Jones 1

Lisa Benton Case Study

Executive Summary

Lisa Benton is a Harvard MBA who had completed a very successful internship with Right-

Away stores, a convenience store chain in Chicago. Although she was offered an attractive position at

Right-Away, Benton chose to accept a lower-paying, more junior position at Houseworld because of the

company’s greater prestige and reputation for offering excellent classical marketing training in a

structured environment. Benton had met several members of the Houseworld product management team

during the recruiting process and been impressed with how knowledgeable and friendly they were.

However, Benton’s first day of work as an assistant product manager in the Home Care division did not

match her expectations.

Benton’s new boss, Deborah Linton, offered a cool reception. Linton made clear during their

first meeting with Benton that she didn’t like Harvard MBAs and gave the impression that she had no

time to help train and orient her new employee. Instead, Benton was shown around by Linton’s other

report, associate product manager Ron Scoville, who struck her as condescending and also derisive of

MBAs.

During her first weeks at Houseworld, Benton developed a good relationship with others in the

company. However, she continued to be frustrated by her team. She was consistently relegated to

analysis and excluded from strategy and, as such, felt that her talents and training were not being fully

utilized. Benton was also troubled by her boss’s lack of interest in her development and noted that

Linton seemed preoccupied with other matters.

When Benton pressed her boss for her three month performance review, Linton notes included

feedback that she was not assertive enough and did not take initiative. Benton felt frustrated that her

strengths were not identified and that she received negative feedback as a result of conflicting messages

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she’d received from Scoville, who had repeatedly emphasized her role as learner. Concerned that

conflicts with her team might jeopardize her future career, Benton questioned whether she should

request a transfer to another department or admit that the job at Houseworld was a mistake and try to

return to Right-Away.i

Analysis

Although it’s clear that Linton and Scoville’s management styles leave much to be desired,

Benton exacerbated their deficiencies by failing take full responsibility for managing her boss. Although

she felt that performance review feedback was unfair, there is evidence that Benton had not been

assertive in her approach to her new job. On her second day at Houseworld, Benton wanted to approach

Linton with questions but demurred when she saw her boss in an intimate meeting with Scoville. By

approaching Scoville with her questions later that day, Benton added to the barriers between her and her

boss and unintentionally gave Scoville the role of intermediary despite the fact that Linton had made it

clear that Benton reported to her. During her first two weeks, “even when she did have an opinion…

Benton usually deferred to Scoville and Linton” as she “thought it best to be quiet and act like a

learner.”ii While it’s true that Scoville had encouraged her to act like a learner, Benton never questioned

this advice.

This leads to the second mistake Benton made during her first weeks at Houseworld:

overestimating Linton’s knowledge of the situation and making assumptions about her expectations. In

Managing Your Boss Gabarro and Kotter assert that “the subordinate who passively assumes that he or

she knows what the boss expects is in for trouble.”iii Benton passively and incorrectly assumed that

Linton had the same expectations as Scoville and wanted her to act like a learner. Similarly, when

Benton was assigned to handling the menial task of securing artwork approval, she “assumed this boring

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task was just another part of being an assistant”iv rather than clarifying the expectations associated with

her position.

In addition to making assumptions about her boss’s expectations, Benton frequently failed to

adequately express her expectations of Linton. As Gabarro and Kotter note, “Developing a workable set

of mutual expectations also requires that you communicate your own expectations to the boss, find out if

they are realistic, and influence the boss to accept the ones that are important to you.”v Benton felt that

Linton should have acted as a buffer between her and Scoville but, rather than expressing this, she “felt

there was no point in arguing”vi about how best to address the conflict between the coworkers.

On the few occasions where Benton did express her expectations she saw positive results. For

example, on the two occasions that Benton made clear to Scoville how she felt about his behavior – after

the typing incident and yelling incident – Scoville apologized and admitted he didn’t that he didn’t know

how bad his behavior was. Also, following her performance review, she asked Linton to define

responsibilities that were separate from Scoville’s and Linton agreed.

These successes are all characterized by open communication and this is the area where Benton

had the most opportunity to improve her situation. Too often Benton received competing messages –

such as Scoville’s casting her in the role of learner while Linton wanted her to be more aggressive or

Vernon insisting she avoid clerical tasks while Linton considered such work an occasional necessity –

but did not work to involve all parties in a resolution. For example, after speaking to both Vernon and

Linton in the wake of the typing incident, Benton was “still not sure what she should do in future

situations.”vii Rather than deciding to simply follow Vernon’s advice, I would have encouraged Benton

to discuss best practices with both parties to prevent a future conflict. I definitely believe that Benton

was correct in emphasizing loyalty to her boss but in many ways the job of a product manager is to

facilitate this type of open discussion and clarification of objectives. Honesty and open communication

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benefit the organization as a whole. Similarly, when Vernon noticed she was unhappy and encouraged

Benton to air any concerns, she should have been more forthcoming about her frustration rather than

withholding information from Vernon. As a top manager, Vernon cannot understand every detail in

organization but the conflict within the Pure & Fresh team had the potential to affect overall business

productivity. Vernon could benefit from access to the information. If Lisa could have candidly reflected

on her situation, she could have helped Vernon deal with the morale issue while solving her own

problems.

