Mr. Padua

Caselet: Mr. Padua For six years, Mr. Padua had been the management services director of the fruit puree division of his corporation. w/ professional experience gained from various industries, his technical expertise was undoubtedly quite valuable to the corporation. He, however, has personal attitudes w/c created a wall of hostility between him & his staff and the rest of the senior managers of his division. For one thing, Mr. Padua did not see any point in laughing at a joke w/c he did not consider funny. Unfortunately, his standard to “funny” was in the line of erudite humor, w/c even the other directors found too deep for reflection. Neither did he believe in attempting to gain the drift of others if only to gain rapport w/ them. He insisted in being his own person regardless of what others believe. It was, also, rare for him to concede to anything. This attitude was compounded by his difficulty in expressing his thoughts especially when it came to justifying himself. This caused misunderstandings between him and others w/c further aggravated his own negative perception of others as well as their negative perception of him. He could not give allowances for differences in his attitude w/ those of others. Ad those who differed from him, in one sense, were treated w/ a degree of coldness. He was aware of his social deficiencies, but, according to him he simply could not be what he was not. He often mentioned that it was already very hard for him to change his ways. Outside the work place, though, Mr. Padua tried hard to be friendly w/ his staff. And, while he showed concern for their professional training, he himself could not seem to be at ease in relating to them in the workplace. It was as if he was afraid that friendship would curtail his authority. At this time, a new problem solving system was being inculcated throughout the corporation. To show his concern for his staff, he made them the first trainees on the system. The system was designed to