Issuu

Instructor’s Manual to Accompany

Organizational Behavior 10/e by Steven L. McShane and Mary Ann Von Glinow

Teaching Notes for Additional Cases Prepared by Steven L. McShane Interconnected Knowledge

EOTC

Teaching Notes for Additional Cases

INTRODUCTION TO TEACHING NOTES FOR ADDITIONAL CASES This document includes teaching notes for the additional cases in Organizational Behavior, Tenth Edition. Each case analysis includes a list of the most relevant case topics, a brief case synopsis, and a case analysis. The Additional Cases do not have any discussion questions. This gives instructors more flexibility to use these cases for assignments or in-class discussion. However, many of the teaching notes include case questions with suggested answers. Alternatively, some teaching notes present a suggested analysis of the case in terms of symptoms, problems, and recommendations. The next page provides a matrix of topics related to the additional cases in this book. The primary topics— those discussed specifically in the teaching notes—are indicated with a black dot. Secondary topics are indicated with a white dot. Secondary topics are not explicitly discussed in the teaching notes but are potentially relevant to the case.

Case

Chapter->

13 14

Arctic Mining Consultants Bayou Life Assurance and Waltham Financial CentraClear Inc. Keeping Suzanne Chalmers The Regency Grand Hotel Tamarack Industries The Outstanding Faculty Award Conifer Corp. Verberg Kansen N.V. Vêtements Ltée

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior Chapter 2: Individual Differences: Personality and Values Chapter 3: Perceiving Ourselves and Others in Organizations Chapter 4: Workplace Emotions, Attitudes, and Stress Chapter 5: Foundations of Employee Motivation Chapter 6: Applied Performance Practices Chapter 7: Decision Making and Creativity Chapter 8: Team Dynamics Chapter 9: Communicating in Teams and Organizations Chapter 10: Power and Influence in the Workplace Chapter 11: Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace Chapter 12: Leadership in Organizational Settings Chapter 13: Designing Organizational Structures Chapter 14: Organizational Culture Chapter 15: Organizational Change

ARCTIC MINING CONSULTANTS These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge.

Primary Case Topics Motivation, individual performance (MARS), leadership, and team dynamics

Case Synopsis A crew of four people staked claims for Arctic Mining Consultants. The case describes their production over the seven days, as well as incidents that occurred over this time. In particular, the case describes how the leader (Parker) reacts to the lower performance of Millar and the other crew members. This is one of my favorite cases because it covers diverse topics and has a personal touch to it. Students seem to be very involved in the case—it is written in a way that they can easily visualize (even though few of us have worked in these harsh conditions). We don‘t have an epilogue, except to say that Millar works in the forest industry in a management position.

Symptoms The main symptoms in this case are that Millar‘s work effort decreased by the end of the project, Millar was thinking about quitting during the assignment, Millar did not accept subsequent job offers from Parker, and Millar felt dissatisfied with the assignment and with Parker.

Problem Analysis The main problems in this case relate to the issues of motivation, leadership, and team dynamics.

Motivation Expectancy theory explains why Millar didn‘t work as hard at the end of the assignment, and why he did not accept further assignments. Millar had a low E-to-P expectancy due to Parker‘s poor coaching. Rather than working with Millar on further improving his performance, and rewarding Millar for his good performance, Parker criticized Millar. This criticism continually weakened Millar‘s perception that he is able to perform this type of work. Millar‘s low perception of competence made him ―give up‖ during the last day. (This is significant because Millar‘s extra effort would have enabled the crew to complete the assignment on time.) Millar‘s lack of effort on the last day can also be explained by his P-to-O expectancy. Specifically, Millar believed that he received insults from Parker no matter how well he performed the task. Notice that on the days that Millar completed 8.5 and 7 lengths, Parker said nothing. On days when Millar‘s performance was lower, Parker criticized Millar. The P-to-O expectancy also explains the effect of pay and the bonus on Millar‘s motivation. Specifically, on the last day, Millar felt that getting an extra day‘s pay was almost as good as receiving the bonus, particularly considering the hard work (a negative outcome) he would have to endure to complete the work by the end of the day. Page 1-4 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

(NOTE: Rather than using expectancy theory, students can analyze Millar‘s motivation through behavior modification, particularly Parker‘s use of punishment. Equity theory might also explain Millar‘s behavior on the last day of work. Specifically, he compared himself to Boyce, who continually had lower performance than Millar yet received less verbal abuse. Millar adjusted his inputs—job performance—so that his outcome/input ratio would be balanced with Boyce‘s ratio.)

MARS Model The key to this case is that Millar had misguided role perceptions. Specifically, he put his effort into higher quality (―picture perfect‖) posts and too much blazing (marking out the area), whereas Parker required more quantity than quality. Millar was motivated to perform the work, and he demonstrated an ability to perform the work. Some students will argue that Millar had more difficult territory than the others (i.e., the situation undermined his performance). However, the evidence suggests otherwise. The team covered extensive area over an entire week, so the law of averages suggests that the territory would be fairly evenly distributed over that time. Also, Parker and Talbot worked on the territory of others (assisting them) without any decrease in performance. Even if Millar had more difficult terrain throughout the week, he was short by only 2.5 lengths, which would have been achieved if he focused on quantity and less quality from the beginning.

Leadership According to the path–goal leadership model, Parker is effective at setting goals (achievement-oriented style). However, he does not provide enough (any?) supportive leadership. He does not treat them with respect nor is he concerned for their well-being. Yet, path–goal theory says that the leader should be supportive because the work (physical labor, deadlines) is stressful. Parker also fails to use the directive style, yet there is some evidence that he needs to clarify performance criteria. Specifically, near the end of the assignment, Parker complains that Millar is too neat with his work, that is, he should focus more on quantity than quality. This suggests that Millar (and perhaps the others) could use some guidance on the type of performance required for this assignment.

Team Dynamics There are several team dynamics operating in this case. Parker and Talbot share one tent, and Millar and Boyce share the other tent. This physical arrangement may have weakened relations between Parker and the employees in the other tent. Team cohesion is perhaps also low due to the low task interdependence in this assignment. Team cohesiveness seems to be low because the team norm of completing the project on time was not supported by Boyce. (Boyce said that he worked only as hard as he had to.)

Recommended Solution It is probably too late to encourage Millar to work with this company again. However, several long-term actions would improve motivation, performance, and retention of other employees. One recommendation would be to find out why Parker did not provide more supportive and directive leadership. If he lacks supervisory knowledge, then the company should consider providing him (and perhaps other crew leaders) leadership training. The lack of clear role perceptions is a major issue here, which can be traced back to Parker‘s lack of clear direction and coaching (he noticed Millar‘s work earlier in the week but said nothing). Page 1-5 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

There may be some problem with the size of the bonus relative to the size of the paycheck for an extra day‘s work. Depending on its cost-effectiveness, the company might consider increasing the size of the bonus. If Millar (and perhaps other employees) are paying too much attention to the quality of takes and not enough attention to the quantity, then it may be useful to provide some basic ―role perception‖ training. This would be a short session (one-half day?) where employees learn about the performance standards more clearly.

BAYOU LIFE ASSURANCE AND WALTHAM FINANCIAL These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge.

Primary Case Topics Organizational culture and organizational conflict

Case Synopsis Waltham Financial, a large life insurance and financial services company headquartered in Boston performs well internationally but has been losing market share within the United States. It divided the company into its international and American businesses and acquired Bayou Life Assurance of Jackson, Mississippi, which Waltham then merged with its American business. Waltham‘s American business was moved to Bayou‘s offices in Jackson. Employees of Waltham‘s American business were shocked and stressed by the announced move to Jackson. Bayou‘s employees were equally anxious, mainly about the uncertainty of who would acquire the firm and what lay ahead for their careers, later in terms of how to fit in with Waltham‘s imposed culture. Ten ―assertive‖ Waltham managers from Boston arrived in Jackson to decide amalgamation and downsizing of groups with high duplication. They learned from a consultant‘s analysis that the two companies had significantly different cultures. Six months later, more than 10 percent of Bayou‘s staff and almost all of its executive team had left (quit, fired, retired). The annuities department was significantly short-staffed as many Bayou employees departed and almost all of Waltham‘s annuities people refused to move to Jackson, resulting in significantly delayed annuities payments to clients. Many Bayou employees looked forward to some of the changes imposed by Waltham, but they also resented Waltham‘s arrogance and imposition on Bayou staff. For almost two years, employees in the merged organization worked long overtime hours in overcrowded and cramped conditions in four buildings spread across Jackson.

Discussion Questions and Suggested Answers 1. Diagnose this case in terms of merging two organizational cultures. The merger of Waltham‘s and Bayou‘s organizational cultures was handled very poorly, in several ways. First, no bicultural audit of the companies‘ corporate cultures occurred before the merger was completed. Waltham executives paid no attention to organizational culture in its analysis and decision to acquire Bayou Life Assurance. Waltham saw the acquisition as ―an ideal fit‖ from a business perspective, namely that Bayou was well established and successful in the American insurance market, which Waltham‘s American business lacked. The issue of organizational culture did not arise until after Waltham had acquired Bayou, specifically when Waltham‘s integration team arrived in Jackson and a consultant evaluated Bayou‘s executives. Second, Waltham and Bayou had significantly different organizational cultures, which imposed major problems for the merger. As one Waltham manager admitted: ―We were blindsided by the new problems we faced and by the different worldviews of these companies.‖ Waltham‘s culture was described as ―aggressive, entrepreneurial, consultative, and sales-oriented.‖ Bayou‘s culture was more ―bureaucratic, Page 1-7 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

formal, patriarchal, and focused on financial controls.‖ We have only indirect information about how the clashing cultures affected the merged organization, but Bayou employees resented Waltham‘s intrusion and many Bayou employees left (both voluntary and dismissed). This led to staff shortages, which caused customer service problems. The resentment among Bayou staff likely also slowed their integration in the merged organization as well as cooperation with Waltham coworkers. Third, Waltham applied a deculturation strategy to merge the two cultures. Specifically, it imposed Waltham‘s culture on Bayou employees. Students should point out that deculturation is difficult to apply successfully even when the most appropriate strategy because ―the acquired firm‘s employees resist the cultural intrusions from the buying firm, thereby delaying or undermining the merger process.‖ For the Waltham–Bayou merger, deculturation was almost certainly the wrong strategy because Waltham‘s American business was not performing as well as Bayou‘s business, and some aspects of Bayou‘s culture (more mechanistic—formal, bureaucratic, financial controls, etc.) likely contributed to that success. An integration strategy would likely have been the best approach for this merger because Bayou employees appreciated elements of Waltham‘s culture, and Bayou‘s culture likely provided some competitive advantages over Waltham in the U.S. market. 2. Diagnose this case in terms of organizational conflict. Dysfunctional conflict occurred among employees throughout the merger of Waltham‘s U.S. and Bayou‘s businesses. Much of this conflict was felt by Bayou employees toward Waltham (mainly managers, but possibly also toward its employees transferred to Jackson). The main source of conflict between Bayou employees and Waltham is differentiation. Waltham and Bayou staff had different ―worldviews,‖ which created friction in decision making and behaviors. We don‘t have details about those clashes, just comments from Waltham and Bayou staff that these differences existed, that many Bayou employees felt antagonism toward Waltham managers, and that many Bayou staff left the company. The different organizational cultures would have led to overt conflicts regarding the right way of doing things, as well as covert conflict in the minds of Bayou employees when required to apply Waltham‘s work practices. Not all of the practices imposed by Waltham caused conflict, however, because Bayou employees did appreciate some of them (employee involvement, entrepreneurialism, and sales-oriented thinking). Conflict between Bayou employees and Waltham also occurred due to poor communication from Waltham managers (and likely from some Waltham employees) to Bayou staff. Waltham staff communicated with an ―air of superiority‖ and subtle ―condescending opinion of the Bayou assurance company and its staff.‖ This condescension and belittlement of Bayou employees was threatening to their self-concept (―We felt like second-hand goods.‖), status, and likely their career potential at the merged organization. Interdependence is another source of conflict because Waltham managers worked closely with Bayou employees after the merger. Students might observe that conflict also occurred between Waltham‘s employees in Boston and the company‘s executives. Specifically, many employees felt threatened by the move to Jackson. We don‘t have much detail about this conflict but we do know that many Boston employees resented and were stressed by the prospects of being transferred to Bayou‘s head offices in Jackson. Many had a Page 1-8 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

condescending view of Bayou Life Assurance and of Jackson, Mississippi. The decision to move them to Jackson and into the merged firm would have threatened their self-view, their physical workspace comforts (which were very good in Boston), and possibly their career potential. The main source of conflict between Waltham‘s employees in Boston and the company‘s executives is incompatible goals. Waltham executives had a set of objectives that conflicted with the career and lifestyle preferences of many Boston employees. Other Possible Topics for Case Analysis Organizational culture and organizational conflict are the two most obvious topics for this case, but there are many other relevant topics. Here are brief comments on others: Organizational change. The process of merging two businesses and moving a large number of people to another city is a substantial organizational change. You might ask students to conduct a force field analysis, particularly on the various restraining forces that employees exhibited against the move. Employee attitudes. Students could examine issues of organizational commitment and job satisfaction among Bayou and Waltham employees, including the EVLN model. For example, they might assess Waltham‘s management in building commitment among Bayou employees by examining each of the five strategies for building commitment. Perceptions. This case is an organizational variation of group-level perceptual differences and biases. Some Waltham employees seem to have engaged in stereotyping (and discrimination) of people from Jackson, Mississippi. But more generally, both groups engaged in the categorization, homogenization, and differentiation process, which may have slowed the process of coming together as a unified organization. This topic is also relevant from a positive view by examining what interventions were introduced later to integrate the two organizations. These include the bus tours, onboarding process, focus groups, counseling, and moving all employees into one building.

CENTRACLEAR INC. These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge.

