Maya the Manipulator: Analyzing Manipulative Behavior in a Sales Director

Background of Maya and United Events

Task:

Maya is the director of sales for United Events, a company that organizes events, such as trade shows and exhibitions for other companies. In addition to lining up the hotel or convention hall space, United Events sets up booths as well as the communication technology for the events. The company has done well in recent years, partly because the activity of organizing events has become too complicated to do in-house.

Maya is regarded by most clients and staff as mentally sharp and charming. Yet, several members of the sales representatives are concerned about how she treats them. A leadership coach found out the following in speaking to two sales representatives: Ivan, a sales rep in the New Jersey area, said, “Maya shows a little disconnect between what she hints she will do and what she actually does. Six months ago, I had a good prospect lined up for us to organize an annual meeting for them. The problem was that I would have to invest an enormous amount of time in bagging the contract. The company wanted to go over endless details. Plus they wanted documentation of a couple of annual meetings we had organized for other companies.

“I told Maya that my pinning down this con- tract might not be cost effective because of all the time it would take that I could be spending on other prospects. Maya told me to keep trying because the CEO might be very pleased with the contract, to the point that I could be eligible for a double bonus. “Well, I finally did get us the contract even though the deal took a ridiculous amount of time away from my personal life. I did get an ordinary bonus, but no double bonus. When I asked Maya about the size of the bonus, she said she told me that I could be eligi- ble but that did not imply a guarantee.”

Courtney, a sales representative in the Chicago region, said that she was having the best year last year among her five years with the company. During an in-person meeting with Maya, Courtney was asked if she would mind crediting Maya with her biggest individual sale. Maya said to her, “You have had a great year, and my personal accounts are a little below average this year. If I receive full credit for the last big sale, you will still have had a great year. And don’t forget that as your leader, I gave you suggestions for bringing the deal home.” 

Please ensure that you respond with an essay and do not use a question and answer format. Be sure you address the unit outcomes in your discussions.  Please use the APA (Hint: conduct the research first and use it in addition to the textbook to support your reasoning. Be sure that you cite your sources in APA format.)

Read the case study on page 273 of your textbook Maya the Manipulator and answer the following questions.

1.In what specific ways is Maya being a manipulator?
2.To what extent do you think Maya’s behavior is justifiable?
3.How should Ivan and Courtney have handled the situation?
4.Locate an article on leadership and influence that you learned about in the readings. Prepare brief introduction and an annotated bibliography for the article you located and the APA reference to the article.