The Buying Division

Describes a conflict between some senior managers of a large multinational which arose over a trivial decision but could cause serious damage. The chairman of the company's buying division gives the order to install a "do-not-disturb" lamp at his door. His subordinates interpret this as a humilation, however, interrupt the installation, and start arguing about the issue. The chairman is forced now to reconsidered his decision; if he insists in his plan, he might provoke a crisis in his division, on the other hand, if he withdraws his plan he could be considered as weak. The situation can be adequately analyzed with pay-off matrices and decision trees.