Tick Tock: Making an Executive Hiring Decision Under Pressure

Authors

  • Tres Bishop Florida Institute of Technology
  • Dannielle Clark Northeastern University

Keywords:

personnel, HRM, hiring

Abstract

Thomas Jackson, the newly promoted Vice President and General Manager for International Communications Systems (ICS) is faced with an urgent decision. For the Vice President of Project Management role (VPPM), should he hire external candidate Austin Jones, internal candidate Jim Cotton or step back into the role himself until he can fix the various problems that lie ahead?

Within two months of each other, project engineer John Rickland and VPPM Mike Sanders left ICS in the midst of working towards closing a 31 million-dollar contract with large customer Branson Company. Because of Sanders and Rickland leaving, Branson Company informed Jackson they were skeptical of moving forward with the contract. They did not want to invest time and energy rebuilding a strong relationship.

The path Jackson decides to take could impact ICS’s relationship with Branson Company, the future of the company and his career. Jackson has a wide variety of considerations to keep in mind including retention problems within the Project Management department, declining company revenue and his strategic goals for the company.

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Published

2020-04-16

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 2 (2019)

Section

Cases

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