53 Nitish@ Solutions unlimited

Problem statement:
How can Nitish ensure that his career prospects are not hampered and gets opportunities to
exploit his potential and prior experience?

PESTCL Analysis:
Factors
Political

Economic

Social

In the case
Impact on solving the problem
Friendship with Arvind and his wife who have been working in the
existing
organisation have been instrumental in getting
employees
him the job. And this reference has been impactful
Vacant key
for him getting the job.

Due
to the absence of top management in the
positions
Decentralised
hierarchy, there is distress in the lower order of
the company which lacks resolution as of now.
structure
It is very evident that existing personnel for HR
Salary issues
has been partial towards compensating for what
had been promised to Nitish. He was promised to
pay 100% severance and travel for whole family,
which has not been fulfilled. Additionally, it was
seen that the initial CTC of 2.55 INR, that was
quoted to him turned out to be way below his
capabilities and expectations, whose negotiation
led to a rift between Meena and Nitish. She lacked
human touch, which is a major cause of this
problem.
Work
Multiple employees like Mr. Alagu share a good
environment
rapport with Meena, the HR. So this turns against
Hygiene factors
Nitish.
Conflict of roles Grapevine among the existing employees is also
responsible for the current situation.
Informal groups
Lack of sensitivity towards new employee impacts
the role and responsibility of the employee.
Meena, the HR, is from operations. She hasnt been
trained for handling personnel, and most probably
not a personality to handle human personnel.
Consistent inflexibility by Meena towards
improving relations with Nitish also contributes to
the ever increasing problems with them.

 Technological
Cultural

Legal

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

N/A
N/A
Goal conflicts
The organisation is re positioning itself. An image
Power Distance
makeover is what we are looking at. And the
change in the overall culture of the company
generally takes a lot of time, which can also be
another factor because people are not as flexible
as we think they are.
Travel allowance The promises made were not conveyed in written.
policy
And there was miscommunication which wasnt
clarified on time. This had impacted the
relationship between Meena and Nitish.

Strengths:
Sound technical educational background.
Exposure to cutting edge technology in banking sector.
Experience in preparing bids for projects.
Good natured, happy-go-lucky, cheerful and friendly person.
Good technical skills, analytical ability and willingness and ability to contribute in projects.
Weaknesses:

1. Unwillingness to work as software programmer.

2. Nitish worried too much, instead of talking straight to Meena and Venkat, he thought of ignoring
the issue. Instead, he could have talked to them and tried to settle the issue.
3. He should have dealt with more professionalism and be more formal with the HR folks until they
both understood him completely.
4. He was not vocal enough to explain in detail what he intended to say and mean.
Opportunities:
1. Having worked in a lot of diversified projects, within the domain of Finance and IT, he had good
deliverables in the project. His work was appreciated by his seniors and could anticipate
appraisals and promotions.
2. Make an effort to reconcile with Meena by approaching her in the best possible way.
3. Leave the company and look for another job opportunity after completing his project in Nagpur.
Threats:
1. If Nitish decides to stay in the company and keep tolerating Meenas indifference towards him he
would be able to maintain peace and harmony at his workplace, however this might hurt his
already bruised ego.
2. If Nitish decides to quit the company and look for another job, he might have to deal with the
financial stress associated with this transition.
3. If Nitishs reconciliation efforts are not successful it might have serious repercussions on Nitishs
equations with his colleagues and senior management.

Identified factors:
Position of power: Meena was at Operations officer level 2 and was also taking care of HR
department as the HR head position was vacant. Nitish had recently joined the company and
was reporting to Meena for the related issues. It is seen from the case that Nitish had not given
importance to Meena and Venkat that Meena had expected from a new entrant. Meena was
reporting to Operations head Alagu who was also of the opinion that Nitish was demanding and
did not try to mesh with organization norms. Meenas biases towards Nitish in several occasions
(passport issue, project allocation) proved that she commanded a position of respect and power
for herself and was using her power to dominate the decisions related to HR issues.

Need for affiliation: We see that Nitish had a strong desire for affiliation while the Meena had
desire for Power. Nistishs desire of affiliation was never satisfied because organizations policy
and norms were not in line with it. While Nitish never had anything against dominant attitude of
Meena, he always wanted a free and organic organization culture and not a mechanistic one.

Role Theory: Role theory specify how an individual in an organization sees his position of
work in an organization. In the case we see that Nitish had role ambiguity. He was not assigned
a project and was currently helping other groups in their projects. On several occasions he was
not allowed to continue in the project he was currently working on. There was also a role
conflict seen among the various department. The HR department has vacancies and the
operations department was filling in for that department. The members were not trained for the
multiple jobs given to them. The lack of HR judgment created several problems with the HR
department and the new employee.

Organizational culture (Subcultures): Nitish was told that the organization is very organic
and free culture. But it turned out to be very mechanistic and improperly structured. The
hierarchy suggest that there is a need for HR with specific skills in order to implement company
policy properly. But the informal culture created a barrier in the proper communication of the
members.
Nitish was never informed about several decision taken against him. The only way he became
aware of the decision was through grapevine communication or through his mentor. This
created a feeling of demotivation for Nitish which was difficult for him to workout.

