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Vice President of the United States and Archer

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RetailMax: A Study in Social Power in the Workplace In the case of RetailMax there are two major players, Cam Archer a young and upcoming MBA with great potential and the new Vice President of Product Management and Marketing, Regan Kessel. Archer has a difficult decision to make today, does she want her dream job in Marketing with Kessel, or accept a position offered to her in the Product Services division where she is working now. Both positions have qualities that appeal to her and she needs to decide where she wants to make her future. As the situation stands now, Archer has a great amount of potential power. The CEO and the two vice presidents have great respect for her and have left the decision of which job she will …show more content…

The one factor missing here is that neither Kessel nor the CEO has directly discussed with Archer what she expects from the job. Kessel is assuming that he has to match the compensation offer of the Product services VP, when in fact she is also interested in the “intangible considerations like a lighter travel schedule and better career development activities” (McGinn & Witter, Archer, p.5). Archer also assumes that if she stays in Product Services she will pigeonholed into customer service and support when she would rather be in management (McGinn & Witter, Archer, p.4). Both positions are of great interest to Archer and it is going to be difficult to make a decision. This is what she is saying before she talks to Kessel. As Archer sees it now, Kessel’s position in Marketing is going to give her more social power within the organization as she is closer to the VP and the CEO. In the Product Services division there are more layers between her and the top which she believes will slow down her upward mobility. It is easy to postulate that if easy access to the top of the company hierarchy is more important than a high salary, then Kessel’s job is the one she should take. Her charisma and talent will only take her so far in RetailMax, she wants social connections to the CEO. As aforementioned, Archer has connections to the CEO that could affect Kessel’s position in RetailMax. The

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