Case Study

“No-Show Consultant”
Overview
International Consulting designs, installs and implement complex back-office
software systems for companies worldwide. Jeffrey Moses was facing one of the
toughest decisions of his short career as a manager with International Consulting.
Andrew Carpenter, one of his best consultants, was in trouble because of family issues,
and his problems were affecting his work. About half of consultants including
Carpenter, work primarily at home.
Carpenter as a consultants is good at his work, knowledgeable, high level of
skill and his willingness to travel is hard to find. However, there have been numerous
occasions and reports where Carpenter was unprofessional and absent in major
activities of the clients, and one of the recent one was with a major client in New York
where Carpenter never showed up on the company for the launching of the new
software for the first time. For this reason, the New York Company complained and
demanded a 50% off from the International Consulting consultant’s fee in which the
company Vice President of operations clearly was upset. Carpenter confessed that he
had been having problems at home as his wife left him and took their two-year-old son,
and after that he had been drinking more because of this upset; however, he reassured
Moses that he was going to keep it under control and have no more problems which
convinced Moses to keep Carpenter so long as he would go to New York and complete
the project assigned to him. The company’s Vice President of operations wants to
terminate Carpenter for his unprofessionalism. Moses now is caught whether or not to
dismiss Carpenter for this recent irresponsible act or give him another chance.

Stakeholders
1). Andrew Carpenter – The talented and skilled consultant but has problems recently.
2). VP of Operations – who wants carpenter dismissed because of unprofessionalism
and causing the company to lose money and disappoints one of the major client.
3). Carpenter’s supervisor – who believes on Carpenter’s ability and skill. And thinks
he will change soon and this recent act is temporary.

Problem Statement
1). Behavior displayed by a leading consultant, Andrew Carpenter.
2). Risk of losing clients for Carpenters unprofessionalism.
3). Carpenter’s latest issue would cost the company $125,000 dollars.

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Key Objectives
The key objectives from the group’s analysis would be the following:
1. To understand the different alternatives that Moses could take in
response to Carpenter’s actions
2. To decide on the alternative Moses should take with regards to
Carpenter

Alternatives
Assuming Moses’ point of view, possible alternatives to address the issue include:
a) Give Carpenter a month’s notice and terminate him,
b) Let it slide and give Carpenter a chance to get himself back on track,
c) Let Carpenter have a short paid leave and get him counseling to deal with his
emotional difficulties and evaluate the seriousness of his problems with alcohol; if the
alcohol abuse continues, require him to attend a treatment program or find another job.

Analysis of Alternatives
a). Give Carpenter a month’s notice and terminate him.
Carpenter’s latest issue with the client cost the company $125000. Thus, the vice
president suggested firing Carpenter.
Advantage - International Consulting would be saving money by not paying any
unforeseen costs such as paying for consulting fees for clients. Carpenter’s situation
becomes an example to the rest of the employees that, should they show the same
behavior, that the immediate consequences and actions of the company are clear. This
could potentially become a deterrent for such future actions.
Disadvantage - it may cost more to hire and train another employee who has the skill
and expertise as the problem employee. It would also set an image of the company
being anti-employee or rather, uncaring and inconsiderate of its staff which could affect
employee and staff efficiency and motivation to work in the company.
b). Let it slide and give Carpenter a chance to get himself back on track.
Advantage - Should Carpenter get better and work more efficiently, then he could boost
his work production and may even become more invested into the company than before.
Disadvantage - High risk of Carpenter’s behavior not changing and even worsening.
Clients would be complaining about his unprofessional behavior, ultimately worsening
the problem and making the company lose a lot more. Carpenter’s performance would
be hard to track if he were to fall back into old habit, the relationships with the clients
through Carpenter could tarnish and ruin.
c). Let Carpenter have a short paid leave and get him counseling to deal with his
emotional difficulties and evaluate the seriousness of his problems with alcohol; if

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the alcohol abuse continues, require him to attend a treatment program or find
another job.
Advantage - This may increase motivation and will to work among the employees and
staff. Carpenter handle things on his own and at his own time as he would be evaluated
immediately and helped to solve his alcohol problem. This may increase motivation
and will to work among the employees and staff.
Disadvantage - Providing counseling and evaluations and maybe even the additional
cost of providing a treatment program for him uses a lot of resources and time. This
decision also has the small risk of having Carpenter relapse or get back to his habits
even after evaluation and habits.
Based on all these, it is evident that the third option, to provide a short paid leave,
counseling, evaluation and treatment for Carpenter would be the best choice to solve
the problem and benefit Moses and the company.

Recommendations
To achieve a better work environment that could help the company in the long
run the best decision to make in Moses and Carpenter’s case is to provide Carpenter
with a short paid leave, counseling, evaluating, and treatment if necessary. Making this
decision provides the opportunity to show the staff, employees, and clients an image of
a pro-employee/pro-people company. This gives the company a generally good
reputation, if not of being a bit lenient to the staff which could improve motivation,
work, and relationships of the employees since they feel more secure in their work
place.
To limit the expenditure of resources and time wasted, Moses could monitor or
have someone like Carpenter’s head manager to keep an eye on Carpenter’s progress
and to assist as much as possible. This shortens the time for Carpenter to get better,
limiting any risk of relapse back to alcohol. Moses should organize and inform in
advance both the clients and the consultants concerned of the current situation so that
any plans of organization will run smoothly.

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