Informal groups: We find that there are two groups formed in the organization. The first group
involved Nitish, his friends Arvind, Vidya and his mentor. The other group had Meena, Venkat
and Alagu. These groups were formed because Nitish did not accept the power distance and
cultural factors of the organization. It was taken by Meena and Alagu in wrong way. This led to
several communication problems between the groups.

Organizational structure: Due to adhocracy and policy ambiguity, there were several
occasions where the decentralized structure created problems in decision making. In the
beginning of the case it is seen that Meena took the decision on salary and designation (for
Nitish) without any consultation. When policies are not clear a decentralized organization
structure causes improper decisions.

Information asymmetry: The company policies were not defined properly and also there was
lack of awareness among employees about policies which resulted in mismatch of promise done
by Venkat to Nitish for severance and spouse travelling and in defined policies. The other reason
of information asymmetry is role ambiguity and lack of skills as operations Officer doing the
role of HR. Information asymmetry can be reduced by proper awareness training of polices and
filling the vacant position of HR as soon as possible.

Power distance: The issue of power distance arise because of lack of willingness by Nitish to
accept status and power differences of Meena which made Meena felt for lacking in position of
power.
Span of control: The span of control of Mr. Manish Chawla was very wide. Due to this, he was
unaware of various issues facing by the employees and made him unapproachable.
Skill based pay: Despite of high qualification and relevant work experience, Meena did not
offer Nitish the salary based on his skill. If she would had offered the skill based pay on first
hand, the conflict would not had severed.
Maslow hierarchy needs: The problem originated because of safety and security needs of
Nitish. Nitish was unhappy with the earlier offered salary and offered severance which resulted
into the intervention by Mr. Kapoor into this matter due to which Meena got offended and felt
the lack of position of power.
Inter-group conflict: Due to formation of two informal groups in Solutions unlimited, one is of
Nitish, Arvind and Mr. Kapoor and other of Meena, Venkat and Mr. Alagu, the inter-group
conflict aroused. The issue of inter-group conflict aggravates due to poor formation of
organizational polices resulting in information asymmetry and differences between Meena and
Nitish.

Constraints:
The major constraint they faced was their complex employee referral policy. Solutions
Unlimited being a small firm, with not many employees required to ease its employee referral
policy structure. Due to this, they could not hire employees for the other 2 vacant position of

HR. It would be good, if the employees sort out their differences which will help the firm in the
long run to grow.
Alternatives:
1. Status quo :
Nitish should continue to work in same manner and hope for Meenas mind to change. This
would hurt his ego but it would help him to retain his job and the pay he was offered. With time,
Meenas mind might change and Nitish could also end up receiving other interesting offers that
would enable him to use his previous experiences and expertise. However, this could take a long
time during which Nitish could have used his skills to climb up the ladder.
Need very many justifications for this option. Can be but in rare occasions
2. Resolving the issue:
He can have a one to one meeting with Meena and also a meeting with other heads in order to
sort things out. By doing this, he can satisfy the need for power and position desired by Meena.
There should be well defined roles for each position and well-defined policies. Awareness
training on policies is also required so that there will be no information asymmetry in
organization. These aspects should be covered in the meeting.
3. Quit and look out for a new job :
He can quit this job and try looking out for other avenues in other companies through his
friends. This will let him hold his ego and he would not be tormented by Meenas actions and
can start a new professional life all afresh. However, he would lose all the knowledge he gained
in Solutions Unlimited and would also lead to a black mark in his profile as he would be
quitting the job within months of joining.
Recommendations:
The most viable option for Nitish would be resolving the issue. By doing this, he would not
waste time waiting for her mind to change. This could also show him a new path to build his
career in the company with other new projects that excite him. By choosing this option, he does
not lose the pay he was offered and can comfortably lead a life as he has already re-located.
The first option is not viable because he would have to wait for a long time and even after that
we do not know if Meena would change her mind.
Similarly, the third option is also not advisable since it would make him lose his current pay and
throw a black mark in his profile.
Outline Plan:
With the decision being that, Nitish has to reconcile with Meena, the following plan would be
one of the best possible ways to do the same.
First Month: The company has to formulate its polices very clearly and make all the
employees aware of the same, so that no miscommunication takes place.

The company must also do a cost benefit analysis to decide, is it good to hire a proper HR
Manager or train the existing ones for the same roles as they are more of operations managers
than HR. This has to be done so that there are better interpersonal relationships within the
company.

In 3 Months: The company must now be sure of either to hire or to conduct training for its
employees for the HR side. If the company has decided to give training to its employees, then it
has to make sure about the reputed trainers available in the market and should have shortlisted
the best one to train its employees.
If they are planning to hire HRs, then they will have to let go of their complex recommendation
policy. The recommendation structure works well for big and well-known companies more than
it does for a small and growing firm like Solutions Unlimited.
In a Year: The company should have hired the HR managers or should have well trained
employees with good interpersonal skills and good knowledge about the company policies on
the whole.
By this time, Nitish must also get adjusted to the company environment and should stop
demanding things, without the knowledge about the policies.