Mike Miller (a) – Hbs Case Study

Mike Miller (A) – HBS Case Study

What leads us to make pivotal decisions that will impact our professional and personal lives? After reading the Mike Miller HBS Case Study, we learned the implications of our choices, the importance of “match” and especially “mismatch” when looking for the ideal post-MBA career and the relevance of prioritization.

Mike Miller is a confident, ambitious and talented professional. The Frontier Case repeatedly demonstrates his high sense of direction and perseverance in reaching the top and becoming successful in business, especially given economically disadvantaged background. On the personal front, Mike is a responsible family-oriented person. Both his business and personal proclivities are largely due to his childhood and his former work experience in the U.S. Military services. Mike's father had 4 different businesses, two of which ended up in bankruptcy. Hence, Mike was determined to avoid such failures in his future. His career began in the military, where he was a highly successful captain. However, he discovered that upward mobility in the military was almost solely attached to service duration. Studying at Harvard, however, served Mike's sole goal: initiate his managerial role with high starting salary and fast track promotion without fierce competition.

Considering the Ranking Work Motivation questionnaire, Mike mostly aspires to fulfill needs included in groups A and B (please see appendix A) - related to protection, physical comfort, safety and structured workplace – as he seeks a high-paying job, proximity to his wife's (Jennifer) parents and promotional opportunities. Further, according to the Conflict Style Assessment, we identify Mike as a Fox, for two main reasons: First, Mike strongly insisted against the elimination of William's position in the Texas office, even in the cost of his relationship with Mason. Though Mike lost the battle, he was not reluctant avoid a disagreement with Mason. Second, Mike felt discouraged in carrying out Mason's decision to place him as a Loan Operations Manager, as he realized the implications on his personal relations with other nominees for the position.

From the prospective of the Belbin Study, Mike can be characterized as a coordinator and an implementer. Mike is an efficient professional as exemplified by his not seeing the relevance of staying in the office more than necessary, especially when such hours are not well-spent. He also values relationships and structured team objectives and thrives when faced with practical plan that needed to be efficiently carried out.

Prior to his first day in Frontier, Mike was able to establish his own set of expectations about the position and the company's organizational culture through Harvard classmate Ted, long meetings with the company's President and Chairman and visit to the company headquarters. However, throughout his excruciating post-MBA job hunt, Mike overlooks factors such as a personal fit with Frontier and its values in addition to personal relationships. Even though Mike did not explore all relevant aspects of Frontier's work environment, merely focusing on physical elements, we believe that only upon joining the company can one fully learn what being a part of it entails.

Frontier can be perfectly characterized as an X-theory company according to the Philosophy of Management Questionnaire: a dynamic, aggressive, hierarchical company that offers highly competitive financial rewards in return of complete employee devotion. Employees in Frontier are considered tools, which require tight control and carrots so as to meet objectives. While Herzberg's motivators are constantly met by Frontier, the company fails to provide hygienic aspects such as clear policy and administration, relationships with supervisors, peers and subordinates and work conditions. The most resonating description regarding Frontier's lack of hygiene on one hand and bountiful motivations on the other is stressed during the orientation workshop: the underlying principle at Frontier was that money was the most powerful motivator and the most important corporate goal.

Managers in Frontier did not set behavioral examples to employees. Public quarrels were not rare sight, even amongst senior managers, and communication problems between Frontier's employees seemed to be the company's policy. Frontier's long track of above-the-industry-average profits on loans to potentially risky institutions had created somewhat alienating, competitive office environment. Despite high motivators Frontier had offered, throughout the year prior to Mike's arrival, third of its employees left. Utilizing Kohn's conceptual framework, Frontier's had rewarded its employees and motivated them via constant flow of rewards in the short run, but it ignored their temporality and lack of ability to create commitment .

Initially, Frontier perfectly complemented Mike's career expectations and fully fulfilled his set of criteria. However, shortly after joining the company it has caught up to him that he ignored elements such personal fit with Frontier, its values, communication and emphasis on work-life balance.

Also, due to Mike's previous experience in military service, he preferred taking control and having command. The strictly hierarchical company culture of Frontier thus became a huge conflict for Mike especially when he was required to implement tasks delegated by his manager Mason. Further, Frontier offered an evasive job description, which did not appeal his former strict military experience.

Herzberg's analysis of the factors affecting job attitudes as shown in appendix B provides a visual examination of Mike's poor fit with Frontier. At the top part of the chart, representing the "motivators"