Contents

Chapter 1: Road Warriors (Pages 35+36)..............................................................................................................................1

Chapter 1: Experiential Exercise: I am a team leader; I don’t need any help (Pages 68).......................................................2
Chapter 1: Ethical Dilemma: There’s a Drone in Your Soup (Pages 69)...............................................................................4
Chapter 1: Case Incident 1: Apple Goes Global (Pages 69+70)............................................................................................6
Chapter 1: Case Incident 2: Big Data for Dummies (Pages 70+71)......................................................................................9
Chapter 2: Case Incident 1: Can Organizations Train Diversity? (Pages 100+101)............................................................12
Chapter 2: Case Incident 2: The Encore Career (Pages 101+102).......................................................................................14
Chapter 3: Case Incident 1: On-Boarding … On-Leaving (Pages 129+130).......................................................................16
Chapter 3: Case Incident 2: Job Crafting (Pages 130+131).................................................................................................20
Chapter 4: Case Incident 1: On the Costs of Being Nice (Pages 163).................................................................................22
Chapter 4: Case Incident 2: The Clash of Traits (Pages 164)..............................................................................................24
Chapter 5: Case Incident 1: Collaboration Overload (Pages 202).......................................................................................26
Chapter 5: Case Incident 2: How Do Employees Justify Cyberloafing (Pages 202+203)...................................................28
Chapter 6: Case Incident 1: Hiring an Emotionally Intelligent Employee (Pages 238+239)...............................................29
Chapter 6: Case Incident 2: When the Going Gets Boring (Pages 239+240)......................................................................31
Chapter 7: Case Incident 1: Who Needs the Gig Economy (Pages 277+278).....................................................................33
Chapter 7: Case Incident 2: Laziness Is Contagious (Pages 278+279)................................................................................36

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OB Chapter 1: Road Warriors (Pages 35+36)

 Logan Green frustrated from difficulty of getting around Southern California.

 When going to college, he didn’t use his car, he used public transportation or arranged rideshares, which
caused him to wait rides for long times.
 During a trip to Zimbabwe, he found that they have this crowdsourced transportation network where
anyone could be a driver and they could set their own routes.
 Logan created Zimride, a platform from which people can find and manage carpools.
 John Zimmer, left his work as an analyst after 2 years, and became a partner in Zimride, as he was
captivated by the idea of sustainable transportation since he was at the university.
 John thinks that current transportation systems are not sustainable:
o 70% of car seats are unused.
o 70% of highway infrastructure is inefficient.
 John and Logan envisioned a transportation revolution: To change the way people get from one place to
another.
 They started (Lyft), an app-based ridesharing platform that operates in hundreds of US cities and is
valued today at 5.5 billion (double than 2015).
 They worked well together to foster the exponential growth of Zimride and Lyft, although they were so
different: John (introvert) raised with parents who took care of everything. Logan (extroverted and
assertive) raised in a middle-class suburb.
 Logan believed that:
o The more employees a company has, the less likely anyone gets noticed.
o If employees don’t feel individually responsible for the company’s success, things slow down.
 They didn’t forget the drivers and employees that are the foundation of Lyft:
o They foster a culture and climate of employee appreciation and recognition.
o Appreciated employees by celebrating both employee and work-group accomplishments.
o Gave awards that are customized to each group.
o Make sure that drivers feel welcome by recognizing them in newsletters and blogs, and flying
them to headquarters to get their feedback and input.
 They emphasized that the Lyft experience is all about community, fun and positivity. They attached a
pink mustache, or a so-called carstache (often glowing) to the front of the car.
 They restructured Zimride using a very delicate approach, they re-employed 90% of its employees to
work at Lyft, then they sold Zimride to Enterprise’s vanpooling business.
 Till today, Lyft has been a strong player in the new ridesharing industry and has faced its share of
challenges, setbacks, and successes.

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 OB Chapter 1: Experiential Exercise: I am a team leader; I don’t need any help (Pages 68)

 One of the team members is the CEO of a startup that creates robots for technology-assisted surgery.
 The others are members of the board of directors.
 Mark, a team leader with PhD in robotics, is having problems in the development of a new robot
prototype.
 You participate in Mark’s team meeting to understand more. You took the following notes:
o Mark communicating general information, the team is trying to discuss a major problem that is
preventing the robot from working as required.
o Team member reviewed all the steps, still didn’t discover anything unusual.
o Another team members said that they have done different attempts to solve the problem, but no
use.
o All of the team suggested that Mark consult another manager from outside the team, but he
refused and said that he might have an idea on how to fix it.
o The team thought that an outside eye would have a solution, Mark refused, and said that he will
solve it in 10 days.

Question 1-8: What do think explains Mark’s attitude and why he is reluctant to ask for external help?

 Mark lacks the Interpersonal skills.

 As the manager is someone who gets things done through other people in organizations, Mark is not
applying the Manager’s functions
o Planning: a process that includes defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing plans to
coordinate activities.
o Organizing: Determining what tasks are to be done, who is to do them, how the tasks are to be
grouped, who reports to whom, and where decisions are to be made.
o Leading: A function that includes motivating employees, directing others, selecting the most
effective communication channels, and resolving conflicts.
o Controlling: Monitoring activities to ensure that they are being accomplished as planned and
correcting any significant deviations.
 Mark does not have any management skills:
o Technical Skills – the ability to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. All jobs require some
specialized expertise, and many people develop their technical skills on the job.
o Human Skills – the ability to work with, understand, and motivate other people.
o Conceptual Skills – the mental ability to analyze and diagnose complex situations.

Mark express himself as know it all, he wants to get all credits for himself. He is a snob, he has negative
attitude, and you cannot have the above attitudes in a team, as you should listen for others opinions because in
this case you don’t deserve to be in a team.

Question 1-9: Should the board intervene in managing this situation? What help can be given to Mark to
improve his work attitude?

Yes, the board should intervene in managing this situation not directly, but through the CEO, as it will affect the
employees satisfaction and the organization’s success. Mark should be advised to work on his interpersonal
skills, and management rolls and skills.

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Yes, otherwise they will lose the other staff and lose Mark if he is one man show. They should intervene
politely, because you can’t change people’s attitudes easily.

Question 1-10: Let us suppose that the board decides to introduce to the team headed by Mark another
team member who has experienced similar problems in the past. How do you think the rest of the team
and Mark will react to this change? What can be done to favor a smooth integration of this new
component of the team?

The team will be happy to have a new member who has experienced similar problems in the past, as they were
asking Mark to consult another manager from outside the group. As for Mark, he will refuse that, since he
thinks that he knows it all.

It might work or not.

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 OB Chapter 1: Ethical Dilemma: There’s a Drone in Your Soup (Pages 69)

 Drones are used for delivering ginger tear (Alibaba quadcopters), packages (Amazon’s octocopters), and
Nachos (Taco Bell Tacocopters).
 You are a leader of the Consideration of New Things team, and your boss is the Head of Interior Spaces.
 In a meeting, your boss announce that “Right To Drones Too (R2D2)”, has perfected their inside drone.
It’s small and light but can carry up to 10 pounds. It includes a camera, a speaker, and a recorder.
 The team was surprised as they had no clue that an inside utility drone was under development.
 The drones can fetch things off tables, get a latte, attend meetings, check over the employees’ shoulders
to see what they are doing, and they are accurate, agile, and super quiet.
 The company will get 100 drones for free by the next day.
 Each employee will have one drone.
 You suggest that the team takes the afternoon to set the ground rules.

Question 1-11: How might the R2D2 drones influence employee behavior? Do you think they will cause
people to act more or less ethically? Why?

There are two-sided implication of the new drones. First, new drone which is “always watching you” may
prevent employees from doing something unrelated to work. Employees will be inclined to act more ethically,
afraid of the new drones that can show up behind the shoulders any minute. On the contrary, this type of
surveillance might undermine manager-employee relationship, because many employees will perceive this
unethical behavior and lack of trust by the management. Overall, despite the beneficial characteristics of new
drone, it is more likely to negatively impact the organization and disseminate mistrust among employees.

The drones probably wouldn’t have a difference at first, on how the employees work. The drones would be like
a toy to amuse the employees for a while. The boss says the drone can fetch things off a table or grab him a latte
(among other things), and the employees would maybe be relieved by this. However, over time, they would
probably act less ethically. They would rely on the drones to do their jobs for them, and they would become
lazy. The boss would also be less ethical, because he says “the drone can watch over your shoulder to see what
you’re doing.” With all of this being said, the drone is basically taking on small responsibilities for both sides.
The work ethic in the workplace would be at an all time low and no one would feel motivated to do things if the
drone can just do the job for them.

Question 1-12: Who should get the drones initially? How can you justify your decision ethically? What
restrictions for use should these people be given, and how do you think employees, both those who get
drones and those who don’t, will react to this change?

Governments are still pondering upon the regulations for drones, so there is no strict guidelines or ethical
procedural guiding the usage of new drones. If we consider the boss’s idea to hand out the drones to every
employee from the ethical standpoint, it might invade personal space of people. Therefore, I would suggest to
buy the drones in a way less amount (around 5-10) and hand them over to the boss and team leader of
Consideration of New Things team, so the managers can test the drones first. The boss can use it for his
personal need, whereas Consideration of New Things team can test the drone and come up with ethical
conclusion of whether it is suitable or not to use this drone by others. This will save a good manager-employee
relations and employees will not feel pressured or under surveillance. Also, no corporate policy law will be
violated if drones are first tested by managers. The company, on the other side, will have time to come up with
internal regulations related to the usage of these drones. Those employees who won’t get the drone should be
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delivered a decent explanation standing upon the fact that there is no regulations or procedures justifying the
usage guideline of these drones.

