Rob Parson at Morgan Stanley Case Study

Rob Parson at Morgan Stanley

The key issue at hand is the difference between the culture that is currently instilled at Morgan Stanley, and the opposing personality that Rob Parson brings as a senior executive. President John Mack has created a vision plan for the company that puts the franchise above the individual at all times. “We would like to maximize business, but we would not like to maximize it at the expense of our culture, teamwork, and the integrity of the process.” Rob Parson is viewed by his colleagues as a very strong contributor who at times lacks the proper concern for company values. Rob himself noted that he did not feel like a good fit with Morgan Stanley, but Paul Nasr made the decision to hire him anyways based purely on past performance. President Mack had recently asked to find people that would, “shake up the culture” and they definitely found it in Rob Parson, unfortunately I don’t believe Rob was given a realistic preview of his job expectations by the hiring manager. Morgan Stanley has an organizational culture representative of a market/hierarchy, compared to the smaller financial institution Parson previously worked at that functioned more similarly to a pure market framework. Nasr did not put enough emphasis on the adjustment that would need to occur in Parson’s management style to become a fit with the company culture. He was hesitant to provide critical feedback to Parson regarding his abrasive and volatile methods in fear that Parson would leave the firm. This in turn led to no change occurring throughout the entire year and a difficult decision for Nasr to make during year end evaluations. How can senior management expect employees to change their behavior to match their environment when the company’s hiring process and ongoing feedback process doesn’t support it?

The promotion of Rob Parson to managing director would be a difficult decision as he does exhibit many admirable qualities, but at the same time...