CASE NINE

A RELUCTANT MESSENGER

Hari Das was eager to do an outstanding job. He had originally come to the United States as an exchange student from India and had ultimately graduated with an MBA from a prestigious American university. He had recently been hired at a major manufacturing company on the staff of its president, Roland Stone.

Stone was a tough ex$-$military man who ran the operation as if he was still commanding a unit in the service. He made all major decisions and was almost always correct in his judgment. He had the knack for asking the penetrating question and was used to carrying the day in most corporate meetings. The only executive who contested the president, usually at meetings where the president was not present, was vice president Jack Dubin, who was almost always wrong.

Stone believed in "seeing what the troops were doing" and spent a good portion of his time visiting the many departments of the company. During these visits, whenever the president wanted to inform someone not present of a decision, request some information, or at times deliver a reprimand, he would turn to a member of his traveling party and give him or her an oral message to deliver to the appropriate person. Routinely, the selected messenger was a newly hired member of his staff, and this duty evolved on Hari Das.

One day, the president turned to Das and said, "You tell Jack Dubin to get this problem corrected before it blows up in his face." Das obediently went to Dubin's office and relayed the information. Dubin, in turn, became extremely agitated and gave Das a verbal thrashing. The astonished Das said nothing, and waited for his chance to leave the room.

The president continued to give Das messages to relay around the company. Hari Das did as he was told with one exception: he did not deliver any subsequent messages to Jack Dubin. The situation went on for several months, without Das telling anyone either that he was not delivering the president's messages to Dubin or why. During that time, the president was heard to grumble about Dubin not reacting very quickly to various situations.

Finally, one Friday afternoon, Stone asked Hari Das to get Dubin to prepare a report over the weekend that he wanted on his desk first thing Monday morning. Das again did not relay the message. Monday morning came and the report was not on the president's desk. After learning from his secretary that Dubin had left no messages concerning the report, Stone muttered "Well, that's it$."$ He then called personnel on the phone and said "Fire Dubin. Give him whatever severance benefits are appropriate, but get him out of here. And, I don't want him coming up to see me$."$

As in most corporations, the situation became common knowledge on the grapevine, and many $-$ but not the president $-$ learned the true story behind Dubin's firing. As for Hari Das, he was frequently kidded by his colleagues and asked if he had any messages for them from the president.

Comment on the issues of this case. Who was to blame for Dubin's unfortunate firing? Why? How would you categorize the method of communication in this company? Did the grapevine have a positive or negative impact on this case? How might Hari Das' cultural background have contributed to his behavior?