I think the drones should only be given to 10 people at first. Having 100 drones given out at random… does not
seem like a good idea to me. I think the sample size should be 10 people, and they should be only able to use the
drones for office related uses. They should also not be allowed to let the drones do their work for them – a few
small jobs are fine, but the drones should not be sent to retrieve a coffee every single day. I think all employees
would be a little bummed about not getting their own drone, but the company can gradually build its way up to
giving every employee a drone when they prove themselves to be responsible enough to handle it.

Question 1-13: How will your organization deal with sabotage or misuse of the drones? The value of an
R2D2 drone is $2,500

Unless there is a clear policy and procedure aimed on ethical usage of the drones, it is not recommended to use
the drones by employees. There are might be a number of undesirable effects and possible abuses which can
come along with the usage of the drones.

The organization would already have damage control processes implemented before ever handing out an R2D2
drone to any employee/boss/etc. Maybe a short-term warranty with the R2D2 company would be a good idea
too. Misuses and sabotage of the drones would induce disciplinary actions for the employees, and the
responsible party would have to shell out the cash (if any) for the damages they caused.

Question 1-14: Many organizations already use electronic monitoring of employees, including sifting
through website usage and e-mail correspondence, often without the employees’ direct knowledge. In
what ways might drone monitoring be better or worse for employees than covert electronic monitoring of
Web or e-mail activity?

In the organization where I work, all personal emails are checked in case if someone sends confidential
organization files and all employees are aware of this. I think that this is widely acknowledged that IT
department can look through the visited web-sites and emails. However, looking though the web-site history
and personal email records by IT department is still more hidden form of monitoring than drones flying and
around and “watching you”. On the one hand, this feature of drones may undermine employee morale. On the
other hand, this may lessen the time spent on unrelated activities as well as become an obvious form of
monitoring. Employees who are afraid of email and web-site monitoring, will be highly unsatisfied with the
new regulations. Therefore, I believe that the manager should choose which option to select for based on the
company’s culture and possible repercussions on employees’ job satisfaction and morale.

For organizations, drone monitoring might be a dream come true. They’d supervise employees without even
having to get up from their desks. They could also see the workplace activities, maybe even send messages to
employees, etc. It could be worse for the employees for obvious reasons, like the fact that they can be watched
all the time. It’s creepy and some would say it’s invasive. Not to mention, some people may not even agree to
something like that. I personally, would not agree to be under the watchful eye of a drone. It doesn’t sit right
with me. Technology has taken over, and it will continue to progressively change the world. However, drones
can be good or bad, depending on who it benefits.

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 OB Chapter 1: Case Incident 1: Apple Goes Global (Pages 69+70)

 Almost all Apple product now are manufactured overseas instead of USA, which caused American
workers to loose 20000 jobs forever.
 More than 700000 job other than Apple are lost to other countries’ workers.
 Reasons:
o Difference in wages.
o The intrinsic characteristics, which Apple identifies as flexibility, diligence, and industrial skills,
of the labor force available to them in China are superior to those of the US labor force.
o Shorter lead times and faster manufacturing processes in China.
o US stopped producing people with the skills that Apple needs.
 To avoid trouble for future of the American workforce, the US workforce needs to:
o Be better led.
o Better trained.
o More effectively managed.
o More motivated to be proactive and flexible.
 Apple represents a company going global by switching from 100% American made items to 10%.
 iPhones is largely designed in US, parts are made in South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan,
and products assembled in China.

Question 1-15: What are the pros and cons for local and overseas labor forces of Apple’s going global?
What are the potential political implications for country relationships?

Below is given some pros and cons of local and overseas labor forces for companies going global, like Apple.

Pros for Overseas Labor Forces Cons for Local Labor Forces
Getting more employment Loosing employment opportunities
opportunities, thus unemployment rate
will be decreased
Opportunity of learning new skills May loose skills, who doesn’t have transferable skills
Loosing live hood

Potential political implications for country relationships can be:

 Relationship may get negative impact, as one country is gaining and other one is losing opportunities.
 Positive economical impact will be in the overseas country, due to create more employment
opportunities, the country’s unemployment rate will be lower. But local country’s unemployment rate
will get higher.

The decision by Apple to go global by manufacturing its products in China by using the inputs which were
sourced from many countries is advantageous to the labor force of the overseas where the new jobs are actually
created in addition to the spillover effects which will generate other advantages to the local economy.
The local low-skilled labor forces actually will suffer from the loss of jobs while the higher skilled labor forces
who are involved with the development of products can benefit if the products of Apple continue to be
demanded in large quantities.  

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Whereas ``Export of jobs'' may establish tension between the United States and China, the companies of the U.S
could benefit if the wealthier labor force of China increases their demand for the United States designed/made
products.

Question 1-16: As a U.S. corporation, does Apple and its management have a moral obligation to provide
jobs for U.S. employees first? If this is the case, then does this put international employees at a distinct
disadvantage?

 I believe Apple is justified in drawing the observations and conclusions expressed in the case as they
have experience in this industry for numerous years and would have experienced the declined in the US
or Canada having enough skilled and flexible persons that would have the ability to work in their
factories. With that said, they would then have to figure out where they could find enough
skilled labor’s that could keep up with the growth of their company. Hence, China proved a better
fit, regardless of the fact that they have cheaper labor.  

 It can be both a negative and positive thing that the executives at Apple have voiced these opinions.
Negative in the sense that persons in the US who do possess the skills/flexibility the company speaks of,
may feel as though they are being overlooked or that the company isn’t necessarily trying hard enough
to find skilled labor’s in their own country. It may be a positive in that, persons who had the
misconception that Apple only chose to have manufacturers in China because of cheaper labor would
now be aware of the true reasoning behind their decision and would hopefully find ways to increase the
skills in their own country (Canada or the US) which would then create more job opportunities for their
people.  

 Apple does not have a moral obligation to offer jobs to the U.S employees first since to succeed in
China, which is a foreign country it has to consider the locals first and their qualifications. As a matter
of fact, Asia has not a supply chain but also a pool of knowledgeable workers to which America cannot
match.

Question 1-17: Is it possible for U.S. managers to organize, motivate, and ensure quality in their Chinese
manufacturing facilities

From my point of view below recommendations can be worked to increase worker flexibility and diligence to
increase the competitiveness of their manufacturing sites:
 By providing incentives or bonus: Workers are better motivated with incentives and a good
communication with the employer or the owner of the company. It will boost their satisfaction level,
which in a result will increase the worker flexibility and diligence.

 In House training: I would recommend In-house training for staffs that are lacking, a much more
communicating boss that would listen and understand the employees. In-house training will increase the
skills and potentiality to perform better.

 Team work: By increasing team work will help the employees to know their strengths and weaknesses.

 Flexible working hour: By providing flexible work hours, encourage breaks, sabbatical leave and
encourage interest of the staffs, which will also assist to create worker’s flexibility and diligence.

  It is possible for the United States managers to organize, motivate as well as ensure quality in the
Chinese manufacturing facilities as they can collaborate with the Chinese managers who are managing
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 these facilities to motivate, organize and ensure quality in the production. The manufacturing facilities in
China are a subsidiary of the Apple Company and therefore, it is easy to collaborate and adopt strategies
that are being used in the parent firm to ensure quality.

OB Chapter 1: Case Incident 2: Big Data for Dummies (Pages 70+71)

 To ignore Big Data benefits is to run the risk of missed opportunities.

 Organizations using big data are quickly reaping rewards, as they will gain a “huge competitive
advantage.”
 The problem with Big Data is in interpreting the new kinds and volumes of the collected data.
“Determining how to get value” was identified as the number one challenge of big data.
 Points to ponder when hiring data professionals:
o Look for candidates with a strong educational background in analytics/statistics.
o Have specific experience in your industry or a related industry.
o Search for candidates from industry leader organizations that are more advance in big data.
o Communication skills are a must.
o Find candidates with a proven record of finding useful information from a mess of data,
including data from questionable sources.
o Look for people who can think in 8-10 week periods, not just long term.
o Test candidates’ expertise on real problems.

Question 1-18: Let’s say you work in a metropolitan city for a large department store chain and your
manager puts you in charge of a team to find out whether keeping the store open an hour longer each day
would increase profits. What data might be available for your decision-making process? What data
would be important to your decision?

If I were to need to collect data to see whether the store should be kept opened another hour I would first
observe how busy the area is around that time. I would then check if the traffic flow is consistent with our target
market. I would then look at the possible amount of money that could be made based on another store chain
data that is open later with the similar environment. I would also observe competing stores in the same area with
the same target market and how long their stores are open and how busy they are.

1. The data that might be available to my decision making process to see whether keeping the store open an
hour longer each day to see if profits would increase are:
a. Attendance: Attendance should be monitored and is important in determining if the store hours
should be extended by one hour. This is because by knowing how many people come in to the store
during the extended hour, you will see people who are still interested in coming into the store to
browse the products being sold. This makes each person a potential customer and if there is a high
enough attendance in the added hour, there is a good chance that these potential customers will
purchase something.
b. Sales: I’m sure you have heard the quote, “Sales is the lifeblood of a business”, which totally makes
sense because in reality with no sales, there is no business. Sales is important in determining if being
open an extra hour will be feasible. Being open an extra hour increase cost because wages must be
paid, electricity usage will increase, etc. So in order to determine if the extra hour is a logical choice,
profits must be higher than cost. If sales are low during the added hour it doesn’t justify being open
longer. The whole point of this experiment is to see if profits would increase so this is fairly
important.

