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Case Analysis: Dave Armstrong (a)

Decent Essays

Organisational Behavior

Case Analysis: Dave Armstrong (A)

Case Summary:
This case is about Dave Armstrong, a 29 year old second year MBA student of Harvard Business School. Immediately after his graduation from a small liberal arts college in Texas, he started working for Thorne Enterprises as a computer Programmer. After eighteen months in the job, he quit to go into life insurance business in Amarillo. He applied to Harvard Business school but hadn’t considered what he would do, once accepted, he decided to go there as he and his wife wouldn’t have to compromise on their lifestyle as he would still be receiving renewal income from his old policy holders.
Now, he is 3 months away from his graduation and he has three job prospects …show more content…

Dave would get 45000 dollars as securities analyst till the original position is available in 6-12 months. Dave’s wife wants him to choose this job as this does not require any investment and is a fairly secure job not involving any risk or uncertainty.

According to Dave’s perspective, to satisfy his personality aspects and aspirations, he should choose Job A. However, according to his wife’s wishes, she would want him to choose Job C, as it is safer and more reliable.
Hence, we must do a weighted analysis of all his important attributes and do a comparison of all the three jobs. We also need to understand that Job A and Job B will have 2 different situations each, a situation if all goes well (high) and a situation if nothing goes well (low)

Weight | Attributes | Job AHigh | Low | Job BHigh | Low | Job C | 2 | Equity | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | Bonus | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3.5 | Salary security | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3.5 | 5 | Fun and Flexibility | 5 | 3.5 | 4 | 2.5 | 0 | 3 | Travel | 1.5 | 1.5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 4.5 | Contacts | 2.5 | 1.5 | 4.5 | 3 | 3 | Ideas | 3 | 2.5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | | Probability | 0.2 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.6 | - | | Total | 15.35 | 31.8 | 33.1 | 27 | 15.25 |

According to the calculations in the table above, Job A =47.15, Job B=60.1, Job C=15.25.
Therefore, Dave should choose Job B as it has the highest value according to the weighted analysis of his desired

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