← Lisa Benton Case Summary

In my opinion, the Lisa Benton case study is really not that important (sorry). The major point is boss-subordinate relationships and, by extensions, interpersonal relationships period. Regardless, the story is kind of interesting (and not because it was the only case study in which major characters were more than likely getting it on). The summary is as follows: while Lisa Benton she attended Harvard Business School, worked as the first female manager for Right-Away stores, a company where she won accolades for her “roll-up-your sleeves” approach and charmed the president, Scott Kingston, so much that he offered her a full-time job at Right-Away stores after she graduated. However, she was also offered a job at Houseworld’s Care Division, appealing because of its classical and famous excellent marketing training. She chose to turn down the higher salary and a bigger position partly because of her worries of taking on too much responsibility and partly because of Right-Away’s rundown warehouse and lack of other female manager and, instead, joined Houseworld. At Houseworld, she was charmed by the friendly and professional people she met initially but ended up under Deborah Linton, who immediately made it clear she was biased against Harvard MBAs. The friendly people she had met didn’t remember her name, she felt the reception from her boss was “cool and disinterested,” and, to make matters worse, her Associate Product Manager, Ron Scoville, was condescending. She was also working on a product, Pure & Fresh, she felt was unnecessary. What follows in the case study is a series of run-ins and experiences with Scoville and Linton, where pretty much each time Benton feels overshadowed, overwhelmed, and unwanted. This leads to the end of the case study, where she considers calling back Right-Away Stores President Kingston and telling she made a mistake.

The point of the whole case is, ultimately, the personalities. Linton, Benton’s boss, obviously has an inferiority complex. She never understands Benton and is definitely inexperienced in managing people. She seems overwhelmed, overworked, and may or may not (I’m voted definitely) is doing the hanky-panky with Scoville. Scoville, Benton’s coworker, is even less of a people person. He’s difficult to work with and, unlike Linton, has what could best be called a superiority complex. His ego, frustration with not being promoted, and bizarre misfit status at the company comes together to annoy (and confuse) the heck out of Benton. Finally, Benton herself seems to have a clip on her shoulder. She has higher expectations for the job than she should have had and clearly has trouble

asserting herself. She never conveys her potential and is overtly defensive. Finally, she also seems like she’s trying too hard to please people and be liked by them.

In the end (though not in the case study), Scoville and Linton ended up leaving and Benton got the position of Product Manager a full 9 months earlier than is usual. She had the potential, then. So? It would have been best if she had managed upward, assuming responsibility for her own career and development. She should probably have handled Linton differently, understand what she wanted, what pressures existed, and what the stakes were. Ultimately, a boss is in many ways dependent on his or her subordinate- for the knowledge he/she delivers, as a source of information, and as a sounding board. If the subordinate realizes his or her sources of power, having skills that are tough to replace, specialized knowledge or information, and centrality to the organization, etc…, then the subordinate should be able to build a partnership with his or her boss. (This is all, for the most, adapted from Ager’s slides in class).