Q:

1. Identify the symptoms indicating that problems exist in this case. That is, Newbridge is the newly appointed Project Head yet Zapf seems to be taking over without any communication from Goh?
2. Diagnose the problems in this case using organizational behavior concepts (you will need to use at least 3 of a. e. below for a complete response). Organizational Behavior Concepts are:
   1. Power
   2. Conflict
   3. Leadership
   4. Effective Communication
   5. Team Dynamics
3. Recommend solutions that overcome or minimize the problems and symptoms in this case.

578 Additional Cases CASE 5: SIMMONS LABORATORIES Adapted by William Starbuck from a case written by Alex Bavelas Brandon Newbridge was sitting alone in the conference room of the laboratory. The of the group had gone. One of the secretaries had stopped and lalked for a while about her husband's coming cnrollment in graduate school and had finally left. Brandon, alone in the laboratory, slida little further down in his chair, looking with satisfaclion al | the results of the tirst test run of the new photon unit. He liked to stay after the others had gone. His appoint- ment as project head was still new enough to give him a deep sense of pleasure. Ilis eyes were on the graphs before him, but in his mind he could hear Dr. William Goh, the project head, saying again, "There's one thing about this place you can bank on. The sky is the limit for anyone who can produce!" Newbridge felt again the tingle of happiness and embarrassment. Well. Jammil, he said to himself, fie had produced. He wasn't kidding anybody. Te had come to the Simmons Laboratories two years ago. During a routine testing of some rejected Clanson components, he had slum- bled on the idea of the photon correlatot, and the rest just happened. Goh had been enthusiastic: separate project had been set up for further research and development of the device, and he had gotten the job of running it. The whole sequence of events still seemed a little miraculous to Newbridge He shrugged out of the reverie and bent determinedly over the sheets when he heard someone come into the room behind him. He looked up expectantly; Goh often stayed late himself and 110w and then dropped in for a chan. This always made the day's end especially pleasant for Brandon. The man who had entered wasn't Goh. He was a tall, thin stranger who wore steel-rimmed glasses and had a very wide leather belt with a large brass buckle. Lucy, a member of Brandon's team, later remarked that it was the kind of belt the Pilgrims must have worn. The stranger smiled and introduced himself. "I'm Lester Zapl: Are Brandon Newbridge Brandon said yes, and they shook hands. "Doctor Gobi said I might find you in. We were talking about your work, and I'm very much inter- ested in what you are doing." Brandon gestured for him lo sil. Zapf didn't seem to belong in any of the standard catego ries of visitors: customer, visiting fireman, stockholder. Brandon pointed to the structs on the table. There are the preliminary results of a test, we're running. We have a new gadget by the tail and we're trying to understand it. It's not finished, but I can show you the section we're losting." Ile stood up, but Zapf was deep in the graphs. After a moment, he looked up with an odd grin. "These look like plols of a Jennings surface. I've been playing around with some autocorrelation functions of surfaces-you know that stuff." Brandon, who had no idea what he was referring to, grinned and noduled, and immediately fell uncomfortable. "I.et me show you the nonster," he said, and led the way to the workroom Alter Zapllell, New bridge slowly put the graphs away, feeling vaguely annoyed. Then, as if he had made a deci- sion, he quickly locked up and took the long way out so that he would pass Goh's office. But the office was locked. New- bridge wondered whether Goli and Zapf had left together. The next morning, Newbridge dropped into Goh's of fice, mentioned that he had talked with Zapf, and asked who lie was. Additional Cases 579 evening. Yewbridge asked him if he thought the reports gave a clear picture of the lab's activities. "They're cxccllent," Zapf answered with obvious sincer- ity. They're not only good reports; what they report is damn good, too!" Newbridge was surprised al the relief fie felt and grow almost jovial as he said goodnight. Driving home, Newbridge felt more optimistic about Zapl's presence in the lab. He had never fully understood the analysis that Link was attempting. If there was anything wrong with Link's approach, Zapf would probably spot it. "And if I'm any judge." fie murmured, he won't be espe- cially diplomatic about it." He described Zapf to his wife, who was amused by the broad leather belt and brass buckle. "It's the kind of belt that Pilgrims must have worn." she laughed. "Sit down for a minute," Goh said. "I want to talk to you about him. What do you think of him?" Newbridge replied truthfully that he thought Zapf was very bright and proba- bly very competent. Goh looked pleased. "We're laking him on." he said. "He's had a very good background in a 1 a number of laboratories, and he sccms to have ideas about the problems we're tackling here." New- bridge nodded in agreement, instantly wishing that Zapf would not be placed with him. "I don't know yet where he will finally land," Goh con- linued, "but he seems interested in what you are doing. I thought tic might spend a little time with you by way of get- ting started." Newbridge nodded thoughtfully. "If his inter- est in your work continues, you can add him to your group." "Well, tic scemed to have some good ideas even without knowing cxactly what we are