Kay Sunderland: Making the Grade at Attain Learning

Kay Sunderland: Making the Grade at Attain Learning tells the story of organizational hierarchy, and the issues with following the chain of command. Kay Sunderland is an account director for Attain Learning. Attain Learning provides customer with business training solutions, and was founded in 1998 by Caroline Nicholas. Sunderland is responsible for determining the strategic outline, and account details for a client as they work in conjunction with other members of the organization. Mike Morgan, the director of development, is responsible for delivering content as determined by Sunderland with the help of a team of graphic designers, programmers, producers, and copywriters. A VIP account for Gramen Equipment’s is the focal point. The Chief Learning Officer, Juan Nunez has stated that he would like the contact from Morgan to be stopped. It is Sunderland’s job to fix the issues with communication between Morgan and the client.

Difference in the working styles, perceptions and specializations of Sunderland and Morgan has led to this communication problem involving Sunderland, Morgan, and Nunez. As the Account manager, it is Sunderland’s responsible for contacting clients. Because of Sunderland’s current work load, she was very busy and was not able to devote as much time and attention to Morgan’s questions regarding the Gramen project. When Morgan tried to contact Sunderland, she was not available and so, he directly called Nunez to discuss the training program case without informing Sunderland. Nunez felt that the messages left by Morgan was a nuisance and that any internal issues between Sunderland and Morgan should be dealt with without including him. His only concern was getting the final solution design.

Morgan has an innovative and creative work style and is a valuable and indispensable resource for his organization because he is the only content director employed by the company.

Sunderland is formal, and efficient, always setting expectations for projects. Sunderland’s work demands her to be relationship oriented. She pushes her team to develop the best products for their clients. However, she is criticized for being somewhat inflexible and overly demanding at times.