In March 2020, Annie Aroosa a third-year student studying Management and Finance at Northeastern University, accepted a internship/coop position in the Accounting Department at one of the major hospitals in Boston, Massachusetts. Ms. Aroosa was able to take advantage of personal connections with high-ranking executives, including Mary Bernard, the Senior Vice President of Operations at the hospital. Bernard was responsible for hiring interns/coops and she hired Aroosa into the internship bypassing Human Resources.

In preparing to start the internship, Aroosa reached out to a final year student (Albert Rogers) who has been offered a full-time position at the hospital. Rogers advised her that the internship is divided into two parts, a classroom portion, and a portion where she will be assigned to one of the Directors within the Finance Department. He advised her that the classroom portion is easy, and she should use the time to network as much as possible.

The internship started badly, as Ms. Bernard who hired her was leaving the organization. In the third week of the internship, Ms. Aroosa was accused of "networking up" and treated the administrative assistants and junior accountants very poorly. She also failed to develop good working relationships with other interns, who all socialized together. In the closing days of the classroom portion of the program, she was criticized for being a poor fit to the corporate culture and for breaking specific rules, such as arriving late for class and always checking her phone during class.

Then, by the first week in April, all workers were asked to work from remotely from home due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. During this remote work assignment, she was assigned to the Director of Finance. She immersed herself in the work, but despite her efforts, the Director used her previous classroom review as part of her evaluation. She continued working hard during the rest of her internship and other supervisors referred to her as the 'comeback kid'. But, during her final evaluation, the Director of Finance did not participate in the meeting. This left Annie Aroosa uncertain whether she would receive a job offer.

Important characteristics of a manager are the ability to solve complex problems, partner, collaborate, negotiate, and work with others within an organization in order to achieve a common goal. To stimulate this real-world environment, students will analyze the impact of varying organizational decisions and dynamics on employee and management behavior through the analysis of this case study.

Please use the Case Study Analysis Format below to analyze and present the case study. There are some questions also below that can be used ONLY to help in your analysis of the case study.

The case study format below will be adopted in analyzing the case.

• CASE SUMMARY: Brief analysis/summary of the case
• PROBLEM(S): Identified problem(s)/issue(s) - something important happened and there is no explanation for it - e.g., an accounts manager notices that a few of their good customers have large accounts payable balances
• SOLUTION(S): Solution(s) of identified problem(s)/issue(s) - the best strategy that can be used to solve the problem(s). Should create more benefits and has fewer or less severe downsides
• RECOMMENDATION(S): Recommendation: what would you recommend in solving this problem by reviewing the solution(s) you have the most confidence in - determine if they seem weak or strong. Apply the one(s) that has the most evidence in relation of the point of view in the case. What are the reasons for the preference?
• CONCLUSION: including implementation of the recommendation(s) and/or contingency plan

Objective:

Understand how and why of office politics

Reading Organizational Culture

Evaluating power dynamics within an organization

Managing social networks

Use these Questions as Guidelines in analyzing the case.

What are Aroosa's goals?

Who are Aroosa's allies and enemies?

What power do they hold to facilitate or obstruct her goals?

What happens to office politics when there is no office?

How should we handle office politics?