Case Analysis-RAMESH AND GARGI

Introduction:

Chrysalis Pharmaceuticals, a multinational drug manufacturer headed by Raman Murthy, has

its headquarters in Chennai. Kamla Saxena is vice president of HR here. The company has
progressed a lot in last four years by setting up some four manufacturing plants in four cities
in India. Four years back, during company’s inception in India, CEO and VP of HR have
handpicked Ramesh Sharma as the head of Learning and Development department.

Recently, there have been few instances which are causing trouble to Ramesh and hence, he
is even considering continuing with the job in the company. Gargi Sinha, a young MBA
graduate, has recently joined the L&D department with additional responsibility of handling
the corporate sector responsibility of the company. Ramesh felt that there was no need of any
new member in L&D department. Also, with Gargi’s outgoing and loud personality he felt
she was getting all the attention, and he wasn’t having much say despite being the head of the
department. Gargi was hardworking, focused and was independently able to handle complex
tasks but came with her own way of getting the work done. She wasn’t behaving like the
culture of the place, thus causing troubles to Ramesh.

Situation Analysis:

Raman, head of L&D department is having issues with Gargi but is unable to convey his
distress neither to Gargi nor to other executive heads. His teammate Gargi is currently
working on diversity and inclusion initiative in L&D department, an initiative that VP of HR
felt was required. From her very first day, Gargi, was able to get attention of all the
employees and executives by her way of doing work. Ramesh felt she was overly efficient
and outgoing and was doing the work her way. There were series of events in which Gargi
even being the junior to Ramesh has taken over him and was given much more importance as
compared to him. She also didn’t use to discuss much about her ideas and plans with Ramesh,
instead she used to let him know upon execution. Ramesh once went to Kamla to discuss
about the problem but couldn’t get any solution. With time, Ramesh felt Gargi was even
having impact on working culture of the company. He felt that other teammates of L&D
department have started behaving like Gargi and were not following the culture of the
company. Later, he found that because of the efforts put by Gargi, company got accolades as
“most promising new entrant” for its diversity and inclusion practices. This again brought all
the attention to Gargi. She strengthened here position even more in the company. Ramesh
even overheard Kamla talking to Gargi about her taking as the head of L&D department. But
what he missed was that Kamla was talking about Gargi taking over in the L&D department
of Aurangabad location. Ramesh, who was already feeling left out, felt even worse and
decided to quit the job.

Conclusion:

From what it seems, Gargi and Ramesh have hardly discussed about work ethics or working
plans apart from few instances. Gargi was able to manage work single-handedly, so was not
discussing much with Ramesh. Instead she chose to inform him upon taking any decision.
She clearly likes to work her own way and Ramesh clearly has problem with that. Here,
instead of getting offended, Ramesh could make efforts to appreciate her work and let her
know in a subtle way about the working environment slowly and gradually. He should feel
her as an asset and try to take company to the top with inputs from her as well. There seem to
be a major communication gap between Ramesh and Gargi and also between Ramesh and
Kamla. So instead of accumulating grudges inside him, Ramesh should be appreciative,
involved and should handle Gargi in a more mature way.