Primary Case Topics Organizational power, influence, and politics

Case Synopsis Nanoklar GmbH, a German firm, became majority shareholder of CentraClear Inc., an American manufacturer of centralized and stand-alone industrial air filtration systems. Sven Andersen, CentraClear‘s founder and majority stockholder, continued to operate the firm with limited influence by Nanoklar, but two years later the German firm was acquired by a large European conglomerate that wanted Nanoklar to impose more control over CentraClear. Relations between Andersen and Nanoklar deteriorated. Andersen was eventually forced out by the board when Leon Kaminski, a CentraClear manager who held 15 percent of the stock, agreed to sell his holdings to Nanoklar so the German firm could mandate complete acquisition of the firm. Kaminski immediately became CEO, but he had not participated with (nor known about) Nanoklar directors hiring a new chief operating officer. Mitch Logan was offered the position with strong support from Nanoklar directors on CentraClear‘s board but without support from Kaminski. The case describes the problems that Logan faced during the next six months as he tried to receive support and information so that he could perform his job. His main problems came from Kaminski and from Jules Dubois, the director of finance who had briefly held the chief operating officer position. What Actually Happened? This case is an adaptation of a court case in another country in which the terminated chief operating officer (named Mitch Logan in this case) sued CentraClear‘s director of finance (Jules Dubois in this case). CentraClear had given Logan a reasonable severance payment for the termination, but Logan sought tort damages from Dubois for the intimidating political tactics that Dubois had engaged in to ensure Logan‘s departure. The lower court awarded damages to Logan after concluding that Dubois‘ actions intended to harm Logan. The majority of the Court of Appeal agreed that Dubois‘ actions were ―reprehensible,‖ but they reversed the lower court‘s award on the grounds that intimidation was not illegal or actionable. One court of appeal judge dissented, explaining why the lower court‘s decision to award Logan should stand. In other words, while the lower court claimed victims of ―backstabbing‖ and related organizational politics may sue for damages, the majority of the court of appeal disagreed.

Discussion Questions and Suggested Answers The dominant theme in this case is organizational power, influence, and politics. Consequently, the questions below focus on this topic. However, the CentraClear case can also be discussed around other topics, including: organizational conflict (Andersen against Nanoklar; Dubois and Kaminski against Logan); and motivation (expectancy theory analysis of Dubois‘ motivated behaviors). 1. What influence tactics were organizational politics used by Dubois and Kaminski against Logan? Several influence tactics were used as organizational politics by Dubois and Kaminski. Dubois distributed information selectively by providing incomplete information on some occasions and Page 1-10 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

completely refusing to provide any information on some matters to Logan. Dubois actively formed a coalition against Logan. Dubois and Kaminski represented a coalition to CentraClear‘s Board of Director‘s to oust Logan. Dubois engaged in the political tactic of attacking and blaming Logan in an effort to get the new chief operating officer dismissed. Specifically, in his conversations with other CentraClear staff, Dubois attacked Logan‘s management skills and ―fit‖ with the organization. He also accused Logan of being a ―plant‖ for Nanoklar‘s management. Kaminski also used controlling communication channels as an influence tactic by allowing Dubois to present his side of the story to the Board of Directors whereas Logan did not have this opportunity. 2. What conditions exist in this case that have encouraged organizational politics? CentraClear was in the midst of major organizational change. The CEO and founder had just been removed from the company and the majority shareholder was taking greater control over the firm. Considering the hostility between the founder and Nanoklar‘s management, it is reasonable to infer that this organizational change was both traumatic and threatening to CentraClear employees. Both Dubois and Kaminski overtly demonstrated their strong need for power. While it is not easy to say whether this is socialized or personalized power, the latter seems to be the case considering that the organization is not well served by trying to dismiss an apparently qualified executive (Logan). Dubois‘s political behavior occurred because he apparently coveted the chief operating officer job. This may be considered a scarce resource since there is only one general manager position but at least two people who want the job. There is some evidence that CentraClear developed an organizational culture that tolerates political behaviors. This may have started with Andersen as he used his power to keep Nanoklar‘s management out of the company. Kaminski‘s promotion to CentraClear‘s president after signing over his shares to Nanoklar is more than coincidental. Nanoklar‘s representatives on CentraClear‘s Board of Directors is another example of political behavior that has served as a role model to shape and reinforce this emerging political culture. 3. How does information play a role in organizational power, influence, and politics in this case? Dubois had expert power over Logan and possibly over the Board of Directors. Dubois clearly possessed the most information about the organization‘s internal activities. Kaminski had been head of the Western operations whereas Dubois had a more central role in CentraClear‘s headquarters while Andersen was in charge. Second, Dubois had held the chief operating officer job briefly before Logan was hired. This gave him more expertise over the position. Logan needed Dubois‘s knowledge about operational activities as well as background knowledge of CentraClear. CentraClear‘s Board of Directors also seems to be within Dubois‘s expert power since they clearly did not want him to quit (even though CentraClear‘s chairman had earlier described Dubois as a bookkeeper who is not their choice for the chief operating officer job).

KEEPING SUZANNE CHALMERS

These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge.

Primary Case Topics Motivation, job design, money, and rewards

Case Synopsis This case describes a meeting between software engineer Suzanne Chalmers and Thomas Chan, the vice president of software engineering at Advanced Photonics Inc. (API). Chalmers arranges the meeting to indicate her intention to leave API. Chan tries to keep her by offering better conditions and, eventually, more money and share options. But Chan knows that Chalmers is already a millionaire from her share options and the appreciation of API‘s share price. The case highlights the difficulty in motivating people to stay and the relative importance of financial rewards compared to other sources of motivation. Soon after the meeting, Chalmers submits her resignation and, after a few months rest, takes up a position at a start-up company.

Discussion Questions and Suggested Answers 1. Why didn’t money motivate Suzanne Chalmers to stay with API? In this particular situation, the needs fulfilled by money (mainly physiological, safety, and social) were not strongest for Suzanne. Instead, it seems that Suzanne required more self-actualization, particularly work with more variety and challenge. The job seems to be getting routine. Furthermore, she later took a job at a start-up firm where she probably performed a wider variety of tasks. Students might also argue that Suzanne is motivated by money, but that the potential financial gains at a start-up are much greater than at API, which is a mature company with less upward stock potential. The case clearly points to Suzanne‘s need for more challenging work, but the financial potential of a small firm cannot be dismissed either. Also, it is incorrect to assume that someone who is already financially well-off is no longer motivated by money. Money is a complex resource that can motivate even for people who seemingly have enough already.

2. Do financial rewards have any value in situations such as this, where employees are relatively wealthy? Yes, most people value money even when they have enough. The textbook explains that money affects employee motivation in complex ways. It satisfies most needs to some extent. For example, Chalmers might value a special bonus or pile of share options for completing a special project. The money is valued for its symbolism, not as much for what it buys. At the same time, the facts in this case suggest that money has relatively low importance to Suzanne. She didn‘t mention money at all in the meeting, except in response to a question from Chan. She has been offered several jobs with more money (or higher potential appreciation of share options).

3. What innate drives seem to be motivating Suzanne Chalmers? All drives operate in everyone, with the drive to defend most active only when the person is threatened. However, it seems that the drive to learn is probably the most important (unfulfilled) one for Suzanne in this situation because she subsequently entered a new job with a variety of job duties. Students might also suggest that the drive to acquire is apparent, specifically that she wants to acquire new experiences. At the same time, Suzanne definitely does not have a drive to acquire material goods such as money or physical resources. Moreover, she doesn‘t express a strong drive to bond, particularly since she is motivated to leave API. 4. Of what importance is job design in this case? Possibly a great deal. In between the lines, Chalmers seems to indicate that her work is becoming a bit too routine. The case indicates that people rarely move around to different jobs at API. Instead, the company prides itself at keeping employees focused on their specialized area of expertise. While this may be desirable for many employees, there are indications that Suzanne might want a career change or at least a break from her usual work. Even people in complex jobs can get tired of their jobs if they are very narrowly defined. Another piece of evidence that job design is important here comes from information about the company Chalmers joined. She joined a start-up firm, likely one (as Chan explained) where employees perform a variety of work. We cannot say for certain that this variety motivated Chalmers to join a start-up firm, but it may be a factor. 5. If you were Thomas Chan, what strategy, if any, would you use to motivate Susan Chalmers to stay at API? As the previous question suggests, I would look more closely at job design and career issues. There is some evidence that Chalmers wants to do something different from IP software engineering. The job seems to be getting routine. Moreover, she later took a job at a start-up firm where she probably performed a wider variety of tasks. Chan should have explored these needs with Chalmers. Instead, he focused on working conditions—the size of office, financial compensation, and so on.

THE REGENCY GRAND HOTEL These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge.

Primary Case Topics Empowerment, job design, motivation, individual behavior, and stress

Case Synopsis The Regency Grand Hotel was one of Bangkok‘s most prestigious hotels when it was recently sold to a large American hotel chain. John Becker, an American with 10 years of management experience with the hotel chain, was appointed as the new General Manager. Becker applied empowerment practices to the hotel‘s 700 employees, who have always worked according to management‘s instructions. He told the hotel‘s supervisors to give employees the opportunity to use their initiative and to coach and assist rather than provide direct orders. Becker reduced the number of bureaucratic rules, which upset those who previously had decisionmaking power over these issues. The general manager spent time encouraging empowerment among employees, although they still had trouble knowing the limits of their autonomy. Supervisors would reverse employee decisions by stating that they were major issues requiring management approval. Eventually, employees reverted back to relying on their superiors for decision making. Rather than improve customer service, the hotel‘s performance deteriorated. Absenteeism and turnover of staff also increased. NOTE: This is a true case that occurred in another (but culturally similar) Asian country. The industry has also been changed to maintain anonymity. The original industry also requires high levels of customer service.

Discussion Questions and Suggested Answers 1. Identify the symptoms indicating that problems exist in this case. The main symptoms in this case are that employees stop using their initiative, that employees applied empowerment ineffectively, and that the hotel experienced higher turnover, absenteeism, stress, and customer complaints. Students might also identify conflict and dissatisfaction. 2. Diagnose the problems in this case using organizational behavior concepts. Empowerment Problems The most obvious problem in this case is that the empowerment process did not create a setting that supports empowerment. First, it is not clear that all employees possessed the necessary competencies to feel comfortable with that degree of autonomy. Second, empowerment requires a learning orientation culture, yet it is clear that employees were not supported when mistakes were made. Similarly, although John Becker seems to trust employees, other supervisors seemingly do not have the same level of trust. Third, empowerment requires jobs with a high degree of autonomy with minimal bureaucratic control. The opposite seems to exist here. Employee decisions were reversed, thereby undermining their autonomy. The MARS model helps to explain why employees did not apply their autonomy: Page 1-14 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

• Role perceptions—lack of role clarity about how and to what degree employees can make decisions without being reversed by their managers • Motivation—some employees were initially motivated to use their autonomy, but not later for reasons explained in the expectancy theory section (below) • Ability—(maybe) some knowledge for autonomous work probably missing • Situational contingencies—generally OK; they have resources and time (NOTE: Management reversal of employee actions is not a lack of opportunity issue.) Job design problems This case can also be understood from the perspective of job design. Empowerment is a form of job enrichment. According to job characteristics model, enrichment requires certain conditions, lacking here: • Skills/knowledge—employees did not have competencies or role clarity to engage in empowerment • Growth needs—some employees probably lacked growth needs because of their contented roles taking orders from management (but as noted above, other employees demonstrated that they did have fairly high growth-need strength) • Work context—fine initially, but deteriorated with low supervisor support Some concepts from other chapters are also relevant to this topic. These include expectancy theory, behavior modification, and stress management. Expectancy theory Expectancy theory is the main motivation theory that applies here, particularly regarding employee motivation to engage in empowerment practices. With respect to the E-to-P expectancy, employees were uncertain about how much discretion they had in their jobs. When they did try some initiative, their supervisor‘s reversed these actions. This likely undermined their self-efficacy regarding the ability to work in an empowered job. Low self-efficacy results in a lower E-to-P expectancy. P-to-O expectancy also had an adverse effect on employee motivation. Employees who tried empowerment experienced negative outcomes from their supervisors, and possibly from customers. While Becker initially supported employee empowerment, he later retreated to his office, thereby providing less favorable outcomes to employees who took initiative. Overall, employees stopped taking initiative because both their E-to-P and P-to-O expectancies decreased. Needs hierarchy theories Some students might apply needs-based motivation theories to explain part of this case. Specifically, they might suggest that most Regency employees have low growth/self-actualization needs because they were comfortable with the previous leadership, which did not offer much job challenge. This point may be true for some employees, but several Regency staff members DID try to apply empowerment, suggesting that they had some degree of growth-need strength. Furthermore, needs theories generally explain what needs people possess, not what behaviors they engage in. Behavior modification This case can also be discussed in terms of behavior modification. The supervisors either punished or provided extinction reinforcement to employees who engaged in empowerment practices.

Stress management Some employees quit or increased their absenteeism because they experienced higher levels of stress. Several stressors explain the causes of this stress: • Role-related stressors—ambiguous expectations and practices about how to engage in empowerment • Interpersonal stressors—employees experiencing increasing conflict with management • Organizational stressors—the purchase of the Regency as well as subsequent changes probably added to stress, but this issue isn‘t certain 3. Recommend solutions that overcome or minimize the problems and symptoms in this case. Students might identify a variety of recommendations for this content-rich case. Some might suggest that Becker (or his successor, as some students doubt that Becker has any credibility now) requires sessions in cultural sensitivity. Others suggest that empowerment will work at the Regency if employees are given clearer instruction and training, and employees see role model examples of empowerment. It might also be useful to introduce the process slowly so employees have time to adjust with less stress. The empowerment intervention is a major form of organizational change, so students who have read that chapter would recommend a number of change management initiatives, including coercion to supervisors who do not ―get on board‖ the change effort.

TAMARACK INDUSTRIES These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge.

Primary Case Topics Conflict management and team dynamics

Case Synopsis Tamarack Industries hires college students during summers to work on the production line. Regular employees resented being split up to reform teams with some students, so the foreperson decided to allow the students to form their own team. Rivalry soon formed between members of the regular team and student team. Eventually, this led to sabotage, which motivated the foreperson to break up the teams.

