I am the head of a technical department in a small company. Our department along IT are part of a larger product team. Our company is going through changes to face with demand from our parent company, and also to do things better and collaborate with other new and existing entities (which is not clear and under development).
I have been offered the position of the Development Director (our boss is due to be retired, and the company has the trust on me to move forward). New unit will be the expanded of whatnew director should lead it is now (it will include all engineering activities + QAthrough some transitions) and will become the core of the new company.
I am not surehave concerns about accepting the position - I have a dilemma as I am pretty happy with where I am and working with my colleagues. The positionSome aspects of my bossboss’s is not appealing to me - it involves lots of dealing with management inside and outside, dealing with the CEO which he trusts me a lot but at the same time he could be very chaotic andis a pain in the neck to deal with technical issue and etc. Also dealing with theour software has beenmaybe a problem as I am not sure how they respect and follow the need to become one better functional team in the company. I see in my self the capability to help this department in this role so we together shape a better place. This needs better team work, some cultureupcoming changes and also some new people.
I did not accept the position yet (which my boss and our CEO know) but I have been announced as the replacement by the end of the year with a transition / training period in place with a side note that they hope I accept.
I have told my peers that I needam trying to talk further with people in the company to see whether I can fulfill this responsibility, what is their opinion anddifferent team members to get a sense of how they perceive the upcoming future. I have send an email aroundfeel and asked peoplewhat I could do to think about some questionshelp the team and invitation to talkwhat are their expectations. This has resulted the IT lead to revolt, sending email here and there, reminding me that I am not his line manager, telling me and his team that I am not allowed to meet with them (which I refrained to do so). The gentleman also claims that he had a series of incidents with me and that I should stop asking his team to do things or insisting on things to do in my interests - as far as I can say these are baseless claims and mud throwing.
He threatenshas threatened to leave by the end of next week (he is on contract - which is something our CEO is not happy about - and by accident, his contract ends next week).
I feel not happy about this reaction and have a strong feeling that the gentleman will be a negative challenge to deal with. I do think that he maybe a fit for leading final product development grade software, but not to do the analysis, product spec and cutting edge research development. He is an economist by training, in his 50's and this is his 1st managing job he has had. My experience has been that he is extremely insecure (their team gets help from our mother company and the biggest achievement in the last months has been led by the mother company). In a private meetinghis leadership and dealing with me few months ago he was so upset that he said he wantspeople superior to punch one lead colleague from our mother company in facehim (position wise or qualification wise). There has also been cases that the ego and lack of listening resulted in the IT to not fulfill the job well (I did not even bring them up but recent reaction reinforces my thoughts and I see a red flag here). I do feel that the guys is taking the company hostage with this hysteric behavior.
So I am in a dilemma to what to do: I am sure my company badly wants me to accept the development director which I absolutely do not want it with this situation in place. I am happy to commit to shape things to make sure either me or someone else can do their job well with new organization but again this is an offer for help and not something I badly want to do. I do feel that the guys is taking the company hostage with this hysteric behavior.
Just a side info, I have a feeling that thereThere might be some jealousy and xenophobic factorsbehavioral conflicts here in placeas well (not maybe the main reason but it maybemaybe a factor):
The The IT head is 12 years older than me, I am from the middle-east and he is from the UK (Brexit supported who sees that UK will be better off without Scotland), he. He does not know basic ethics of greetings, cleaning the communal work in the company (like putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher), does not join others for lunch, never takes part in appreciation efforts (buying gifts / signing cards) for a departing colleague, etc.
Any advice and consulting on this is greatly appreciated.
