Cornelius Torres, a Latin American man, was highly sought after receiving his PhD in accounting. Today, he is a tenured professor at a small teaching college in the Midwest. The Department of Accounting (DA) has ten faculty members; it is one of six departments in the Wilma School of Business (SB). The accounting department chair is Hermione Gomez, who is in her first year as chair. Five faculty members, including Jose, have been in the department longer than Hermione. Hermione likes to have policies in place so that faculty members have guides for their behaviour. On the college-wide level, however, there is no policy about the job of a graduate assistant. Hermione asked the dean of the SB about the policy. After a discussion with the vice president for academic affairs, the dean told Hermione that there was no policy. The vice president and dean suggested letting the individual departments develop their own policy regarding what graduate assistants can and cannot do in their position. So, Hermione made developing a policy for graduate assistants an agenda item for the department meeting.

During the DA meeting, Hermione asked for members' views on what graduate assistants should and should not be allowed to do. She was hoping that the department could come to a consensus on a policy. It turns out that Cornelius was the only faculty member using graduate assistants to grade exams. Two other faculty members speak out against having graduate assistants grade exams. They believe it is the professor's job to grade exams. Cornelius makes a few statements in hopes of not having to correct his own exams. Because his exams are objective, requiring a correct answer, Cornelius believes it's not necessary for him to personally grade the exams. He also points out that across the campus and the country, other faculty members are using graduate assistants to teach entire courses and to correct subjective papers and exams. Cornelius states that he does not think it fair that he can no longer use graduate assistants to grade objective exams when others are doing so. He also states that the department does not need a policy and requests that the department not set a policy. However, Hermione states that she wants a policy. Cornelius is the only one to speak in favour of allowing graduate assistants to grade exams, although three others made no comments either way. But, after the meeting, one other member, Atilla Mandrake, who said nothing during the meeting, tells Cornelius he agrees that it is not fair to deny him this use of a graduate assistant.

There was no department consensus, as Hermione hoped there would be. She said she would draft a department policy, which will be discussed at a future DA meeting. The next day, Cornelius sent a memo to department members asking if it was ethical and legal to deny him the same resources others were using across the campus. Cornelius also states that if the department states that he can no longer use graduate assistants to correct objective exams, he will appeal the policy decision to the dean, vice president, and president.

Questions

1. (a) What source of power does Hermione have, and (b) what type of power is she using? (c) Which influencing tactic is Hermione using during the meeting? (d) Is negotiation and/or the (e) exchange tactic appropriate in this situation?

2. (a) What source of power does Cornelius have, and (b) what type of power is he using during the meeting? (c) Which two influencing tactics is Cornelius primarily using during the meeting? (d) Which influencing tactic is Cornelius using with the memo? (e) Is the memo a wise political move for Cornelius? What might he gain and lose by sending it?

3. What would you do if you were Hermione? (a) Would you talk to the dean, letting her know that Cornelius said he would appeal the policy decision? (b) Which influencing tactic would this discussion involve? (c) Which political behaviour would the discussion represent? (d) Would you draft a policy directly stating that graduate assistants cannot be used to grade objective exams? (e) Would your answer to (d) be influenced by your answer to (a)?

4. (a) If you were Cornelius, knowing you had no verbal supporters during the meeting, would you have continued to defend your position or agreed to stop using a graduate assistant? (b) What do you think of Cornelius sending the memo? (c) As a tenured full professor, Cornelius is secure in his job. Would your answer change if you (as Cornelius) had not received tenure or promotion to the top rank?

5. (a) If you were Cornelius and Hermione to draft a policy and department members agreed with it, what would you do? Would you appeal the decision to the dean? (b) Again, would your answer change if you had not received tenure or promotion to the top rank?

6. If you were the dean of the Wilma School of Business (WSB), knowing that the vice president does not want to set a college-wide policy, and Cornelius appealed to you, what would you do? Would you develop a school-wide

policy for WSB?

7. (a) Should Atilla Mandrake have spoken up in defense of Cornelius during the meeting? (b) If you were Cornelius, would you have taken Cornelius's side against the other seven members? (c) Would your answer change if you were or were not friends with Cornelius and if you were or were not a tenured full professor?