Discussion Questions and Suggested Answers 1. What are the signs (symptoms) of conflict in this case? This case describes several symptoms from both parties (regular employees and students). In the past, the regular employees ―resented‖ working with the college students and ―complained‖ about their work performance. Although these conflicts did not exist this year, the regular employees resented comments about them from the college students as well as their work on shorter production runs. The demeaning remarks by the college students might also be considered symptoms of dysfunctional conflict. The most overt symptoms of conflict were the sabotage of the other team‘s work. 2. Use the conflict model to (a) identify the structural causes of conflict and (b) discuss the escalation of conflict described in this case. Your answer should also identify the signs (symptoms) of conflict in this case. The main source of conflict in this case is differentiation. The teams consisted of people with significantly different backgrounds, values, and beliefs (i.e., college vs. regular staff). Some of the other sources of conflict had minimal relevance. For example, the teams had low (pooled) interdependence regarding task resources, their goals were not incompatible, and they did not lack resources to perform their work. However, there was ambiguity in rules of conduct. Also, the case suggests significant communication problems in the sense that the two teams did not talk to each other but formed stereotypes. The rivalry that formed between the teams might suggest that there was a values scarce resource—superior performance. Only one team could be the best, which may have explained why the teams tried to undermine each other‘s performance through sabotage. Conflict escalation: This case nicely illustrates the problem of escalating conflict when the underlying sources of conflict are not identified and resolved soon enough. Initially, the conflict was limited to verbal taunts by students and complaints by the regular staff. Later, this conflict escalated into sabotage of production output. Page 1-17 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

3. Analyze this case using relevant theories on team dynamics. The main team dynamics concepts that apply to this case are team norms and cohesion. Both teams develop norms of misbehavior toward the other team, even condoning or encouraging sabotage. The motivation for employees to engage in this dysfunctional behavior was amplified by team cohesion. Both teams became highly cohesive, for several reasons: • Member similarity—members of each team were similar to each other; college students or regular staff • Team size—not much information, but sounds like the teams are reasonably small • Member interaction—members of each team seem to have a high degree of interaction with each other and less with people on other teams • Somewhat difficult entry—no evidence that this affected team cohesion • Team success—this likely influenced cohesion, particularly on the college team due to its higher performance and rapid development • External competition and challenge—the other team became an external challenge Together, the dysfunctional team norms and high team cohesion produced dysfunctional behavior in this case. 4. If you were Dan Jensen, what action would you take in this situation? This question should generate considerable debate because the solution is not that simple. To begin, the instructor might want to ask whether the foreperson‘s solution is the best option here. Most likely, the foreperson‘s action will NOT work. On the one hand, mixing teams could improve relations among college students and regular staff because they would now work together and have more opportunity to know and understand each other (see the conflict chapter on communication and mutual understanding as a solution to conflict). However, this conflict management strategy works only if differentiation is sufficiently low. If the two groups are quite different, then mixing them together could, as predicted, spark resignations, or at least reduce organizational commitment. There is also the problem that mixing teams will cause teams to revert to an earlier stage of team development, which could hurt performance. The alternative solution is to maintain the two teams, but introduce actions that minimize conflict within the existing structure. For the remainder of this year (until students return to school), this option may be better. What actions can minimize conflict and its dysfunctional consequences? First, the foreperson needs to reinforce a set of behavioral norms that includes respectful behavior. It is likely that clarifying the need to avoid verbal abuse will help. Also, the foreperson needs to be firm about the wrongdoing of sabotage. Although punishment should generally be avoided, there are times when extreme behavior such as sabotage requires action. Another strategy is to introduce a performance-based reward that includes a financial reward for the individual‘s own team as well as the other team. This might encourage cooperation or, at least, reduce attempts to undermine the other team‘s performance.

THE OUTSTANDING FACULTY AWARD These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge.

Primary Case Topics Team dynamics and decision making, individual decision making

Case Synopsis This case describes the experience of a faculty member who sat on an Outstanding Faculty Award committee for the College of Business. The case describes the process from nomination to selection, as well as discussion regarding differences of opinion. The committee used a structured decision process involving weighted criteria and scores for candidates on each criterion. However, the final choice went to a faculty member who received the bottom score.

Discussion Questions and Suggested Answers 1. What problems in team decision making likely caused the committee to select for the award the worst applicant on their list? Students should be able to identify at least two team decision-making problems in this case. One problem is that more influential people derailed a logical decision process because their preference had more weight. The chapter on team decision making advises that no one on the team should dominate the process. A second problem is that individual committee members were easily swayed by the support that others gave to the associate dean‘s suggestion. This relates to peer pressure in that others probably do not wish to appear at odds with the group attitude. Another observation here is that when a committee debates over the top two alternatives (candidates), the conflict can become so strong that a third alternative wins the race. This likely occurs because strong emotions make it more difficult for each side in the conflict to accept the other party‘s preference, whereas a neutral (but less qualified) third choice receives positive support. 2. What would you recommend to future committees so they avoid the problems identified in this case? Several suggestions are possible, preferably based on the discussion in the preceding questions: Ensure that all committee members have equal status or that those with higher status (such as associate deans) avoid using their influence. Ensure that committee members develop criteria and weights for those criteria early in the process (before candidates are identified), and that they agree to stick with those criteria. Students might debate whether committee members should debate the merits of each candidate before voting. This is probably a good idea in that it brings out information. However, debate can sometimes cause people to move toward the group preference in spite of contrary evidence.

3. Discuss what happened in this case using concepts and theories of individual decision making (Chapter 7). The structural aspects of the decision-making process are generally fine. The committee worked through a logical process of identifying applicants and evaluating them. After realizing that they could not evaluate the candidates holistically, they followed a rational process of selecting the best candidate through a procedure of rating candidates on a set of five criteria. This process resulted in identification of a candidate with the highest score. The problem with the decision-making process wasn‘t so much with the process itself; the problem was that committee members abandoned the process on a few occasions. First, after the top candidate was identified, committee members debated over the decision criteria, suggesting that some people did not like the outcome of the logical process. This reflects the human tendency to form preferences earlier than the rational decision process. When some committee members did not like the top scorer, they wanted to change the criteria to fit their preconceived preference. This problem relates to the emotionality of decision making, particularly that we form preferences long before working through inferences (reasons) for liking or disliking that alternative.

CONIFER CORP.

These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge. NOTE: This is the ―Treetop Forest Products‖ case, renamed because its popularity has resulted in case notes (even videos!) distributed across the Internet.

Primary Case Topics Team dynamics

Case Synopsis Conifer Corp. is a sawmill operation in Oregon, that is owned by a major forest products company, but operates independently of headquarters. The mill is divided into six operating departments: boom, sawmill, planer, packaging, shipping, and maintenance. It won packaging quality awards over the past few years, but product quality has recently fallen and customers have switched to other producers. The planning and sawmilling departments have significantly increased productivity over the past couple of years, whereas the packaging department has decreased productivity. This has resulted in a backlog of finished product, adding to Conifer‘s inventory costs and the risk of damaged stock. The company pays packaging employees overtime to complete the work on Saturdays. The packaging department extends its lunch and coffee breaks, and usually leaves work early. The packaging department is located in a separate building from the others and has no supervisor.

Discussion Questions and Suggested Answers 1. What symptom(s) in this case suggest that something has gone wrong? The main symptom—negative outcome—in this case is that productivity of the packaging department is below the level that employees should be performing. Students should identify evidence of this performance ―gap,‖ including (a) engineering estimates that output should be higher and (b) performance in this department was relatively higher in the past. In addition, students should identify specific evidence of nonproductive behavior, including new staff reducing output after a short time and department staff taking long breaks and leaving work early. 2. What are the main causes of these symptoms? The main problem in this case is that the packaging department‘s norms appear to conflict with organizational goals. There is subtle or indirect evidence that employees in this department are encouraged or supported for taking extra time off and that those who work harder are discouraged from doing so. Students should use the team cohesion-performance concept to explain how high cohesion and counterproductive norms result in lower team performance. As part of this analysis, students need to provide information suggesting that this team has high cohesion. Students should note that the organizational environment, task characteristics, and team size support high

team cohesion. The team is relatively small, and they work together in a separate building away from others. This cohesion motivates employees to support the team‘s dominant norms. The problem, as mentioned, is that these norms are counterproductive. Note that many students argue that the main problem is ―lack of supervision.‖ They cite the fact that this department does not have a supervisor regularly overseeing the team. There are a few problems with this argument. First, there is probably no theory (certainly not in this book) stating that the most effective teams are closely supervised. On the contrary, the highest performing teams (self-directed teams) have no direct supervision at all. Second, this department performed relatively well in the past (they won awards for their packaging quality), even though there was minimal supervision at that time. Third, direct supervision is a potential solution, not the theoretical foundation of a problem analysis. But, as noted below, direct supervision is a high-cost solution. NOTE: This analysis can also be studied from the perspective of motivation. Students can use expectancy theory to explain why the packaging department is completing work late rather than on time. 3. What actions should executives take to correct these problems? Many students fall into the trap of recommending that the case will be solved through closer supervision. This may be true to some extent, but it creates other problems. Direct supervision is costly, and employees increasingly dislike situations where they are closely monitored. Direct supervision may be required in the short term to align behavior (e.g., working required hours), but there are better long-term alternatives. Supervision is only one of three forms of ―control‖ over employees, so students should also explore the other two (systems/structures and culture/values).

The main problem is dysfunctional team norms, and the textbook identifies a few ways to change team norms. Some would be more feasible than others in this case. For example, this is an existing team, so it is too late to introduce performance-oriented norms as soon as the team is created. However, it is possible to formally announce the problem—both extra time off and delayed production—to the entire team. Asking them to help solve the problem might help to change the norm, but it might not if the norm is deeply entrenched. Another strategy is to select new team members who will bring desirable norms to the group. Unfortunately, this has already been tried—the positive norm employee changed to be like the others. Unless many new employees enter this group at the same time, the strategy may not work. Although the textbook is skeptical about the effectiveness of team-based rewards in changing norms, it might work here. Currently, packaging employees are really rewarded for supporting their norm—taking time off and getting lots of overtime for catching up on the backlog. They are essentially rewarded for working slowly during regular work hours. At the same time, they apparently receive no reward for efficiency or quality. A team reward for winning the quality award and for completing the work on time might alter the norms here. Similarly, if feasible, the overtime to catch up on packaging backlog work might be given to employees from other departments who possess enough skill to complete packaging work. Disbanding the group and forming a new team is an option, but possibly expensive and disruptive. It takes time for new employees to learn the work practices, and the strong action may adversely affect employee relations with others.

There are many possible solutions here, including the above-mentioned reward system. One structural change would be to move the packaging work closer to the other employees. Line-of-sight relations with other employees might create a peer pressure situation whereby packaging employees are discouraged from working slowly and taking time off. Goal-setting and feedback systems could be introduced that might change the behavior of packaging employees without more direct supervision. If they see trends in production and quality, perhaps their values will become more aligned with these goals. As mentioned, some students might recommend more supervision of the packaging employees. This might work, but it could be costly because the company will need to pay for one more supervisor. Moreover, direct supervision merely introduces the use of punishment rather than resolving the underlying root causes of the behavior.

VERBERG KANSEN N.V.

These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge. NOTE: Verberg Kansen N.V. (Verkan) is a complete rewriting of the popular case ―Hausser Food Products Company‖ by Steven Palesy and the late David A. Nadler. The case and company name, all characters, and text have been rewritten. For those familiar with the Hausser case, Brenda Cooper at Hausser is Anke Jansen at Verberg Kansen. Cooper‘s office was in Atlanta and the sales team was in Florida, whereas in the current case study Anke Jansen is located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and the sales team is in Northern Italy. A close inspection of the company name will reveal something about the case theme.

Primary Case Topics Motivation, team dynamics, and conflict

Case Synopsis Verberg Kansen N.V. (Verkan), one of the leading European food manufacturers, is suffering from slower sales, particularly in its baby food division. The company is encouraging sales staff to discover new baby food growth opportunities, but ideas have been limited. Anke Jansen, Verkan‘s regional sales manager responsible for baby foods in Southern Europe, is relatively new to the company and is concerned that her sales teams won‘t meet its sales targets. She observes that the sales team in Northern Italy consistently exceeds its sales goals by 10 percent, yet the team doesn‘t provide any reasonable explanation for its success. A university researcher studying Verkan‘s operations and management practices visits the Northern Italy sales team and discovers why they have been so successful. In spite of financial incentives and company encouragement, the sales team has avoided revealing the secret behind their success.

Discussion Questions with Suggested Answers 1. What symptom(s) exist in this case to suggest that something has gone wrong? • The Northern Italy sales team is hiding their discovery about selling baby food to older customers. In other words, they are not motivated to inform Jansen or others at Verkan‘s headquarters about their discovery. • The Northern Italy sales team are dissatisfied with and lack affective commitment to the organization. This is evident, for instance, when Orbel says that the team‘s manager (Angelo) is ―not management; he‘s one of us.‖ • The Northern Italy sales team perceives conflict between them and Verkan management. • The Northern Italy sales team has an informal norm of limiting sales volume, rather than maximizing sales.

