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Based on the case study, Martha Rinaldi is faced with two major dilemmas. Knowing that she is already employed with Potomac Waters, her leaving the company without first addressing her work troubles would be viewed as a weakness on her part. On the other hand, choosing to stay with Potomac Waters might compromise her work attitude, break her spirit and possibly the chance to grab Deep Dive Pizza’s standing offer of employment. Staying with Potomac Waters is, obviously, a challenging position to make for Rinaldi. After all, most young people value the over-all work environment and career advancement than the economic benefits of a job. For a fact, it was career advancement that influenced Rinaldi’s decision to join Potomac Waters instead of Deep Dive Pizza despite the latter’s bigger salary offer. Apparently, instead of gaining experience and an opportunity to improve her skills, the work becomes disturbingly unproductive not because of the work itself but because of her colleagues and the organization’s culture. It should be noted that Potomac Waters is considered as a more stable and established company as compared to Deep Dive Pizza which suggests that the company’s culture can be very difficult to change. Unless Rinaldi wants to stay and assimilate with her current working environment, she needs to focus on either leaving her job and accept Deep Dive Pizza’s offer or face the challenge and try to change the company’s culture for the better. Unfortunately, Rinaldi is not in the position to change the company’s culture since she is considerably at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy. On the other hand, leaving the company, as mentioned earlier, would leave an impression that she could not handle bigger challenges, which is not a good way to start a career with Deep Dive Pizza. Considering and weighing all these scenarios, Rinaldi has no choice but to stay with the company and handle this difficult situation by turning it around to her advantage.
The first thing that Rinaldi would have to address is her working relationship with her boss and colleagues. Of particular interest to this initial strategy is Gabarro and Kotter’s suggestion of managing one’s boss. Accordingly, recognizing that there is a ‘mutual dependence’ between Rinaldi and her boss; she should seek out information about her boss’s concern and must be sensitive to her boss’s working style. So instead of pushing her ideals towards changing her boss’s style, Rinaldi should seek out ways on how to complement her boss’s working style with hers. If it means that she should re-align her work objectives in order to achieve the boss’s concern, then she should do so. The primary objective of this approach is to make her boss take notice of her. Eventually, bigger opportunities would come her way once she has already established a better working relationship with her boss. Also, keeping a peaceful working environment with colleagues would lessen the pressure and make work more desirable. Winning an argument is not always the best way to win personal battles. In fact, it may only worsen an already difficult situation that Rinaldi is in. In this particular situation, Pfeffer suggest not to “draw unnecessary fire” since it is easy to lose sight of priorities and might cause unnecessary problems. By the time Rinaldi has already established a smooth working environment with her boss and colleagues, it is expected that they would be more open to her ideas and suggestions. Most organizations, especially established ones, are not open to radical changes . For the same reason, it would benefit Rinaldi if she take her time and initiate changes at her level while evaluating the readiness of the organization to accept such changes. Apparently, a lot must be improved with Potomac Waters as far as management is concerned. And at the rate of how things are going internally, there is a big possibility that Potomac Waters would become stagnant and uncompetitive. For Rinaldi, she should keep focus on improving her personal career. If, after these attempts are made and still there is no chance for change to occur, then after a year, at least, she might want to reconsider Deep Dive Pizza’s offer or seek for advancement opportunities with other companies.
Works Cited
Gabarro, J., & Kotter, J. "Managing Your Boss." Harvard Business Review (1980): 1-10.
Greiner, L. "Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow ." 1972. http://www.ils.unc.edu/. November 2013 <http://www.ils.unc.edu/daniel/131/cco4/Greiner.pdf>.
Hill, L., & Renella, M. "Martha Rinaldi: Should She Stay or Should She Go?" President and Fellows of Harvard College (2011).
Kiss, P. Graduates' Job Satisfaction. March 2013. October 2014 <http://www.felvi.hu/pub_bin/dload/DPR_kotet_frissdiplomasok2011/angol/12_kissp_eng.pdf>.
Pfeffer, J. "Power Play." Harvard Business Review (2010): 1-9.
