Andrew Yard Case Analysis

Andrew Yard Case Study Analysis

Jessica White

Northwood University DeVos Graduate School

MBA 612: Leadership 1

Dr. Tara Peters

February 24, 2015

Abstract

The Andrew Yard Case study is an overview of Joseph Rogers, a human resource executive, who is tasked with negotiating Andrew Yard’s hiring package. The case follows both Rogers and Yards as they navigate through the hiring package and the circumstances that follow each negotiation.

Andrew Yard Case Study Analysis

Problem Statement:

With pressure from the executives concerning problems in the retail segment due to operation issues, Rogers is concerned that he might not be able to get Yard on board with the company in less than six months.

Hypothesis 1:

With the business development team of Ayoub Companies identifying growth potential in retail business, there is lack of leadership in the retail segment to take advantage of those growth opportunities.

Rogers has significant pressure from the executives to hurry and hire Yard. Yard is someone in which all of the executives have like and are in a hurry to get on to the team. As said in the Harvard Case Study, the COO stated in an email “we’re putting fires out daily over here. I’m having trouble doing my day job as COO while managing these.”  The business development side also states “We need to get him on board as soon as possible. Every week of mismanagement in retail is a huge cost to the company, and those losses are nothing compared to the cost of missing out on these opportunities bus-dev is finding.” Both of those statements suggest that in the process of hiring Yard that the importance of his immediate transition to the company was not made quite clear to him.

Hypothesis 2:

It may be that there is a lack of clear understanding in the unwritten psychological contract that comes into play with hiring package that Yard agrees to and that Rogers created in that Yard cannot join Ayoub Companies for six months.

Yard and Rogers both came to an agreement for Yard’s hiring package. Yard would receive quite an increase in pay with 600K salary plus 75 percent bonus along with other benefits. However the only thing that cannot be agreed to is the starting date. Yard had supposedly made it clear during the hiring process that he would have to have a least a contractual six month notice. Throughout the entire hiring negotiations Yard has stuck firm to this six month notice and is insulted when offered a monetary incentive to leave earlier. Here, the unwritten psychological contract comes into play where there are assumptions made by both parties. Rogers, through pressure from his peers, assumes that Yard understands the importance of his immediate transition to Ayoub Companies. Yard, assumes that from the beginning of his interviews that he has been transparent enough for Ayoub Companies to understand that he needs to fulfill a full six month notice in order to prepare his previous team for his departure and that it is not necessarily money that he has been motivated by in order to leave his current company.

Hypothesis 3:

It may have been insinuated through the bonus package that is offered to Yard, that money is what intrinsically motivates Yard and could entice him to join Ayoub Companies sooner rather than later.

In Part B of the Case Study, Rogers believes that he has come up with a plan to motivate Yard to join the company quickly rather than fulfill is already stated six month notice. While the terms are more than generous, Yard offers a thank you but does not say much about the offer until Part C of the Case Study, in which Yard informs Rogers that he was insulted by the offer in its insinuation that he was purely motivated by money in order to join Ayoub Companies.

Recommendation:

It is made immediately clear in this case that Rogers is not able to clearly decipher Yard’s motivation for joining the company. Aside from the initial monetary hiring package that should have been typical for Rogers to handle the details of, The CEO should not have had Rogers further negotiate with Yard in order for Yard to hire onto the company quicker.

The CEO should have managed from the very beginning the fact that Yard was not wavering from his six month notice from his current company. Especially since according to the case study, Yard was transparent in the fact that he would do his best to come on board sooner, but he would likely fulfill the full six month notice at his current company in order to properly prepare the staff that he was leaving for his departure.