2. What are the underlying problems that have led to these symptoms? In other words, what theories explain what went wrong in this case? Team Norms (and Cohesion) That Undermine Verkan’s Financial Success The case identifies two norms that are enforced by members of the Northern Italy sales team. One norm is to hide their discovery of selling baby food to older people. This was apparent in the interviews and in how Angelo approached the researcher about this matter. The second norm seems to be that team members should not increase sales results too high. The team‘s actions for not abiding by the second norm was apparent in how Pietro was treated when he tried to increase sales volume more than the team wanted. Other team members sabotaged sales orders and misdirected shipments until Pietro realized that the team was serious about restricting output. This team norm is likely caused by Verkan‘s sales goal system, which increases minimum sales goals in future years based on sales results in past years. The Northern Italy sales team is highly cohesive. They have regular meetings, socialize together, and seem to have similar views about their work and interactions. Several have worked together for many years. This cohesion is apparent from statements by the team members. For example, Anzil says ―You couldn‘t ask for a greater bunch of people to work with‖ and ―we are true friends.‖ This high cohesion motivates team members to abide by the team‘s norms. In this case, the high cohesion motivates all team members to support the team‘s norms, specifically hiding from head office the seniors‘ market for baby food sales and limiting sales volume output each year. Motivation to Hide from Verkan Management the Seniors’ Market for Baby Food Salespeople in the Northern Italy team are motivated to hide from Anke Jansen and anyone else at Verkan headquarters their discovery of lucrative sales of baby food to older people. This motivation can be explained through expectancy theory of motivation. (a) Effort-to-Performance Expectancies There are two ―performance‖ levels in this situation: (a) hiding the seniors‘ market idea and (b) sharing that information with Verkan headquarters. The E-to-P expectancy of sharing the information is 1.0 probability. The team likely has an E-to-P expectancy of less than 1.0 of hiding this information, but it is likely very high given their success and faith in Angelo to throw off management about the team‘s ongoing success (10 percent above sales goal each year). (b) Outcomes and Their Valences The focus of the analysis is the P-to-O expectancies of sharing/hiding the idea and the valences of those outcomes. The main outcomes that are stated or implied in the case, along with apparent valences (using −10 to +10), are: 1. Bonus for exceeding sales by 10 percent (+8) 2. One-time bonus (€3,000) for sharing idea about seniors‘ baby food market (+2, but could be argued this valence should be negative because it is tied with losing the guaranteed 10 percent sales increase) 3. Peer pressure/punishment from other team members for violating team norm of hiding the idea (−10)

4. Stress from achieving sales goals (−5) 5. Workload (−5) Comments: The interviews clearly indicate that some or most team members value the bonus from exceeding the annual sales goal by 10 percent. Some say it is the most valued aspect of the job; others say they couldn‘t get better pay elsewhere with their education. The one-time bonus has been described as ―a joke‖ or ―insult,‖ referring to its low value. As stated above, this outcome might actually be negative because receiving the one-time bonus means that the team loses other valued outcomes. Peer pressure is clearly important because the team is highly cohesive and members value each other‘s friendship. Some interviews mention the hard work of achieving the goals and the stress of doing so if they didn‘t have the almost guaranteed buffer of seniors‘ market sales. This list of outcomes is not necessarily exhaustive. Students might identify other outcomes mentioned in the case. (c) Performance-to-Outcome Expectancies Hiding the Seniors’ Baby Food Market Idea 1. Bonus for exceeding sales by 10 percent (0.9) 2. One-time bonus (€3,000) (0.0) 3. Peer pressure (0.0) 4. Stress from achieving sales goals (0.3) 5. Workload (0.3) Comments: The probability of a 10 percent sales increase is high (0.9) because they did so in past years and getting found out about the source of their sales seems minimal so far. The one-time bonus and peer pressure have nil probability (0.0) because those outcomes are directly tied to sharing the idea. Even with the seniors‘ market buffer, the salespeople refer to stress and workload in their job, so this exists to some degree (stated as 0.3, but some may argue it is higher). Sharing the Seniors’ Baby Food Market Idea 1. Bonus for exceeding sales by 10% (0.2) 2. One-time bonus (€3,000) (1.0) 3. Peer pressure (1.0) 4. Stress from achieving sales goals (0.8) 5. Workload (0.8) Comments: The probability of a 10 percent sales increase is low (0.2) because the seniors‘ market buffer has been removed. The one-time bonus is a certainty (promised by Verkan management). Peer pressure (likely extreme ostracism) is a certainty if one employee shared the idea against the wishes/norms of the entire team. It is possible that the entire team agrees to share the idea, but this is unlikely. The level of stress and workload will likely be considerably higher because without the seniors‘ market buffer employees must work much harder in future to achieve their sales goals. (d) Calculating Effort

Students can calculate their estimates of probabilities and valences to discover that the composite valence of hiding the idea is substantially higher than the composite valence of sharing. Using our estimates, the composite valences are: Hiding the idea = 4.2 Sharing the idea with Verkan mgt. = −14.4 Conflict between Northern Italy Team and Verkan Management This case has considerable animosity between the Northern Italy salespeople and Verkan management. This conflict explains the symptoms of dissatisfaction and low affective commitment with the organization. This conflict can be analyzed in terms of the sources of conflict in the conflict model. 1. Goal incompatibility—Verkan management wants to continuously increase sales of baby food and other products even when the market has flattened, is declining, or has increased competition. This goal is institutionalized in the sales goals mandated to each region and sales team. Evidence suggests that these goals are very difficult or almost impossible to achieve for many or most sales teams. The one-time bonus is a symbol of management‘s desire for employees to creatively identify better ways to increase sales. The Northern Italy sales team‘s goals are to maximize their pay with minimal effort and stress. These goals directly oppose management‘s goals, with the result that the sales team acts contrary to management‘s wishes (it doesn‘t share its idea) and generates a psychological distance (us vs. them) between management and the sales team. 2. Differentiation—Students might argue that differentiation contributes to the perceived conflict between management and sales staff (at least those in Northern Italy, but likely elsewhere). The management group have common educational backgrounds from major MBA programs and their career tracks seem to avoid any work directly in the field as salespeople. The salespeople in Northern Italy have distinctly different education (more have partial or no education beyond high school) and have no management experience or regular interaction with management. Some students might also suggest that differentiation occurs culturally—Northern Italian salespeople versus Verkan management located in the Netherlands and possibly mostly from that country or nearby. The differentiation contributes to the ―us versus them‖ mindset. 3. Scarce resources—This factor could be argued as a source of conflict, where the resource scarcity is the level of financial rewards, largely due to flat or declining or increasingly competitive market for baby food. For instance, Verkan management increases the sales goal each year, which reduces the amount of bonus available to salespeople for performing as well as the previous year. If the baby food market was expanding quickly, there would be less animosity regarding the increasing sales goals. 4. Interdependence—Any level of interdependence contributes to conflict. In this case, the interdependence between salespeople and Verkan management might be similar to sequential because what the salespeople accomplish directly affects what Verkan management receives by way of their bonuses and goal accomplishments. 5. Poor communication—This is the fifth structural source of conflict. Students might suggest that lack of communication between Verkan management and the sales force contributes to the conflict. There is

certainly evidence in the case that the Northern Italy salespeople rely on stereotypes of Verkan management back in Amsterdam, which implies a lack of mutual understanding due to limited interaction (communication). 6. Ambiguous rules—The way that Verkan management decides the sales goals seems to be ambiguous, which might contribute to the conflict the sales staff have toward management in this process. The calculation is sufficiently vague that employees do not trust management and are not committed to the goals. Other Possible Problem Analyses The team dynamics, motivation, and conflict analyses explain the symptoms stated in this analysis, but other theories could be identified to further explain these and possibly other symptoms not mentioned here but implied in the case. For instance, Angelo Ricci‘s behavior can be explained through self-concept theory, especially the social identity process. Some students might rely on the attitude model (beliefs, feelings, behavioral intentions) to explain the negative attitudes and behavior of the Northern Italy sales team. The salespeople lack commitment to the sales goals, which might be (minimally) explained through goal-setting theory (e.g., missing some SMARTER elements). Some students will refer to the MARS model to explain why some sales teams have difficulty achieving the sales goals (i.e., situational factors). Expectancy theory might also be used to explain some low sales, namely low E-to-P when the goals are so high and the market is difficult. 3. What actions should the organization take to correct these problems and their associated symptoms? (a) Increase motivation to share discovery about selling baby food to older customers. The solution to this symptom relates to elements of expectancy theory as well as to the sources of conflict. Regarding expectancies, the company clearly needs to revise the suggestion reward so it is better aligned with its value to the company and potential financial loss to the sales team. For example, Verkan might create a reward that allows the team providing the suggestion to receive the same or perhaps slowly declining percentage of their bonus from that new market (seniors) over the next decade or more. The sales team would experience little or no financial loss for sharing the idea in the short and midterm, whereas the company would reap enormous gains. Sharing the idea may also increase their respect by other salespeople, who would now have this new source of sales revenue. To a much lesser extent, the motivation to share the idea might increase by reducing conflict between Verkan management and the sales team. That solution is discussed next. (b) Reduce conflict between the sales team and Verkan management. Conflict probably cannot be reduced through scarce resources (Verkan can‘t increase the baby food market) or interdependence (management will continue to depend on employee sales). Conflict can be reduced through a couple of other sources of conflict described in the problem analysis. First, Verkan management needs to develop a process of sales goals that is more transparent, understandable, objective, and ultimately agreed upon by employees. At least, the company needs to justify its sales goal

decisions such that some sales staff can understand why those goals were created and why they are achievable. This reduces the problem of ambiguous rules and may reduce goal incompatibility (employees see the problem out in the market, not in management). Conflict can also be reduced through better/more communication and possibly reduced differentiation. Regarding communication, it is evident that Verkan management beyond regional managers spend little time in the field getting to know the salespeople and the situations they face. Ongoing informal gatherings with senior management may help somewhat in this regard. Differentiation will remain a challenge unless Verkan decides to promote sales staff into management positions and possibly require management trainees from education (MBA) programs to work in the field as salespeople for a year or so. (c) Change team norms to be aligned with Verkan‘s success—To a large extent, this problem and its associated symptoms may be reduced through the changes described above. A sales goals system that is more transparent, understandable, and accepted could reduce employee resistance to these goals. An ―idea‖ bonus that doesn‘t have adverse outcomes for those who suggest the idea (and that benefits salespeople elsewhere in the company) could effectively wipe out the norm of hiding good ideas. Managing conflict through social interaction and career path changes could increase the local sales team managers allegiance to the organization‘s goals, while having senior management interaction with salespeople could improve mutual understanding and possibly some commitment to the company‘s success.

VÊTEMENTS LTÉE

These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge.

Primary Case Topics Motivation

Case Synopsis Vêtements Ltée is a chain of men‘s retail clothing stores located throughout the province of Quebec, Canada. Two years ago, the company introduced new incentive systems for both store managers and sales employees. However, the sales employees began to engage in activities that had an adverse effect on inventory management, employee cooperation, and customer relations. The store managers have tried, with limited success, to correct these problems.

Discussion Questions with Suggested Answers 1. What symptom(s) exist in this case to suggest that something has gone wrong?  Employees stand near the store entrance, creating customer service problems.

 There are occasional conflicts among employees over ―ownership‖ of customers.  Some parts of the store are left unattended.  Employees are unwilling to restock and reorder inventory.  Employee morale has fallen, particularly in terms of poorer relations with the store manager. 2. What are the underlying problems that have led to these symptoms? In other words, what theories explain what went wrong in this case? Expectancy theory Expectancy theory can be applied to this case to explain employee motivation to hoard customers at the store entrance rather than (a) attend to lower traffic parts of the store and (b) complete inventory duties. The E-to-P expectancy is likely least important because it is almost certain that any employee can stand near the front of the store to hoard customers. However, some students might point out that the E-to-P expectancy drops when every employee tries to hoard customers (i.e., competition for customers reduces the change that effort will result in having more customers and therefore more sales). P-to-O expectancy is the critical variable here. Students should map out the relevant outcomes, such as (a) higher pay, (b) conflicts with other staff, (c) getting fired for leaving assigned post, and (d) feelings of fair pay. The ―performance‖ variable would be grabbing customers at the front of the store or performing the allotted share of inventory work and remaining in the assigned location. A calculation of these

factors, including the valence of each outcome, will reveal that grabbing customers at the front of the store easily has the highest perceived payoff. Equity theory Equity theory also applies to this case because it refers to staff ―resentment‖ that some staff get more customers and that they are motivated to get ―more of their share.‖ To analyze this case, students need to first identify the equity elements, including inputs (effort, time, ability), outcomes (pay, achievement), and comparison (other employees). Then students need to apply the equity model. Specifically, employees who stock inventory and serve low traffic parts of store have same inputs but lower outcomes than the ―hoarders.‖ These staff feel inequity and thereby adjust their behavior to minimize tension of inequity. OB Modification This case can also be explained by behavior modification, although OB Mod offers less detail than does expectancy theory. The facts in this case clearly show that the reward system reinforces the inappropriate behaviors. The OB Mod model suggests that sales employees are motivated through positive reinforcement to maximize sales assigned to them. This means not only helping customers make purchases but also ensuring that customers are assigned to them. This accounts for the tendency of employees to stand near the store entrance and possibly fight over who owns the customer. The more customers a sales employee has, the more sales will be rung up in that employee‘s name. The OB Mod concept of extinction explains why sales employees do not perform inventory control duties as much as under the previous compensation arrangement. By leaving the sales floor to restock merchandise and complete reorder forms, employees are losing the opportunity to increase sales assigned to their name. Potential rewards (higher commissions) are withheld or lost while employees are doing inventory work. Store managers made ineffective use of punishment. Punishment is applied when store managers reprimand and threaten to dismiss employees for failing to perform inventory duties. Notice that this tactic is effective only when the store manager is in the store. This is because punishment tends to be effective only when the punishing agent (the manager) is present. Punishment also results in negative attitudes of those being punished toward the punisher. 3. What actions should the organization take to correct these problems? An important prerequisite to recommending a solution to the problems in this case is to understand the organization‘s goals with respect to sales employee performance. It appears that the performance criteria assigned to store managers—sales volume, inventory management, store appearance, and so on—should be applied to all of these employees. Based on both expectancy theory and behavior modification, the organization should redesign its incentive system for sales employees so that they also receive financial compensation for these organizational goals. For example, in addition to a sales commission, sales employees could share a quarterly reward for the store with the best appearance. Thus, this goal would receive more positive valence (or be positively reinforced) for employees in the winning store. A similar arrangement could be implemented to reward inventory management duties.

By redesigning the commission system to motivate group rather than individual performance, the problems of customer ownership and intimidation would be reduced. The redesigned incentive would motivate team performance (i.e., performance of employees together at a particular time) by dividing the work team‘s reward equally among its members. Team incentives tend to have somewhat lower motivation effect because some employees could slack off and still receive the reward, but group pressures tend to correct some of this problem and the trade-off may be worth the slightly lower motivational effect. The use of punishment in organizations is difficult, but sometimes necessary. In this case, punishment dealt mainly with the symptoms rather than the underlying root causes of the inappropriate behavior. With the new reward system, punishment should not be required very often, therefore reducing its negative consequences in this case. In the future, punishment should be used sparingly and should follow other managerial actions, including extinction and clarifying role requirements. Managers should be advised to follow the features of applying punishment effectively.

Instructor’s Manual to Accompany

Organizational Behavior 10/e by Steven L. McShane and Mary Ann Von Glinow

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior Prepared by Steven L. McShane Interconnected Knowledge

Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior

LEARNING OBJECTIVES After reading this chapter, students should be able to: 1-1 Define organizational behavior and organizations. 1-2 Explain why organizational behavior knowledge is important for you and for organizations. 1-3 Describe the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based. 1-4 Summarize the workplace trends of diversity and the inclusive workplace, work–life integration, and remote work. 1-5 Diagram the MARS model and describe the four factors that directly influence individual behavior and performance. 1-6 Summarize the five types of individual behavior in organizations.

