Case Study Analysis: Dick Spencer's Career Transition and Management

This case study analyzes the career of Dick Spencer, an MBA graduate who experienced both success and failure within Tri-America. The report examines his achievements as a salesperson, highlighting his customer connection, product knowledge, confidence, decision-making skills, commitment, punctuality, attitude, passion, innovative ideas, and consistency. The study then delves into Spencer's struggles as a manager, attributing his difficulties to micro-managing and an authoritative leadership style. It provides a comprehensive analysis of the case, including recommendations for improving his managerial approach and avoiding unfavorable incidents, ultimately offering a detailed conclusion on the lessons learned from Spencer's career trajectory.

Running head- AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
An analysis on Dick Spencer case study
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
Executive Summary
The success of any organization depends on the management and the leadership framework
that is prevalent in the organization. However there are many challenges that one can face
while working as a manager. This case study deals with some of the similar managerial
challenges that were being faced by Dick Spencer. The main of this report was to analyse the
case study of Dick Spencer to study the various ups and downs of his career. This report
includes introducing the case study, factors that made Dick Spencer a successful salesperson
and reasons behind his failure as a manager. Recommendations have been included which
could have made him a better manager and ignored unfavourable incidents. This report also
provides a proper conclusion to the report.

2
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................1
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Brief of the Case Study..........................................................................................................3
Analysis..................................................................................................................................4
Dick Spencer’s success as a Salesperson...........................................................................4
Dick Spencer’s tribulation as a manager............................................................................7
Recommendation......................................................................................................................13
Siding Department Incident.................................................................................................13
Recommendations to deal with the situation.......................................................................13
Recommendations for being a better manager.....................................................................14
Conclusion................................................................................................................................14
References................................................................................................................................15

3
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
Introduction
This report analyses the very famous case study of Dick Spencer and the challenges
faced by him in his career. This report will analyse all the positive as well as negative points
of the case and the possible solutions of the issue. This report is structured into four parts, the
first part has a brief description about the case, the second part has the positive aspects of the
case which explains the achievement or strengths of Dick Spencer, the third part constitute of
the negative aspects of the case which describes the challenges or weakness of Dick Spencer
and finally the fourth part have the recommendations on how the negative situations could
have been avoided and what he should have done to deal with the consequences of the
negative situation. Through this report, it would be easy to have a clear view on the case of
Dick Spencer.
Discussion
Brief of the Case Study
Dick Spencer, an MBA from a well- known university stated working in a company
called Tri- America during his graduation days. He was working in its Canadian branch. The
company produced primary aluminium majorly. It also dealt in refractories and industrial
chemicals. The branch in which Dick Spencer was working basically dealt with fabricating
unit. Dick Spencer joined the company as a salesman in which he did an amazing job.
Although, he set a high benchmark for his subordinates but he was still a normal guy for
them. He had made a very nice relationship with the president of his company. After
completing three years into the company, he wanted a growth and explore new areas. He
requested his president for getting transferred in a division other than sales. After that, he was
given a designation of Assistant Plant Manager and later Plant Manager in another branch of
the company. He faced challenges in the initial years in switching jobs from sales to

4
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
administration. Dick started facing various problems which not only effected his job
performance but also his personal life. He started to become demotivated and frustrated.
Somehow, the success that his got as a salesman, he could not get the same in managerial
field.
Analysis
Dick Spencer’s success as a Salesperson
As discussed above, Dick Spencer was a remarkable salesperson. He did an
unparalleled job as a salesman which not only benefitted his personal growth but also the
company. Probably his performance was the reason that the president of the company
developed a good relationship with him. He was an effective salesman and the reasons are as
follows:-
1. Establishing a connection with the customer- In the field of sales, it is very
important to establish a customer with the customer either personally or
professionally. If a salesman can make a proper connection with the customer, it
becomes easy for him to convince the customer. It is a very good marketing strategy
for a salesman to establish a connection with the customer in a meaningful way.
Establishing an emotionally connection with customer will help in getting them
connected with the brand (Magids, Zorfas & Leemon, 2015). Dick Spencer knew it
very well. He established a good connection with his customers. It made Dick an
effective salesman and also increased its sales volume. He gained the trust of his
customers and established a relationship with them which not only increased his sales
but also helped hi, to raise customer loyalty.
2. Good Product Knowledge- Having a good knowledge about the product is very
important for a salesman. A salesperson must know what he is selling to the
customers. A Salesperson must know all the advantages and disadvantages of the

