Answer Happy

JULIANAS DILEMMA Juliana Powers was 23 years old and had just graduated with a Master of Industrial Relations degree from Emory University, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Master's programs in industrial relations were designed to train students in the latest innovations and best practices within industrial relations and human resources (HR) management. Juliana's next step was to secure a full-time job. She reached out to an old acquaintance, Charles King. Charles was a regional human resources (HR) manager with Shipman Store, a big box retailer. Juliana had been interviewed by Charles before enrolling in the master's program, and they had stayed in contact since. Juliana was proud of the network she had developed. The initiative to connect with Charles turned out to be an opportune decision. Charles told her Shipman Store had an opening for an HR operations manager position at a medium-sized store located in New York City. Juliana was interviewed by both Charles and the store manager, Peter Olden. Three days after meeting with Peter, she received a call from him: "Congratulations, Juliana! The job is yours!" Juliana was ecstatic, at least initially, to have landed a job right out of graduate school. However, that enthusiasm lasted only a few minutes. Without hesitation, Peter went on to offer job performance advice to Juliana, which she had definitely not expected. Peter's tone changed to a straightforward explanation of reservations he had about hiring Juliana: You're yourg and highly educated. You're fresh out of graduate school and you're coming in to join our team in a store where none of our managers or employees have graduate degrees. The majority of them do not even have a college or university degree, and some of them didn't even finish high school. I'm nervous that you're going to come into our organization excited and book smart, and you're going to want to change the world and implement things that you learned from books and professors. But this is an operating store with real people, many of whom have worked here for 10, 15, or 25 years. Juliana thought to herself, "My goodness, why is he telling me this?" She could not help but think "Obviously, Charles approves of me and has urged Peter to hire me against his will. Peter is complying, bu seems uncertain about having me join his team."
Page 2 Juliana had to make a rash decision about how to respond to Peter. As the new HR operations manager, she would be reporting directly to him. QUESTIONS 1.- How should Juliana respond to Peter? 2.- Do you think that Juliana should accept the job given Peter's advice? 3.- What specific advice should Juliana receive? 4.- Appraise Peter's leadership. What leadership style do you think he has?