CHAPTER GLOSSARY ability—the natural aptitudes, learned capabilities, and habits required to successfully complete a task adaptive task performance—how well employees modify their thoughts and behavior to align with and support a new or changing work process or work setting corporate social responsibility (CSR)— organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm‘s immediate financial interests or legal obligations

evidence-based management—the practice of making decisions and taking actions based on research evidence human capital—the knowledge, skills, abilities, creative thinking, and other valued resources that employees bring to the organization inclusive workplace—a workplace that values people of all identities and allows them to be fully themselves while contributing to the organization

counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs)— voluntary behaviors that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization

MARS model—a model depicting the four variables—motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors—that directly influence an individual‘s voluntary behavior and performance

deep-level diversity—differences in the psychological characteristics of employees, including personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes

motivation—the forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of effort for voluntary behavior

open systems—the view that organizations are dependent on the external environment for resources (inputs), consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs to outputs, and affect the environment through those outputs

remote work—any arrangement whereby an individual performs organizational tasks while located away from the employer‘s physical premises, usually connected through various forms of information technology

organizational behavior (OB)—the study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations

role perceptions—the degree to which a person understands the job duties assigned to or expected of them

organizational citizenship behavior (OCBs)— various forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others that support the organization‘s social and psychological context

stakeholders—individuals, groups, and other entities that affect, or are affected by, the organization‘s objectives and actions

organizational effectiveness—an ideal state in which an organization has a good fit with its external environment, effectively transforms inputs to outputs through human capital, and satisfies the needs of key stakeholders organizations—groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose proactive task performance—how well employees take the initiative to anticipate and introduce new work patterns that benefit the organization proficient task performance—how well employees perform the work efficiently and accurately

surface-level diversity—the observable demographic or physiological differences in people, such as their race, ethnicity, gender, age, and physical disabilities task performance—the individual‘s voluntary goaldirected behaviors that contribute to organizational objectives; includes proficient, adaptive, and proactive task performance work–life integration—the degree that people are effectively engaged in their various work and nonwork roles and have a low degree of role conflict across those life domains

CHAPTER SUMMARY BY LEARNING OBJECTIVE 1-1 Define organizational behavior and organizations. Organizational behavior is the study of what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations. It examines how individuals and teams in organizations relate to one another, and how organizations interact with their external environments. This field of knowledge emerged around the early 1940s, but organizations have been studied by other disciplines for more than 2,000 years. Organizations are groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose. They consist of people who interact with one another in an organized way and have a collective sense of purpose. LO 1-2 Explain why organizational behavior knowledge is important for you and for organizations. Organizational behavior is important for you because it offers a core foundation of knowledge and skill development for your success in organizations. The skills and knowledge that employers look for in new hires, above anything else, are the topics found in organizational behavior, including problem-solving,

working effectively in teams, communication, and leadership. More broadly, OB helps you adopt better personal theories to understand, predict, and influence organizational events. OB knowledge is for everyone, not just managers. OB theories and practices are vital to the organization‘s survival and success. In fact, most OB theories implicitly or explicitly try to improve organizational effectiveness—an ideal state in which an organization has a good fit with its external environment, effectively transforms inputs to outputs through human capital, and satisfies the needs of key stakeholders. Organizational behavior knowledge is highly relevant to the open systems view of organizations by identifying organizational characteristics that ―fit‖ some external environments better than others. OB theories offer guidance on how to effectively transform inputs to outputs. OB is also important for organizations because it identifies ways for organizations to develop and leverage the potential of human capital—the knowledge, skills, abilities, creativity, and other valued resources that employees bring to the organization. Several organizational behavior topics also give us a better understanding of relations with stakeholders—individuals, groups, and other entities that affect, or are affected by, the organization‘s objectives and actions. This latter focus includes the role of corporate social responsibility—organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm‘s immediate financial interests or legal obligations. 1-3 Describe the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based. The systematic research anchor states that OB knowledge should be based on systematic research, consistent with evidence-based management. The practical orientation anchor states that OB theories need to be useful in practice, such as by helping organizations become more effective. The multidisciplinary anchor states that the field should develop from knowledge in other disciplines (e.g., psychology, sociology, and economics), not just from its own isolated research base. The contingency anchor states that OB theories generally need to consider that there will be different consequences in different situations. The multiple levels of analysis anchor state that OB topics may be viewed from the individual, team, and organization levels of analysis. 1-4 Summarize the workplace trends of diversity and the inclusive workplace, work–life integration, and remote work. An inclusive workplace values people of all identities and allows them to be fully themselves while contributing to the organization. It views diversity as a valued resource. An organization‘s workforce has both surface-level diversity (observable demographic and other overt differences in people) and deeplevel diversity (differences in personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes). Inclusive workplaces produce better decisions, employee attitudes, team performance, and a host of other favorable outcomes for employees and the organization. However, diversity also poses challenges, such as dysfunctional conflict and slower team development. Work–life integration refers to the degree that people are effectively engaged in their various work and nonwork roles and have a low degree of role conflict across those life domains. Various work and nonwork roles are inherently integrated because the physical, cognitive, and emotional resources produced or consumed by one role potentially enrich or undermine the success and enjoyment of other roles. There are several ways to maximize work–life integration, such as doing things that mix two roles,

engage in flexible work scheduling, ensure that work and nonwork roles are aligned with your personal characteristics, and engage in some degree of ―boundary management‖ across roles. An increasing percentage of the workforce performs their job remotely some or all of the time rather than at the organization‘s physical work site. Some organizations are completely remote—everyone works at home and cafés and the company has no physical head office. Working remotely potentially benefits employees and employers, but there are also disadvantages. The effectiveness of remote work depends on the employee, job, and organization. 1-5 Diagram the MARS model and describe the four factors that directly influence individual behavior and performance. Four variables—motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors—which are represented by the acronym MARS, directly influence individual behavior and performance. Motivation represents the forces within a person that affect the direction, intensity, and persistence of voluntary behavior; ability includes both the natural aptitudes and the learned capabilities required to successfully complete a task; role perceptions are the extent to which people understand the job duties (roles) assigned to them or expected of them; and situational factors include conditions beyond the employee‘s immediate control that constrain or facilitate behavior and performance. 1-6 Summarize the five types of individual behavior in organizations. There are five main types of workplace behavior. Task performance refers to goal-directed behaviors under the individual‘s control that support organizational objectives. It includes proficiency, adaptivity, and proactivity. Organizational citizenship behaviors consist of various forms of cooperation and helpfulness to others that support the organization‘s social and psychological context. Counterproductive work behaviors are voluntary behaviors that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization. Joining and staying with the organization refers to agreeing to become an organizational member and remaining with the organization. Maintaining work attendance includes minimizing absenteeism when capable of working and avoiding scheduled work when not fit (i.e., low presenteeism).

LECTURE OUTLINE Slide 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior Slide 2: Learning Objectives After reading this chapter, students should be able to: 1-1 Define organizational behavior and organizations. 1-2 Explain why organizational behavior knowledge is important for you and for organizations. 1-3 Describe the anchors on which organizational behavior knowledge is based. 1-4 Summarize the workplace trends of diversity and the inclusive workplace, work–life integration, and remote work. 1-5 Diagram the MARS model and describe the four factors that directly influence individual behavior and performance. 1-6 Summarize the five types of individual behavior in organizations

Slide 3: The Great Resignation The Great Resignation during the COVID-19 pandemic connects with many organizational behavior topics, such as organizational culture, job satisfaction, leadership, task performance, organizational change, team dynamics, stress, and organizational commitment.

Slide 4: Organizational Behavior and Organizations Organizational behavior (OB) • Studies what people think, feel, and do in and around organizations • Emerged as a distinct field sometime around the early 1940s, but topic has been studied for more than 2,500 years

Organizations • Groups of people who work interdependently toward some purpose • Collective entities • Collective sense of purpose

Slide 5: Importance of OB for You OB is important for everyone, not just for ―management‖ The most important skills and knowledge employers look for in new hires are OB

• Problem-solving, communication, teamwork, adaptability, initiative, resiliency

OB helps students adopt better personal theories to comprehend, predict, and influence organizational events • Comprehend workplace events—fulfills need to understand what goes on around us • Better able to predict workplace events—improves the accuracy of our personal theories • Get things done by influencing and coordinating more successfully with others

Slide 6: Importance of OB for Organizations OB theories ultimately try to improve the organization‘s effectiveness—the ultimate dependent variable in organizational behavior OB concepts improve the organization‘s effectiveness: • Sales, profitability, patient survival, and other indicators of effectiveness • Are ―positive screens‖ for selecting companies with best investment returns

Organizational Effectiveness—an ideal state in which the organization: • Has a good fit with its external environment (open system) • Effectively transforms inputs to outputs (human capital) • Satisfies the needs of key stakeholders

Organizational effectiveness is considered the ultimate dependent variable in OB

Slide 7: Organizations as Open Systems Organizations are dependent on the external environment for resources (inputs), consist of internal subsystems that transform inputs to outputs, and affect the environment through those outputs Effective organizations • Maintain a good ―fit‖ with the changing external environment—inputs, processes, and outputs are aligned with the resources available and needs of the external environment • Transform inputs to outputs—subsystems need to coordinate with one another, including team performance, influencing other work units

Slide 8: Human Capital as Competitive Advantage Human capital—knowledge, skills, abilities, creative thinking, and other valued resources that employees bring to the organization Company‘s competitive advantage because: • Employees are essential for the organization‘s survival and success Page 1-39 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

• Employee talents are difficult to find, copy, or replace with technology

Human capital improves organizational effectiveness: • Developing employee skills and knowledge directly improves individual behavior and performance • Organizations with skilled, motivated employees are better at performing diverse tasks in unfamiliar situations, so they adapt better to rapidly changing environments • Investing in and rewarding employees motivates them to reciprocate through greater effort in their jobs and assistance to coworkers

Slide 9: Organizations and Their Stakeholders Organizations are more effective when they understand, manage, and satisfy stakeholder needs and expectations Stakeholders: any entity who affects or is affected by the organization‘s objectives and actions, for example, employees, shareholders, suppliers, unions, and government Challenge: Stakeholders have conflicting interests and firms have limited resources to satisfy all stakeholders Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is associated with stakeholders • Organizational activities intended to benefit society and the environment beyond the firm‘s immediate financial interests or legal obligations • Triple-bottom-line philosophy • Economic—survive and be profitable • Society—maintain or improve conditions • Environment—become ―greener‖

Evidence: companies with a positive CSR reputation tend to have better financial performance, more loyal employees, and better relations with customers, job applicants, and other stakeholders

Slide 10: Integrative Model of OB Individual inputs and processes influence individual outcomes, which have a direct effect on the organization‘s effectiveness Team inputs influence team processes, which then affect team performance and other outcomes Team processes and outcomes affect individual processes and outcomes

Organizational inputs and processes have macro-level influence on both teams and individuals

Slide 11: Organizational Behavior Anchors (1 of 2) 1. Systematic research anchor • OB knowledge should be based on systematic research • Forming research questions, collecting data, and testing hypotheses

Evidence-based management • Making decisions and taking actions on research evidence • Scientific method, not fads and personal beliefs that are untested

Why decision makers don‘t apply evidence-based management • Bombarded with popular, unresearched sources—most OB research is in obscure journals with limited access • Management fad sources are rewarded for being persuasive, not for research evidence—opposite for OB researchers • Perceptual errors bias decision maker toward popular and personal theories and to ignore contrary evidence • OB knowledge is necessarily generic—difficult to see relevance to specific situations • Herd mentality motivates decision makers to follow what is popular, not what is best evidence

Creating a more evidence-based organization • Be skeptical of hype (beware of ―new,‖ ―revolutionary,‖ ―proven‖) • Seek out the views of several expert sources, not lone charismatic stars and management gurus • Use stories/examples to illustrate, not as validation of an idea or practice • Resist the temptation to engage in herd behavior—decision makers need to be self-confident and involve others in the decision

2. Practical orientation anchor • OB theories need to be useful in practice • Implicit or explicit objective of making organizations more effective • True ―impact‖ of an OB theory—actually applied and valued in organizations

Slide 12: Organizational Behavior Anchors (2 of 2) 3. Multidisciplinary anchor • Many OB concepts adopted from other disciplines •

For example, psychology (individual, interpersonal behavior); sociology (team dynamics, power); communications; marketing; and information systems.

• OB develops its own theories but also scans other fields • Risks of OB not developing more of its own theoretical foundations 4. Contingency anchor • A particular action may have different consequences in different situations—no single solution is best all the time • Need to understand and diagnose the situation and select the strategy most appropriate under those conditions 5. Multiple levels of analysis anchor • Individual—includes characteristics and behaviors as well as thought processes, for example, motivation, perception, and values • Team (including interpersonal)—looks at the way people interact, for example, team dynamics, decisions, and power • Organizational—how people structure their working relationships and how organizations interact with their environment • OB topics usually relevant at all three levels of analysis

Slide 13: Emerging Workplace: Inclusive Workplace Inclusive workplace—values diversity and allows people of all identities to be fully themselves while contributing to the organization • Individual level—people of all backgrounds feel psychologically safe, engaged, valued, authentic, listened to, and respected • Collective level—diverse groups have voice through formal structures and everyday processes— continually assesses fairness of organizational systems

Surface-level diversity

• Observable demographic or physiological differences in people (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, age, and physical capabilities) • Surface-level diversity is increasing in many countries

Deep-level diversity • Differences in the psychological characteristics of employees (e.g., personalities, beliefs, values, and attitudes) • Can‘t directly see deep-level diversity—evident in words, decisions, actions • Some deep-level diversity is associated with surface-level diversity (e.g., gender differences in values, attitudes, and personality)

Generational diversity • Deep-level diversity—values, expectations, attitudes—exists across generations, but differences are more subtle than many think • Differences are due more to person‘s stage of life than to their cohort (decade of birth)

Slide 14: Inclusive Workplace Benefits and Challenges Inclusive workplace benefits • More creativity, better decisions in complex situations (especially teams with high informational diversity (different knowledge and skills)) • Better representation to recognize and address community needs • Surface-level and some deep-level diversity is a moral/legal imperative • Fulfills ethical standard of fairness (selection, promotions, etc.), better hiring, promotion, employee satisfaction, and loyalty • Inclusive workplaces generally have better decisions, employee attitudes, team performance • Benefits depend on several factors (leadership, team structure, psychological safety)

Inclusive workplace benefits challenges • Diverse teams usually take longer to perform effectively together • Higher risk of dysfunctional conflict—less information sharing and morale • Sometimes results in a curvilinear relationship between diversity and team performance—too little versus too much diversity

Slide 15: Emerging Workplace: Work–Life Integration Increased blending of work and nonwork for many employees—influenced by information technology and globalization Work–life integration—the degree that people are effectively engaged in their various work and nonwork roles and have a low degree of role conflict across those life domains Page 1-43 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

• Occurs by satisfying the demands and experiencing positive emotions of various segments of life • Our various roles are inherently integrated—resources generated and consumed by one role enhance or starve other roles

Problem: heavy demands of one role deplete personal resources, which starve other roles Example: consuming most energy and time performing/thinking about job leaves insufficient time and energy for other life roles Practicing work–life integration 1. Literally integrate two or more roles • meetings while exercising; dogs at work; on-site child care 2. Flexible work scheduling • attend meetings remotely from home then flexible work next day; parental leave programs 3. Align work and nonwork roles with personal attributes (personality, values) 4. Boundary management—prevent work roles from encroaching on time and attention devoted to your nonwork roles • Schedule time blocks—stop work at a set time, set aside nonwork time • Create physical role spaces—distinct home office space • Apply technological boundaries—right to disconnect, ignore work notices after hours • Communicate role boundary expectations—auto-messages when away for office

Slide 16: Remote Work at Automattic Automattic is a completely distributed organization. All of its employees are remote workers located across several dozen countries. The hiring process occurs completely through chat and text messaging. Team leaders regularly convene video-based meetings, and teams meet in person twice each year.