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 c. Customer’s comments or critique’s, on the extended hours. Feedback and networking is also
important. Hearing out what your customers have to say about the extended hours is very valuable.
By having proper communication with your customers, they can give you a good idea of what
people think and if the extended hours was a good idea. You will see by having proper human
skills, you will be seen as invaluable because of the high demand for superb customer service in
today’s modern businesses.
2. As the manager the data that would be important to my decision in extending the store hours by one
hour is to review past trends, from when this experiment began. It is important for a manager to have
conceptual skills, which will help find, if any, a correlation between profitability and the number of
hours the store was open. As I have addressed before, under sales, since the store will be kept open for
an extra hour daily. Cost will increase. By doing an analysis of cost vs profits, we can forecast if having
the store open an extra hour hurts the business or increases revenue. With this information the higher ups
can finally determine if being open an extra hour is the right direction for this store.

- What my competitors do.

- What is suitable for my customers.
- Purchasing per hour
- Employee’s productivity
- The value gained

Question 1-19: What kinds of data might we want in OB applications?

I believe that Job satisfaction is probably the most important data to collect. A survey that exhibits whether
employees are content at work or dissatisfied and why, can give a higher understanding of what changes may
need to be made. With a high job satisfaction there’ll be less absenteeism, and employment turnover. With an
enhanced productivity and human performance.

In organizational behavior applications the kinds of data that we want is

1. Psychographic data: Psychology is a discipline that contributes to the OB field. Finding out people’s
values, opinions, attitudes, interest and lifestyles is the kind of data needed in OB applications. By
knowing this information an organization can find better methods to make its own organization work
more productive and effective. Many businesses use this to their advantage. By knowing this
information an organization can prevent future problems from arising and/ or increasing job satisfaction,
human performance, employment turnover, etc. Furthermore it encourages proper and accurate
evidence-based management which complements systematic study.
2. Demographic Data: Sociology is also a contributing factor to the OB field. This helps us understand
people in relation to their social environment or culture. By having demographic data, an organization
can better understand what cultures, race, level of education, etc., the company is dealing with. Having
this information can help an organization with the management between people of different cultures. It
is widely known that all cultures are different in many aspects but some have many similarities.
Knowing the difference and how to complement each one can increase motivation within an
organization and encourage diversity. Anthropology helps us understand the fundamental values,
attitudes and behavior among people in different countries within different organizations. Different
cultures communicate differently and in many cases words and expressions mean different things to
other cultures. Understanding this can prevent future issues and help meld people of different cultures
into one cohesive organization.

Data related to the behavior of employees in the context of job satisfaction,

absence, employment turnover, productivity, human performance, motivation, attitude, and management.

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Question 1-20: As Braverman notes, one problem with big data is making sense of the information. How
might a better understanding of psychology help you sift through all this data?

A better understanding of psychology gives you the advantage of understanding why people behave a certain
way, and why they make certain decisions. This gives you an advantage of better understanding data and
making sense of it, since you have and overall understanding of the human mind and behaviors.

Understanding the psychology of individuals’ helps transforming the data into

useful information as it explains the behavior of humans what motivates them and why,
their attitude, personality, emotions, leadership…etc.
Understanding psychology helps in extracting the useful information from the big data on
which it will helps in the decision making process

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 OB Chapter 2: Case Incident 1: Can Organizations Train Diversity? (Pages 100+101)

 Two police officers got certified by (RITE) as cultural diversity trainers to work with other members to
improve relations between police and community and save lives.
 (RITE) help police officers to:
o Learn ways to understand their biases
o Improve their communication skills by focusing on emotional and social intelligence.
o Improve their ability to deescalate charged situations, to reduce use of force incidents.
 Police in US is pushing to implement training to improve diversity because everyone is debating the use
of excessive force by police against minorities. Some states now require:
o Hiring of monitor to analyze patterns of arrest and force.
o Diversity training for police.
o Use of body cameras.
 How effective is diversity training?
o A large scale review found that it is quite effective at improving the way trainees think about
diversity.
o Although it affects behavior to lesser degree.
o It worked best when accompanied by other diversity management approaches that focused on
diversity skill development and awareness, and when continuously implemented over time.
o The most effective programs engage people in working toward diversity goals, increase contact
among various demographic groups, and draw on people’s desire to help one another.
 Diversity obstacles: We are wired to make quick interpretations and automatic judgments.
 Some diversity programs have failed because they try to control managers’ and employees’ behavior.
 Other programs promoted for changing the decision-making context and environment (changing the
diversity policies and climate) so that employees can become more aware of their biases and make
decisions that do not discriminate toward others.
 Managers in different industries are motivated to implement diversity management activities to promote
equity.

Question 2.12: If you were to develop your own diversity training plan for an organization, what would
you do? What parts of the training plan do you think would have to be present for it to work?

When developing a diversity training plan for an organization, I would first check the specific demographic
group that is underrepresented in the workforce. When I have already gotten the information for specific group
of people that have been underrepresented, the next thing to do is to target recruitment messages. Targeting
recruitment messages means placing advertisements in publications geared towards that group. Some of the
training plan that need to be done are improving the recruiting practices of the organization, making selection
systems more transparent and provide training for those employees who have not had adequate exposure to
diversity material in the past.

For my training plan, I would make it very informal and let the staff take turns running a short program about
their culture or special traditions in their household. I would be present for every meeting if possible. It would
be interesting to see the staff plan an event and let people be creative. I would like to see either an oral
presentation or a lunchtime presentation with ethnic foods involved or possibly a guest speaker on a subject. I
think that with everyone playing the part of the host, it will help everyone come together and help encourage

12
each other and people would learn and experience a lot of different things they otherwise would not. With the
world being so small and different races and cultures all around us, it is very important to try and learn as much
as we can about each other so we can all work together.

Question 2-13: A variety of industries have unique problems that come with a lack of understanding of
diversity. Can you think of any industries struggling with a lack of diversity? How can diversity training
be tailored to these industries?

Microsoft, Society of women engineers are the organizations that are struggling with diversity. They are
institutions with a significant number of underrepresented minorities. Diversity can be tailored in these
industries by encouraging networking between them. Another thing one would do when training diversity in
those groups by first identifying underrepresented group of members in the institutions. If women are few in
leadership roles, then they will be need for recruiting some. By recruiting activities such as placing
advertisements in publications help.

Some industries and companies suffer from a lack of diversity and are currently challenging themselves with
changing the culture of the company. One of these industries is technology and a big player in the technology
sector, Google, had struggled with diversity within its workforce. There has been some backlash from current
and past employees about a concern over Google’s lack of diversity while others have stated that Google takes
diversity in the workplace too far. So obviously, diversity training means different things to different people.
For diversity education to work, it needs to be ever-present and sometimes not so formal. An office can simply
celebrate a different culture’s holiday or have someone give a brief explanation of a different culture’s holiday
and the significance surrounding it. These simple things will help diversify a workplace and help people feel
appreciated and valued. Another way to help foster a more diverse culture is to allow people to discuss openly
their concerns with each other. If done in a professional manner people will often realize that interpersonal
issues are often a product of miscommunication.

Question 2-13: Do you think diversity training is effective? If so, what about it makes its effective? If not,
what would you do to improve diversity outcomes in organizations?

Diversity training is effective. It is effective since there will be no discrimination in the workforce. Diversity
training help managers learn about the legal framework for equal employment opportunity and encourage fair
treatment of all people regardless of their demographic characteristics. Diversity training teach managers how a
diverse workforce is able to handle a diverse market of customers and clients. Diversity training also foster
personal development practices that bring out the skills and abilities of all workers acknowledging how
differences in perspective can be a valuable way to improve performance for everyone.

I believe that diversity training is effective because once people can learn and appreciate different races and
customs then it is easier for people to feel comfortable around others that are different. One reason people in
the workplace that are different might not work well together is they are unable to relate to each other or know
nothing about each other's customs. Not knowing someone on a deeper level might cause there to be a barrier
to forming a more cohesive working relationship. Once people are engaged in dialogue and understand other
customs, upbringing, and beliefs then they can have mutual respect and understanding of how to interrelate.
When I was running my dental office, I would routinely have people discuss their religious or native holidays so
others in the office could learn something new and relate better to someone a little bit different. Thus, helping
the employees engage in deep-level diversity discussions. Employees and patients would often bring in foods
from their respective foreign homes and it would be a great way to help the staff relate to each other and our
patients.

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 OB Chapter 2: Case Incident 2: The Encore Career (Pages 101+102)

 In this study, age diversity in organizations is discussed. Many individuals are now working passed the
age of retirement. This can cause problems in the work place with age discrimination with stereotypes
such as that older workers are lower performers. Researchers find that this is not true. Older people have
more experience and typically hit the ground running and fit into the organizations better. People who
are retired are not really retiring, but instead turning to part-time stay at home jobs, and/or they are
creating their own businesses. It also says in the economy companies need to start looking into
recruiting out and retaining the older generation, which is one of their greatest assets.
 Over the past century, the average age of the workforce has increased as medical science has continued
to enhance longevity and vitality. As we discussed in this chapter, many individuals will work past the
previously established ages of retirement, and the fastest-growing segment of the workforce is
individuals over the age of 55.
 older workers face a variety of discriminatory attitudes in the workplace:
o Stereotypes in researches inferred that older workers are lower performers. Research, on the
other hand, indicates they are not, and organizations are realizing the benefits of this needed
employee group.
 One HR director for engineering firm is actively recruiting the older workforce. He describes the older
workers: “Typically hit the ground running much quicker and they fit into the organization well.”
o They bring to the job a higher skill level earned through years of experience
o Remember an industry’s history.
o Know the aging customer base.
 The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average job search for an unemployed worker over
age 55 is 56 weeks, versus 38 weeks for the rest of the unemployed population.
 The encore career (unretirement): Older workers who aren’t finding fulfilling positions:
o Are seeking to opt out of traditional roles. “Older people are starting businesses more than any
other age group.”
o Are seeking to work in nonprofit organizations, where the pay may not equal the individual’s
previous earning power, but the mission is strong. “They need the money and the meaning”.
 “In this knowledge economy, the retention of older workers gives employers a competitive edge by
allowing them to continue to tap a generation of knowledge and skill, New thinking by HR professionals
and employers will be required to recruit and retain them. Otherwise, organizations’ greatest asset will
walk out the door.”

