Conspectus

Management Events

Tatva - Case Study Competition (Round 2)

Guidelines for the case study round
• The case solution should include the following point
• Case Facts
• Problem Statement
• Decision criteria for alternatives
• Possible alternatives
• Solution and action Plan

Deliverables required include:

• Final presentation: Final presentation can have a maximum of 10 slides
• Naming convention: <Team_Name>_<Team_Member1_Name>
 Tatva Case Study
Riyansh joined HighTech Computers after one year of experience as an Assistant Programmer at
Zen Computers. He had switched the job for better career prospects and faster progress because
HighTech was larger and growing much faster than Zen and also had international clients.
Riyansh was sure that he would do well here just as he had done at Zen.

At HighTech, Riyansh was a Senior Programmer and received a big salary hike. Upon
joining, he was assigned to Archita’s five-member team. Riyansh had met Archita during his
orientation, and the rest of his colleagues seemed warm, friendly and comfortable with Riyansh’s
work. When Riyansh asked his colleague Diksha about their boss, Diksha said, “She does not
interfere with our work. Don’t be surprised if at times you even feel ignored.” Riyansh decided
that perhaps Archita was one of those who preferred to leave everyone alone in order to let them
realize their own potential. After all, it was a fast-growing industry with a lot of scope for
innovation, which could set one company apart from others. At Zen also, his previous boss,
Srinivas, has been his guide and mentor apart from being a boss – always supervising and
available, aware of exactly where the work was headed, but never interfering. Srinivas would let
Riyansh make mistakes and learn from them. He encouraged ideas from individuals and allowed
them to discover flaws in those ideas through discussion which he seemed to guide in the right
direction. With Srinivas, an individual was rarely responsible for a failure to deliver when he was
a member of the team. The team as a whole was responsible for what they did, and Riyansh
remembered discussing at Zen that an ideal boss is the one who does not interfere with his/her
subordinate’s work. At HighTech now, Riyansh wanted to believe that Archita was the non-
interfering boss who would let him perform and support him in his growth and delivery of
results.

During the first week at work, Riyansh thought that the work atmosphere was a bit dull.
However, he was quite excited. His team had been assigned a new project which was
experiencing a few glitches with its new software. He has been thinking of these problems and
their possible solutions till late night and was often reminded of the charged atmosphere at Zen
where his team members, similarly engrossed, would keep on IM-ing and SMS-ing each other
about ideas and opinions about others’ ideas, much after they had left office.

Here he could not wait to discuss his overflowing ideas with Archita and he smiled to
himself thinking about how Archita would react to his thoughts once he shared them with her.
Maybe she would instantly call a meeting of all project team members. Perhaps everyone will
notice how he has started contributing to the project from day one. These thoughts spilled into a
daydream about all the appreciation from Archita and others.

Riyansh waited for 15 minutes after he saw Archita walk into her office, and then called
her up asking if he could see her. When he went into her cabin, she looked up at him blankly and
asked, “Yes?” Not sure if she has recognized him, Riyansh introduced himself. She said, “Yes, I
know—but why did you want to meet me?” Rohit started to describe the problems with the new
software that his team faced. Before he could finish, Archita told him that she was busy with
some other things and that hse would send an email with the solutions to all the members of the
team by the end of the day and that those could then b executed by everyone immediately.

Riyansh found himself taken aback. He came out of Archita’s office and went straight to
where his team members sat. He thought it would still be nice to discuss all his ideas with his
team members and hear what solutions others might have thought of in a technical manner.
When he spoke a little in this direction, he thought that everyone else also might chip in but
again to his surprise, others were disinterested. Shahid, one of his teammates said, “What is the
point in discussing all this here? Archita has no time to listen to all this. Yet she will have
solutions which she will tell us and we simply have to implement them regardless of our opinion,
so why bother?” Riyansh was now feeling depressed. Is this how he was going to work here? He
refused to lose his heart and moved on.

Several days passed and Riyansh realized that Archita was a complete opposite of
Srinivas. In fact, Riyansh simply could not stop comparing the two. While she was efficient at
what she did and was extremely intelligent, she has neither the time nor inclination to groom her
subordinates. None of her solutions were incorrect so far but she was never open to discuss or
debate the merits or potential effects of the ideas that her team members might have. She never
held the team down to deadliness or interfered with their execution of work. In fact, she rarely
said anything at all if the work was not completed on time. To her superiors, she would just
blame the team and then dissociate herself from them.

In contrast to Srinivas, Archita managed such low levels of motivation and team spirit
without actively doing much. Riyansh’s interest in work began to fade. He was not required to
think, his boss had all the answers. He learned nothing new and he felt stuck. He felt discouraged
and discounted as what he had to offer not only went unrecognized but it was deliberately
suppressed. His performance was becoming loose and he was lurking dangerously close to being
just another mediocre techie.

Problem Statement

1. What is the interpersonal style of Archita at HighTech? What in your opinion are its
major features?

2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of these style features in terms of their influence on
issues like motivation, morale, turnover and different parameters of performance.