Slide 17: Emerging Workplace: Remote Work Remote work—performing the job away from the organization‘s physical premises—usually connected to coworkers, clients, and company data through information technology Most common is working from home or other non-client site away from the traditional workplace, but it may also include working at client sites Hybrid work arrangements—working from home part of the week and at the company‘s premises at other times Distributed organizations—have a completely remote workforce—no physical company offices (e.g., Automattic and Gitlab)

Slide 18: Remote Work Benefits and Risks Potential benefits of remote work • Better work–life integration—more time, more control to juggle work with family—but requires sufficient workspace and privacy at home • Attractive benefit for job applicants • Low employee turnover • Higher employee productivity—less stress, some former commute time becomes work time—allows work to continue during natural disasters • Lower unpaid time and travel costs • Reduced greenhouse gas emissions and public transportation infrastructure • Reduced corporate real estate

Potential risks of remote work • More social isolation—due to less connection with coworkers • Less informal communication with coworkers—less word-of-mouth information about promotional opportunities • Lower team cohesion • Weaker organizational culture • More stressful due to home space and roles

Slide 19: Remote Work Contingencies Employee characteristics • High self-motivation • High self-organization • High need for autonomy • Able to fulfill their social needs outside work • Good information technology skills

Job characteristics • Tasks have fairly low interdependence with other jobs • Work resources can be transported home or are available digitally • Task performance is measurable

Organizational characteristics • Reward employees for performance not office presence (face time) • Maintaining team cohesion and psychological connectedness with the organization—limit remote work days, have special in-person meetings/events, video communication

Slide 20: MARS Model of Individual Behavior Individual voluntary behavior and performance is influenced by motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors • Represented by the acronym MARS • All four factors influence individual voluntary behavior and performance—behavior or performance is low if any one factor is low

MARS is built on earlier models of individual behavior and performance: • Performance = person × situation—person includes individual characteristics and situation represents external influences on the individual‘s behavior • Performance = ability × motivation—―skill-and-will‖ model, two specific characteristics within the person • Ability–motivation–opportunity (AMO)—refers to the three variables but with a limited interpretation of the situation • Role perceptions literature

Slide 21: MARS Model: Motivation Internal forces (cognitive and emotional conditions) that affect a person‘s effort for voluntary behavior • Direction—path along which people steer their effort—motivation is goal-directed, not random • Intensity—amount of effort allocated to the goal • Persistence—continuing the effort for a specific amount of time

Slide 22: MARS Model: Ability Natural aptitudes, learned capabilities, and habits required to successfully complete a task • Aptitudes—natural talents that help people learn specific tasks more quickly and perform them better • Learned capabilities—acquired physical and mental skills and knowledge • Habits—tendencies to engage in specific behaviors in response to contextual cues and enacted with little conscious awareness or reflection—triggered by situational cues—minimal or no consciously motivated thought

Person–job matching—produces higher performance and tends to increase the employee‘s well-being 1. Select applicants who demonstrate the required competencies 2. Provide training to enhance individual performance and results 3. Redesign the job so employees perform only tasks they are currently able to perform

Slide 23: MARS Model: Role Perceptions The extent to which people understand the job duties (roles) assigned to or expected of them Role perceptions are clearer (role clarity) when we: • Understand which tasks or consequences we are accountable for • Understand the priority of tasks and performance expectations • Understand the preferred behaviors/procedures for tasks

Benefits of clear role perceptions: • More accurate/efficient job performance (due to clearer direction of effort) • Better coordination with others • Higher motivation due to clearer link between effort and outcomes

Slide 24: MARS Model: Situational Factors Any context beyond the individual‘s immediate control

Two influences of situation on behavior 1. Constraint or facilitator—for example, time, budget, work facilities, consumer preferences, and economic conditions 2. Cues—guide and motivate behavior—for example, physical barriers and safety warning signs

Slide 25: Types of Individual Behavior (1 of 2) Task performance Voluntary goal-directed behaviors under the individual‘s control that contribute to organizational objectives • Involve working with people, data, things, and ideas

Three types of performance: 4. Proficient task performance—employees work efficiently and accurately 5. Adaptive task performance—employees modify their thoughts and behavior to align with and support a new or changing environment 6. Proactive task performance—employees take initiative to anticipate and initiate new work patterns that benefit the organization

Organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) Various forms of cooperation with and helpfulness to others that support the organization‘s social and psychological context Directed toward: • Individuals—for example, adjusting work schedule to accommodate coworkers • Organization—for example, supporting the company‘s public image

Some OCBs are discretionary (don‘t need to perform them), whereas other OCBs are job requirements even if they aren‘t explicitly stated OCBs can have a significant effect on individual, team, and organizational effectiveness OCBs can have negative consequences for employees—take effort away from task performance and nonwork obligations

Slide 26: Types of Individual Behavior (2 of 2) Counterproductive work behaviors Voluntary behaviors that have the potential to directly or indirectly harm the organization Examples: harassing coworkers, creating unnecessary conflict, avoiding work obligations Joining and staying with the organization Forming the employment relationship and remaining with the organization Organization‘s effectiveness hurt by: • Lack of job applicants—unable to complete work processes • High employee turnover—loss of human capital—removes valuable knowledge, skills, and relationships with coworkers and external stakeholders

Maintaining work attendance Absences due mainly to situation (weather) and motivation (avoiding stressful workplace) Presenteeism—attending scheduled work when one‘s capacity to perform is significantly diminished by illness or other factors

SOLUTIONS TO CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

3. A friend suggests that organizational behavior courses are useful only to people who will enter management careers. Discuss the accuracy of your friend’s statement. This chapter explains that although technical skills and knowledge are important in many occupations, the skills and knowledge that employers tend to rank above anything else are the topics associated with organizational behavior, such as problem-solving, teamwork, communicating, and adaptability/initiative. In addition to helping students acquire these valuable skills and knowledge foundations, organizational behavior helps students to adopt better personal theories to understand, predict, and influence organizational events. By adopting better personal theories, we are able to make more accurate sense of what goes on around us and are better able to coordinate our work objectives with coworkers and other organizational stakeholders. In other words, OB knowledge helps us to get things done more effectively in organizations. The above benefits of OB lead to a key principle in this book, namely that OB is for everyone who works in and around organizations. Although managers may require OB knowledge more intensively, people in all jobs ultimately require the skills that employers seek out and people need to develop more accurate personal theories of why events and behavior occur in organizational settings. 4. Problem-solving, teamwork, communication, and adaptability/initiative are four of the top skills identified by employers as most important when hiring (see Exhibit 1.1). How have these skills been important (or unimportant) for you in jobs that you have held or as a student? Identify one other skill that you would place at or near the top of the list for working effectively in organizations. This question lays the foundation for an open discussion of how organizational behavior concepts associated with these skills are useful in organizations. The four top skills that employers seek in job applicants are shown below, along with some suggested applications of these skills at work. Problem-solving (including analytic and strategic thinking)—As discussed in the chapter on decision making, effective problem-solving is a critical requirement in most jobs yet is fraught with numerous biases and limitations. Effective decision makers provide more effective assignment of organizational resources, ranging from creating a more engaged workforce to making more efficient use of cash flow and budgets. Problem-solving also includes creativity, which many business leaders say is perhaps their firm‘s key competitive advantage.

Teamwork (including collaboration, interpersonal skills, and people management)—This skill is discussed in the chapter on teams but also relates to managing conflict, influencing others, and understanding and managing emotions. The teams chapter points out that employees work in teams more than ever, so they need to learn how to develop the five behaviors of effective team members. Without team skills, employees undermine work processes, adversely affect the satisfaction and commitment of others, and potentially undermine everyone‘s work performance. Teamwork skills are also important for coordinating work, in other words, just getting your individual work accomplished because it typically requires the support of coworkers.

Communication—The ability to convey information and to use words persuasively are important skills for effective coordination and getting things done with others. Students might mention how communication problems or successes have helped their career or to navigate their interaction in tricky situations. Adaptability/initiative/resiliency—These three related skills are discussed throughout this book as essential individual characteristics and behaviors. Adaptability is one of the three types of individual performance; it also connects with creativity, teamwork behavior, and organizational change. Initiative refers to self-motivation, which is discussed as an applied performance practice (self-leadership). Resiliency, the capacity to recover from setbacks, is discussed in the context of work-related stress. Students can identify several other skills associated with organizational behavior beyond the four listed above. Some of these include managing (coping with) stress, organizational citizenship behaviors, involving others in decisions, and deciding and acting ethically. 5. Organizational behavior provides valuable knowledge to improve and maintain organizational effectiveness. Scan through the topics of this book to identify a few ways that OB knowledge is useful. Your answer should refer not only to the OB chapter theme but also to open systems, human capital, and/or stakeholders. This open discussion question relates to most (or all) chapters in this book and to many topics within a chapter. The key point of this question is for students to link the selected topic to one or more of the three elements of organizational effectiveness: open systems, human capital, and/or stakeholders. Below are three examples: Team development (Chapter 8: or specific subtopics—cohesion, norms, mental models, etc.): Team development plays a central role in the effective transformation of inputs to outputs (open systems) because teams are core subsystems and therefore central to the transformation process in almost all organizations. Team development also relates to human capital because the cohesion, mental models, norms, and so on that develop within teams are valuable human resources. This value is evident when something occurs (e.g., high employee turnover) that undermines that team development. Emotional intelligence (Chapter 4): Employees with high emotional intelligence strengthen organizational effectiveness in various ways. Employees who work with people outside the organization (boundary spanners) benefit from high emotional intelligence because they have greater awareness of the emotions of clients, suppliers, government officials, community leaders, and other stakeholders. This increases the company‘s sensitivity to stakeholders so it can respond to those needs and expectations. This also applies to the broader topic of open systems because emotional intelligence increases the company‘s ability to sense the external environment, making it aware of risks to resource availability and to environmental responses to its products/services and other outputs to the environment. Emotional intelligence is also an important employee attribute in human capital, which influences the effective transformation of inputs to outputs. For example, emotionally intelligent employees work more effectively with coworkers and with people in other work units. Organizational structure (specifically, departmentalization—Chapter 13): The type of departmentalization applied to a company affects its organizational effectiveness. An extreme example would be assigning a simple structure to a large multinational firm. That arrangement would result in disastrously poor coordination among work units, which undermines the transformation process (open Page 1-51 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

systems). Departmentalization also relates to how the organization relates to its stakeholders and more generally to the external environment. For example, companies organize around products or client groups when those groups are diverse and require unique relations with the organization. 4. After attending a seminar on human capital, a mining company executive argues that this view of organizations ignores the fact that mining companies could not rely on people alone to stay in business. They also need physical capital (such as digging and ore-processing equipment) and land (where the minerals are located). In fact, these two may be more important than what employees carry around in their heads. Discuss the mining executive’s comments in the context of human capital and organizational effectiveness. ―People are our most value assets‖ reflects the fact that land and capital have little value without people. For instance, this mining company would not have found land with ore deposits unless it had the human capital (skills, knowledge, creativity, etc.) to find those deposits. Similarly, it could not operate the equipment to extract the ore unless it had the requisite human capital to purchase, operate, and maintain that equipment. The executive comments that companies could not remain in business with only human capital. On the contrary, some of the wealthiest organizations (including many software companies and consulting firms) have few physical assets. Banks are selling off their corporate headquarters because their competitive advantage—their source of wealth—is found in human expertise. Mining companies are also outsourcing several aspects of physical assets. Their ships and digging equipment are often owned by third-party firms that have human capital expertise in buying and maintaining those resources. The major mining companies today are mainly in the knowledge business—scouting for ore deposits or maintaining logistics to get ore that others have extracted and to sellers where it is processed. 5. Most companies actively hire and retain employees with diverse backgrounds, particular race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and sexual orientation. Based on this ongoing effort, many claim their organization is an inclusive workplace. Explain why the existence of a diverse workforce differs from having an inclusive workplace. Workforce diversity differs from an inclusive workforce. Diversity refers to the characteristics (typically surface-level, but potentially also deep-level) of employees, whereas an inclusive workforce refers to how well the organization values diversity and allows people of all identities to be fully themselves while contributing to the organization. This distinction is evident when people in some groups are not given the opportunity to fully participate in the organization due to their diversity characteristics. It also occurs when people of a particular group (ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc.) are members of the organization but their self-concept needs to be suppressed to actively participate in the organization. In other words, diversity refers only to the demographics or more subtle characteristics of the organization. An inclusive workplace is an ongoing process that enables people of all backgrounds to feel psychologically safe, engaged, valued, authentic, listened to, and respected. For example, an inclusive workplace monitors organizational systems to ensure that they do not unfairly differentiate or discriminate against people with some forms of diversity.