5
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
product before approaching the customer to convince him (Groza, Locander &
Howlett, 2016) Dick Spencer was an MBA which help him to know the management
of product in a better way. He was in the organization for a long duration and hence
he knew all the attributes, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of the
product. Since, he himself knew the product very well, it became very easy for him to
convince his consumers. He could show his product as a star and try to overcome with
its disadvantages.
3. Confidence- Confidence is very important for any kind of job, especially when it
comes to the sales field. Sometimes, a salesman needs to do something out of the box
which requires courage which comes from confidence. In addition to that, salesman’s
confidence regarding the product and the price is extremely important for the good
performance of organization (Andrews, 2016). A Salesman needs to be confident
while approaching his customers. If he lacks confidence, the customer will doubt his
words and also the product. Dick Spencer was very confident about his abilities. His
confidence helped him to reach at heights in his career. His confidence made the
customer like his personality and believe in him. It helped him to gain more and more
customers and be the best salesperson in his company.
4. Decision-making skills- A salesperson should have good strategic decision making
skills in him (Ingram et.al, 2015). There can be times when he needs to make decision
on the spot. Dick Spencer, being an MBA had good decision making skills. He had a
willingness to make decision and was confident about it. His decision making came
from his confidence and assurance in his knowledge and skills.
5. Commitment- Commitment is very important in doing a job successfully and the
same goes for the sales field. Commitment is extremely important to maintain the
transactional relationship between buyers and sellers (Rašković & Makovec, 2015). A

6
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
salesman should be committed towards his job. It is a fact that that the persons who
are committed towards their job are likely to show growth and improvement. Dick
Spenser’s commitment towards his job as a salesperson can be easily understood by
his performance. If he would not have been committed towards his job, it would have
been difficult for him to meet targets, forget about being the sales champion of the
organization. Dick Spencer’s work commitment is one of the reasons behind his sales
achievements.
6. Punctuality- Punctuality means a lot in the professional field. It is important to
complete the work in right time. Punctuality is one of the important aspect of
measuring job performance of an employee (Llego, 2014). When it comes to sales
field, Punctuality is extremely important because the targets are basically set at a
regular interval of time. Dick Spencer has willingness to do the job and always did it
time. He always over achieved his target which shows his punctuality towards his
work.
7. Attitude- In a workplace, it is required to have a positive attitude to maintain not only
with customers but also with colleagues because one cannot survive in an
organization only with the help of customer, he also needs his colleague’s support. A
salesperson needs to have a proper attitude with his employers also as job attitude
influence job satisfaction (Hartmann & Rutherford, 2015). It is also a fact that trust,
relationship and workplace behaviour helps a person to succeed in his job. Dick
Spencer had a very friendly attitude. It was very easy to approach him or talk to him.
This him to build trust and relationship with his subordinates.
8. Passion- Sales profession is extremely passionate as a profession. Passion helps the
individual to increase self- efficiency (Cardon & Kirk, 2015). It has new challenges and
unfavourable circumstances every day. A Salesperson needs to be passionate towards

7
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
his field to be successful. Dick Spencer was extremely passionate for his job. He
loved what he did. His passion gave him the willingness to work which lead to his
success as a salesperson.
9. Innovative Ideas- Sales profession is a dynamic profession. It changes every day and
sometimes even earlier than that. A sales person must have innovative ideas to cope
with new situations and new challenges. Innovative ideas help the salesman to grow
and stand out in the crowd. Innovations is one of the major factor of driving the sales
(Ferdinand & Wahyuningsih, 2018). Dick Spencer was an MBA, where he have
studied the sales field theoretically as well as practically. It helped him to get new
ideas to cope up with the market challenges. He had new ideas to attract the customers
and promote the product. This also made Dick Spencer an effective salesperson.
10. Consistency- Consistency is an important factor of work environment which effect
job satisfaction and job satisfaction influences the effectiveness of an employee
(Raziq & Maulabakhsh, 2015).Consistency is an important factor getting success in
sales profession. Over achieving the target in one month and missing the target next
month will not help the salesman in any manner. A salesperson not only needs to get
success in his job but also has to maintain it. Maintaining of success can be
challenging at times. Dick Spencer, as a salesman, maintained his position for many
years. He consistently maintained his performance standards. It not only has helped
him to grow personally but also maintained his reputation in the organization.
Dick Spencer’s tribulation as a manager
As discussed above, Dick Spencer is a remarkable salesperson, but he faced various
changes while he switched his role from sales to administrations. Somehow, he could not
gather the same success in his managerial role as he got as a salesperson. Some of the major
reasons for his tribulations as a manager is as follows:

8
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
1. Micro-managing- Micro managing is a situation when an individual try to do all the
activities at one time. This can create a lot of disturbance. Micro managers become
too controlling and they don’t know where to stop. The major problem is that a
manager doesn’t notice when he start becoming a micromanager (DA, 2017). One of
the major reasons for the failure Dick Spencer was his micro management. As a
manager, it is good to do multi- tasking, but when a manager over does it, it create
unbalance in the job. When Dick Spencer was given a managerial position, one of the
major reasons for his disturbance was micro management. He started trying his hand
on everything to make himself familiar with the daily functions which not only
created disturbance in his daily job but was also not liked by his subordinates as it was
getting too much for them suddenly. Dick Spencer took many tasks at a time at it was
getting difficult for him complete it which also affected his efficiency.
2. Authoritative- Authoritative means when a leader takes all the decisions himself and
forces his followers to follow them. They neither take any help nor ideas from them.
This type of people don’t like anybody interfering in their decisions. It can be seen
that this type of leadership have a negative impact on the communication with
subordinates (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swami, 2014). There have been various
debates whether being an Authoritative leader is right or wrong as it has both pros and
cons but in this situation, being an Authoritative manager was certainly not helping
Dick Spencer at all. He became authoritative and did not took advices from others
even about the areas he does not have knowledge about. He tried doing everything
alone which was not getting possible and adding minus points to his managerial
efficiency.
3. Stress- Job stress is common but as it is said that excess of anything is bad. Taking
excessive work stress will effect a person’s professional as well as personal growth

