Read the case study below and answer the questions that follow

WHEN THE MANAGER IS THE PROBLEM

We try to address conflict as it comes up, before resentments and problems have had time to fester, Janet said, dealing with conflict can be really tricky. For example, we had a situation where the boss was causing problems and her employees were having a difficult time dealing with her. We didnt find out about it for a couple of years because employees were afraid to open their mouths, she continued, When the problem is a manager, this presents a unique set of problems for employees. Fear of reprisal is the number one reason employees cite for not coming forward with employee/manager workplace issues. And sadly, they may be correct in assuming that their managers will take it out on them if they find out that employees have been saying things behind their backs. Retaliation can be difficult to prove if it doesnt involve whistle blowing or harassment, and no one else comes forward with complaints. In the case of this manager, we later learned that she had terrible people skills. Often engineers or other technologists are promoted to the level of manager, but these individuals often lack any kind of people skills. Often they are promoted because they are the star pupil, but it sometimes is not a good fit, and can be a disaster. This manager used retaliatory practices to get back at employees who complained about her. People would complain that she would berate them in front of other employees during staff meetings. She played favourites among the employees, granting special privileges to those individuals whom she liked. Other employees called these people suck ups. Her team suffered from low morale, and would transfer out of her area as soon as another opportunity presented itself. The high turnover rate was noticed by HR, but she always had a plausible reason why someone did not work out. Finally, an incident occurred that broke the issue wide open and other employees decided to come forward with their complaints. There was a very capable engineer on her team who was well liked and respected by other team members. He was responsible for resolving all the difficult cases. (The team was in the software support division where troubleshooting customers issues was part of the job.) The job involved talking to customers on the phone and resolving software problems. Call times and problem resolution issues were logged on a monthly basis. Because this employee took on complicated cases, his resolution times were longer than the other employees, as you might imagine. This had never been a problem in the past, because everyone knew he fixed the really difficult problems. He also was the project manager of many projects they undertook in IT. Other engineers came to him when they couldnt fix something, and he always resolved their issues as well. When this manager was hired on to this team, there was immediate conflict between the two. And to make a long story short, the manager decided to get rid of this engineer, citing his call times and issue resolution times were too long. He wasnt even placed on an employee improvement plan standard protocol in the company for underperforming employees. However, everyone knew that she fired him because she didnt like him. This caused more fear, yes, but it also caused resentment. Employees no longer had an experienced mentor they could go to for help with difficult cases. Call times went up for everyone, and so did the amount of time it took to resolve issues. Calls stayed longer in the queue as well. The effect backfired on her, because she now had the highest turnover rate in the Support Division. We started hearing from other employees about her lack of people skills and other issues. Finally, upper management decided to move her to a position where she could use her technical skills, but she wouldnt have employees reporting to her. The company cant afford to keep training new employees, so this was deemed a workable solution, since she had proven skills that could benefit the company.

1.2. The identification of stakeholders in the project cannot be accurate unless project teams and management are aware of and have a clear understanding of stakeholders influential attributes. Discuss your understanding of the below stakeholders influential attributes to assist Janet and her team better manage all their stakeholders. (20 Marks)

a) Power (4)

b) Legitimacy (4)

c) Urgency (4)

d) Interest (4)

e) Proximity (4)