Question 2-18: What changes in employment relationships are likely to occur as the population ages?

The changes in employment relationships that are likely to occur as the population ages are an increase in
experience, a commitment to quality, and a strong work ethic. The longer an employee is at a certain job, the
more likely they are to stay at that job. In addition, relationships such as increased tenure of employees will
become inevitable. Most of the changes as the population ages are positive in the workforce, but there can be
negative effects such as a resistance to new technology and/or a lack of flexibility. There is also a strain because
older people are not retiring and staying at their jobs longer; this causes students that have just recently
graduated college or any of the younger generation to have to try even harder to get a position, when none are
opening or because the older people have years of experience.

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The key changes in employment relationships that are likely to occur as the population ages include:
 significant increase inexperience,
 good judgment,
 A strong work ethic,
 Commitment to quality.

However, while researchers deem the afore mentioned changes as positive, there also exist negative changes
that are likely to occur as the population ages. These negative changes include: alack of flexibility and a
resistance to new technology.

Question 2-19: Do you think increasing age diversity will create new challenges for managers? What
types of challenges do you expect will be most profound?

Increasing age diversity will create new challenges for managers because every age group is accustomed to
doing things differently. This will create challenges because the manager will have to learn how to deal with a
variety of age groups. The older generation is not up to date with technology and can be known as being
resistant to new technology. A challenge a manager could see would be how to get the older generation how to
learn this new technology and be open to it. They could send them to classes and have on the job training. A
challenge would also be how to keep them up to date on maintaining their skills. Technology is rapidly
changing every day and it will be tough for managers to keep up with all the new ways of incorporating things
and getting the older generation to be open to the new technology.

Increasing age diversity will certainly create additional challenges towards mangers.  It is ultimately up to the
older workforce to maintain their skills using newer technology.

I would have to say the most profound challenge associated with increased age diversity will be integrating
newer technology and practices in corporations to the older workforce. Technology these days is rapidly
progressing and it will prove tough for managers to stay on top of their older employees to stay up to date with
the most common practices and technology.

Question 2-20: How can organizations cope with differences related to age discrimination in the
workplace? How can older employees help?

I think one of the best ways for organizations to cope with age differences related to age discrimination is to
have the younger and older generations interact with each other. This can be beneficial to not only the company
on fighting age discrimination, but could also benefit the employees. Pairing up the younger generation with the
older generation could boost creativity and productivity. The younger generation could learn from the older
more experienced generation; they could learn how the company runs and have more hands on training. The
younger generation could then help the older by teaching them technology and getting them used to using it.
They can also feed off each other’s ideas. The older employees help the younger by teaching them that hard
work pays off and how one individual being positive and having great skills can make for a better work
environment.

Organizations can cope with the differences related to age discrimination in the workplace could include

 Blending older generational employees with newer ones.

 Teaming up the young with the old and having these individuals feed ideas off of each other
 The younger employees can assist the older ones by teaching the use of new technology.

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On the other side of things, the older generational employees who are shown to have positive qualities such as
“experience, judgment, a strong work ethic, and commitment to quality. The older work force can help by
teaching the younger work about their experience, judgement and strong work ethics

OB Chapter 3: Case Incident 1: On-Boarding … On-Leaving (Pages 129+130)

 Introduction: On boarding can be defined as a mechanism through which new employee acquire to
necessary knowledge, skills and behaviors in order to become an effective organizational members and
insiders.
 Rebecca, a quality assistant is disappointed from her work by the end of her first week.
 Although she signed her contract 2 months ago, she found the following on her first day:
o Nobody at the company was informed of her arrival.
o No desk nor computer prepared for her.
o The IT department wasn’t informed a week earlier.
o She had to use the desk of a sick absent colleague.
o No one told her were to buy a sandwich.
o Met her boss for 10 minutes only, in the first day.
 He had more important meeting.
 He didn’t socialize her with the new tasks as a new comer.
 Gave her a vague indication about her mission.
 Both the boss and the team didn’t manage the On-Boarding process well:
o Her boss didn’t introduce her to the rest of the company during Thursdays afternoon meeting.
o Her team didn’t put any effort to facilitate her integration:
 Didn’t give her information about projects.
 Didn’t explain her tasks in the company.
 Told her that things are not organized at the company.
 Rebecca decided to look for a new job after few months as she lost her interest and her engagement
dropped.
 Attention to the On-Boarding process will:
o Ensure a high level of job satisfaction.
o Avoiding high turn-over rate.
o Enable new comers reach their highest productivity.
o Long-term benefits via employees satisfaction.
 Failing to manage On-Boarding process will:
o Reduce New-comers satisfaction.
o Increase their turn-over, which will coast money:
 Between 100%-300% as replacement salaries.
 Up to 8 months that new comers reach high productivity levels.
 All Managers should:
o Be trained to welcome new comers.
o Plan everything for new comers in advance.
o Meet properly with new comers on day one.
o Facilitate the integration for new comers in the company.

Professor’s Comment:
This case is about the importance of orientation. Rebecca and company didn’t do their part. The company didn’t
do orientation, while Rebecca was shy and have an introvert personality.

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Question 3-14: What, in your opinion, were the mistakes made by Rebecca’s boss and colleagues during
the first weeks of her new employment? What could have been done differently in welcoming Rebecca?

There are few mistakes that have been made by Rebecca’s boss as well as her colleagues during the first week
of her employment. This mistakes may seems to be a small issue to Rebecca’s boss and colleagues but they
don’t really realize that it will give a huge impact to Rebecca mentally and physically and this issue has the
possibilities to be a serious issue if it continues in a long run. In this new Era, it is very common to face this
type of problems at working environment, however, it is best to avoid this type of issues for the sake of
employee’s job satisfaction and as well as company’s reputation. I strongly belief that it is always best to keep
in mind that a company with a very high performance should always prioritize their staff.
1. The very first mistake that has been made by the company, where it could be the Human Recourses
department or the Administrative department or the boss itself is not informing all the staff in the
company about Rebecca’s arrival to the company which gave her a very bad impression towards the
company which will somehow reflect her job involvement. It is very obvious that Rebecca has some
good energy and eagerness about her first day of work but unfortunately she got very disappointed when
she got to know that no one has been informed about her arrival. This situation somehow directly or
indirectly will affect Rebecca’s involvement in work as she wasn’t even provided with a desk nor a
computer to use. As a productive company, it is very important to understand and provide the need of
the employee and this company has failed in that way. Jobs are a venue for employees to grow and learn
and in order to achieve that the company should have created the sufficient facilities for Rebecca by
preparing the desk and computer.
2. Furthermore, Rebecca’s situation got worse when she don’t really know the placement of every facilities
in the company and got lost while finding for the cafeteria. In this situation, the major mistake is made
by Human resources department as they are truly responsible to do an orientation or an induction
programme for the new hire and bring the new hire for a tour to get to know every facilities that the
company provide. This is the reason why Human Resource department plays the major role in
welcoming the new hire. It is very important to make a proper orientation and a personalized
introduction towards the company so that the new hire like Rebecca could have a clear information on
how the company works. In that case, Human resource department has made a mistake which has lead
Rebecca to got lost in the company’s hall and it is also said that a successful induction programmes can
also leads to cost saving.
3. Besides, this mistake that has been made by Rebecca’s boss can be considered as a major mistake as the
boss didn’t give importance to the new employee instead ran to a ‘more important’ meeting. By saying
that, Rebecca’s boss would have been a good role model by being an example and not by only providing
her a 10 minutes time and spent it by only giving her vague indications about what her new mission in
the company will entail. This clearly shows that the boss does not give importance to the socialization of
newcomers into organization. A great socialization of new comers will always result in a better retention
of employees, increased in productivity and decrease in recruitment and training cost but in this case,
Rebecca’s boss has failed to do so by not providing sufficient time and knowledge for Rebecca to learn
or know more of the required social and task knowledge that she need to give attention. This situation
will eventually distract Rebecca to start her work more confidently and put down her ability to be an
organizational insider. Adding to the point, Rebecca’s situation become worse when the both the boss
and the team badly managed the relational implications of the on-boarding process. It is proven when
the boss made another mistake by not introducing Rebecca to the rest of the company while other
newcomers were introduced during the weekly meeting. This mistake gave her a huge impact and
frustration because that shows that Rebecca wasn’t treated with high consideration and respect. Rebecca
would have expect that her boss or the higher authority will treat her with appropriate concern for her
interest to be a part of the company, however, the higher authority nor the boss has failed to achieve that
responsibility.

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4. Moreover, due to the organization, the Human Resource department, the boss and the higher authorities’
mistakes, Rebecca’s colleagues also started to be bias towards Rebecca by not having a good teamwork.
This is proven when Rebecca’s colleagues failed to provide her with the information on the project they
were working on at the time and as well as with the company’s culture. Again, a proper orientation or an
induction programme or a great socialization wouldn’t have let Rebecca to go through this situation and
would have not allowed her colleagues to treat her bias. Ineffective on-boarding may arise a lot of
conflict to the newcomers like Rebecca. Due to the ineffective on-boarding, Rebecca has faced issues
from the first day itself and this will eventually affect her participation in work, her interest towards the
job will be affected as well and this will cause a lack of teamwork, lack of communication and lack o0f
involvement to arise.