6. What does evidence-based management mean? Describe situations you have heard about in which companies have practiced evidence-based management, as well as situations in which companies have relied on fads that lacked sufficient evidence of their worth. There are two parts to this question. The first requires students to define ―evidence-based management.‖ The second part asks students to provide an example of fads that lacked evidence, but which companies relied on in the past. Answers to the second part will vary based on individual student experiences. A sample answer to the first part of the question ―evidence-based management‖ may include the following: Evidence-based management is the idea that management decisions and initiatives should be based on the systematic research anchor to ensure effective implantation. In other words, we should manage the workplace based on sound evidence gathered as a result of systematic research. This involves using knowledge flowing from the process of forming research questions, systematically collecting data, and testing hypotheses against those data. Applying evidence-based management would significantly reduce the risk of corporate leaders embracing fads and relying on their pet beliefs before finding out if they actually work. 7. Work–life integration is one of the most important issues that job applicants consider when choosing where to work. Think about the variety of specific benefits, working conditions, or resources that employers offer to support work–life integration. Which of these is most valuable to you personally at this stage in your life and career? Why? In what ways have you personally been able to minimize conflict between your work (including school) and nonwork roles? This question prompts open discussion of students‘ personal preferences and the variety of work–life integration benefits, conditions, and resources available in organizations. It also brings out specific examples of ways that people effectively integrate their work (or school duties) and nonwork life roles. Numerous work–life integration benefits, conditions, and resources might be discussed. Here is a small set of them: • Remote work • Flexible hours • Workplace recreation facilities • Activity-based meetings • Exercising while working • Paid parental leave • Company policies restricting after-work communication • Flexible vacation schedules • Sabbaticals • Child care center support or in-house • Career counseling (for better alignment of job requirements with personal characteristics) 8. Automattic and several other businesses (e.g., Emsisoft and Gitlab) are completely remote (distributed) companies. Everyone who works for these firms performs their jobs from home or Page 1-53 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

cafés. In your opinion, will distributed companies become more common in the future? Why or why not? Would you prefer working in a remote company—one that has no physical location, just (maybe) an occasional gathering of staff at a conference setting or resort? Or do you prefer working face-to-face most days with coworkers at a company worksite? Why? This question encourages debate about the viability of this emerging form of organization, in which everyone works remotely and most of these companies don‘t have a physical headquarters. It also encourages discussion about personal preferences for working in remote arrangements, whether in a completely remote organization or just where the student is a permanent remote worker. The viability of completely remote organizations touches on the issues at Yahoo and other companies that reduced or completely withdrew employee opportunities for remote work. But there is also plenty of writing about the success of Automattic and a few other completely remote companies. This book identifies a few job and organizational features that are important for remote work, and these are even more critical for entirely remote organizations. In addition, some of the ideas that students might discuss about the viability of remote organizations are: • Whether people need more social integration than occurs in remote firms or remote work. • Whether remote firms require leadership skills that are difficult to develop. • Whether the average employee performs better under guidance (or close watch) of a ―manager‖ rather than working autonomously from home. • Whether remote companies are more viable in some knowledge work businesses than in others. For example, students might consider the form of interaction with customers and other external stakeholders. Also, consider how the confidentiality of information used by staff might limit the viability of remote work and organizations. • Whether financial arrangements—from salaries to financial benefits—get too complex in completely remote companies, particularly where employees are located in several countries (or whether global remote firms simply shift to contract-based workers). • Whether remote companies can overcome or manage the potentially heightened conflict and misunderstanding that tends to occur when staff rely on leaner communication channels (text messaging, online chat, etc.). Regarding student preferences for working in remote organizations, a variety of personal characteristics and conditions could be discussed. These might begin with the personal characteristics identified in this chapter of the book: • High self-motivation • High self-organization • High need for autonomy • Good skill with information technology

• Able to fulfill their social needs outside work These and other personal factors are associated with personality, values, past experiences, and so forth, which might be noted by students during this discussion. 9. A federal government department has high levels of absenteeism among the office staff. The head of office administration argues that employees are misusing the company’s sick leave benefits. However, some of the mostly female staff members have explained that family responsibilities interfere with work. Using the MARS model, as well as your knowledge of absenteeism behavior, discuss some of the possible reasons for absenteeism here and how it might be reduced. The MARS model of individual behavior states that behavior is a function of motivation, ability, role perceptions, and situational factors. With respect to absenteeism, employees may be away from assigned work because they don‘t want to attend work that day (motivation), they don‘t realize that this is their work day (role perceptions), they are ill or injured to the degree that makes them physically unable to attend work (ability), and/or environmental conditions prevent them from attending work (situational factors). In this incident, situational factors may explain mostly why female employees are absent. Specifically, family responsibilities interfere with their work attendance. However, some absenteeism among men and women may be due to sick leave policies. It is known that generous sick leave benefits reduce attendance motivation.

CASE STUDY: PROMOTING SAFE BEHAVIOR AT MOTHER PARKERS

Case Synopsis This case describes the activities at Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee Inc. to increase safe behaviors of employees, contractors, and others at the coffee manufacturer.

Suggested Answers to Discussion Questions 10. Apply the MARS model to explain how Mother Parkers improves safety in the workplace.

The MARS model fits nicely with this case study because Mother Parkers applies the four elements of MARS to guide employees toward safe behaviors. Motivation—Employee motivation to act safely occurs both directly and indirectly. Directly, they feel empowered through employee involvement in safety decisions (including ergonomic blitzes and buying expensive equipment) and the associated recognition by company leaders of their expertise in the work area. ―We wanted to empower the operators to recognize hazards in their work area, voice those concerns, and to be a part of the solutions,‖ says Khan. Employees are also motivated to report safety issues because they can comfortably approach their peer safety representatives (who had been in ergo blitzes). Ability—Mother Parkers invests in employee safety training, including safety procedures and the availability of emerging safety technology. Employees also learn through their involvement in safety decisions. Safety training is also required of all contractors. Role perceptions—Mother Parkers continuously reminds employees and contractors that safety is an important part of everyone‘s job. This role awareness is conveyed in ongoing safety training, erg blitzes, and the presence of safety cues. The company also accentuates safety role clarity by beginning production meetings and shift handovers by talking about safety. Ergo blitz team members serve as role models to other employees on how to behave safely. Situation—Situation seems to be the prominent method of generating safer behaviors. It has ―welldesigned barriers and cues‖ in its production facilities, which represent the two forms of situational contingencies (constraints/facilitators and cues). Barriers separate people from dangerous equipment. Safe walking and stop-look areas are clearly marked (cues). Signs on doors identify necessary attire for the next room. Employees and contractors are also required to wear safety equipment that minimizes safety risks. 11. What other organizational behavior topics are generally apparent in this description of how Mother Parkers creates a safe workplace? Students can identify a few other OB topics of relevance to this case. These may include: Decision making and employee involvement—The case notes how decisions about safety practices and equipment purchases are made with information and involvement of employees because they possess Page 1-56 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

more information and need to be empowered to enact those practices. Some decisions have high employee involvement, such as safety committees and ergo blitzes. Teamwork—Mother Parkers relies on teams for safety committees, ergo blitzes, and other aspects of safety involvement. Although details are not provided, the team structures are likely used rather than individual decision making to maximize involvement and to bring in the necessary variety of information for safety decisions. Human capital—Mother Parkers has a highly skilled and committed workforce because the company dedicates resources to their well-being and skill development. As Adrian Khan, Mother Parkers‘ Senior Manager of Environmental, Health, Safety, and Security for North America, stated: ―They make a commitment to us to help produce great quality products; we make a commitment to them to provide them with a safe working environment.‖ Motivation—As noted in Question #1 above, Mother Parkers engages in activities that motivate employees to practice safety, particularly by listening to and applying their ideas, and by involving teams or employees in key safety decisions. Students might also look at motivation from the perspective of the predictors of employee empowerment. Organizational culture—Although Mother Parkers‘ safety culture is only implied in the case, there are numerous artifacts to reinforce this idea. These artifacts range from rituals (discussing safety at the beginning of each production meeting), visual symbols (walking paths, warning signs), and the like. Leadership—Adrian Khan, Mother Parkers‘ Senior Manager of Environmental, Health, Safety, and Security for North America, serves as an effective transformational leader. Although only implied in this case, he formed a strong vision of the company‘s safety orientation, continuously communicates this image of the company‘s culture, invariably enacts safety behaviors, and motivates employees to buy into the vision of Mother Parkers as a safety-focused company.

T E

TEAM EXERCISE: WYE & VALVE PLUMBING: A MARS DIAGNOSTIC EXERCISE

Purpose This exercise is designed to help you practice using the MARS model to diagnose a specific issue relating to employee behavior and performance.

Materials Teams should have a way to document their analysis for other teams to view. This might be flip chart paper for face-to-face classes or a dedicated virtual whiteboard for each team in remote classes.

Instructions Step 1: Students are organized into teams (typically five to seven people per team). After reading the Wye & Valve (W&V) Plumbing incident below, the team will diagnose W&V‘s customer service issues and discuss specific ways the retailer can improve customer service at the company. The discussion should explain whether and in what ways each MARS element can guide better customer service. All four elements of the MARS model should be considered. Step 2: The team summarizes its recommendations on flip chart paper (in-person) or presentation slide or virtual whiteboard (remote class). Each recommendation should be assigned under one of the four MARS elements (e.g., a strategy to improve employee motivation would be stated under the ―M‖ category). Step 3: The class debriefing will discuss the strategies systematically for each MARS element. For example, the class will review the ―M‖ strategies across teams and comment on similarities and difference among those recommendations.

Comments for Instructors This is an excellent early activity to help students to engage in theory-based diagnostic analysis of an incident or situation. It is simple to the degree that students rely on only one theory (MARS model) to analyze the situation. That model has four distinct components, which makes it easier to debrief this exercise. The activity directs students to the symptoms, namely that W&V is experiencing customer service issues. The company earns below-average customer service ratings, and specific types of complaints are noted, such as (a) staff do not proactively assist clients with information/suggestions, (b) staff respond inappropriately to client requests, and (c) staff seem inhospitable and reluctant to assist clients when specialized parts (only staff can retrieve) are requested. Students should systematically examine each of the four MARS model elements to determine the extent that each is responsible for the various symptoms (manifest customer service failures).

Ability Diagnosis: The scenario suggests that many of W&V‘s staff have industry experience, so they are knowledgeable of most supplies and practices. They also receive regular training sessions on new products and techniques in the industry. This suggests that a large percentage of W&V‘s staff have the ability to answer almost all queries from do-it-yourself (DIY) customers and probably most questions from tradespeople. For the latter group, W&V staff would at least know the existence and whereabouts of specialized parts that knowledgeable tradespeople request. Overall, some specific staff may lack sufficient ability to serve clients (especially tradespeople) for specific issues, ability is NOT a major factor in the customer service issues that W&V is trying to resolve. Recommendations: Although most staff have sufficient ability, it may be worthwhile identifying specific staff members who are uncomfortable with low-level knowledge of plumbing techniques and/or with W&V‘s products. These people might either receive better training or possibly be moved to secondary roles, such as (re)stocking shelves and cashiering transactions.

Role Perceptions Diagnosis: The knowledge and skills that W&V staff possess does not translate into their awareness of required work behaviors in the store. In other words, they may have poor role perceptions about appropriate behavior toward clients. They can answer questions, but the incident suggests a lack of initiative to answer those questions in a respectful way. It also states that employees assume customers know what parts and tools they need, which is further evidence that staff lack correct role perceptions (due to inaccurate perceptions about customer needs). As such, it is possible that some W&V staff do not realize that they need to be more proactive in serving customers and in providing them with supplies that require more effort to retrieve. This element of MARS may require further investigation, but it likely means that staff require customer service training to improve role perceptions. It is also possible that some staff are ill-suited to this retail work because they don‘t view themselves as needing to serve customers politely. Recommendations: W&V should consider introducing customer service training that makes staff more aware of specific role behaviors necessary to service clients. This may include behavior modeling as well as sessions in which staff learn about candid feedback from customers about their customer experiences at W&V. Such training would also emphasize the importance of proactive, respectful behavior toward customers, such as the effect of lost accounts and how competitors have excelled in the customer service experience. Overall, this learning process should help W&V staff realize that specific behaviors (proactively approaching customers, showing empathy and friendliness, etc.) are an important part of their jobs and the success of the company.

Situational Factors Diagnosis: The incident mentions that staff are particularly inhospitable when asked for specialized parts that only staff can retrieve. The scenario suggests that retrieving specialized parts requires some effort. There are thousands of parts, and many of these are retrievable only by staff in an area behind the main customer desk. This element of MARS may require further investigation, but it suggests that the layout of supplies hampers good customer service. It might be a challenge locating specific parts, the physical area may be cumbersome for staff to access, or there may be many similar parts that all need to be brought to the customer and then restocked. In any event, the physical layout may be an impediment to effect customer service. Recommendations: W&V should investigate the layout of its stores to determine more efficient ways for parts to be displayed and restocked. Alternatively, W&V might consider dividing staff so some are involved Page 1-59 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

in retrieving and restocking the specialized behind-counter parts, whereas staff who are most knowledgeable about trade practices and how have strong customer service presentation skills work in the front area of the stores. Behind counter staff would become more proficient at retrieving and restocking specialized supplies even though they are not plumbing experts to consult DIY and tradespeople.

Motivation Diagnosis: Lack of motivation by some (most?) of W&V staff seems to be a major cause of the poor customer service. W&V staff generally do not actively volunteer information or recommendations to customers, even though customers value that service. Some of this low motivation could be an outcome of situational factors (i.e., difficult physical layout reduces employee motivation to retrieve parts that customers need). Role perceptions could be another reason—staff aren‘t aware that this is important for their job duties. But lack of motivation seems to be a factor beyond these explanations. It seems likely that employees don‘t care about customer satisfaction under any circumstances (i.e., they know it is their job duty, but don‘t engage in that duty). Perhaps they have counter motivational influences such as status-like behavior over DIY clients. Or the workplace has developed norms whereby staff aren‘t encouraged to improve customer service. There is no information of how staff are financially rewarded, although targeted performance rewards are not always necessary to motivate people to perform obligated work tasks. Overall, motivation seems to be a strong explanation why staff are providing poor customer service. Recommendations: One suggestion is to alter store norms such that customer service is continually highlighted as important. This goes beyond changing role perceptions; it is rather like a corporate culture value in which employees eventually decide to engage in desired behaviors or seek work elsewhere. A second recommendation is to more carefully recruit and hire people whose values and natural skills at customer service are better than those currently working at W&V. To some extent, motivation is influenced by a person‘s personality and values, which are difficult to change. Hiring people who inherently want to serve clients and who naturally have a pleasant presentation style can be a core strategy for reducing the customer served problems identified here. A third suggestion is to incentivize employees through bonuses based on customer service skills and feedback. This financial recommendation should be treated cautiously, however, because financial rewards can have unintended consequences and may discourage staff from engaging in necessary work activities that are not financially rewarded.

