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The Buying Division

Reference: AD-196-E
Year: 1988
Publication Date: Jan 1, 1989
Source: IESE (España)
Type of Document: Case

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Description

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.

Keywords

Decision analysis