Babson Case Number: BAB087 | Length: 7 Pages

Abstract

“The Brady Training Program” chronicles the events that prompt the recruits of one computer company’s training program to aid one another on assignments and projects despite rules explicitly prohibiting such behavior. This case emphasizes personal values and the choices that are accordingly made in different circumstances. It also raises questions about the responsibility of companies to design organizations that will induce ethical behavior. From the point of improving the effectiveness of organizational systems, the case allows students to explore why an emergent system deviates in so many instances from behavior expected by the required system.

The case focuses on Bill Flynn, a 23-year-old newcomer to the Brady Company Information Systems Department. After having worked for one year in sales for a different computer manufacturer, Flynn joined the Brady Company to develop his understanding of hardware and programming. Upon learning that the Brady training program is intensely rigorous and competitive - usually less than one third of the recruits complete it - Flynn and other recruits begin to help one another, though they were forbidden at the outset from doing so. Flynn forms a study group with two classmates; catches two recruits photocopying former students’ completed assignments and takes a copy to share with his own group; and reads the supervisors’ secret files evaluating recruits’ progress. After seeing comments in his own file that question his commitment to become part of the Information Systems Department, Flynn cultivates disingenuous friendships with his supervisors. When he survives the twelve-month training program, Flynn is offered a formal position in the company; however, he already has secured two other job offers from competing companies. Upon hearing this news, the Brady management immediately makes a superior offer and encourages him to join the firm.