Addis Ababa University School of Commerce

Human Resource Management Graduate Program

Tutor Marked Assignment on Organizational Behavior and Design

1.

You are the manager of a Hotel. You have decided to apply the Big Five Model in
order to
understand your employees and their work habits because it is generally supported by an
impressive body of research. You want to use the five dimensions of personality to match
individuals with jobs to which they are well-suited. You know that your customers are
demanding and sometimes difficult. As a result the job is stressful and makes employees feel
insecure.
Which personality dimension taps a person's ability to cope with this job? Discuss

2. Your management team is made up of people who are very different in their lifestyles and
their stages of life. Metasebia is a 23-year-old single parent who is working for minimum wage.
Yonas is 60 years old, extremely wealthy and works because he enjoys it. Hellina earns a good
living. She is single, 45 years old and has few interests outside of the office. You have decided to
attempt to apply Maslow's hierarchy of needs to determine what motivates each of these
individuals.
What is the need that you would expect that each is trying to satisfy? Discuss

3. You manage a department of five employees. You have identified that Joe scores high in the
need for achievement, Mary scores high in the need for power, and Tim scores high in the need
for affiliation. Sarah scored high in the need for power and low in the need for affiliation. Doug
scores low in both need for power and need for affiliation.
a.

Which employee would be best suited to a challenging new assignment where they
would receive rapid feedback?
b.
And who would probably be best to leave in charge while you are on vacation?
Support your answer with sufficient reason.
4.

Your colleagues at work are constantly talking about the manager in your organization.
He is perceived throughout the organization as a ruthless man who is not to be antagonized.
It is necessary for you to bring him a report, and you are very nervous about having to deal
with him.
What seems the Managers major base of power? Why? and what is the most likely reason
for the success of this manger? Explain

Case Questions
Case 1
Differing Perceptions at Clarkston Industries
Susan Harrington continued to drum her fingers on her desk. She had a real problem and wasnt
sure what to do next. She had a lot of confidence in Jack Reed, but she suspected she was about
the last person in the office who did. Perhaps if she ran through the entire story again in her mind
she would see the solution.
Susan had been distribution manager for Clarkston Industries for almost twenty years. An early
brush with the law and a short stay in prison had made her realize the importance of honesty and
hard work. Henry Clarkston had given her a chance despite her record, and Susan had made the
most of it. She now was one of the most respected managers in the company. Few people knew
her background.
Susan had hired Jack Reed fresh out of prison six months ago. Susan understood how Jack felt
when Jack tried to explain his past and asked for another chance. Susan decided to give him that
chance just as Henry Clarkston had given her one. Jack eagerly accepted a job on the loading
docks and could soon load a truck as fast as anyone in the crew.
Things had gone well at first. Everyone seemed to like Jack, and he made several new friends.
Susan had been vaguely disturbed about two months ago, however, when another dock worker
reported his wallet missing. She confronted Jack about this and was reassured when Jack
understood her concern and earnestly but calmly asserted his innocence. Susan was especially
relieved when the wallet was found a few days later.
The events of last week, however, had caused serious trouble. First, a new personnel clerk had
come across records about Jacks past while updating employee files. Assuming that the
information was common knowledge, the clerk had mentioned to several employees what a good
thing it was to give ex-convicts like Jack a chance. The next day, someone in bookkeeping
discovered some money missing from petty cash. Another worker claimed to have seen Jack in
the area around the office strongbox, which was open during working hours, earlier that same
day.
Most people assumed Jack was the thief. Even the worker whose wallet had been misplaced
suggested that perhaps Jack had indeed stolen it but had returned it when questioned. Several
employees had approached Susan and requested that Jack be fired. Meanwhile, when Susan had
discussed the problem with Jack, Jack had been defensive and sullen and said little about the
petty-cash situation other than to deny stealing the money.
To her dismay, Susan found that rethinking the story did little to solve his problem. Should she
fire Jack? The evidence, of course, was purely circumstantial, yet everybody else seemed to
see things quite clearly. Susan feared that if she did not fire Jack, she would lose everyones
trust and that some people might even begin to question her own motives.
Case Questions

a. Explain the events in this case in terms of perception and attitudes. Does personality play a
role?
b. What should Susan do? Should she fire Jack or give him another chance?
Case 2
More Than a Paycheck
Lemuel Greene was a trainer for National Home Manufacturers, a large builder of prefabricated
homes. National Home had hired Greene fresh from graduate school with a masters degree in
English. At first, the company put him to work writing and revising company brochures and
helping with the most important correspondence at the senior level. But soon, both Greene and
senior management officials began to notice how well he worked with executives on their
writing, how he made them feel more confident about it, and how, after working with an
executive on a report, the executive often was much more eager to take on the next writing task.
So National Home moved Greene into its prestigious training department. The companys
trainers worked with thousands of supervisors, managers, and executives, helping them learn
everything from new computer languages to time management skills to how to get the most out
of the workers on the plant floor, many of whom were unmotivated high school dropouts. Soon
Greene was spending all his time giving short seminars on executive writing as well as coaching
his students to perfect their memos and letters.
Greenes move into training meant a big increase in salary, and when he started working
exclusively with the companys top brass, it seemed as though he got a bonus every month.
Greenes supervisor, Mirela Albert, knew he was making more than many executives who had
been with the company three times as long, and probably twice as much as any of his graduate
school classmates who concentrated in English. Yet in her biweekly meetings with him, she
could tell that Greene wasnt happy.
When Albert asked him about it, Greene replied that he was in a bit of a rut. He had to keep
saying the same things over and over in his seminars, and business memos werent as interesting
as the literature he had been trained on. But then, after trailing off for a moment, he blurted out,
"They dont need me!" Since the memos filtering down through the company were now
flawlessly polished, and the annual report was 20 percent shorter but said everything it needed
to, Greenes desire to be needed was not fulfilled.
The next week, Greene came to Albert with a proposal: What if he started holding classes for
some of the floor workers, many of whom had no future within or outside the company because
many could write nothing but their own names? Albert took the idea to her superiors. They told
her that they wouldnt oppose it, but Greene couldnt possibly keep drawing such a high salary if
he worked with people whose contribution to the company was compensated at minimum wage.
Greene agreed to a reduced salary and began offering English classes on the factory floor, which
were billed by management (who hoped to avoid a wage hike that year) as an added benefit of
the job. At first only two or three workers showed upand they, Greene believed, only wanted

an excuse to get away from the nailing guns for awhile. But gradually word got around that
Greene was serious about what he was doing and didnt treat the workers like kids in a remedial
class.
At the end of the year, Greene got a bonus from a new source: the vice president in charge of
production. Although Greenes course took workers off the job for a couple of hours a week,
productivity had actually improved since his course began, employee turnover had dropped, and
for the first time in over a year, some of the floor workers had begun to apply for supervisory
positions. Greene was pleased with the bonus, but when Albert saw him grinning as he walked
around the building, she knew he wasnt thinking about his bank account.
Case Questions
a) What need theories would explain why Lemuel Greene was unhappy despite his high
income?
b) Greene seems to have drifted into being a teacher. Given his needs and motivations, do you
think teaching is an appropriate profession for him?