Question

Rosie and Alisha - The Poor Junior Accountant and the Ambitious Boss

This is a top auditing/taxation/ advisory firm like Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, Ernst & Young etc. Imagine that in this organizational context, there is a manager (executive) with some of her team members who are commonly described as peons or donkeys who have to do the heavy job. Imagine that this is an auditing department of the firm. Her name is Alisha.

Alisha, the manager has CMBA (Corporate Master of Business Administration) degree and she is very fond of her student days in Unimas Business School. She is one of the top graduates of the CMBA and was featured as an example of success during the previous Alumni Dinner two years ago. On top of that she has ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). She does not have an undergraduate degree as she took the ACCA right after STPM (Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia). She was very proud of her ACCA as she finished on time (as in the ACCA this feat is quite impossible as passing rate esp for professional courses have been set to be very low). Moreover, the ACCA is equivalent to a Master’s degree. (The ACCA Qualification is broadly equivalent to degree standard when you take the first nine papers (the Fundamentals level). When you take the Professionals level, it is equivalent to a masters degree). Alisha keeps harping that she has 2 Masters degrees; one from the ACCA and the other from the Unimas CMBA.

Alisha is so much in love with the OCB (Organizational Citizenship Behavior) concept, so much so that the concepts of team loyalty and organizational citizenship are expressed in every hour and even in every minute down to the seconds of working time, in conversation with colleagues and in her social media. She also prides herself as being a transformational leader with the success of her previous assignment in which she transformed one department from being a ‘dog’ (worst performer) to being a ‘star’ with the potential of being a cash cow in the foreseeable future. She is also continuously enhancing her knowledge in the JCM (Job Characteristic Model) which she used in the previous assignment which saw significant reductions in staff numbers as a result of aggressive job enlargement and job enrichment targets.

Imagine also that this manager has one team member, Rosie, a junior accountant who has to care for her ailing parent who is stricken with cancer. In this particular situation she has to be next to her mother in General Hospital (at the Oncology Ward) and if you don’t know – cancer patients can be hospitalized due to many reasons and even the doctor cannot predict when the patient can be discharged. (Also because this worker is poor she cannot send her mother to KPJ, Timberland, Normah or BMC (Borneo Medical Center) as the per night charges is similar to a 5 star hotel! And medical consultations and medications cost a fortune!

This junior accountant is also working hard to get here CPA. She is working towards obtaining the MICPA-ICAA qualification. In doing this she is at a disadvantage as at the time of graduation the Accounting Program of FEB-Unimas was not yet accredited by MIA (Malaysian Institute of Accountants), ACCA, Australian CPA and even the NZICA (New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants); so she has to begin from basic even though this is a repetition of what she have been taking in Unimas. Rosie is taking the MICPA-ICAA as this is what her mother wants her to do. To say that she is sacrificing a lot is actually an understatement - as not just money but also time and even her health is affected. She tried to get sponsorship like the MICPA Student Sponsorship program but she could not.

Because of her responsibilities, Rosie lost lots of sleep and naturally her work performance suffers. She took leave but her leave ran out; so she has to take care of her mother at night and come to work during the day. Rosie has discussed her problem with the Alisha. The manager however scolded Rosie, and she told Rosie that loyalty and citizenship to the organization must be maintained especially in today’s hyper competitive and highly challenging market place. Alisha told Rosie that all personal problems must be left out of the working place. The manager gave the worker an ultimatum: be a team player or your place in this department and organization will be compromised.

One morning after clocking in work poor Rosie subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to a panel clinic; and subsequently she was given one week off. The HR executive managed to talk to Rosie when she was in the clinic and she told the executive about her situation.

After meeting with Rosie, the HR executive met with the Alisha. Alsiha justified her actions stating that personal life must never be used as an excuse to slack in work. The manager told the HR executive that she would sent a formal report to the HR department requesting the termination of Rosie due to the inability to fully commit to work.

You are now considering what actions to take.

1) Analyze the case study above

2) From your analysis come up with a solution to solve the problem

Rosie and Alisha - The Poor Junior Accountant and the Ambitious Boss

This is a top auditing/taxation/ advisory firm like Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, Ernst & Young etc. Imagine that in this organizational context, there is a manager (executive) with some of her team members who are commonly described as peons or donkeys who have to do the heavy job. Imagine that this is an auditing department of the firm. Her name is Alisha.

Alisha, the manager has CMBA (Corporate Master of Business Administration) degree and she is very fond of her student days in Unimas Business School. She is one of the top graduates of the CMBA and was featured as an example of success during the previous Alumni Dinner two years ago. On top of that she has ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). She does not have an undergraduate degree as she took the ACCA right after STPM (Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia). She was very proud of her ACCA as she finished on time (as in the ACCA this feat is quite impossible as passing rate esp for professional courses have been set to be very low). Moreover, the ACCA is equivalent to a Master’s degree. (The ACCA Qualification is broadly equivalent to degree standard when you take the first nine papers (the Fundamentals level). When you take the Professionals level, it is equivalent to a masters degree). Alisha keeps harping that she has 2 Masters degrees; one from the ACCA and the other from the Unimas CMBA.

Alisha is so much in love with the OCB (Organizational Citizenship Behavior) concept, so much so that the concepts of team loyalty and organizational citizenship are expressed in every hour and even in every minute down to the seconds of working time, in conversation with colleagues and in her social media. She also prides herself as being a transformational leader with the success of her previous assignment in which she transformed one department from being a ‘dog’ (worst performer) to being a ‘star’ with the potential of being a cash cow in the foreseeable future. She is also continuously enhancing her knowledge in the JCM (Job Characteristic Model) which she used in the previous assignment which saw significant reductions in staff numbers as a result of aggressive job enlargement and job enrichment targets.