doing." Newbridge answered. "I hope he stays: we'd be glad to trave him." 1 Newbridge walked back to the lab with mixed feelings. He told himself that Zapf would be good for the group. He was no dunce; he'd produce. Newbridge thought again of Gut's promiso when he trad prunivled him,"the man who produces gets ahcad in this outfit." The words sccmcd to carry the overtones of a threat now. Thial day. Zapf didn't appear unlil miafternoon. He ex- plained that hic had had a long lunch with Goh. discussing his place in the lab. "Yes," said Newbridge, "I talked with Jerry this morning about it, and we both hougil you might work with us for a while." Zapl'smiled in the same knowing way that he had smiled when he mentioned the Jennings surfaces. "I'd like to." he said. Newbridge introduced Zapf to the other members of the lab. Zapf and Link, the group's mathemalician, hit il on well and spent the rest of the afternoon discussing a method for analyzing patterns that Link had been worrying over the last month. It was 6:30 when Vewbridge finally left the lab that night. He had waited almost eagerly for the end of the day lo come-when he would all be gone and fie could sit in the quiet rooms, relax, and think it over. "Think what over?" he asked himself. He didn't know. Shortly after 5 p.m., they had almost all gone excepl Zapl, and what followed was al most a duel. Newbridge was annoyed that he was being cheated out of his quiet period and finally resentfully deter- mined bal Zapf should leave first. Zapt was sitting at the conference table reading, and Newbridge was sitting at his desk in the little glass-enclosed cubby he used during the day when he needed to be undis- turbed. Zapf had gotten the last year's progress reports out and was studying them carefully. The time dragged. Wew- bridge doodled on a pad, the tension growing inside him. What the liell did Zapf think lie was going to find in the reports? Newbridge finally gave up and they left the lab together. Zapf took several of the reports with liim to study in the "I'm not worried about how he holds his pants up." he laughed with her. "I'm afraid that he's the kind that just has to make like a genius twice cach day. And that can be pretty rough on the group." Newbridge trad been askocp for several hours when he was jerked awake by the telephone. He realized it had rung several times. He swung off the bed muttering about damn lools and telephones. It was Zapl. Without EXCUSCS. ap- parently oblivious of the time, he plunged into an excited recital of how Link's patterning problem could be solved Newbridge covered the mouthpiece lo answer this wife's stage-whispered "Who is it?" "It's the genius," replied Newbridge. Zapl. completely ignoring the fact that it was 2:00 in the morning, went on in a very excited way to start in the mid- dle of an explanation about a completely new approach to certain photon lab problems, an approach he had stumbled on while analyzing past experiments. Newbridge managed to put some enthusiasm in his own voice and stood there, Half-Jazed and very uncomfortable, listening lu Zapf talk endlessly about what he had discovered. It was not only a new approach but also an analysis that showed the interent weakness of the previous experiment and how ex- lxerimentation along that line would certainly have been in- conclusive. The following day, Newbridge spent the entire morning will Zapf und Link, the mathematician, the cus- tomaty morning meeting of Brandon's group having been called off so that Zapf's work of the previous night could be gone over intensively, Zapf was very anxious that this be done, and Newbridge was not too unhappy to call the meet- ing off for reasons of his own. For the next several days Zapf sat in the back office that had been turned over to him and did nothing but read the progress reports of the work that had been done in the last six months. Newbridge caught himself feeling apprehensive about the reaction that. Zapf might have to some of his work. Ile was a little surprised at his own feelings. He had always been proud-although he had put on a convincingly modest face-of the way in which new ground in the study was probably 580 Additional Cases I fundamental of photon measuring devices had been broken in his group. Now he wasn't sure, and it seemed lo him that Zapi might casily show that the linc of rescarch they had been following was unsound or even unimaginative. The next morning (as was the custom) the members of the lab, including the secretarios, sat around a conference ta- ble. Brandon always prided himself on the fact that the work of the lab was guided and evaluated by the group as a whole. and he was fond of repeating that it was not a waste of time to include secretaries in such meetings. Often, what started out as a boring recital or enlal assumplions lo a naive listener, uncovered new ways of regarding these assumptions that would not have occurred to the researcher who had long ago accepled them as a necessary basis for his work, These group meetings also served Brandon in another sense. He admitted to himself that he would have felt far less secure if he had had to direct the work out of his own mini. so to speak. Will the gidup mecling as the principle of leadership, it was always possible to justify the explora- tion of blind alleys because of the general educative effect on the team. Zapl was there: Lucy and Martha were there; Link was sitting next to Zapf, their conversation concerning Link's mathematical study apparently continuing from yes- terday. The other members, Bob Davenport. Georgia Thur- low, and Arthur Oliver, were waiting quictly. Newbridge, for reasons that he didn't