Finder, Minder & Grinder: The Charges and

Rebuttal
- An Analysis

FAS AA2
Dibas Kar - 17S515
Laxmi Mishra - 17S524
Nikhar Kavdia - 17S531
Siddhant Priye - 17S547
Vignesh V - 17S559
Finder, Minder & Grinder: The Charges and Rebuttal

- An Analysis

a. What is going on in this law firm? What issues are at play?

David Walker is a senior attorney in Finder, Minder and Finder who addresses an
interpersonal conflict between his two administrative assistants, namely Susan Emson
and Ramya Kumar.

 Kumar feels that Emson never gave priority to whatever work she gave to Emson.
 Emson says that Kumar hounded her with tasks and she gave her unreasonable deadlines
At the mediation meeting, Emson left the room after the heated discussion threatening to
quit if she is not reassigned.
Issues
1) Adult to Adaptive Child
Kumar addresses from her Adult Ego state to Emson’s Adult Ego State. However Emson
replies from her Adaptive/Rebellious Child state. This does not create a complimentary
transaction and hence results in conflict.
2) Expressed control and Wanted control
Based on the statements made by Kumar it can be deduced that she has a high Expressed
Control and hence the steps taken by her are accordingly. However due to Emson’s past
as an army brat, her Wanted Control can be considered low and seems to be selective,
this is evident from the fact that she was willing to work under only few lawyers. Due to
this it created a conflict when Kumar expresses control with her.
3) Johari Window Blind Spot
Both Kumar and Emson have blind spot qualities which they do not know about
themselves such as understanding priority issues or unable to explain these things clearly
as seen in the case. This also leads to a conflict between them.

b. What advice would you offer Walker? What might you have done differently?

Kumar and Emson must build a trusting relationship within one year of working together
or they will not be able to work together at all. They must build mutual trust which will in
turn help in cooperation at the workplace as in the case of Emson and Walker. They can
find common ground, which in their case is their love for different countries and cultures.
Mutual trust and influence has to be built with time and energy as in the case of Walker
and Emson, Kumar must also try and invest in building a rapport with people at the
workplace rather than only socializing with those elite circles outside the firm.

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Finder, Minder & Grinder: The Charges and Rebuttal

- An Analysis

Emson has low Wanted Control, which means she isn’t sick of the idea of being controlled
or lead by someone but that she is willing to be controlled or lead by a selective few. So,
Walker should either move her to work under someone whom she is comfortable with, or
make her adjust to Kumar by making Kumar meet her expectations.

Communication building is the key for any work relationship, thus Emson and Kumar must
express the expectations they have for one another. Moreover, instead of only imposing
ones views they must learn to see through others’ perspective i.e. lay out their
perspective and encourage inquiries or questions from the other. There is also a clear
challenge that Kumar faces in communicating with her assistants, Walker must ask
Thomas to assist her in doing so.

Emson had leaped to certain assumptions about Kumar, which she never challenged later.
She continued to build on these assumptions which led her to a false inference.
Therefore, he must encourage the spirit of inquiry in the firm as well as among Emson and
Kumar in a way that Kumar’s authority is not challenged. The consequence will be a
trusting relationship ingrained with mutual learning.

If none of these recommendations work, Walker should reassign Emson to another group
of advocates and request Thomas to help Kumar in building an effective working
relationship with her next assistant from the start.

c. How do the lessons and insights from this case apply to your work as a manager?

It is observed from the case that the interpersonal behaviour of a person is largely
developed by the experiences of his/her experiences from the past. Being an army brat,
Emson has developed into an individual who can’t tolerate anyone’s bossing around and
takes pride in what she does. Ramya was brought up in an affluent family from Delhi
which instilled an attitude of passing on orders to the subordinates. Ramya was acting in
an “Adult” ego state while instructing Emson and was expecting an “Adult” state from
Emson as mentioned earlier. Whereas, originally, Emson was replying in an
“Adaptive/Rebellious Child state” state. This was creating a conflict of Ego and was
resulting in unproductiveness and harshness of relations.
In a manager’s career it is very important to understand the background of the people
with whom he/she works. It enables in treating that person in an appropriate way. Had
Ramya tried to understand the ego state of Emson, she could have approached her with a
“Nurturing Parent” ego state and asked her if she needed some help which could have
eased the situation and also enabled both the parties achieve their work goals. It is very
important for a manager to understand the ego state of the people around and change
the interpersonal behaviour accordingly.

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