ANALYSIS OF CASE

JENSON SHOES: JANE KRAVITZS STORY

By GROUP AO-2
HITESH TAKHTANI
RAUNAK RAO
MEGHANA CHORE
JAGANNATH AKELA
AVINASH SINGH

PROBLEM STATEMENT
In what ways the company can improve their communication process so that Jane can motivate
Brooks so as to get the strategic objectives done?

REASONS
The sales of the casual wear had flattened. For reviving the casual market segment a team was
formed to develop strategic objectives which seemed to lack communication as a whole.
Lyndon Brooks, a member of the team who was suppose to work on two verticals of Latino and
African American was already burdened with the special project, which he was expected to
complete immediately.

CONTEXTUAL AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS

The organizational goal was to develop and strengthen the product, the task of which was
based on responsibilities assigned to Jane, senior strategic manager, who has Lyndon Brooks in
her team.Different contextual factors related to this situation are as follows:
One of the most important contextual factors is the perception which includes perception of
Chuck Taylor and Jane about Lyndon Brooks. While Chuck bluntly believed that Brooks was
incompetent, Jane believed in Lyndons abilities attributing good quality of previous strategic
objectives and professional while working with him on committees earlier.Lyndon Brooks
despised his job and yearned for getting his older position of managing staffs. Its probably one
of the strongest reasons of demotivation.
Second important contextual factor is related to Jane who banked upon this project as a
stepping stone of her career and getting a promotion. Her primary concerns were about her
image portrayed in organization as the work assigned to her was progressing at a snails pace.
The fact that she threw a birthday party and took out Lyndon for lunch says that her career
mattered to her most.
A significant cultural factor upsetting the current circumstances in this case is assigning of
African American market to Brooks which may be due to the reason that Brooks himself was an

African American. This might be an example of stereotype which deals with assigning attributes
commonly associated with a group of individual.

SWOT ANALYSIS

AREAS OF CONCERN
The primary areas of concern are perception and attribution. Jane Kravitz follows a concept of
selective screening by which she formed her perception of Brooks by giving him a chance to
perform and not on the preconceived notion of Chuck. But, it lead to a Pygmalion effect
according to which though one may try to go against the general perception but end up with
the same, that is, Jane Kravitz ended up with the perception as same as Chuck Taylor.
Futile attempts to persuade Brooks by Jane to complete strategic objectives are clearly
depicted as lack of positive reinforcement on the Brookss side.
Even though Lyndon did not come up with proper execution plan for his strategic objective, she
was ready to listen to his plan for next week when he wanted to visit San Diego and the sales
office there. Finally she bargained with him to complete one strategic objective instead of two.
So the major area of concern is to make Lyndon complete his work.

EVALUATIONS
According to the above mentioned areas of concern we can conclude that the situation is being
analyzed only from Janes perspective, what she remembers and thinks about the entire
situation related to Lyndon Brooks. In order to evaluate and take decision, it is very important
to consider Brooks side of the story. Pygmalion effect can be one option which should be taken
into consideration before coming to any conclusion. Also, various reasons which might lead to
the ignorance and poor performance of Brooks should be evaluated and accordingly decision
can be made.
This case has been presented entirely from Janes perspective as to what she recollects. It
clearly lacks the view point and rationale behind Brooks behavior. The higher management was
inflexible with work overload on Brooks by assigning him the task of analyzing Environmental
consumer buying trends. Pygmalion effect can be one option which should be taken into
consideration before coming to any conclusion. Also, various reasons which might lead to the
ignorance and poor performance of Brooks should be evaluated and accordingly decision can
be made.There seemed to be self-Fulfilling prophecies on Janes Part in a positive way prior to
handling out tasks to Brooks.

RECOMENDATIONS
Jane should try and hear out Lyndon Brooks for his side of story and get to know the exact
nature of problems faced by him. There might be a way to work a solution with the task of
developing strategic objectives getting affected. Personality- BIG FIVE is one such way. Lyndon
should be warned by Jane that his employment is in jeopardy if he doesnt complete the task
which may in turn force Lyndon to work on it. And lastly, a task with such gravity requires the
whole team to sit down in a place and proceed with the assignment by communicating the
progress to each other. May be this could inculcate the positive reinforcement effect.There
seemed a lack of impression management on the part of Jane as she was not able influence or
create impression in the eyes of Brooks.