quite understand, pidposed for discussion this morning a problem ihal all of them had spent a great deal of time on previously with the conclusion that a solution was impossible that there was no feasible way of treating it in an experimental fashion. When Newbridge proposed the problem, Davenport remarked that there was hardly any use of going over it again, that he was satisfied that there was no way of approaching the problem with the equipment and the physical capacities of the lab This statement had the effect of a shol of adrenaline on Zapf. He said he would like to know what the problem was in detail and walking to the blackboard, began setting down the "Tactors" as various members of the group began dis- cussing the problem and simultaneously listing the reasons why it had been abandoned. Very early in the description of the problem it was evi- dent. Thar Zapf was going to disagree about the impossibility of attacking it. The group realized this, and finally the de- scriplive materials and their recounting of the reasoning that had led to its abandonment dwindled away. Zapf hegan his statement, which, as it proceeded, might well have been prepared the previous night, although Newbridge knew this was impossible. He couldn't help being impressed with the organized and logical way that Zapf was presenting ideas that must have occurred to him only a few minutes before. Tapt liad some things to say, however, which left. New bridge with a mixture of annoyance, irritation, and at the same time, a rather smug feeling of superiority over Zapf in at least one area. 7.apf held the opinion that the way that the problem had been analyzed was very typical of group thinking. With an air of sophistication that made it difficult for a listener to disscnt, he procccded to comment on the American emphasis on team ideas, satirically describing the ways in which they led lo a "high level of mediocrity." During this time. Nowbridge observed that Link stared studiously at the floor, and he was very conscious of Georgia Thurlow's and Bob Davenport's glances toward him al several points of Zapfs little speech. Inwardly. Nowbridge couldn't help feeling that this was one point at least, in which Zapl was oll on the wrong lool. The whole lab, following Jerry's load, talked if not practiced the theory of small ro search teams as the basic organization for effective research. Zap insisted that the problem could be approached and thaltic would like to study for a while himself Newbridge ended the morning session by remarking that the meetings would continue and that the very fact that a supposedly insoluble experimental problem was now going to get another chance was another indication of the value of such meetings. Zapl'immediately remarked that he was not al all averse lo meelings to inform the group about the prog- ress of its members. The point he wanted make was that creative advances were seldom accomplished in such meet- ings. they were made by an individual "living withi" problem closely and continuously. rather personal rela- tionship to it Newbridge went on to say to Zapf that he was very glad that Zapf had raised these points and that he was sure the group would profit by reexamining the basis on which they had been operating. Newbridge agreed that individual elfort was probably the basis for making major advances. Ile con- sidered the group meetings useful primarily because they kept the group together and they felped the weaker mem- bers of the group keep up with the ones who were able to advance more easily and quickly in the analysis ot problems. It was clear as days went by and meetings continued that Zapf came to enjoy them because of the pattern that the meelings assumed. Il became lypical for Zaprto hold forth, and it was unquestionably clear that he was more brilliant, better prepared on the various subjects that were germane to the problem being sludied, and more capable of going aliead than anyone there. Newbridge grew increasingly dis- turbed as he realized that his leadership of the group had been, in fact, laken over. Whenever the subject of Zapt was mentioned in occa- sional meerings with Dr. Goh, Sewbridge would comment only on the ability and obvious capacity for work ihal Zapl had. Somehow he 11ever felt that he could mention his own discomforts, not only because they revealed a weakness on his part but also because it was quite clear that Goh himself was considerably impressed with Zapf's work and with the contacts he had with him outside the photon laboratory. Newbridge now began to feel that perhaps the intellectual advantages that Zapf had brought to the group did not quite Additional Cases 581 compensate for what he felt were evidences of a breakdown in the cooperative spiril fie bad seen in the group before Zapf's coming. More and more of the morning mectings were skipped. Zapf's opinion concerning the abilities of others of The group, except for Link, was obviously low. Al limes dur- ing morning mectings or in smaller discussions his conversa tion bordered on rudeness, refusing to pursue an argument when he claimed it was based on another person's ignorance of the facts involved. His impatience of others los him to also make similar remarks to Dr. Goh. Newbridge inferred this from a conversalion with Goh in which Goh asked whether Davenport and Oliver were going to be continued on; and his failure to mention Link, the mathematician, led Newbridge lo leel that this was the result of privale conversations belwcen Zapland Goh. It was not difficult for Newbridge to make a quite con- vincing case on whether the brilliance of Zapf was sulfu cient recompense for the beginning of this