His Team gets the Best Assignments
carly peters directs the creative department of the advertising agency of
Mills, smith, & peters. The agency has about 100 employees, 20 of whom
work for carly in the creative department. Typically, the agency main-
tains 10 major accounts and a number of smaller accounts. it has a repu-
tation for being one of the best advertising and public relations agencies
in the country.
in the creative department, there are four major account teams. Each is
led by an associate creative director, who reports directly to carly. in addi-
tion, each team has a copywriter, an art director, and a production artist.
These four account teams are headed by Jack, Terri, Julie, and sarah.
Jack and his team get along really well with carly, and they have done
excellent work for their clients at the agency. of all the teams, Jack’s
team is the most creative and talented and the most willing to go the
extra mile for carly. as a result, when carly has to showcase accounts to
upper management, she often uses the work of Jack’s team. Jack and his
team members are comfortable confiding in carly and she in them. carly
is not afraid to allocate extra resources to Jack’s team or to give them
free rein on their accounts because they always come through for her.
Terri’s team also performs well for the agency, but Terri is unhappy with
how carly treats her team. she feels that carly is not fair because she favors
Jack’s team. For example, Terri’s team was counseled out of pursuing an ad
campaign because the campaign was too risky, whereas Jack’s group was
praised for developing a very provocative campaign. Terri feels that Jack’s
team is carly’s pet: his team gets the best assignments, accounts, and budg-
ets. Terri finds it hard to hold back the animosity she feels toward carly.
Like Terri, Julie is concerned that her team is not in the inner circle, close
to carly. she has noticed repeatedly that carly favors the other teams.
For example, whenever additional people are assigned to team projects,
it is always the other teams who get the best writers and art directors.
Julie is mystified as to why carly doesn’t notice her team or try to help it
with its work. she feels carly undervalues her team because Julie knows
the quality of her team’s work is indisputable.
although sarah agrees with some of Terri’s and Julie’s observations
about carly, she does not feel any antagonism about carly’s leadership.
sarah has worked for the agency for nearly 10 years, and nothing seems
to bother her. her account teams have never been earthshaking, but they
have never been problematic either. sarah views her team and its work
more as a nuts-and-bolts operation in which the team is given an assign-
ment and carries it out. Being in carly’s inner circle would entail putting
in extra time in the evening or on weekends and would create more
headaches for sarah. Therefore, sarah is happy with her role as it is, and
she has little interest in trying to change the way the department works.
Questions:
- is there an in-group and out-group, and if so, which are they?
- in what way is carly’s relationship with the four groups productive or
counterproductive to the overall goals of the agency?
……………………Answer Preview…………………
- Is there an in-group and out-group, and if so, which are they
In an organization context in group is a group which is close to the leader and in return the leader is pleased with their work. An out group on the other hand is a group which does not meet the leader’s expectations and in return the leader is not close to the team members (Northouse, 2015). In our case here the leader Carly is said to be favoring one of her teams which is headed by Jack and she claims that….
APA
393 words