Synopsis
The case ‘not as easy as 1,2,3’ by Kohyar Kiazad centers a graduate consultant at ABC consulting, recollecting his experience at the company. George had opted for ABC consulting as he believed that the company prioritized creativity and offered a work life balance. Upon commencement of the job, he met with the HR directors of the firm who reassured him that the job would be exactly what he envisioned, and promised a 10% annual bonus after a 3-month probation period (by formality). After being assigned his first project alongside Janet and Daniel, George worked hard on developing creative ideas but felt intimidated by his lack of experience at the first meeting and barely contributed, much to the disappointment of both managers. To make up for this, George spent extra hours on his client report and completed it ahead of time but only received an email full of criticisms for it. A frustrated George made the decision to resign after learning he hadn’t been eligible for the bonus as he hadn’t met the manager’s expectations.
Critical analysis
George’s final decision to resign from ABC consulting can be broken down and explained by multiple Organizational behavior theories. Self-esteem is defined as the extent to which a person likes, respects and are satisfied with. After being criticized by Janet, George now felt less confident in himself. Additionally, it would’ve affected his self-complexity, which suggests that self-aspects are activated in the context of relevant experience, and the outcome of these experiences will impact how these self-aspects are later perceived (Linville, 1985). In this scenario, George had prepared the report in hopes of impressing the directors with his creativity. After his inputs were criticized and rejected, the use of his creativity will now evoke negative emotions, meaning he is unlikely to ever attempt being creative in a similar situation again.
George’s drop in performance following these events can also be explained by the Rosenthal studies of 1968, which found that people often live up to what is expected of them, and are more likely to succeed if believed to be capable to do so. While the original studies focused on positive effects, Brophy investigated the scenario with negative effects and determined 8 effects that led to disadvantageous learning conditions. Of the 8 factors, 5 were particularly relevant to George’s situation; giving up easily on mentees, criticizing them more often for failure, praising them less following success, neglecting to give them feedback , paying less attention and interacting with them less frequently. After the first meeting, Janet made it obvious that she was disappointed and never tried to help improve George’s performance. She often criticized his work, refrained giving any feedback for improvement and all interactions stemmed from George’s end. Since it was clear that Janet had low expectations on George’s performance, it is reasonable to expect that it would lead to George’s low performance. This is also supported by the golem effect, that states that low expectations can lead to low performances (Babad et al,1991).
The EVLN model suggests that when an individual is dissatisfied in the workplace, they will respond in one of 4 ways; to exit the corporation, by voicing their dissatisfaction, loyally waiting for the situation to improve or neglecting their responsibilities. Job satisfaction is measured either through facets with job descriptive index (JDI) or globally with job in general scale (JIG). JDI assesses an individual’s satisfaction in 5 different aspects of the job; the work itself, pay, opportunity for promotions, supervision and coworkers. (Smith, Kendall & Hulin 1969). From George’s perspective, all 5 factors would’ve been scored low leading to him exiting the corporation due to strong dissatisfaction.
Motivational theories to explain attitudes and behaviors
In 1959, Herzberg proposed a 2-factor theory, in which some job factors (motivators) result in satisfaction or no satisfaction and others (hygiene factors) result in either dissatisfaction or no dissatisfaction. Hygiene factors are external to work done but essential for motivation at the workplace, such as pay, company policy, fringe benefits, physical working conditions, interpersonal relationships and job status. Motivational factors are internally rewarding factors yielding positive satisfaction and leading to superior performance such as recognition, sense of achievement, growth and promotional opportunities, responsibility and meaningfulness of the work (Juneja, n.d).
In Georges role, the inadequate level met by the hygiene factors has caused dissatisfaction. Since he hasn’t qualified for the bonus system, his pay seems inadequate and makes him feel inferior to his work mates. His interpersonal relationships are also part of the problem as he doesn’t seem to get along with those he works with daily or have any friends. The root of the problem here however is the company’s policies. It was clear that it was ABC’s policy to offer a 10% annual bonus for all confirmed employees and that administration wise ‘everyone gets on it after 3 months’. Yet, George was not eligible as he did not perform ‘at the level’ needed to get on the bonus system, an aspect never mentioned before that meeting. The discrepancy between the company’s policy and the decisions made by the HR manager led to George’s disappointment and resignation.
Unsatisfactory fulfillment of motivational factors has equally impacted him and caused no satisfaction from the job. George would’ve had no sense of achievement as none of his ideas were accepted or valued, making the report solely to the preference of Janet. He got no recognition for any positive contribution to the group or for the tedious work done to produce the report before the deadline. Despite having responsibility to compile and complete the report he didn’t have the autonomy to decide on its content. Towards the end, George had lost motivation on the job as it became monotonous and only stayed due to calculative commitment, for the bonus (Werf,2016).
