Microsoft's Vega Project Case Study

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Microsoft's Vega Project

Microsoft Vega Project

Companies' success on the market relies on the performance of their employees, which is determined by several factors. Human resources practices in these companies aim at recruiting and maintaining skilled employees that can develop as strong assets to them, while developing motivational strategies in accordance with employees' needs and preferences. Microsoft is one of the companies that invest the most in the development of their employees.

Situation Analysis

The case study presents the situation that Jim Kaplan, product unit manager at Microsoft must confront with when his protege, Matt MacLellan, a successful product manager in the Interactive Learning System team decides he is not satisfied with his position, and wants to become a software design engineer. Kaplan must figure out a way in which he can solve this in order for all the parties involved in the situation to benefit.

There are several issues that must be addressed when analyzing the situation. The most important factor that Kaplan must focus on in this case is represented by the different interests of stakeholder categories affected by this situation. The stakeholders are represented by MacLellan, Kaplan, and Microsoft. MacLellan has built a career within Microsoft, developing managerial skills, but also product development skills. He is good at his job, but this is not necessarily a satisfactory situation for him. MacLellan's job requires that after launching a product he must focus on managerial issues of the job. But this is not an attractive professional opportunity to him, as he would rather be involved in developing another product.

He told his superior, Kaplan, that this is what he really wants to do. In the attempt of determining MacLellan to not get into technical jobs, Kaplan thought that some time off can bring clarity to his decision. But this made it even more obvious to MacLellan that he wants to switch careers. Managers must have strong skills in managing their subordinates' motivational issues (Werner et al., 2012). His decision is based on the fact that he would rather develop, build, create products, instead of managing other people into doing so.

There are several issues that Kaplan must address when establishing the efficient approach to MacLellan's request.

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Basically, Kaplan knows that MacLellan cannot get paid as an inexperienced software design engineer as much as he is paid as a manager. In addition to this, all the work spent by Kaplan with his protege was intended to help MacLellan develop as a manager, not as a technical professional. The two jobs have very different requirements. Kaplan must think that MacLellan can be a great manager, but a mediocre software designer.

The company does not have procedures that can address such situations. In such cases, Microsoft's reward system regulates the company's decisions. The rewards system relies on salary increases, bonuses, rewards, stock options, and other perks that are offered to employees in accordance with their performance (Buhler, 2002). Kaplan is worried that MacLellan could not receive the same level of rewards as a software designer that he receives as a team manager. MacLellan has stated that he does not want to waste the career that he built at Microsoft, but he also does not want to continue occupying a position where he is not satisfied. Therefore, Kaplan must det5ermine how the company can keep MacLellan, because he is a passionate, dedicated professional, while providing a satisfactory reward system.

MacLellan's need for change and job excitement was observed by Kaplan that thought he could reach these objectives to promoting him as the Interactive Learning System program manager. This was exciting for MacLellan for a while, but it was not enough to keep him wired to his passion. His frustrations emerged again, determining MacLellan to insist on switching careers.

Problem Solutions

MacLellan's mentor, Jim Kaplan has strongly supported him into building a managerial career that he clearly has the skills for. However, it can be observed that Kaplan failed to identify the importance of MacLellan's passion for building technical things, or if he identified it, refused to acknowledge it,….....

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