The first step that the company would have done is

1. To make sure that the Human Resource department or the respective department to be really alert on
Rebecca’s arrival and to make sure that the news regarding her arrival has been informed to all the
staff in the weekly meeting before Rebecca’s arrival itself. Then, the next step that the company
would have given prioritize is to make sure that Rebecca has been facilitated with all her needs and
gives importance to her comfort in the workplace by preparing a place for her before she arrival to
the company. Then, before few days of her arrival, it is very important for the human resource
department to finalize all the paperwork that has to be provided to Rebecca on her first day to know
more about the company and not to just start her job with a clueless mind.
2. On the first day of Rebecca’s arrival, an orientation or more likely an induction programme should
have been applied so that Rebecca would have known each and every staff in the company from
various department. In this way, it would help Rebecca to be more comfortable with her colleagues
than being awkward not knowing anyone from her department nor other and would be able to learn
new things from various department as well. Plus, the Human Resource management or the
respective higher authority should have explain to Rebecca about the hierarchy and why each
individual is important in the organization and in that way Rebecca would have been able to know
everyone’s position in that company which will help her to handle a situation later or sooner.
3. Then, by conducting an orientation or an induction programme, Rebecca should have given with a
transparent and open explanation of the organizational structure of the organization which will allow
rebbeca to know about all the facilities that the organization has and this will also help her to not to
waste her time to find for every place all by herself and got lost.
4. Then, the Human Resource department should have scheduled a meeting with her boss and another
one with her colleagues. This meeting with her boss will help her a lot to create a good bond
between the boss and Rebecca and that would be a golden opportunity for Rebecca to know more on
how the organization works, Rebecca’s job scope, the rules and regulations of the company, the
policy and confidential of the company and Rebecca could also use this opportunity to clear all her
doubts if she has any. This meeting is very important as it creates the comfort in between boss and
Rebecca as Rebecca can be more productive only if she is feels comfortable and be satisfied with the
environment and her job.
5. Next, a scheduled meeting with her colleagues is also very important as she will be working as a
team to complete a project and a good relation is needed in order to achieve that and this meeting
will surely allow Rebecca to get in contact with all of her workmates. In that way, Rebecca and her
colleagues could be able to get to know each other and be more comfortable through this meeting.
Besides, Rebecca also would be able to know all the information regarding their current project that
Rebecca would be engaged as well and Rebecca would be able to start up her work with more
confidence.
6. By in Rebecca’s first week, her boss could have ordered for a meeting which comprise of all
departments whereby Rebecca will be officially introduced to everyone in the company together

18
 with the higher authorities and a video of each departments should be played during the meeting so
that Rebecca would have known more regarding how each and every departments plays the role.
7. Lastly, Rebecca should have introduced with the projects that she would be engaged and to the
group members that she would work with so that she can start to be more involved with her job that
has been assigned.

Question 3-15: Discuss how a newly hired employee who goes through a similar poorly managed on-
boarding process may react if they do not have the option of changing their job quickly. What
consequences would this have for the company?

The employee in this case will have a very negative effect on the company, as the employee with low job
satisfaction will:
1. Have a very low job performance.
2. Not act positively (employee’s organizational citizenship behavior).
3. Be negative, which will affect the customer satisfaction.
4. Have a counterproductive work behavior (Absenteeism and turnover).

Question 3-16: What might organizations do to ease the integration of newcomers into the company and
enhance their job satisfaction?

The organization should consider some characteristics that likely influence job satisfaction:
1. Job conditions.
2. Personality. (Core self-evaluation)
3. Pay (salary).
4. Corporate social responsibility.

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 OB Chapter 3: Case Incident 2: Job Crafting (Pages 130+131)

 Fatima, a midlevel manager, seems to be doing well:

o She’s consistently making her required benchmarks and goals
o She has built successful relationships with colleagues
o Senior management has identified her as having “high potential.”
 She is not satisfied at her job:
o She’d be interested in understanding how her organization can use social media in marketing
efforts at all levels of the organization, but her job doesn’t allow her.
o She wants to quit and find something that better suits her passions, but in her economic situation
this may not be an option.
 She has decided to proactively reconfigure her current job, as she is part of a movement toward job
“crafting,” which is the process of deliberately reorganizing your job so that it better fits your motives,
strengths, and passions. She crafted her job by:
o Noticed that she was spending too much of her time monitoring her team’s performance and
answering questions, and not enough time working on the creative projects that inspire her.
o She then considered how to modify her relationship with the team so that her activities
incorporated her passion for social media strategies, with the team’s activities more centered on
developing new marketing.
o She also identified members of her team who might be able to help her implement her new
strategies and directed her interactions with these individuals toward her new goals.
 Result:
o Her engagement in her work increase
o She also developed new ideas that were recognized and advanced within the organization.
o She found that by actively and creatively examining her work, she was able to shape her job into
one that is truly satisfying.
 Proactive individuals are often self-empowered and more likely to seek workable solutions when they
are not satisfied. Fatima exhibited a proactive personality, so she will:
o Be successful in her customized job
o Experience increased well-being.
o Encourage all employees to be proactive in creating their best work situations.

Question 3-17: Fatima chose to remain in her old job rather than looking for a new one elsewhere. What
are her constraints?

Fatima has financial constraints. She does not have the luxury to quit one job and look for employment that
would be more satisfying and something that would incorporate her passion of using social media marketing.
Another constraint is that Fatima must continue to satisfy her existing job duties. However, she was able to
analyze her individual job performance and incorporate duties that satisfied her passion. Her proactive attitude
allowed her to envision change to incorporate her passion within the confines of her job functions.

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Fatima has financial constraints. She is just a midlevel manager with not very high pay. Due to current
economic environment she does not have the luxury to quit current job and look for new job that would be more
satisfying and something that would integrate her interest of using social media in marketing efforts.
Another constraint is that Fatima must proceed her job to fulfil her current job duties. She was able to analyze
her individual job performance and incorporate duties that satisfied her passion. Her proactive attitude allowed
her to envision change to incorporate her passion within the confines of her job functions.

Question 3-18: Fatima is described as having a proactive personality. What does this mean and what is
the pre-requisite for it?

Those with proactive personality identify opportunities, show initiative, take action and preserve until
meaningful change occurs. An individual acts according to the need of the situation in advance rather than
waiting for the thing to happen. (Chiu, Owens and Tesluk,2016). Proactive individuals have many desirable
behaviours that an organizations need. They have a higher level of job performance and do not need much
oversight. They are receptive to changes in job demands and succeed when they can informally tailor their jobs
to the strengths. The prerequisite of proactive personality involves proficiency and the adaptability of the
individual to the situation that may come in their way

Question 3-19: Are there any potential drawbacks to the job crafting approach? If so, how can they be
minimized?

There are potential drawbacks to job crafting. One such drawback is having rogue ‫ فاسد‬employees. Allowing
employees free control to redefine their duties can result in chaos. Having employees take a proactive approach
to incorporate interests or passion while still fulfilling their existing job duties would however be beneficial.
Having employees that are happy within their positions increases productive and profits. The company needs to
encourage employees to broaden the scope of their jobs to include their personal passion and interests that are
relevant and that does not neglect their duties. Having clearly defined job descriptions would aid managers and
employees to clearly know their expectations.

There would be a conflict if individual’s goals are different from the organization’s goals, because the
organization is not flexible enough to accept all individual’s goals. A potential drawback to the job crafting
approach would be the decrease the focus on the job to be done. The modification of the job methods may lead
to more inefficient ways of completing the task, and therefore a loss of productivity. These concerns can be
minimized by closely supervising the amount of production

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 OB Chapter 4: Case Incident 1: On the Costs of Being Nice (Pages 163)

 This case study is about the advantages and disadvantages of one of the personalities types: The
Agreeable people.
 The Agreeable people tend to be kinder and more accommodating in social situations, but is potentially
have lower earning, and the reasons of that (according to research) are:
o This personality type is less adept in distributive bargaining (which is creating a win-win
situation), so they negotiate lower salaries for themselves.
o This personality usually choose to work in low salaries jobs.
o This personality doesn’t put effort to emerge as leader, and engage in lower degrees of proactive
tasks behaviors, and that certainly doesn’t help their pay-check.
 Benefits of being agreeable are:
o They are better liked at work.
o Generally happier at work and life.
o They don’t define a happy life according to earnings.

Question 5-14: Do you think employers must choose between agreeable employees and top performers?
Why or why not?

Sometimes employers must choose between agreeable employees and top performers depending on the nature
of the job. An employer should choose the type of individual who is a better fit for the position and company.
For example, an agreeable employee may not fit well in the culture of an aggressive or high pressure sales
driven job.
However, in most cases, I believe an organization benefits from both agreeable employees and top performers.
The case study describes agreeable employees as people who are nicer, more accommodating and well liked.
These types of employees mix very well in an organization and believe in team work. They like to work in
harmony and create a respectful environment. They may also tend to be more committed and loyal to the
company. Agreeable employees also like to “engage in lower degrees of proactive task behaviors, such as
thinking of ways to increase organization effectiveness” (Robbins, p.169). These are some of the benefits of
having agreeable employees. The downside is that agreeable employees often earn less and are less likely to
become top managers and leaders.
There are also advantages of top performers, the first being the obvious. Top performers usually exceed their
goals which helps to grow the company. They are more likely to take risks and be more aggressive. They tend
to take on more responsibility and are ready and willing to take on leadership roles. This type of employee will
demand a higher salary, but their performance usually warrants it.

Employers must chose agreeable employees because they can give full commitment to the obligations entrusted.
Organizations are often looking for employees have high performance and dedicated in carrying out their duties.
Agreeable employees could be more motivated to be a good employees with appropriate training and leadership
application that they have.
Top performers like to do the work that only depends on their job title, they will not do extra work. In addition
to their high salaries, which is usually more than the work done.
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Question 5-15: Research seems to suggest that agreeable individuals make fairly poor managers and
decision makers. Why might this be the case? What are the implications for organizations? How does this
affect their earning potential?