C E

CLASS EXERCISE: WORLD CAFÉ ON THE EMERGING WORKPLACE

Purpose This exercise is designed to help you understand organizational behavior issues that arise in the emerging workplace landscape, particularly regarding inclusive workplace, remote work, and work–life integration.

Materials This exercise is possible as a face-to-face (f2f) class or a remote class. For f2f classes, the learning space should allow for one large table or other dedicated area for approximately every 10 students in the class. For remote classes, each team is assigned to a separate team room (i.e., six team rooms instead of six tables). One person (the ―scribe‖) at each table/room will write notes on the ideas presented. These ideas can be rewritten later as a summary of the event.

Instructions Step 1: Students are organized into teams of approximately 10 people. For f2f classes, each team is initially assigned to a large table or dedicated space for the team. For remote classes, each team is permanently assigned to a virtual team room. The instructor will assign one of the three themes (see below) to each table. For example, if the class has 60 students, there would be six tables/team rooms of 10 students. In this example, two tables/rooms would be assigned the theme of inclusive workplace, two tables/rooms would look at remote work, and two tables/rooms would look at work–life integration. Step 2: For either f2f or remote classes, one person on each team volunteers to be the ―scribe‖ for that table. The scribe makes notes on the main ideas presented by students at that table/room. For f2f classes, the scribe remains at the same table for the entire exercise, whereas the rest of the team moves from one table to another table when the instructor advises. For remote sessions, only the scribes move from one team room to the next when the instructor advises. In remote sessions, each team remains in the same team room and receives a different scribe (and topic) when the instructor advises. All scribes will later debrief the class on the key points they documented on the theme assigned to them. Step 3: Teams will read the questions assigned to the theme of their initial table/topic (see below). They have a fixed time (usually between 10 and 15 minutes) to discuss their views and offer answers to those questions. The scribe will document ideas presented by the team. Step 4: After the preset discussion time has ended, the instructor will advise the class to move to the next table (f2f) or topic (remote). For f2f classes, each team (except the scribe) moves to another table that has a different theme. For example, students at a ―remote work‖ table would together move to a table on either ―work–life integration‖ or ―inclusive workplace.‖ For remote classes, only the scribes move to another room identified by the instructor that has not discussed the scribe‘s topic. Students will read the questions assigned to the theme of this second table/topic. The instructor again assigns a fixed time (10 to 15 minutes) for students to discuss their new theme.

Step 5: The scribe will add ideas identified by the second group to existing notes presented earlier by the first team. The scribe should not tell the second group what the first group discussed about this theme. The scribe should remain quiet, except asking for clarification. Step 6: One more transition occurs after the preset discussion time. For f2f classes, the instructor will advise each team to move to the next table. For remote classes, the instructor will advise each scribe to move to the next team room. In either situation, the scribe will interact with a team that has not yet discussed that topic (i.e., they will discuss the third topic described below). Scribes document ideas from their third group without informing them of what the previous teams discussed on that theme. Step 7: After the third round of discussion has ended, the entire class will gather and listen to the main ideas documented by the scribes. This is usually a few minutes per scribe. If two or more scribes have been responsible for the same theme, those scribes should present at the same time or consecutively (e.g., if two scribes have the remote work theme, they should speak to the class together or one after the other).

World Café Discussion Themes (provided in the book) Table 1: Inclusive Workplace An inclusive workplace values people of all identities (i.e., surface- and deep-level diversity) and allows them to be fully themselves while contributing to the organization. 7. What challenges do organizations and their employees experience on their journey toward an inclusive workplace? Provide specific examples. 8. How can leaders (supervisors to executives) nurture and maintain an inclusive workplace? Provide specific examples from your experience in an organization that emphasizes and leverages (or undermines) workplace inclusion. 9. What personal characteristics of leaders (supervisors to executives) make them better (or worse) equipped to support and lead people in an inclusive workplace? Why are those attributes important?

Table 2: Remote Workers Remote workers are people who perform organizational tasks while located away from the employer‘s physical premises. For this exercise, we focus specifically on remote working from home. 10. What are the challenges for the organization and for employees who work remotely in terms of their effectiveness and well-being in this work arrangement? Provide specific examples. Several firms (Yahoo, IBM, etc.) had reduced the degree of remote work prior to the pandemic. What problems do you think they experienced? 11. What personal characteristics enable some people to work remotely better (or worse) than other people? Why are those attributes important? 12. How can leaders (supervisors to executives) support and maintain the performance and well-being of remote workers? Provide specific examples from your experience as a remote worker, a supervisor of remote workers, or knowledge of others in those situations.

Table 3: Work–Life Integration Work–life integration refers to the degree that people are effectively engaged in their various work and nonwork roles and have a low degree of role conflict across those life domains. 13. In what specific ways can employees apply each of the four strategies for improving work–life integration? What challenges do they face in trying to apply each of these strategies? Provide specific examples from your experience—or your knowledge of others—in applying work–life integration. 14. What personal characteristics enable some people to be more successful at maintaining work–life integration? Why are those attributes important? 15. In what specific ways can organizations and their leaders help employees to improve or maintain work–life integration? Provide specific examples that you know about of corporate initiatives that try to improve employees‘ work–life integration.

Comments for Instructors This is an excellent activity to involve students on topics that they know about or at least likely have opinions about. The World Café structure of the exercise is particularly helpful because it can be used in larger classes. (Steve has conducted this activity in MBA classes with almost 80 students using six tables—two sets of each of the three topics listed above and 13 people per table!) The first piece of advice, particularly for instructors in larger classes, is ORGANIZATION. Have café tables set up with sufficient space for all students in each cohort to gather around.

Also important is to carefully instruct students on the process before the process begins. Few would have done a world café previously and there is potential for confusion when teams move to the next table (or to the next ―topic‖ with a new scribe for remote groups). Instructors should carefully describe how one person needs to take notes and remain with the same topic for the entire exercise, how after a fixed time (when the instructor advises to move) either all members of a group except the scribe will move to the next café table (f2f sessions) or in remote sessions the scribe moves to another group‘s room, how the scribe remains quiet except asking for clarification (e.g., the scribe does NOT summarize any notes to the next team), and how the team discusses the topic associated with each table, so everyone (except scribes) eventually discusses all three topics after moving through the three tables. Several minutes before each move, let each table know where they will move next and in how many minutes (e.g., in a f2f session, say, ―This group, except the scribe, will move the table near the window in about 4 minutes. I‘ll advise the class when it is time to move.‖). Be sure to remind the scribe what to do at the end of the session—that is, to stay at the table in f2f sessions and to move to the next designated group‘s room in remote sessions. Either way, the scribe should AVOID telling the next group what previous groups have stated to the scribe. If the next group just repeats the same ideas, that merely reinforces the importance of those ideas (and requires less note-taking). A major challenge for scribes is to present a brief summary of the key points. Scribes need to organize the ideas for a class presentation. In some instances, the class might have a break before debriefing, which gives scribes time to organize their ideas. In any event, emphasize that scribes are not expected to repeat everything that was discussed, just the main/more frequently discussed ideas. The other challenge is to condense the ideas into an approximately three-minute debriefing to the class. Scribes often talk longer due to lack of organization and desire to get every idea into the summary. Page 1-63 © McGraw Hill LLC. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill LLC.

Another key role for instructors is to encourage scribes to ask one or two specific students to repeat the excellent examples they mentioned in the café. The instructor should adjust the debriefing time for examples provided by one or more students to the class during the debriefing.

CLASS EXERCISE: IT ALL MAKES SENSE?

Purpose This exercise is designed to help students comprehend how organizational behavior knowledge can help them understand life in organizations.

Instructions Students are asked to read each of the statements and circle whether the statement is true or false, in their opinion. The class will consider the answers to each question and discuss the implications for studying organizational behavior. After reviewing these statements, the instructor will provide information about the most appropriate answer. (This exercise may also be conducted as a team activity, whereby students answer these questions in teams rather than alone.)

Comments for Instructors This exercise addresses the point that common sense isn‘t always correct. Of course, some students will be counterintuitive in anticipation that these are ―trick‖ questions. We have included some true statements to complicate the exercise. By reviewing each statement, you can help students to see that organizational behavior systematically studies these issues and helps us to correct or clarify popular misperceptions.

Here are the 10 statements with their correct answers and references to their discussion in the textbook. 12.

A happy worker is a productive worker.

TRUE. To be more accurate, the answer is ―true, to some extent.‖ This is one of those ―truths‖ that students will probably answer correctly and many OB instructors will answer incorrectly because they rely on old organizational behavior research. The latest research indicates that job satisfaction has a moderately strong association with job performance (a correlation of around 0.30). For details, see Chapter 4 on workplace emotions and attitudes. 13. A decision maker‘s effectiveness increases with the number of choices or alternatives available to them. FALSE. At some point when the number of alternatives increases, the decision maker becomes less efficient and effective in choosing among those alternatives (see Chapter 7). When the number of alternatives is very large, decision makers reduce their motivation to decide such that they avoid thinking about the decision at all! The main reason is that decision makers are able and motivated to process a finite amount of information. As the number of alternatives increases, decision makers are faced with dramatically more information to consider, because each choice has several bits of information about factors to consider. One could argue that having very few choices is also less effective, but this would be true only if the environment offers many choices and the alternatives available to the decision maker are not among the best ones. 14.

Organizations are more effective when they minimize conflict among employees.

FALSE. Actually, the correct answer is in a state of flux. The dominant OB research indicates that constructive (task-oriented) conflict is often beneficial (such as in decision making) whereas relationship conflict has negative consequences. But research now concludes that even constructive conflict can be a problem because it generates relationship conflict (i.e., difficult to separate them). We discuss this topic in Chapter 11. 15.

Employees have more power with many close friends than with many acquaintances.

FALSE. Social network research reports that people with many ―weak ties‖ (many acquaintances) tend to have more career success and related outcomes in their lives than those with mainly strong ties (close friends). The main reason is that weak ties provide less redundant social capital. Acquaintances give us unique information (expert power), unique connections and opportunities (referent power), wider visibility, and so forth. Close friends tend to give us information faster and give us more opportunities, but these resources tend to be similar across our close friends. See Chapter 10 for details. 16.

Companies are more successful when they have strong corporate cultures.

FALSE. As with so many organizational behavior concepts, the more precise answer is ―it depends.‖ Chapter 14 explains that there is a weak relationship between corporate culture strength and organizational performance. Three reasons are offered. First, a strong culture can be a problem when the values are inconsistent with the organization‘s environment. Second, a very strong culture can blind employees from seeing other perspectives. Third, a very strong culture suppresses dissenting values that may be important in the future as the environment changes. 17.

Employees perform better without stress.

FALSE. As we learn in Chapter 4, some level of stress is essential for life. We need a certain level of stress to energize us. The problem is that we sometimes (or often) experience stress beyond this beneficial level. 18. The best way to change people and organizations is by pinpointing the source of their current problems. FALSE. This statement refers to the dominant model of problem-solving and organizational change, namely, to identify the problem before looking for solutions. In contrast, emerging knowledge suggests that a positive rather than problem-focused approach may be more effective in many or most circumstances. We discuss this first in Chapter 5 under the topic of strengths-based coaching and feedback. Research indicates that focusing on an employee‘s weaknesses (problems) creates defensiveness to such an extent that it undermines any potential benefits of such a Discussion. In Chapter 15, we introduce the approach to organizational change called appreciative inquiry. According to this model, dwelling on problems can bog down the change process and degenerate into political quagmires. Instead, change agents need to focus the group on its potential and positive elements. 19.

Female leaders involve employees in decisions to a greater degree than do male leaders.

TRUE. There is lot of debate about whether men and women lead differently. As we learn at the end of Chapter 12, men and women are mostly similar in their leadership styles. But there is one exception: Female leaders involve employees in decisions to a greater degree than do male leaders. Of course, some female leaders are not participative, and some male leaders are very participative. But generally, female leaders are more participative. 20.

The best decisions are made without emotion.

FALSE. The truth is, all decisions involve emotion and require emotion. Without emotion, people are unable to recognize problems and opportunities, and are unable to make choices. As explained in Chapter 7 (and noted in Chapters 3, 4, and 5), people form emotionally anchored preferences before they consciously think about the issue. Indeed, our ―awareness‖ of a problem or opportunity is an emotional reaction to sensory information. Although our rational thought process can evaluate information, those conclusions must be processed by our emotional center(s) in order to make a choice. An important point here is that emotions are an inherent and essential part of human behavior. This is different from ―getting emotional,‖ which occurs when emotions are so strong that they influence our actions without conscious control. 10. If employees feel they are paid unfairly, then nothing other than changing their pay will reduce their feelings of injustice. FALSE. When it comes to money, people tend to play interesting mind games to avoid feeling overreward inequity. Students will read in Chapter 5 that underpaid (underrewarded) employees might reduce the injustice by working less, taking nonmonetary resources, changing the comparison other, or leaving the field (such as quitting). This question also needs to consider that ―injustice‖ is affected just as much by procedures as by distribution. Thus, injustice might be reduced by allowing appeals, ensuring the decision maker considers all information, ensuring that the underrewarded employees are treated with respect, and ensuring that they are given an opportunity to state their views (voice).

SELF-ASSESSMENT 1.1: ARE YOU A GOOD REMOTE WORKER?

Overview and Instructions Remote work (formerly known as telecommuting) is an increasingly popular workplace relationship, and it potentially offers benefits for both companies and remote workers. However, some people are better suited than others to working away from the traditional workplace. You can discover how well you adjust to remote work by locating this self-assessment in Connect if it is assigned by your instructor. This instrument is designed to help you to identify your ―remote work disposition,‖ that is, the degree to which your needs, values, and competencies are compatible with remote work arrangements. This scale does not cover every personal characteristic related to effective remote work, but it measures three of the most important dispositions. Also, please keep in mind that this scale only considers your personal characteristics. Other factors, such as organizational, family, and technological systems support, must also be taken into account.

Feedback for the Remote Work Scale Some people thrive in remote work arrangements, whereas others discover that it is neither a satisfying nor productive work environment for them. This scale assesses three personal dispositions that are identified in the literature as characteristics of effective remote workers: (a) high company alignment, (b) low social needs at work, and (c) independent initiative.