Question

Alex and Stephanie have a few things in common. Both are students at their state’s university, and both work full-time at a local supermarket to make ends meet and help for college. Though the pay isn’t great, it’s a steady job that allows them some flexibility, which helps when scheduling classes. Both students joined the supermarket two years ago and became friends quickly, given their similar situations. While Stephanie seems to enjoy her job, arriving and leaving work each day with a smile on her face, Alex often grumbles and complains about his work. Much of the time, Alex complains about his boss, Dan, who overseas the produce department. Stephanie works for John, a 10-year veteran who everyone generally admires for his friendly demeanor and relaxed management style. Most employees want to work for John, as he often assigns his employees different duties each week so workers don’t get board. Stephanie, for instance, can be working at the checkout counter one week, stocking shelves the next, and the store’s culinary center for the following week. The culinary center is a new service that the store is test-marketing. Employees show customers how to create exciting recipes from start to finish. It is Stephanie’s favorite place in the store to work. She is also responsible for taking customers around the store to locate ingredients for a culinary center recipe, menu of the ingredients being some of the store’s finest. And she enjoys allowing customers to sample what she cooks. So far, the culinary center is a success and many of the store’s more expensive ingredients are becoming difficult to keep in stock. To help with this issue, John encourages his employees to notify him immediately when an item is running low and even allow employees to directly reorder items from venders. By doing this, Stephanie has quickly grasped how the supermarket operates. Alex’s supervisor, in contrast, prefers most of his employees to work in the same area each day—Alex is one of those employees. Dan believed that the best way to master a job is to do it over and over again. This means that Alex has to stock the same produce areas each day. As boxes of produce are delivered to the store’s supply room, Alex unloads their contents onto the shelves. Alex also must constantly reorganize the produce already on the shelves to make them look as orderly as possible. Most of the time, though, he doesn’t feel inclined to either task. After a particularly boring morning of restocking apples (the store had apples on sale that day), Alex met Stephanie for lunch in the break room. After sitting down, Alex reached into his lunch box and pulled out an apple, a look of disgust on his face. “Ugh...If I have to look at another apple, I'm going to be sick.” “Bad day again?” Stephanie asked as Alex stuffed the apple back to his lunch box. “I stocked apples all morning—what do you think?” Alex retorted. “Why don’t you tell Dan you want to do something else?” Stephanie inquired. “I see that he lets Denise work in other areas.” Stephanie leaned closer, “I’ve even heard that she gets paid more than you. Is that true?” she whispered. “Apparently, she gets paid $2 more an hour, but I do the same things that she does. Oh, that’s right. One thing I don’t do is tell Dan what a cool shirt he has on or how awesome his car is. They are both pathetic if you ask me.” Frowned Alex. “$2 more an hour, but she’s been here for only 3 months!” Stephanie exclaimed, “And you work just as hard as she does. No wonder you’re so irritated all the time.” Alex replied, “I don’t even care any more. What’s the point? If I stock more apples, or something meaningless like that, what does it get me—another sticker that says ‘good job’? Oooh, that’s really great. Thanks a bunch, Dan!” replied Alex, punctuating his last sentence with a sarcastic thumbs-up. 2 “Anyway, enough about my day, how’s your s going?” Alex asked Stephanie. “Pretty good, actually. John and I met earlier today, and we both set a goal for me to sell 10 bottles of truffle oil next week.” “Wow, that stuff is pretty expensive isn’t it?” asked Alex. “Thirty-nine dollars for four ounces,” replied Stephanie. “It will be tough, but I found a pretty good recipe that I’ll be making for customers who stop by the culinary center.” She paused, and then said, “I think I will be able to do it. I’ve made quite a few similar recipes before, and even though this one is more difficult, it shouldn’t be too bad. Besides, if I sell the oil, John said that he’ll give me a $75 bonus. So, I’m definitely going to give it a shot. The nice thing is that I’ll be able to do this on my own, without someone breathing down my neck.” “Well, that’s certainly more than I’ll be making this week,” said Alex. “This job is okay, but I probably leave if I could. It’s too risky now to just quit. If I can’t find something, I’ll be in trouble when that next bill comes around.” “Look on the bright side. At least you make more than Jean. She’s been here for seven years, still working in the deli,” replied Stephanie. “That’s true,” sighed Alex as he returned to his lunch. He looked up at the clock. They had been at lunch for a half hour already. Dan was quite the stickler about keeping lunch to a minimum. Although the store policy allowed employees 45 minutes for lunch, Dan often pushed his employees to keep it to 30 minutes. Dan strolled into the break room and opened the refrigerator while commenting, “Bit of a long lunch, hey Alex?” Alex could feel the blood rising to his face, “It’s been exactly a half hour, and I am almost finished,” Alex said. “Well, guess what? We’re running low on apples again. So, quit lying around and get back to work.” Dan walked toward the door, stopped, and turned around. “I thought college students were supposed to be smarter than this. At the very least I would hope that they could tell time.” He added, “I guess the university must have glossed over your application.” And wit that, Dan left. “What a jerk,” said Stephanie after Dan was out. “What else is new,” said Alex. “I’d guess I’d better get back to work.” Alex got up and returned what was left of his lunch to the refrigerator. When he opened the door, he noticed a sandwich labeled with a post-it note that read “Dan’s.” After glancing quickly to the door, he casually swept the sandwich onto the floor. Stephanie turned around at the sound. “Oops,” smirked Alex. He paused, staring down at the sandwich. “Five second rule!” he said as he picked up the sandwich, being sure to smear the underside of it on the floor. After putting it neatly back on the shelf, Alex turned to Stephanie, “Well Steph, have a good one. I think maybe I’ll take my time on those apples.”

