Situation $2$: Accounting Professional

Shawn Quinn came to his organization a year ago as a senior accounting professional to support the Headquarters. He believed the position might be a way for him to achieve considerable visibility with the top brass, but instead he felt isolated and forgotten. As a staff office, he had almost no decision$-$making authority except In his narrow area of expertise. Most of what went on in the organization occurred without his involvement. Innovation and entrepreneurial activity were completely out of his realm. While some of the finance and marketing officers were given opportunities for professional development, no one seemed to care about his becoming more experienced and capable. They saw him only as a specialist. Because his job didn$$t necessarily require that he interact with people outside of his division, he had little opportunity to cultivate relationships that might lead to contact with someone near the top.

What hurt was a consultant had been hire a few times to work on projects in his area of responsibility. If consultants could be brought in to do his work, he thought, he must not be very important to the company. Shawm found himself being more and more turf conscious. He didn$$t want others encroaching on his area of expertise. He tried to demonstrate his competence to others, but the more he did so$,$ the more he became defined as a specialist, outside the mainstream of the firm. Overall, he felt he was losing ground in his career.