Customer With The Matter The Way example essay topic

Case 5 - Magrec, Inc. 1. I would let a day pass and then request another meeting with Dinah indicating a sincere desire to work through the matter and the need to come to an understanding and agreement of how to work together and with the team moving forward. At that meeting, I would start off and thank Dinah for bringing the Partco matter to my attention. I would communicate with Dinah that I respect her strong feelings and beliefs behind her actions regarding the Partco matter but indicate that if she felt that strongly about the action step I planned to take, that she should have spoken again with me or another manager within our company instead of contacting the customer direct. She should know that by going directly to the customer with the matter the way she did cause a ripple effect in the customer base and consequently, the company has suffered great financial hardship.

I would suggest to her that we could have addressed the matter with Partco in a way that would have made them aware of our mistake, offer recompense and still keep our relationship with Partco in tact without affecting the existing customer base. After making sure I communicated that I disagreed with her actions, the effect it had on the business, and moving forward I would appreciate that we discuss disagreeing opinions before she pursue action like she did with the Partco matter, I would reassure Dinah that she is a valuable asset to the company and that her performance and accomplishments prior to this matter have always been stellar. I would address the internal friction and her ability to interface effectively within the company being at a state that requires repair and ask her for her input on what we can do to change that. I would try to have a consensus between the two of us and also suggest that we have a team meeting within the department to address the internal friction and discuss how we can move beyond our differences and return to a productive environment.

After considering what happened, I would have challenged Fred on the need to communicate the change in life span of the product to the customer and suggest that we strategize on how it the communication could be accomplished in a productive and positive manner. 2. I believe Dinah was right to believe that it was unethical to not let the customer know about the change in life span of the product; however, I disagree with her calling the customer directly. I believe she should have either tried to get her manager to take action on her request or go to another manager in the company. If I were Dinah, after talking to my manager and getting a response that he / she was not going to do something about the matter, I would have gone to another manager in the company regarding the issue. This would have allowed them to come up with a strategy to communicate the error to the customer, have a plan on how they could fix the problem and keep the relationship with the customer in tact while also not affecting the existing customer base.

3. According to cognitive dissonance theory, there is a tendency for individuals to seek consistency among their beliefs and opinions. When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors (dissonance), something must change to eliminate the dissonance. In the case of a discrepancy between attitudes and behavior, it is most likely that the attitude will change to accommodate the behavior. In the case of Pat, she did initially pursue inquiry as to why the company operated in a manner that was untruthful to Partco but upon receiving the response from Fred that it was a short term problem and was corrected within a year, this satisfied her resulting in her behaviors being in accord with her beliefs. When Dinah discovered the hidden documents that revealed Magrec had shipped product with a shorter life span and deliberately attempted to hide the matter from Partco, her belief and attitude was that such actions were wrong.

Her feelings led her to the behavior & action of take the matter to Pat. When Pat came back to her indicating Fred's arguments were good, that cause dissonance for Dinah because her belief was this was wrong. Her beliefs let her to the behavior of calling the customer to inform them directly of the impropriety. By telling the customer of the wrong doing, this satisfied Dinah's internal conflict. Fred did not have dissonance because he did not believe that the matter required attention or needed to be communicated to the customer. He believed that due to business demands to make numbers and that the problem was only short term, that the issue did not require any further attention.

As a result, Fred's behaviors were in accord with his attitude & beliefs.