Richard Gagnon at Granston Energy Inc - Case Study Example

Contents Introduction 2 About the case 2 Key Players 2 Relevant & Important facts to be considered 2 The things to be analyzed 3 Analysis 3 Recommendation and Summary 5 Introduction About the case The case deals with an officer level employee, Richard Gagnon at a renowned firm named Granston Energy. Granston Energy is a global company involved in the Oil & Natural Gas business. It has over 30,000 employees in around 27 countries. The firm maintains a high profile in most of the countries where it operates & is well known for its ethical code of conduct. Richard Gagnon has been working with Granston since passing out from B-school & presently he is the Procurement Officer at the company. After efficiently working with the company for the last 3 years, Richard is now facing a tough situation, which is compelling him to consider his job. Key Players The case involves the following people- Richard Gagnon – The Procurement Officer at Granston. Robin Meadows – The aggressive Product Manager of the company & an important internal client of Richard Gagnon. John Gerrard – The owner of the Printing firm which is a valued & trustworthy supplier of the firm. CEO of Granston Energy. Relevant & Important facts to be considered 1. The high ethical standard of the company & its high profile among its business partners. 2. Gagnon worked closely with both the marketing & sales team. 3. Gagnon was expected to be creative & responsive for both planned & last-minute requests. 4. Gagnon had to carry on a dual-reporting relationship. 5. A set of trustworthy supplier was developed by Gagnon who were very trustworthy to him & who considered Gagnon to be trustworthy too. 6. Meadows was arrogant & made unreasonable demands. 7. Gagnon failed to convince Meadows. 8. The payment to Gerrard was compromised. 9. Later on Gerrard was compensated with higher percentage of orders. 10. These incidents were completely unknown to the CEO. The things to be analyzed There are mainly two things to be analyzed – First one, why was Gagnon reprimanded by the CEO? And the Second one, what would have been the alternative way out to the above discussed complex situation? Analysis Basically if we consider the issues from each individual’s viewpoint then we can say that everyone is correct on their part. The Product Manager Mr. Meadows rejected the previous work done by the printing firm & also he, didn’t accept the higher price charged by the firm for the new assignment, therefore it can be said that it’s a right step taken as because it is always expected from an employee that he would try to lower his employer’s expenses. He stated that the job which needed to be re-done doesn’t need to incur so much of cost as the set-up to be used would remain the same. So it can be concluded that from the business & legal perspective, he is absolutely correct. But if we look at the human perspective then it can be said that Mr. Meadows is a completely business oriented person & he doesn’t know how to behave nicely nor does he consider someone else’s problem. On the other hand Mr. Gerrard had to do the job again & that too within a short time. For this extra effort his employees would be working overtime & he needs to pay them. Therefore he charged a higher price for the job & we can say that he had a strong logic for charging the higher price. Also he didn’t wish to lose a big business like Granston & therefore he agreed upon to the terms of Gagnon. It’s clear that he got involved into some illegal activities for the sake of his business. Mr. Gagnon was acting as the middleman between his client & his supplier. Both were important for him. He can’t afford to lose any of them at any cost. Also he is well known in the company for getting things done with high responsiveness & creativity. Therefore he continuously tried to convince Mr. Meadows for paying the price charged by Mr. Gerrard. He was well aware that Meadows was an ill-mannered & arrogant person & it’s difficult to make him agree, therefore he decided to convince Mr. Gerrard & successfully made him agree to his terms. It was a clever attempt to keep up good relation with both the parties & Gagnon found no harm in this, as it was meant for the firm’s betterment. No doubt that Mr. Gagnon wanted the firm’s business to prosper but unknowingly & unintentionally, he did something unethical, which goes against the company’s values. The CEO of the firm was not at all aware of the things happening in his company. So we can say that business wise he has shown lack of responsibility which might harm the company’s image. It’s also concluded that the person is high on the ethical standards of the firm, so when the unethical activities of Gagnon was identified & that too by an outside source, then he couldn’t help but rebuke Mr. Gagnon & asked for an explanation. Recommendation and Summary The entire case displays a highly complicated situation that takes place in every organization. Many employees lose their job due to an activity done, meant for the welfare of the company, that turns out to be destructive for the company’s reputation. Furthermore, the contrast between ethics & career success has been illustrated through this case. (Jeffrey) Here we can see that Mr. Gagnon is a three year old employee in an eminent organization. Recently he was awarded for his creativity & his go-getter attitude. But on the same day, he was rebuked by the CEO for a certain activity, which he did for the firm’s advantage. It’s obvious that since it’s a huge company, therefore it has much more experienced employees than Mr. Gagnon. Also Mr. Gagnon was expected to report to both the Purchasing Manager & the Vice-President of Marketing but from the extract it seems that even they were not informed about the tough situation which was faced & managed by Gagnon alone. Therefore, we can arrive to this conclusion that when an employee is assigned with some job, he/ she should always consult their seniors while taking some serious decision regarding their duties. Also unethical approaches even for the good of the company can turn into a black spot for the company’s reputation. Works Cited Jeffrey, G. Richard Gagnon at Granston Energy Inc. 2013. Web. May 8, 2013. Read More