According to an article in The Conversation, “Agreeableness is a personality trait characterized by compassion,

friendliness, politeness, and empathy. People high in this personality trait can be described as nice; they tend to
make good friends, are good listeners and team players”. Agreeableness would be an important virtue in
positions that require constant communication, team work and compassion such as health care, education, and
customer service jobs. Working overtime to help your team with a project, offering to take over a specific task,
or shift at work when needed, offering advice or peer coaching when an opportunity arises, or going above and
beyond to help resolve a customer’s problem are all examples of being an agreeable employee.
Agreeableness can be harmful to one’s job performance when an employee puts other people’s needs before
their own. In being too nice and trying to accommodate others, their work may get behind and suffer, which
may cause them to sacrifice their own success. Also, being too agreeable can be a problem if the employee
needs to make hard decisions or deliver bad news.

This is because agreeable people are less adept with negotiation, they are less knowledgeable to creating win-
win situation, and they are week in decision making. This personality is weak in decision making and proactive
task behaviour. They cannot come out with perfect ideas or ways to increase the organizational effectiveness.
Their earning potentials usually not exactly what they should get, as they often negotiate lower salaries for
themselves than they might get. They cannot make decision to evaluate job to get equal work reward.

Question 5-16: Agreeable individuals tend to be attracted to specific types of occupations and follow
different career paths. What has research indicated in this respect? What are the implications and where
are you more likely to find agreeable employees

The research indicates that agreeable individual personality is more compliant and rule abiding. They just do
their works without any complain and by follow the stipulated rules. Agreeable people can contribute to
organizational performance and engaging in organization citizenship behaviour by doing their job well and help
the organization to success. Agreeable employees can be found when the personal goal and organizational goals
is synced.

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 OB Chapter 4: Case Incident 2: The Clash of Traits (Pages 164)

 A consultant visited a company, and found that all the employees had their Myers-Briggs personality
type (ex: INFJ, ESTP). He thought that this highlighted an important truth in the workplace: Even after
all we do, say, hear, and think, we still must interact with one another.
 These interactions can cause conflict. Personality clashes are the third most common cause of conflict.
 An expert suggested that many personality differences result from clashes between trait dimensions such
as outspoken and reserved, impulsive and methodical, along with skeptical and accepting.
 These dichotomies can map onto facets of the Big Five, like extraversion, conscientiousness, and
agreeableness. Of these types, the more dominant, impulsive types tend to foster more conflict than the
others.
 Some research supports the impact of personality within teams. When the team is composed of
employees high on openness to experience and emotional stability, conflict can help their performance,
and vice versa.
 Other research explored how personality differences affect employees’ relationships with their
supervisors.
 Despite these finding, many note that personality is just one piece of the puzzle, the big picture is more
complex, politically sensitive, and nuanced than differences in personality.
 If you find yourself in a potential “personality clash” situation you should try to:
o Resist “recruiting” coworkers to take sides.
o Focus on the strengths of this other person.
o Reduce your contact with the other person so that the conflict occurs less frequently.
o Develop some insight into who you are and what your personality is like.

Question 4-18: Have you ever had an experience in which your personality clashed with someone, either
at work or outside of work? What did you do to resolve it? Was the situation resolved?

Yes, I have had an experience in which my personality clashed with someone. It was at work where a colleague
was speaking in a meeting. We disagreed on something which led to an argument rising. What I did to resolve it
was trying to understand what he was saying. I left him to speak and tried to understand what he meant. Since I
knew myself to be an agreeable person. I decided to be more cooperative, warm and trusting to him. The
conflict between us got solved. Since I decided to be agreeable with him and focused on what he was trying to
make me understand. The other thing I did was reduce contact with him to avoid conflict from occurring.

Question 4-19: Which do you think is more important: similarity between personality types or
differences? Explain your answer

I think the difference in personality types is more important. This is because different personalities make room
for different roles of employees in the organization. An organization that has employees with different
personality types will be comprised of people with conscientiousness, emotional stability, extraversion,
openness to experience and agreeableness. Each personality brings out a different impact on the organizations.

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Conscientiousness personality is a person who is reliable, organized, dependable and persistent. A person with
emotional steadiness has minimal negative thinking and almost no negative emotions and is less hyper-vigilant.

Extraverts tend to have better interpersonal skills, greater social dominance and more emotionally expressive.
Agreeableness people have increased learning abilities, more compliant and conforming.

An organization that has employees with these different types of personalities is more likely to be successful.
This is because different personality types have different advantages making the organization to be diverse in
terms of personality types. Let’s say an emotional stability type of person has a higher job and life satisfaction,
lower stress levels and more adaptable to change. Extraversion affects high performance, enhanced leadership,
and higher job and life satisfaction. Openness affects since there is enhanced training performance and
leadership. Agreeableness trait affects high performance and lower levels of defiant behavior. These different
personality types in an organization help yield more successful results in an organization.

Question 4-20: Do you think knowledge of personality similarities or differences can help employees
reduce conflict and get along better? Or does this knowledge have the potential to cause harm? Explain
your answer.

Knowledge of personality similarities or differences helps reduce conflict and get along better. This knowledge
does not have any potential to cause harm. Knowledge of personality has helped employees to know and
understand themselves better. There is a greater understanding between the employees in the organization since
they understand each other well. This knowledge has helped employees to gain an understanding of different
personalities. There will be minimum cases of misunderstanding in the organization since the employees know
each other’s personality.

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 OB Chapter 5: Case Incident 1: Collaboration Overload (Pages 202)

 Mclellan, CTO at an advertising agency, who invested in many different collaboration tools, aiming to
help the employees work more efficiently, as using these tools will allow the employees to: (Use them to
create internal team websites/ Chat/ Share documents).
 Collaboration overload could happen when a company approach collaboration tools through either:
1. Requiring employees to use multiple collaboration mechanisms, or:
2. Become employed in open-offices environments, like Facebook.
 Almost all employees tended to stick to using e-mail (receiving 3000-5000 emails/month).
 The various collaboration mechanisms led to a COLLABORATION OVERLOAD problem for
organizations:
1. Escalating Citizenship: is employee behaviour that is not compulsory in job descriptions, and is
neither rewarded nor punished by organizational management. A study showed that the
collaboration that add value to the work comes from only 3-5% of employees.
2. Employees feel that they will be considered as better employees according to their willingness to
help, so they prefer to help others, instead of doing their own tasks, which will have bad
influence on their efficiency.
3. Increasing Communication Complexity: which will affect the decision-making (DM) by
increasing the number of collaboration tools which will increase the number of people involved
in the DM (more emails, meetings, instant messages).
 Evidence suggests that we need to concentrate more on the depth of the work, than the richness, variety,
and depth of communication. Still we can see an escalation of commitment to the cult of collaboration,
as many offices don’t agree to become at least partially unplugged.

Question 5-14: In what ways do you think collaboration overload can have an impact on decision
making?

I think that collaboration overload can have a big impact on DM. It will increasing communication complexity,
which will affect the decision-making (DM) by increasing the number of collaboration tools which will increase
the number of people involved in the DM and results: (more emails, meetings, instant messages).

I think it can have a negative impact on decision making. When collaboration reaches the level of overload, you
can lose sight of who is in charge of making decisions on certain aspects of the organization. As the case stated,
collaboration overload can lead to escalating citizenship, meaning “the scope of employees positions tends to
increase” (Robbins & Judge, 2019). I have personally experienced this phenomenon at the company I work for,
when you have too many people collaborating on a project, people tend to forget who running point on the
project. People also tend to get confused on who to go to when question arise on the given project. While I
believe that collaborations can be a positive thing in organizations, I feel that when they reach the level of
overload than can be much more detrimental than helpful.

Question 5-15: What biases do you think play into managers continued use of collaboration tools and
modes?

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Escalation of Commitment Bias: staying with a decision even when there is clear evidence that it’s wrong
(Likely to occur when individuals view themselves as responsible for the outcome).

I think that managers sometimes read too much into the saying of “two heads are better than one”. While there
are some projects and situations that are better resolved when approach by a team, there are some that would be
better tackled by one employee. When getting too many employees involved in an assignment unnecessarily, it
can actually make the assignment more difficult to complete. Another bias that plays into the continued use of
collaboration tools and modes is overconfidence bias. I believe that sometime managers have overconfidence in
some of the people they place in collaboration groups, which leads to other employees picking up the slack of
those who do not perform to the standards of the group. This can put more stress on the collaboration as a
whole, in turn making it less effective.

Question 5-16: How does collaboration overload (e.g., requiring employees to use multiple collaboration
mechanisms or become employed in open-office environments) compare to the three ethical decisions
criteria (i.e., utilitarianism, liberties/rights, and deonance) discussed in this chapter?

The collaboration overload is compared to the three ethical decisions criteria as following:
 Utilitarianism criterion: This decision taking has only one objective that it is of good for many people. It
is not a collaborative approach as the decision can be taken by one person or team, the only requirement
is that it serves good for greater number of people. This is alright up until it doesn't invade rights of
individuals. The decision is free from any preferences or favoritism for any particular group. It is good
for routine tasks and where matter of decision is impersonal. It is better for unstructured decisions where
collaboration is not possible. (Ex: throwing a man from the train to save the rest of the train. The
people’s replies proved that even our view of what we consider logical is changeable).
 Liberties/rights criterion focuses on ensuring social justice and on safeguarding of legal individual rights
of freedom, privacy, and expression, according to prevailing constitution or Bill. Any decision taken in
organization should not curtail individual right. It is opposite of utilitarian criterion.
 Deonance: which are the decisions made within the boundary of moral codes, or societal cods or
organization norms. This will definitely be good for organization and its stakeholders since doesn't need
much collaboration but doesn't guarantee free actions of individual.