9
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
(Lucas, 2017) Job stress is a result of excessive workload and it can lead to bad results
(Sonntag & Fritz, 2015). If a manager takes too much personal or professional stress,
it will affect his efficiency. He will neither be able to manage his personal life neither
his professional growth. Dick Spencer was going through a lot of job stress due to his
falling performance. He was neither being able to concentrate on his personal life nor
his professional life. His professional life was shaky and his personal life was also
going through a rough patch. All this reasons was making his situation worse.
4. Lack of Effective Communication- Communication is the base of any kind of
personal and professional relationship. Professionally, a person needs to communicate
properly to the people working with him about his ideas, thoughts, expectations and
opinions. Non- verbal communication is also very important (Burgoon, Guerrero &
Floyd, 2016). When an individual is working as a manager, his subordinates should
know what he is planning and what will be their role in it. A manager is responsible
for guiding his subordinates which requires proper communication (Steelman &
Wolfed, 2018). Dick Spencer failed to establish a proper communication with his
subordinates. Since, he was always preoccupied with work due to his micro
management, he often failed to get time to communicate with his subordinates. In
some occasions, it also happened that employees were not delegated any duty and
they were seating without any work. This not only affected Dick Spencer’s efficiency
as a manager but also affected the efficiency of the subordinates.
5. Failure in motivating employees- When someone is in a managerial role, he should
motivate the peoples working under him. Being an Authoritative person, he did not
interacted with his employees in a friendly way. Employees need to be motivated
continuously so that they get satisfied with the job and improve constantly (Ganta,
2014). He just kept on imposing his orders on them without even considering their

10
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
views, ideas, opinions or thoughts. When employees started feeling that they are not
given proper importance in the organization, they started getting demotivated (Abbah,
2014). They started losing hope and confidence in their skills. Somewhere, Dick
Spencer ignored the value of employees in the organization. In addition to that, since,
the employees were deprived of any kind of information, they did not felt the
belongingness with the organization. All this factor showed that he failed to be an
effective leader and a manager must be a good leader.
6. Lack of Flexibility- A good manager needs to be flexible. He should change with the
need of the situation, employees or the organization. Flexibility is extremely
important to get success at a managerial position. Flexibility in management directly
influences the performance of the organization (Shalender & Yadav, 2019). If a
manager continues to follow one traditional way and declines to budge from his stand,
he will start losing efficiency as he will not be able to fulfil the need of situation. Dick
Spencer did the same mistake. He was not flexible with his style. Somewhere, he
lacked the innovations that he used in the time of his sales career. His orthodox and
inconsiderate ways were not being digested with his colleagues. He still followed the
supervision style of taking rounds in the plant. This irritated the employees
immensely. They felt that their manager don’t trust them. On the other hand, the time
that he spent taking rounds in the plant, he could have used it a more productive way.
He not only wasted his time but also created an environment of mistrust in the
organization.
7. Lack of Vision- A manager must have a good vision to set long term goals. It is
important to have a good vision to set long term goals. Short term goals are also
important but an organization will never be able to grow on the basis of only short
term profits. Employee’s behaviour is also influenced by vision of the manager (Jing

11
AN ANALYSIS ON DICK SPENCER CASE STUDY
& Bergsteiner, 2014). Dick Spencer was a micro manager. It is also a fact that micro-
management can fulfil the short term goals initially but it will fail when it comes to
long run motives and the same happened with Dick Spencer. Initially, due to his bossy
attitude, his subordinates were following him and doing the work according to him
but after some time, his attitude began to suffocate them and a situation got arise that
the productivity of the team started getting low when he was around. Lacking in
having a good vision not only affected him as a manager but also decreased the
productivity of his sub ordinates.
8. Lack in proper change management- Organization changes means the various
changes, either small or big, that takes place in an organization at a regular interval of
time. The change can be influenced by either internal or external forces (Benn,
Edwards, & Williams, 2014). It is true that changes are important at a regular interval
of time but it is also difficult to implement the change since the employees have a
tendency to resist to changes. It is important for a manager to implement the change in
the organization properly and help the employees to get adapted to it (Georgalis,
Kimberley & Lu, 2015). The change idea, its benefits and style of implementation
should be properly communicated to the employees. Apart from this, when a change
is for everyone, every employee should be given an opportunity to give their ideas,
opinions and thoughts (Hornstein, 2015).In the case of Dick Spencer, he became a
manager when a lot of changes were being implemented in the organization. As a
manager, he should have tried to implement and manage the change in a effective way
but he failed miserably on that. He lacked the major qualities required to become a
proper change manager. Being a micro manager, he did not take any suggestions
about the changes from his subordinates. He did not even tried to know the problems
that his subordinates were going through due to the changes. He just imposed the