Harvard Business School: Glenn Taylor Case

Glenn Taylor, Sage Electronics Company's Vice President for Finance and Controller is having a problem with John Smith, another Vice President of the company, and has decided to write a case (problem) and assigned it to a new recruit of his department, Phil Hawkins for confidential reviewing, expecting him to come up with a solution to the problem.
In the case, Taylor depicted the points which he considered troublesome stemming from Smith's actions, i.e.: non conformity to company rules and regulations, lack of communication among Smith's department and other departments, employee favoritism, etc.
He expected Phil Hawkins to read the case, and then both men would meet to discuss the matter. Hawkins was expected to come up with a solution to the "Smith" problem, while Taylor was constantly "feeding" Hawkins with more information and making assumptions about the causes of the problem and their outcomes to the company as a whole.
Thesis
Having done our analysis of the case we have reached the conclusion that both, Glenn Taylor and John Smith are responsible for the problems that exist between them. …