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Codeword is a medium-size finn that design and manufactures electronic systems for the mass transit industry. It competes with other firms to win contract to

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Codeword is a medium-size finn that design and manufactures electronic systems for the mass transit industry. It competes with other firms to win contract to provide such systems, When Codework receives a contract, it creates a project to complete the work. Most project range from $10 million to $50 million in cost and range from 1 year to 3 year in duration. Codework can have 6 to 12 project going on at the same time, at various stage of completion, some just starting and others finishing. Codework has a handful of project managers that report to the general manager; other people report to the functional manager () The functional manager assigns particular people to work on various projects. Some people work full-time on a project whereas other split their time among two or three projects. Although people are assigned to work for a project manager on a specific project, administratively they still report to their functional manager. Jack Kowalski has been with the company for about 12 years, since graduating from college with a B.S. in electronic engineering. He has worked his way up to senior electronics engineer and report to the manager of electrical engineering. He has worked on many projects and is well respected within the company. Jack has been asking for an opportunity to be a project manager. When Codework is awarded a $15 million contract to design and manufacture an advanced electronics system for a new aircraft, the general manager promotes Jack to project manager and asks him to run this project. Jack works with the functional manager to get the best people available assigned to the project. Most of the people are buddies who have worked with Jack on previous projects. However with Jack's position as senior electronics engineer vacant, the manager of electronic engineering has no one with the appropriate level of expertise to assign to Jack's project. So the manager hires a new person. Alfreda Bryson. Lured away from a competitor, Alfreda has a Ph.D. in electronic engineering and eight year experience. She was able to command a high salary - more than Jack is making. She is assigned to Jack's project full-time as the senior electronic engineer. Jack takes a special interest in Alfreda's work and asks to meet with her to discuss her design approaches. Most of these meetings tum into monologues, with Jack suggesting how Alfreda should do the design and paying little attention to what she says. Finally Alfreda asks Jack why he is spending so much more time reviewing her work than that of the other engineers on the project. He responds: 'I don't have to check theirs. I know how they work. I have worked with them on other projects. You are the new kid on the block, and I want to be sure you understand the way we do things here, which may be different than your previous employer.' On another occasion, Alfreda shows Jack what she thinks is a creative design approach and will result in lower-cost system. Jack tells her: "I don't even have a PhD and I can see that that won't work. Don't be so esoteric; just stick to basic sound engineering." During a business trip with Dennis Freeman, another engineer assigned to the project who has known Jack for six years, Alfreda says she is frustrated with the way Jack treats her. 'Jack is acting more like the electronic engineer for the project than the project manager'. She tells Dennis. Besides, I have forgotten more about designing electronics than Jack ever knew . He really isn't up to date on electronic design methodologies.' She also tells Dennis that she is planning to discuss the matter with the manager of electronic engineering and that she would never have taken the job with Codework if she has known it was going to be like this. What are the main problems you can identify in this case? (10 points) What would you do differently? (10 points)

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