Executive Summary
When Wolfgang Keller took over as the managing director of Konigsbrau-Hellas A.E, a Greek subsidiary of Munich based Konigsbrau A.G, he created a culture of camaraderie and emphasized the strengths of the distributors by providing them heavy support and services. The company promoted personal interactions between sales force and distributors and encouraged after hours and weekend get together. Dimitri Petrou was hired as the commercial director in charge of sales primarily because of his experience and maturity. His reserved personality and distant management style has created conflict between them him and Keller. The conflict became somewhat aggravated when Keller wrote his appraisal. He claimed that Petrou was ineffective in his role and lacked the personality to maintain personal contacts with customers and sales force. Petrou countered that Keller was a micromanager and often interfere with the sales and marketing functions.
This case demonstrated how difference in management style, personality and culture can result in conflict. It also showed why managers have to learn how to trust his subordinates and offer constructive criticism in order to be effective and that appraisal system can have a negative effect if not conducted properly.
The analysis of this case resulted in the following recommendation:
1. Provide more empowerment to the directorate.
2. Re-evaluate the appraisal system.
3. Nico Chorafas as the Sales Director working under Dimitri Pterou
4. Dimitri Petrou to take over Marketing
Background
Konigsbrau-Hellas A.E.is a Greek subsidiary of a Munich based Konigsbrau A.G. which was known as the best managed and most profitable brewers of ...