Educational Pension Investment Essay

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Educational Pension Investments Case Study – Individual Assignment
Question #1: What are the sources of conflict in this case? Personal Differences. In this case, Dan Richardson, a partner in Educational Pension Investments (EPI), founded EPI with a philosophy of maintaining low-risk investment portfolios with moderate income; a philosophy that has been in place for 50 years. This risk adverse philosophy found Dan considering the merits of a more aggressive investment approach to offset the fact that EPI’s growth has not kept pace with other investment opportunities. (Whetten & Cameron, 2011) Enter Dan’s longtime friend Mike Roth. Mike, an investment broker with a track record of using an aggressive philosophy to grow a brokerage firm …show more content…

How effective was each? Approach #1: Forcing. “The forcing response … is an attempt to satisfy one’s needs at the expense of the needs of the other individual” through the use of “formal authority, physical threats, manipulation ploys, or by ignoring the claims of the other party.” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011) Tom Watson, a partner at EDI, approached Dan regarding the conflict caused by Mike’s aggressive approaches. On behalf of the other partners, Tom informed Dan that “Mike must either conform to [EDI’s conservative] philosophy and management practices of the organization or else resign.” (Whetten & Cameron, 2011) Tom and his fellow partners are, in a sense, attempting to strong-arm Dan into taking action against Mike. Regardless of Mike’s decision to conform or resign, the partner’s remain firm in engaging a conservative investment strategy.
The effectiveness of the forcing approach was not successful because Mike doesn’t want to conform to EDI’s conservative philosophy and continues to push his aggressive approach to reach greater returns for EDI. Had the forcing approach been between Dan and Mike, and not Tom and Dan, Mike would have most likely quit the

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