Ch12 - Case Study 3 - Pages 619 - 620

"I Cannot Do It All!"

When Harold Brice was named president of Healthcare, Inc., an HMO, he inherited a staff including vice presidents for marketing, finance, medical affairs, and professional services. Each executive was capable in many ways, and Healthcare, Inc. was on a solid financial footing with bright prospects. It was located in an expanding community; a 15%-20% annual growth rate was projected for the next 5 years.

Within a few weeks of joining Healthcare, Inc., Brice perceived a serious flaw in his vice presidents: None of them would make a decision, not even on routine matters such as personnel questions, choice of marketing media, or changing suppliers. This troubled him. Before long, the situation seriously impeded his efforts to develop strategic plans for the HMO. To make matters worse, he found that the vice presidents spent a great deal of time discuss- ing their own problems among themselves. Yet even with all this activity, the vice presidents frequently presented him with problems in their areas of responsibility and requested that he make the decisions.

At a regular staff meeting, when every member of his staff had a problem requiring a decision, Brice finally lost his temper. Waving his arms in exasperation, he shouted (which was very uncharacteristic for him), "I cannot do it all! You are going to have to make these decisions yourselves."

The meeting broke up with the vice presidents looking very puzzled and with Brice realizing that he had to do something besides shout at them.

Questions

1. Is this an organization problem? What factors might be contributing?