Wabash Waste Management essays

Wabash Waste Management essays Wilson Puckett - decision maker, purchasing agent, gatekeeper Betty Roberts - influencer, gatekeeper Darnell Gates - influencer, gatekeeper, initiator The maintenance manager- User, influencer Three drivers Users, influencers 1. Puckett is probably involved in about four of the stages in the process, Gates in three and Roberts is involved in three stages .The maintenance manager and the three drivers are probably most involved in the development of detailed specifications and the last stage. This buying center therefore might be time-fragmented, because nobody participates in all stages. When it comes to vertical and horizontal dimensions it is relatively tall and narrow because it involves the president, a vice president, middle managers and drivers. Furthermore its quite narrow because it only involves; upper management, finance and fleet personnel. This is not a formalized buying center. -According to the Bonoma article there are five major power bases; reward, coercive, attraction, expert and status power. In this center its quite difficult to tell who is most important, as it doesnt need to correlate with organizational rank. I believe that Gates, the fleet manager, is the most important participant because he most likely has most expertise about tank trucks. Expert power is therefore the dominant power base Gates displays. The competence about tank trucks doesnt have to be real, but its enough that others think he is an expert. Furthermore he could also have reward power and attraction power, and that may be why the three drivers go along with his preferences. At the same time Roberts is also a quite important participant, mostly because of her high position, which gives her status power. Furthermore she also has a solid knowledge about the financial situation for the company (expert power). Because of the financial situation she believes ...