Utilitarianism is the ethical decision that is made to provide the greatest good for all of those involved. They
way that collaboration overload compares to utilitarianism depends on the organization and the people who
make up that organization. If the majority of employees thrive in a collaboration overload environment then it
would be in line with utilitarianism. However, if the majority of the employees do better working alone in
private office spaces than the idea of collaboration overboard would not be an ethical utilitarianism decision.
When considering collaboration overload in comparison to one’s liberties and privileges, I feel that these two
ideas really don’t overlap. When a company utilizes collaboration overload, they are no encroaching on the
employee’s basic rights, the employees still have privacy, free speech and due process. While employee’s may
not like the idea of collaboration overload, the company is not ethically violating the employee’s liberties or
rights. Deonance is “a perspective in which ethical decisions are made because you “ought to” in order to be
consistent with moral norms, principles, standards, rules or laws” (Robbins & Judge, 2019). I think than one
could argue that deonance could play a role in an employee being more willing to participate in collaborative
efforts because that is what is normal for the organization. An example of this would be someone who is
employed at Facebook will look at collaboration overload as normal for the company and be more open to
collaboration because that is what is expected at that particular company versus someone who works in an
accounting firm with individual offices.

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 OB Chapter 5: Case Incident 2: How Do Employees Justify Cyberloafing (Pages 202+203)

 Cyberloafing: is the usage of the Internet and social network platforms while at work, thus engaging in
non-work online activities while on the clock.
 Disadvantages of Cyberloafing for companies can range from:
o Brief employee distraction, which will lead to inefficiency.
o Serious drain on company resources such as decreased profits.
o Compromise the company’s security such as slower network performance or computer viruses.
 Advantages of Cyberloafing for companies can be:
o Opportunity for the employer to be more productive because of not being bored.
o Employer be more engaged
o Employer way to release stress while at work.
 For employees: Cyberloafing could:
o Be rationalized as personal time earned because they completed their tasks
o Or it may result guilt feelings (this feeling increase at companies that restrict the use of the
Internet during working hours, especially if the employees neutralize their engagement in
Cyberloafing because they see that their organizing is somehow unjust (They do their tasks for
the company, still, it doesn’t allow them to use the internet during their spare time.
 Research proved that
o Fairness in treating the employees can stop employees inappropriate behavior such as
Cyberloafing.
o Employees now seek “work-life flexibility”, where each person controls the amount of time they
dedicate to work and life, there for, the terminology (Cyberloafing) should evolve.

Question 5-17: How do you think the act of Cyberloafing can affect your individual performance in the
workplace?

Personally, I refuse this terminology, and would feel that my company is being unjust if they considered that I
am Cyberloafing if I checked some of my personal issues on the net when I choose to. I am a responsible
employee, who won’t waste the company’s time or money to do my personal things, in addition to the fact that I
do so much work from my home. This is why I see using some internet at work as stress relief that I can use
when I feel that I need it.

Question 5-18: Do you think Internet browsing at the workplace is an acceptable behavior? Why, or why
not?

If an employee did Internet browsing at the workplace for an accepted time (as stress relief) then I see it as an
acceptable behavior, unless his/her company made it clear in the contract that it restricts, filters, or prohibits the
use of the Internet during working hours for personal reasons. In that case, internet browsing will be an
unacceptable behavior.

Question 5-19: How do you think innovation and creativity can assist companies with Cyberloafing?

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Innovation and creativity can assist companies with Cyberloafing, only when a company see Cyberloafing as a
method to harvest many creative ideas from its employees and call itself innovative. Since ideas are useless
unless used, soft skills help translate employees ideas into results. Therefore, creative ideas are most likely to be
implemented when an individual is motivated to translate the idea into practice, and have strong networking
ability. What I mean, is if the company allowed its employees to use the internet when they are free, this
employee might become innovative, and the company will surly benefit from this.
OB Chapter 6: Case Incident 1: Hiring an Emotionally Intelligent Employee (Pages
238+239)

 Emotional Intelligence is our ability to identify and manage our own emotions and to understand and
influence other people’s emotions.
 EI provide us with:
o The ability to build better relationships.
o Manage difficult emotions.
o Increase creativity and innovation.
o Lead others effectively.
 People are hired by organizations because of:
o Where they went to college.
o The test scores and grades achieved.
o Their technical skills and certifications.
 Companies are increasing interested in job applicants who display emotional intelligence (EI).
 Guidance on how to hire emotionally intelligent employees:
o Don’t:
 Use personality tests as a means of testing for EI.
 Use a self-report test.
 Use a 360-degree feedback instrument.
o Do:
 Get references and talk to referees.
 Interview for emotional intelligence.
 How to overcome the challenges of learning about a candidate’s competencies a (behavioural event
interview) should be conducted:
o The candidate should be put at ease and asked a few general questions.
o Should be asked about a challenging situation that they mastered successfully.
o Should be informed to tell the story briefly and then at greater length be questioned about what
they thought.
o Repeat this process as the candidate is asked to recount an unsuccessful situation that created a
learning experience.
o This may be followed by another successful story as the interview closes.
 The stories told will help the interviewer gain an insight into the:
o Candidate’s self-awareness.
o Self-regulation.
o Capacity for empathy, overall level of EI.
 These strategies are subjective by nature but will help in selecting more emotionally intelligent
candidates for your business who will:
o Be better at managing emotions.
o Be more productive.
o Have a greater self-awareness.
o Have better quality relationships.
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 o Be more effective communicators.

Question 6-14: What is emotional intelligence? What benefits are identified in the case of hiring an
emotionally intelligent employer?

Emotional Intelligence is our ability to identify and manage our own emotions and to understand and influence
other people’s emotions. (EI) provide us with:
o The ability to build better relationships.
o Manage difficult emotions.
o Increase creativity and innovation.
o Lead others effectively.

Question 6-15: Comment on McKee’s recommendations on that not to do when using EI as means of
employer selection.

McKee’s recommendations on that NOT to do when using EI as means of employer selection are two:
 Don’t use personality tests as a means of testing for EI: These tests are designed to test personality traits
and types. These tests are not effective as they do not measure abilities such as self-awareness,
achievement orientation, empathy, or inspirational leadership, which are at the core of emotional
intelligence.
 Don’t use a self-report test: These types of tests are problematic as a candidate may have a low level of
self-awareness and he or she will more than likely record what they believe the organization would like
to hear.
 Don’t use a 360-degree feedback instrument: even if it is valid and even if it measures EI competencies.
The 360-degree feedback method involves a process where employees receive feedback from those who
work with them, including their manager, team members, peers, and support staff. It is important to the
process that this information is both anonymous and confidential. This system provides an opportunity
for professional development by identifying strengths and weaknesses by not evaluation. When these
instruments are used a method of evaluation, people may carefully select the respondents and even
prepare them on how to score.

Question 6-16: Identify a time that you successfully completed a task and record what you thought, how
you felt and what you did at this time. Then do the same for a task that you were not successful at
completing. What insight into your EI did these experiences provide you with?

Free Answer, describe two situations.

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 OB Chapter 6: Case Incident 2: When the Going Gets Boring (Pages 239+240)

 Consequences of being bored at work:

o You can let your coworkers down when you’re unresponsive and they need you.
o Boredom can at times lead to complaining, although this may seem common in organizations
(due to media portrayals on TV and movies of complaining employees), it can be irritating to
many employees, especially those who are happy with their work.
o Boredom can lead to the commission of CWVs (Counterproductive work behavior), especially
psychologically withdrawing from the job, sabotaging work equipment, and abusing other
coworkers.
o If work is central to an employee’s life, boredom can lead to depression.
o The boredom-prone experience a variety of undesirable outcomes, such as receiving less support
from their organizations, underemployment, and lower performance ratings.
 Keys to tackle boredom at work:
o Take control and be proactive:
 Taking control of your job.
 Setting challenges for yourself.
 Acquiring the resources you need to do the job well.
 Forcing yourself to be more curious and looking outside your own responsibilities.
o Offering learning opportunities.
o Reducing consistent hours worked.
o Try to learn more skills that are related to your job tasks.
 The results echo calls for the (gamification of the workplace) in which everyday tasks can be altered to
include game mechanics, potentially leading to a reduction in boredom and an increase in cognitive
control.

Question 6-17:  Who is responsible for reducing boredom in the workplace and why? Is it the employer?
The one who is bored?

I think that the individuals who are in a managerial position should have the task in reducing boredom at the
workplace. A manager has the ability to have oversight on the components that affect the productivity and
customer satisfaction with operations. Manager typically have the means to make changes to assist in ensuring
there is not only customer satisfaction is met, but also employee/job satisfaction is up to par. Granted there are
slow moments in a daily operation to where boredom strikes. However, if there are contributing factors that
increase the probability of dissatisfaction, changing certain mechanisms (etc.) and switching up the mode of
operations would be my suggestion. The person/employee that experiences boredom, also has a responsibility to
stay proactive at the job. Finding ways to keep oneself business is needed when there is a slow moment at work.

Question 6-18: Do you think certain tasks are inherently boring and thus cannot be changed? If yes, what
are they? If there are tasks that cannot be made more interesting, how can the negative effects of
boredom be mitigated for the employees who must perform those tasks?

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Yes, I do believe that there are some instances that cannot be avoided or changed when a person is put in a
dissatisfactory situation. Answering calls and/or maintaining a shift that isn’t active are some examples. I have
experience both and have manage to keep my mind in some form of satisfaction. In my previous job, it was
mandatory for an admin to be on shift each Saturday, but specifically on the Saturday that comes during the
Easter holiday, it was extremely slow and boring; since no one called nor passed by the school. I have always
wondered why can’t admins stay at home in this Saturday, and do more important things than just sitting at
work doing nothing.

Question 6-19: Which emotion regulation technique do you think would be the most successful   in
mitigating boredom and why?

In therapy I learned about Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). There were four modules
o Interpersonal effectiveness;
o Distress tolerance/reality acceptance skills;
o Emotion regulation;
o Mindfulness skills.