1. We discussed several theories and concepts of motivation in class. Among those, which motivation theory do you think most applicable to Alex's situation? Make sure to explain the theory of your choice in depth and how the theory explains Alex's behavior

2. Using concepts from organizational justice, explain why Alex knocks his boss’s lunch to the floor. What should Alex’s boss do to improve the fairness of his treatment?

3. Of the five dimensions of emotional intelligence (EI), which dimension(s) of EI does Alex’s supervisor lack and why? Finally, please offer ways to improve Dan’s EI

4. Please create a question that you believe crucial to understanding issues germane to the case but the preceding questions did not adequately address. Then, answer your question. Your grade will depend on the quality and thoroughness of your question and response

Answer 1

1- There are various theories of motivation we came to know about ,but the most suitable theory I can see here is Vroom's expectancy theory which talked about expectancy. Whereas most famous psychologist talked about internal and external factors responsible for motivation, Vroom said that three factors - effort, performance and outcomes are responsible for one's motivation. He said that people take decisions from their conscious mind and choose what provides them pleasure and do which help to avoid pain. He said that there are individuals factor which are responsible for their performance such as personality, skills etc. He gave different variables - expectancy, instrumentality and valence.

a- Expectancy - increase in effort will lead to increase in performance

b- Instrumentality- how well you perform will give you u the better performance.

c - Valence - importance one place to the outcome.

All these three variables are interrelated change in one will lead to change in other.

In the above situation of Alex, it was seen that his behavior was cause of his expectations from his boss. Seeing others with there boss he also expected his boss to be polite with him but due to his different behavior he felt job as burden. The other thing seen was that he was not positively motivated by his boss which he wanted as an outcome. Alex increased his effort, performed well but then he also wanted to get the outcome of positive feedback but he didn't get his outcome which demotivated him.

2- Alex knocks his boss's lunch to the floor because he is upset of his boss, he didn't feel excited over his job. He gets bored doing the same job againg and again. He feel the environment to be negative that no one was appreciated untill and unless they don't appreciate their boss. He don't feel secure because the person who came after him got enhancement in salary in job but he didn't as he didn't appreciate work of his boss. These are the various factors boss should consider an take steps to improver the fairness of his treatment. He can treat his employees equally and provide them proper feedback instead of commenting them.

3- The dimension of emotional intelligence on which the boss lack is Empathy. Ways to improve it are:-

*Try to put yourself in others shoes and to imagine what they are going of and what behavior of yours is hurting them.

*Stop being bias with others.

*Try to understand what others are saying and what they want.

*Explore the things with your heart not just with your head.

4 - The question that can be crucial to understanding issues is What are the external and internal factors which demotivated Alex?

Internal factors - poor communication, lack of leadership, poor feedback, poor relations, lack of motivation, salary, responsibility.

External factors - Organization culture, competition level, creativity, environmental, social relations etc.