact the entire team concluded that the patterning problem
was insolvable, yet Elliot disagreed with them and reworked on the problem in detail. With the
brilliant performance of Elliot and better capability of handling problems, Knowlton grew
increasingly disturbed as he realized that his leadership is taken over. With the increasing
popularity of Elliot in the organization, Knowlton thought of switching the job.

CHARACTER SKETCH OF MAIN CHARACTERS IN THE

CASE
Bob Knowlton:
 Bob Knowlton was an introvert. He did not discuss his opinions/feelings/conflicts with
Katherine and teammates.

 He could not become an effective leader. He could not exercise authority and control
when the unity in the team was disturbed. As a result, his self-confidence in his
capabilities reduced.

 He lacked communication skills. He should have communicated to Elliot his roles and
responsibilities while he was working in Bob’s team.

Elliot Haywood:

 Elliot was very brilliant, workaholic and innovative to approach a problem.

 He was under social. He was very confident about himself and his ideas. He was
aggressive in his approach to solve problems. He didn’t cater to the expression of other
team members.

 He was very rude and preferred to skip team meetings as he considered that it was not
important to update each and every member of the team.

 He created a perception of himself as an individualist and not a team player.

  He lacked team skills. He thought that Davenport and Oliver were not competent enough
and he expressed the same to Katherine. This created division in the team and team work
got affected.

SUGGESTIONS
1) Elliot was brilliant in his work and ideas, but his behavior made many team members
like Oliver and Davenport uncomfortable. He was not a team player rather he was an individual
performer. A preferable solution could be that Elliot should be assigned to a separate project like
R&D work where he can work independently rather than working in interdependent roles. This
could help the company to properly utilize his talent and abilities and at the same time other
group members can work on their projects coherently.

2) Bob Knowlton should not underestimate himself. He should take an initiative by

portraying his skills and retain his leadership. This could be done if a training session is
conducted that could help him enhance his presentation and communication skills. Also he
should hone his leadership skills to take an effective stand on behalf of the team.

3) Katherine should take the initiative to build upon the interpersonal skills of the team.
The stress should be laid primarily on Elliot, who along with his strong technical skills and
intelligence should also learn to maintain close relationship with other team members. This will
build group cohesion. This role needs to be played by Katherine since she is the location head
and it wouldn’t hurt the sentiments of the group members.

4) From the perspective of Bob Knowlton, we suggest that he should opt for a new job
where he could find job satisfaction and also an increased pay package. This could impact the
company performance to an extent but it would be personally beneficial for Bob Knowlton in the
long run.

CONCLUSION
With the analysis of the case, the first suggestion given by us could probably be an effective
solution for the better performance of the Simmon Laboratories. The personalities of Knowlton
and Elliot were contrary but both of them were important for the organization. Knowlton should
perform his leadership duties effectively so that other team members are not affected by Elliot’s
behavior. This could be achieved if Knowlton discusses the problem with Katherine so that Elliot
is assigned the task which could be both challenging and rewarding for him. At the same time,
Knowlton needs to maintain his interpersonal skills with all team members, including Elliot. This
would make Knowlton not only an effective leader but also enhance his empowerment skills.

MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS
 The case reflects the importance of interpersonal skills, group cohesion, effective
maintenance functions and group integrity in an organization.

 It clearly depicts the impact that an individual can have on a team and its working
environment. The environment for a team oriented work should be based on
empowerment with collaboration, not on power and competition.

 Team with experience, working together may produce valuable innovations, and
individual contributions are valuable as well. For the successful accomplishment of jobs,
equal importance should be given in managing the co-operative behaviors and
competitive behaviors as well. Both sets of behaviors should be viewed as
complementary.

 The case also highlights how the lack of psychological intimacy can result in feeling of
emotional isolation and loneliness.

“It’s easy to get good players. Getting them to play together, that’s the hard part.”

Casey Stengel