Overall, Benton’s interpersonal skills are excellent as evidenced by her successful relationships

with other staff at Houseworld. However, a transition to a new environment and especially challenging

managers such as Linton and Scoville helped reveal areas for improvement.

Evaluation of Alternatives

Benton has three options for dealing with her situation at Houseworld: she can ask Vernon for to

be transferred to another brand, leave Houseworld and accept the offer from Right-Away, or continue

working with Linton and Scoville at Pure & Fresh.

Benton is concerned that her slow start at Houseworld may negatively affect her prospects for

promotion. If this is the case, her career would benefit from asking Vernon for a transfer to another

brand with more compatible managers. However, as far as Benton knows, no assistant product manager

has ever asked to be reassigned and the unusual request may alienate her superiors, peer and especially

Linton and Scoville. This alternative will likely cast Benton as someone who isn’t able to address

conflict and instead seeks to avoid it. Such a reputation may further hinder her success at Houseworld.

Another option is to contact Right-Away stores, admit that she made a mistake by accepting the

job at Houseworld, and try to take the position they had originally offered her. Based on her relationship

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with the President and the feedback from a former colleague, she would still be welcome at Right-Away.

The advantage of this alternative is that Benton knows she is a good fit for the culture and gets along

well with the staff at Right-Away. The salary is higher and, in past conversations, the president indicated

that Benton could expect to be promoted to Vice President within a few years. However, Benton’s initial

reasons for not accepting the position still apply: less glamorous, small company, no women managers,

uncertainty about her relationship with the Vice President of Operations to whom she would be

reporting, etc.

Finally, Benton could persevere in her current position. The primary disadvantage of this

alternative is that she will likely need to continue working with Linton and Scoville for at least 9 more

months and risks continuing to feel frustrated and underused during that time. A colleague who had been

trained by Linton the previous year admitted that he was doing “doubletime” to make up for the poor

training and Benton could find herself similarly disadvantaged. However, because product managers at

Houseworld generally moved assignments every 12-18 months, her situation was temporary.

Recommendation

I would recommend that Benton remain in her current position at Houseworld and use the time

as an opportunity to hone her abilities to manage her boss. While Linton hasn’t showed much interest in

helping Benton succeed at the company, there have been some improvements in their relationship as a

result of the time Benton openly communicated her needs and expectations. Similarly, her relationship

with Scoville has at least superficially improved since his apology over drinks following the yelling

incident. While Scoville is unlikely to be an ally in the future, the entire office is aware of his

management deficiencies and he has little ability to hold Benton back if she is willing and able to reduce

her dependence on him. Most importantly, Houseworld still offers the benefits that encouraged her to

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accept the position in the first place. Although she may be set back a year by her inauspicious

beginnings, the company still offers a faster track to product manager (2-3 years versus the 4-5 industry

standard) and training opportunities.

Case Update

In November, Benton learned that Linton had been job hunting during her entire tenure at

Houseworld which helped explain why she showed so little commitment to Benton’s training. Shortly

after Linton’s departure, Scoville also left the company. Scoville was told that the yelling incident was

the end of his career at Houseworld and Vernon noted that he had “not worked out” at the company. The

new Pure & Fresh product manager knew little about the brand and had to rely on Benton’s experience.

This encouraged Benton to take control during meetings.viii

A year after joining Houseworld, Benton was promoted to associate product manager. A year

later, she was made product manager despite the fact that the average time to become product manager

in her division was three years. This outcome supports Benton’s belief that Scoville and Linton were

largely responsible for her problems at the company.ix Nevertheless, the challenges that she encountered

her first year undoubtedly provided a valuable learning opportunity that helped Benton understand the

importance of managing her boss in the future.

i Hill, Linda A. and Weber, Katherine S. Lisa Benton (A). Boston: Harvard Business Publishing, 18 March 1994.

ii Ibid. p. 6.

iii Gabarro, John J. and Kotter, John P. Managing Your Boss. Best of HBR. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing, January 2005.

iv Ibid. p.6.

v Gabarro.

vi Hill. Lisa Benton (A). p. 9.

vii Ibid.

viii Hill, Linda A. and Weber, Katherine S. Lisa Benton (B). Boston: Harvard Business Publishing, 18 March 1994.

ix Ibid.