Keys to tackle boredom at work:

o Take control and be proactive:
 Taking control of your job.
 Setting challenges for yourself.
 Acquiring the resources you need to do the job well.
 Forcing yourself to be more curious and looking outside your own responsibilities.
o Offering learning opportunities.
o Reducing consistent hours worked.
o Try to learn more skills that are related to your job tasks.

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OB Chapter 7: Case Incident 1: Who Needs the Gig Economy (Pages 277+278)

 Gig economy means that you are working independently, in a short –term contract for an organization. It
is described as consisting of casual or contingent work that is conducted in a digital marketplace. It gets
its name because a worker is paid for each piece of work or individual “gig” in the place of a salary. It
uses digital labor platforms to match independent workers with jobs.
 The new “on-demand economy” has led to:
o The development of entrepreneurial skills.
o Produced great innovations.
o Created emerging forms of work and labor.
 The new technology is:
o Connecting customers who need a service performed and the independent workers willing to
provide it.
o Disrupting the way labor markets operate throughout the world
o Creating a new type of independent or contingent worker.
o Presenting opportunities to freelancers in a wide range of professions.
o Means that technology is used to purchase goods and services.
 The gig economy may fundamentally change the nature of work:
o Reduction in full-time employment, and increase of freelancers who may hold more than one
job)
o Empowering (to be your own boss), freelancers can have more flexibility and autonomy and
achieve better a work-life space.
o Businesses reduce the cost of training, office space, and company benefits, and can hire the
experts they need for the duration of a specific project.
o Economic benefits: such as increased workforce participation, reduced unemployment, and
boosts to productivity.
 Disadvantages of gig economy:
o Regular employees have fixed working hours and company benefits. In the gig economy, they
might end up working full-time without the status, security and protections of an employment
contract.
o They may not receive benefits such as sick leave, holiday pay, redundancy pay and maternity
leave, or even be guaranteed the minimum wage.
o They may not have the flexibility between their personal and professional lives.
 Good management practices need to be put in place as this pioneering generation of workers in the
digital age deliver new opportunities for business activity and growth, as questions arise about the nature
of work in the years to come and how best to safeguard the contingent work-force.
o Gigsters offer organizations flexibility, speed, innovation and agility, but they may lose out on
benefits and protections while businesses avoid taxes and worker compensations.
o The gig economy may result in greater social inequality, as the benefits of the on-demand
economy are experienced by the few and serviced by the many.
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 o The new gig economy is acting as a bridge between traditional organizations and the emerging
economy. It may be the engine of economic and social transformation, but the consequences for
all need to be understood (need for good management).

Question 7-14:  Do you think that the gig economy meets the needs of independent workers as identified
by the early motivation theorists?

I don’t think that the gig economy meets the needs of independent workers as identified by the early motivation
theorists. (discuss each of the theories and compare it to this case study)
The Early Theories of Motivation:
1. Hierarchy of Needs Theory:
2. Two-Factors Theory.
3. McClelland’s Theory of Needs.

Question 7-15:  How can the experience of equity or inequity as described by Adams impact on the
motivation of independent workers?

The gig economy may result in greater social inequality, as the benefits of the on-demand economy are
experienced by the few and serviced by the many.

 Equity theory argues that individuals make comparisons of their job inputs and outcomes relative to
those of others and then respond to any inequities.
o If we perceive our ratio to be equal to that of the relevant others with whom we compare
ourselves, a state of equity is said to exist, and we perceive our situation as fair.
o If we see the ratio as unequal, we experience equity tension.

 When employees perceive an inequity, they can be predicted to make one of six choices:
1. Change inputs.
2. Change outcomes.
3. Distort perceptions of self.
4. Distort perceptions of others.
5. Choose a different referent.
6. Leave the field.

 Forms of Organizational Justice:

Although equity theory’s propositions have not all held up, the hypothesis served as an important
precursor to the study of organizational justice, or more simply, fairness, in the workplace.
Organizational justice is concerned with how employees feel they are treated by authorities and decision
makers at work. For the most part, employees evaluate how fairly they are treated along the following
dimensions (Types of Justice):
1. Distributive justice: is concerned with the fairness of the outcomes, such as pay and recognition
that employees receive. Although employees care a lot about what outcomes are distributed
(distributive justice), they also care a lot about how outcomes are distributed. It looks at what
outcomes are allocated.
2. Procedural justice: examines how outcomes are allocated. Having direct influence over how
decisions are made, or at the very least being able to present your opinion to decision makers,
creates a sense of control and makes us feel empowered. Employees also perceive that
procedures are fairer when decision makers follow several “rules.” It turns out that procedural
and distributive justice combine to influence people’s perceptions of fairness. If outcomes are

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 favorable and individuals get what they want, they care less about the process, so procedural
justice doesn’t matter as much when distributions are perceived to be fair.
3. Interactional Justice: Interactions between managers and employees is interpersonal justice,
which reflects whether employees are treated with dignity and respect.
 Informational justice: The degree to which employees are provided truthful explanations
for decisions, which reflects whether managers provide employees with explanations for
key decisions and keep them informed of important organizational matters.
 Interpersonal justice: The degree to which employees are treated with dignity and respect.

 Justice Outcomes
o When employees feel fairly treated, they respond in many positive ways. All types of justice is
linked to higher levels of task performance and citizenship behaviors such as helping coworkers.
o Fair treatment enhances commitment to the organization and makes employees feel it cares about
their well-being.
o Employees who feel fairly treated trust their supervisors more, which reduces uncertainty and
fear of being exploited by the organization.
o Fair treatment elicits positive emotions, which in turn prompts behaviors like citizenship.
o The coworker’s reactions to injustice can be just as important as your own. Research is
beginning to suggest that third party, or observer, reactions to injustice can have a substantial
effect.

 Promoting Justice
An organization can affect the justice perceptions and rule adherence of its managers depending upon
the motivation of each manager.
o Some managers are likely to calculate justice by their degree of adherence to the justice rules of
the organization. These managers will try to gain greater subordinate compliance with behavioral
expectations, create an identity of being fair to their employees, or establish norms of fairness.
o Other managers may be motivated in justice decisions by their emotions. When they have a high
positive affect and/or a low negative affect, these managers are most likely to act fairly.
o It might be tempting for organizations to adopt strong justice guidelines in attempts to mandate
managerial behavior, but this isn’t likely to be universally effective. In cases where managers
have more rules and less discretion, those who calculate justice are more likely to act fairly, but
managers whose justice behavior follows from their affect may act more fairly when they have
greater discretion.

Question 7-16:  Identify the importance for organizations of maintaining high levels of job engagement
among workers in the gig economy?

 Good management practices need to be put in place as this pioneering generation of workers in the
digital age deliver new opportunities for business activity and growth.
 The new gig economy is acting as a bridge between traditional organizations and the emerging
economy. It may be the engine of economic and social transformation, but the consequences for all need
to be understood (need for good management).

35
 OB Chapter 7: Case Incident 2: Laziness Is Contagious (Pages 278+279)

 Being lazy is when someone is unwilling to put energy into their work, so they are not engaged with
their job.
 Laziness leads to procrastination or excessive delegation, resulting in a failure to meet tight dead-lines.
Laziness behaviors are:
o Fleeing the scene when one does not want to work.
o Playing the victim and making excuses to make up for a lack of effort.
 It is still unclear whether someone can have a “lazy” personality.
 Not much research on laziness exists because:
o People tend to acknowledge that they have more personality traits than others. They would say (I
am very energetic), but will use diminutive words when describing laziness (I am a little bit lazy)
o Laziness can subtly escalate or catch on with others. One lazy behavior can lead to another, and
sunk costs can add up to the point where you reason you will start tomorrow.
o Laziness can be contagious.
 According to Michael Lewis, laziness is not necessarily a bad thing and has even helped him succeed:
(My laziness serves as a filter… Something has to be really good before I’ll decide to work on it).
Question 7-17:  Do you consider laziness to be more of a personality trait or more of a motivational state
that we experience from time to time? Why? Is there a potential that it could be a little bit of both?
I consider laziness to a motivational state. A person makes a choice to experience from time to time because
he/she a lacks motivation.  It is like postponement when a person does not take the time to plan out a task but do
it the last minute causing in loss of productivity and poor judgment.  There is potential it could be a little of both
if someone raised a person around other lazy people and it was acceptable, and they choose to be lazy.  Either
way, a person is accountable for what they give to a task and if they will give 100% or less.    
Question 7-18:  Do you agree or disagree with Michael Lewis that there is an upside to laziness? Why or
why not?
I disagree with Michael Lewis, we should always give our full attention when completing a task whether it
interest us or not, especially if it is your job.  Unfortunately, many people are not essentially lazy, but choose
to be lazy because they are not doing what they want to be doing or have figured what they want to do. 
Employees who are not disciplined for this behavior, but instead can keep their pay with no penalty causes
others to be lazy too.  For example, in an organization, all assistants were paid the same whether they were
hardworking or not.  It is expected that the (hard working assistants’) work behavior will change when they
notice other assistants were getting paid the same salary as they do, although they did half the work.  This will
cause the (hard working assistants) become less helpful and not giving their full potential.  The employer did
not do anything to fix the problem, so it caused others to give less effort in their job duties.

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Question 7-19:  How do you think managers and organizations can “manage laziness” so that the
negative effects are minimized and the positive effects maximized? What sorts or programs and
initiatives could an organization implement to achieve these goals?
Organizations and managers can manage laziness by not rewarding it and instead giving disciplinary action. 
This type of action would minimize laziness and maximize the positive effects by rewarding hardworking
employees.  I would initiate the award program where a manager nominates one of his/her employees to get an
award for going above and beyond their normal job duties.  When the employee receives the award they also
receive a bonus in their paycheck in various amounts.  I would also initiate a merit grading at the end of each
year in which an employee is graded on their contributions and work ethic to determine their salary raise for the
next year. 

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