Question

Susan Harrington continued to drum her fingers on her desk. She had a real problem and wasn’t 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 Jack’s 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 everyone’s trust and that some people might even begin to question her own motives.

Answer the following questions with not less than 250 words each         (5 Questions x 5 Marks = 25 Marks)  

1. Explain the events in this case in terms of perception and attitudes. Does personality play a role?
2. What should Susan do? Should she fire Jack or give him another chance?
3. Discuss about the importance of privacy and confidentiality.
4. Explain the shortcuts used frequently in Judging others
5. Explain the stages of group development.

Answer 1

1. Perception is the ability to see things by sense or based on memory information processing. The events such as Susan hired Jack Reed as she has been given a chance from Henry Clarkston so she perceives that she also could give a chance to Jack Reed. Another instance is Jack Reed background information updated by bookkeeper has perceived that he might stole the money. Based on the information employee’s perception towards Jack changed. Another instance that the Susan perception also changed as she did not want to give chance to Jack because of her own background.

Attitude is the way of either acting or feeling towards a person. The events such as Susan hired Jack Reed is an attitude of Susan towards a Jack reed to give a chance. The employees acted that Susan is a culprit in steeling money from purse. Hence, it was employees’ attitude. Another instance that the Jack Reed was defensive to the situation was is attitude to deal with issue.

Personality in this case does not play any role. As Jack was well behaved and worked in office but based on his previous records he was blamed although he was defensive to the situation. Personality means individual characters or features which make him/her unique. Although Jack Reed was working very sincerely and involved with other employees but based on him previous characteristic features or information he was judged. So, personality does not matter here. Susan was feared about her position so it is the instance which changes the personality of the person.

2. Susan should give another chance to Jack Reed rather than to fire him. Susan had been distribution manager for Clarkston Industries from last twenty years. She has been given a chance from Henry Clarkston despite her record. She was realized about the hard work and she had made the most of it. Now, she was one of the most respected managers in the company despite few people knew her background. She should give another chance to Jack Reed as she has been given by someone. She should be very clear about this decision because she need to be a chance maker for the good reason. Other reasons to give a chance is that it shows the perception of her towards the problem handling. As a manager she has to be an attitude towards the problem solving. She is responsible for the whole organization as well as every employee too. There are other steps to deal with the problem rather than fire an employee although it was not proved. So, as per the Personality of manager he/ she should be problem solving in attitude, resolves the conflicts, take strict actions, look into the matter thoroughly and based on the facts do decision making. The problem here is weather the Jack Reed had stolen the money or not, who is involved in the kind of activity, how the information has been leaked from the department and spread. These problem needs a step by step review as well as action based on supervising provisions.

3. The importance of privacy and confidentiality in the organization is very important. Every employee is threat to the personality if his/ her information has been leaked from the departmental office. The leak of confidentiality broke the pattern of fellow colleagues to see his/ her colleagues differently. If the background information of the employee is good the persons may be influenced with him and they may favor him / her whenever he / she any made mistake or do not do hard work. The behavior of colleagues towards the fellow colleague would be stereotyped. Hence, it may affect the decision-making process of the organization. The privacy concerns such as security of data is major issue as another confidential information may also be leaked from the organization if it is not maintained. The loss of cost would be there. Strong privacy and confidentiality lead to better management of organization and smooth running of operations in the organization.

4. The shortcuts used frequently in Judging others are as follows:

1. Stereotype – Stereotype is the individual perception generated based on the mouth of words. They are not actually facts rather only conclusions based on the certain group of people.

2. Prejudices- The prejudices are the strong mind set of the peoples that can’t change rather grew over period of time. The prejudices would allow the manager follow the same pattern as followed by other managers in the organization weather it good or not.

3. Own Perception – Own perceptions are the individual mind sets to deal with the problem.

4. Background Information- Background information is the facts which are already presents about the person or situation who also allows to frequently judge the person.

5. The stages of group development are as follows:

1. Forming

2. Storming

3. Norming

4. Performing

5. Adjourning