Another famous motivational theory that clarifies George’s behavior is the X and Y (Douglas McGregor,1960). Theory X/Y proposes 2 opposing perceptions of people in terms of management. Theory Y represents a positive view on individuals and work ethics, suggesting that employees are hardworking, capable of self-direction and self-control, and capable of providing important ideas to improve organizational effectiveness. Theory X is a pessimistic view, where employees are assumed to be lazy, incapable of self-direction and autonomous work behaviors and have little to contribute to the betterment of the organization (Kopelman, Prottas & Davis, 2008). McGregor’s theory is further supported by the notion of self-fulfilling prophecies, which is a ‘false definition of the situation evoking a behavior that makes the false conception come true’ (Merton,1948). This concept suggests that Janet had assumed George was lazy and incapable of optimal performance, and thus didn’t put much/any effort into helping him reach his potential, leading to his unsatisfactory performance.
In relation to George’s situation, theory X would be more relevant as reflected by his negative experiences with Janet and Daniel. During the first meeting, after George explains that he ‘needs more time to process the information’, Janet is quick to jump to a conclusion that George is not as extroverted as they expected, instead of trying to understand what prevented him from participating in the discussion. The fundamental attribution error would be relevant here, and suggests that individuals are more likely to attribute someone’s action to internal factors such as personality, and understate the impact of situational factors (Ross, 1977). By heavily condemning his report, it appears that Janet had undermined most of George’s input, making it seem as if he was incapable of his job and had nothing useful to contribute. George’s reaction to these situations were then to neglect his job, thus confirming Janet’s original perception of him. Although it has been determined that theory X/Y has adequate reliability, it is formulated based on multiple stronger Organizational Behavior theories such as the attribution affect and the golem effect.
Strategies ABC can implement to prevent turnover (solutions/implementation)
ABC consulting should be willing to implement a few changes to decrease and possibly prevent turnover by employees, but this is impossible to achieve without first identifying the issues instigating this reaction from employees. As examined, the major problems here appear to be stemming from the managers of the company, and their overall behavior or attitude with and towards employees. As such the OB Mod, a behavioral approach to improving performance will be useful in tackling this issue (Luthans, Maciag &Rosenkrantz,1983). After identifying the OB principles relevant it suggests that we find the antecedents and the consequences of the behavior of concern, then intervening and evaluating for improvement to ensure the resolution of this issue. This strategy mainly calls for feedback on specific behaviors and positive reinforcements to ensure progress and attainment of goals.
As suggested by step 3 of OB mod, consequences of the managers’ behavior should be identified next. They seem to be quite rash and easily frustrated, leading to a lack in self-esteem and motivation in employees. To rectify this issue, managers should ensure effective communication with their staff, focusing on avoiding any personal attacks or letting emotions interfere while on the job. Their responses should be helpful and positive to constantly encourage and guide the employees to achieve their maximum potential.
Secondly, the manager also seemed to respond to the George’s report with purely criticism, leading to him feeling unappreciated and his creativity wasted. Staff should encourage development of creativity at meetings and listen effectively, before sharing their thoughts. Failure to do this may lead to a decrease in morale of workers who’ll eventually avoid sharing ideas that could result in betterment of the organization. Instead of criticizing George, if Janet had considered it a learning opportunity and provided insight as to how he could improve himself, this situation wouldn’t have arisen.
The company might also benefit from reviewing and amending company policy and its implementations, to ensure long term commitment and eventually bring about a good impression of the job and the organization. So, if its decided that all new employees receive the 10% annual bonus, then George must be eligible for it too. Or if eligibility for the bonus depends on the performance of the employee, then this must be stated clearly and all employees would have to be informed to avoid complications. In the latter scenario, it would be useful if the performance of the employees can be measure objectively to ensure no issues with equity arise.
To do this, staff may set specific and effective goals, by following the SMARTER effective goal setting technique created by Edwin Locke in 1960 (Juneja, n.d). It holds that goals should be specific in terms of what, where, when, how and with whom it must be achieved. Goals should also be measurable, specifying how much, how well or at what cost this must be performed. Goals must be achievable, relevant, and timed to keep up the motivation of the employees and ensure continued commitment. Lastly it must be reviewed at constant intervals, to reward and give recognition to those who have succeeded or failed (Schaffer,2010). Here the goal of merely completing the probation period was vague, not timed and most importantly not encouraged by the staff, leading to a failure to meet a desirable outcome. This would be the simplest, most cost-effective way to bring about immediate change in the company.
Conclusion
George’s unpleasant experience at ABC consulting changed a hardworking and motivated George to a demotivated negligent employee by the time he resigned. This can be explained by multiple OB concepts, such as self-esteem, self-complexity, the Rosenthal and golem effect and the EVLN model. Georges’ behaviors and attitudes were driven by motivational theories such as Herzberg’s 2 factor theory and McGregor’s X/Y theory, in which the latter also clarifies the manager’s approach towards him. The company can break this vicious cycle by implementing OB Mod, a behavioral approach to tackling situations, and by reviewing their company policies for the advancement of the firm. Some practical changes may also be made, such as to set goals in compliance with SMARTER goal setting technique, to encourage employees.