breaking up of the group. He spoke privately with Davenport and with Oli- ver, and it was quite clear that both of them were uncom- fortable because of Zapf. Newbridge didn't press the discussion beyond the point of hearing them say that they did feel awkward and that it was sometimes difficult to un- derstand the cals advanced, but often embar- rassing to ask him to fill in the basis for his arguments, Newbridge did not interview Link in this manner. About six monttis after Zapl's coming into the prolon lb, a meeting was scheduled in which the sponsors of the research were coming to get some idea of the work and its progress. It was customary at these meelings for project heads to present the research being conducted in their groups. The members of each group were invited to other meelings that were held later in the day and open lo all, but the special meetings were usually made up only of project. heads, the head of the laboratory, and the sponsors As the time for the special meeting approached, it seemed to Newbridge that he must, avoid the presentation at all cost. His reasons for this were that he could not trust finsell to present the icleas and work trial Zapf had adl- vanced because of his apprehension about whether he could present them in sufficient detail and answer such questions about them as might be asked. On the other hand, he did not feel he could ignore these newer lines of work and present only the material that he had done or that had been started before Zapl's arrival. He felt also thil it would not be beyond Zapf at all, in his blunt and undiplomatic way-if he were at the meeting, that is to comment on his Newbriclge's presentation and reveal Newbridge's inade quacy. It also seemed quite clear that it would not be easy to keep Zapf from attending the meeting, even though he was not on the administrative level of those invited. Newbridge found an opportunity to speak to Goh and raised the question. lle told Goh that, with the meetings coming up and with the interest in the work and with Zapf's contributions to the work, Zapf would probably like to come to the meetings, but there was a question of how the others in the group would feel if only Zap were invited. Goh passed this over very lightly by saying that he didn't think the group would fail to understand Zapf's rather dif- ferent position and that Zapf certainly should be invited. Newbridge immediately said he agreed: Zapf should pres- ent the work because much of it was work he had done, and this would be a nice way to recognize Zapl's contributions and to reward him. because he was cager to be recognized as a productive member of the lab. Goh agreed, and so the maller was decided. Zapl's presentation was very successful and in some ways dominated the meeting. He attracted the interest and altention of many of those who had come, and a long dis- cussion followed his presentation. Later in the evening- with the entire laboratory staff present in the cocktail period before the dinner, a little circle of people formed aboul Zapf. One of them was Goh himself, and a lively dis- cussion took place concerning the application of Zapi's theory. All of this disturbed Newbridge, and his reaction and behavior were characteristic. He joined the circle, praised Zapf to Goh and to others, and remarked on the brilliance of the work Newbridge. without consulting anyone, began this time to take some interest in the possibility of a job cise- where. After a few weeks he found that a new laboratory of considerable size was being organized in a nearby city and that the kind of training he had would enable him to get a project bead ad job equivalent to the one he had at the lab, but with slightly more money. lle immediately accepted it and notified Goh by letter, which he mailed on a Friday night to Goh's home. The letter was quite briel, and Gut was stunned. The leller merely said that he had found a better position, that he didn't want to ap pear at the lab any more for personal reasons that he would be glad to come back at a later time lo assist if there was any past work; that he felt sure Zapf could supply any leadership that the group required; and that his decision to leave so suddenly was based on personal problems-he hinted ar problems of health in his family, his mother and fa- ther. All of this was fictitious, of course. Goh took it at face value but still felt that this was very strange behavior and quite unaccountable, for he had always felt his relationship with Wewbridge had been warm and that Newbridge was sat- isle and, fact, quite happy and productive. Gol was considerably disturbed, because he had already decided to place Zapf in charge of another project that was going to be set up very soon. He had been wondering how to explain this to Vewbridge, in view of the olvious help Newbridge was getting from Zapf and the high regard that Newbridge must have felt toward Zapr. Goh had, indeed, considered the possibility that Newbridge could add to his staff another person with the kind of background and training that had been unique in Zapf and had proved so mix-up in the valuable. 582 Additional Cases Goh did not make any attempt to meet Newbridge. In a way, bie leli a grieved about the whole thing. Zapl. too, was surprised at the sudden css of Newbridge's departurc. When Goh asked Zapf whether he preferred to stay with The photon group instead of the new project for the Air Force, he chose the Air Force project and went on to that job the following work. The photon lab was hard til. The leadership of the lab was given to Link with the understand- ing that this would be temporary until someone could come in lo lake over