Moss and Mcadams Accounting Firm
RUNNING HEAD: MOSS AND MCADAMS Assignment #1: Moss and McAdams Accounting Firm Strayer University Bus 517 Bruce Palmer was a good guy looking to make a difference. He was lead to believe that Zeke Olds was going to be available to him throughout the project and that was not the case. He was led astray and betrayed by Ken Crosby, a new guy to M&M. Crosby knew if he made the case to Sands early, that he would get his way. The client was one that M&M was competing to get with two other big 5 accounting firms and since Crosby came from a Big 5 accounting firm, M&M was going to give him whatever he needed to complete the project.
Crosby was recruited specifically to manage special projects and this qualified as such. Even though Olds was already slated to work on the Johnsonville audit, Sands was persuaded by Crosby to let Olds work on his team due to the expertise that was essential to the Springfield project. If I was Palmer I would have talked to management about how the process is being handled and offer up a suggestion so that no other project manager would be misled by another. Palmer should have stood firm with Crosby from the beginning and maybe there would not have been a major issue along the way.
He waited too long to talk with Sands and it proved that Palmers passive way was his demise in dealing with Crosby and ultimately lost him Olds on his project. Once Olds started to do consulting work he realized that auditing was not as fun as consulting work. I do not believe Palmer could have anything to prevent losing Olds. Olds might have had good intentions but he showed a lack of focus when he started showing up 30-60 minutes late. Palmer should have scheduled a meeting with Olds and try to figure out what Olds wanted to do. A mistake on Palmer’s part was never sitting down with Sands and telling her what was going on.
There may have been no change but at least he would have stated his frustration and put the responsibility to resolve the issue with Sands. The lack of focus on the project by Olds being stretched in by two teams and conflicting priorities caused Olds to feel stressed. Palmer should have prioritized Olds objectives and set clear deliverables for him to measure up against. Had he told Olds what was expected he could have got ahead of the problem but instead he let Crosby interfere and drive Olds away from his project. Crosby never had any intention of letting Olds work on both projects.
He made it clear to Sands when he first started that Olds was critical to the project and he wanted him on his team. Sands went along because Olds is a valuable player in the office and felt that it would be a good match. The problem with this situation is that Olds was being pulled in too many directions and not allowed to focus on projects that suited his talents. This is often the case in matrix type organizations. The disadvantage of a the matrix organization is instead of delegating segments of a project to different unit or creating an team, project members report to simultaneously to both functional and project managers.
Having resources shared across multiple projects and divisions sounds like an efficient way to divide the energy of individuals across multiple projects on an as needed basis is a disadvantage as seen at M&M. Olds was divided across multiple projects and ended up not being very efficient. Have a strong project focus is a clear advantage of a matrix organization because it provides having a formally designated project manager who is responsible for coordinating and integrating contributions of several units.
This helps sustain a holistic approach to problem solving that is most often missing in functional organizations. Although this is an advantage, it was not the case at M&M. The lack of project focus resulted in one project lacking the resource to complete the project. There was no coordination or integration between the two teams and resulted in two project managers fighting over one employee. The dysfunctional conflict between Crosby and Palmer opened up the tension between the two managers. There was a legitimate conflict that arose from conflicting agendas and responsibilities.
The Springfield project was clearly a higher priority than the Johnsonville audit and Sands should have told Palmer, that although he is valuable to the audit, he would be more successful for the Springfield project. Palmer could have pulled another resource to take Olds place or hire a contractor to fill in the time when Olds would not be available. Olds was caught in a stressful situation where he was working in an environment in which he was being told to do two different tasks and had two different agendas by two different managers.
This all led to infighting over Olds being shared across both projects and the two managers competing over for one resource. Palmer and Crosby were only concerned about their respective projects and Crosby knew what his end game was all along. Palmer was not clever enough to outwit Crosby and therefor he lost out on Olds. M&M management clearly needs to set priorities and objectives for projects. The matter in which Sands handled Olds splitting time between two managers shows the type of organizational culture at M&M.
The matrix is one part of the equation but the culture is how that matrix is driven. The type of culture in M&M lends the opportunity for Crosby to manipulate another manager for his personal gain. Sands knew that the Springfield project was high profile and Crosby was hired from a Big 5 firm for projects like these. Sands should have taken the time to hear Palmer’s concerns and make an informed decision. She only heard from Crosby and was told by Olds and with no regard for Palmer, made a decision to move Olds to Crosby’s project to satisfy the organization at the cost of another project.
The norm, customs, shared values, and the “rules of the game” for getting along and getting ahead in the M&M organization are clear to see from this project. They need to change how they select and assign project staff to multiple projects. They need to develop a system that appropriately balances the needs of the project with those of the organization. They could send out a survey to poll the employees to see how they would like to be selected for a project in order to get employees that wanted to do certain types of projects. Culture encourages the implementation of projects.
