Appointment Board

Interrupting and Dealing with Interruptions, Contradicting
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The Problem
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Archer Electronics, a family company, was founded 40 years ago by Daniel Archer who retired 5 years ago from being the Managing Director. However, he still takes an active interest in the development and changes in the company and he is now a non-executive director and holds 33.3% of the shares of the company. 10 years ago he married his second wife, formerly Ann Fund, who was and still is, the Finance Manager of the company. As a wedding present she received 33.3% of the shares.
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The present Managing Director of the company, Michael Brett, is married to Daniel Archer’s only daughter Jean who is also a non-executive director of the company and who also holds 33.3% of the shares.
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Recently Archer Electronics has been expanding and investing in new technology. A new Warehousing Department is to be created and it will be responsible for controlling in-coming stock and distributing the end product. This department will be under the control of the Production Manager, Geoff Butcher, who is a member of the Board.
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A new computer system is to be installed in the Warehousing Department with new software not previously used by the company. 2 identical jobs working with the computer are still vacant. They have been widely advertised both internally and externally and on the short-list of 4 are: Andrew Bolton, Brian Underwood, Claude Fund and David Campbell.
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In the circumstances, and also because Archer Electronics is a family firm, the short-list is to be considered by a working party which has been created to oversee the setting-up of the new department.
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First draw the organigram of Archer Electronics’ Board of Directors:
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Action

Now read the information about the 4 candidates. In pairs analyse their good points, bad points and any other relevant information. You will be given a role and asked to role play a meeting of the appointment board to recommend which two candidates should be appointed.
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The Candidates
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Andrew Bolton, age 27, is a university graduate. After graduating he spent 2 years at Archer Electronics and then 2 years ago he left to join another electronics company where he worked in their computerised stock control department.
He is enthusiastic, well-liked, hard-working and works well in a team.
In the last year he has been attending a communication skills evening class.
He is about to get married – his fiancée has a responsible job in the marketing department of a big multi-national company.
His present salary is slightly above average and also above the salary range that you are offering.
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Brian Underwood is 40, attended technical college until he was 18 and then joined Archer Electronics. He has been working in the stock control section for 20 years and because of the re-organisation, has applied for a transfer. In fact, with the re-organisation, there is no longer a job for him and he may have to be made *redundant (*redundancy pay depends both on salary and length of service so that the longer the time with the company then the higher the redundancy pay)
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David Campbell is 58 and has also applied for transfer from the section that used to be in charge of stock control. He joined Archer Electronics when he left school at 16. There is no suitable job for him in the Production Department and he will have to be made redundant if not appointed to this job.
He is a good and efficient worker but panics under stress.
He recently raised a big loan on his house so that he could send his daughter to university and also make changes to his house so that he can accommodate his son who is handicapped after a car crash in which his (David’s ) wife was killed.
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Claude Fund is 30 and the son of Ann Archer by her first marriage.
He is a university graduate and speaks several languages. He use to work for a computer company as a customer engineer, helping users to solve their problems.
At his last job he had a reputation for being lazy and difficult to work with. He was disliked by his colleagues and clients.
He will inherit his mother’s 33% share in the company when she dies.