Imagine also that this manager has one team member, Rosie, a junior accountant who has to care for her ailing parent who is stricken with cancer. In this particular situation she has to be next to her mother in General Hospital (at the Oncology Ward) and if you don’t know – cancer patients can be hospitalized due to many reasons and even the doctor cannot predict when the patient can be discharged. (Also because this worker is poor she cannot send her mother to KPJ, Timberland, Normah or BMC (Borneo Medical Center) as the per night charges is similar to a 5 star hotel! And medical consultations and medications cost a fortune!

This junior accountant is also working hard to get here CPA. She is working towards obtaining the MICPA-ICAA qualification. In doing this she is at a disadvantage as at the time of graduation the Accounting Program of FEB-Unimas was not yet accredited by MIA (Malaysian Institute of Accountants), ACCA, Australian CPA and even the NZICA (New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants); so she has to begin from basic even though this is a repetition of what she have been taking in Unimas. Rosie is taking the MICPA-ICAA as this is what her mother wants her to do. To say that she is sacrificing a lot is actually an understatement - as not just money but also time and even her health is affected. She tried to get sponsorship like the MICPA Student Sponsorship program but she could not.

Because of her responsibilities, Rosie lost lots of sleep and naturally her work performance suffers. She took leave but her leave ran out; so she has to take care of her mother at night and come to work during the day. Rosie has discussed her problem with the Alisha. The manager however scolded Rosie, and she told Rosie that loyalty and citizenship to the organization must be maintained especially in today’s hyper competitive and highly challenging market place. Alisha told Rosie that all personal problems must be left out of the working place. The manager gave the worker an ultimatum: be a team player or your place in this department and organization will be compromised.

One morning after clocking in work poor Rosie subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to a panel clinic; and subsequently she was given one week off. The HR executive managed to talk to Rosie when she was in the clinic and she told the executive about her situation.

After meeting with Rosie, the HR executive met with the Alisha. Alsiha justified her actions stating that personal life must never be used as an excuse to slack in work. The manager told the HR executive that she would sent a formal report to the HR department requesting the termination of Rosie due to the inability to fully commit to work.

You are now considering what actions to take.

1) Analyze the case study above

2) From your analysis come up with a solution to solve the problem

Rosie and Alisha - The Poor Junior Accountant and the Ambitious Boss

This is a top auditing/taxation/ advisory firm like Deloitte, PwC, KPMG, Ernst & Young etc. Imagine that in this organizational context, there is a manager (executive) with some of her team members who are commonly described as peons or donkeys who have to do the heavy job. Imagine that this is an auditing department of the firm. Her name is Alisha.

Alisha, the manager has CMBA (Corporate Master of Business Administration) degree and she is very fond of her student days in Unimas Business School. She is one of the top graduates of the CMBA and was featured as an example of success during the previous Alumni Dinner two years ago. On top of that she has ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants). She does not have an undergraduate degree as she took the ACCA right after STPM (Sijil Tinggi Persekolahan Malaysia). She was very proud of her ACCA as she finished on time (as in the ACCA this feat is quite impossible as passing rate esp for professional courses have been set to be very low). Moreover, the ACCA is equivalent to a Master’s degree. (The ACCA Qualification is broadly equivalent to degree standard when you take the first nine papers (the Fundamentals level). When you take the Professionals level, it is equivalent to a masters degree). Alisha keeps harping that she has 2 Masters degrees; one from the ACCA and the other from the Unimas CMBA.

Alisha is so much in love with the OCB (Organizational Citizenship Behavior) concept, so much so that the concepts of team loyalty and organizational citizenship are expressed in every hour and even in every minute down to the seconds of working time, in conversation with colleagues and in her social media. She also prides herself as being a transformational leader with the success of her previous assignment in which she transformed one department from being a ‘dog’ (worst performer) to being a ‘star’ with the potential of being a cash cow in the foreseeable future. She is also continuously enhancing her knowledge in the JCM (Job Characteristic Model) which she used in the previous assignment which saw significant reductions in staff numbers as a result of aggressive job enlargement and job enrichment targets.

Imagine also that this manager has one team member, Rosie, a junior accountant who has to care for her ailing parent who is stricken with cancer. In this particular situation she has to be next to her mother in General Hospital (at the Oncology Ward) and if you don’t know – cancer patients can be hospitalized due to many reasons and even the doctor cannot predict when the patient can be discharged. (Also because this worker is poor she cannot send her mother to KPJ, Timberland, Normah or BMC (Borneo Medical Center) as the per night charges is similar to a 5 star hotel! And medical consultations and medications cost a fortune!

This junior accountant is also working hard to get here CPA. She is working towards obtaining the MICPA-ICAA qualification. In doing this she is at a disadvantage as at the time of graduation the Accounting Program of FEB-Unimas was not yet accredited by MIA (Malaysian Institute of Accountants), ACCA, Australian CPA and even the NZICA (New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants); so she has to begin from basic even though this is a repetition of what she have been taking in Unimas. Rosie is taking the MICPA-ICAA as this is what her mother wants her to do. To say that she is sacrificing a lot is actually an understatement - as not just money but also time and even her health is affected. She tried to get sponsorship like the MICPA Student Sponsorship program but she could not.

Because of her responsibilities, Rosie lost lots of sleep and naturally her work performance suffers. She took leave but her leave ran out; so she has to take care of her mother at night and come to work during the day. Rosie has discussed her problem with the Alisha. The manager however scolded Rosie, and she told Rosie that loyalty and citizenship to the organization must be maintained especially in today’s hyper competitive and highly challenging market place. Alisha told Rosie that all personal problems must be left out of the working place. The manager gave the worker an ultimatum: be a team player or your place in this department and organization will be compromised.

One morning after clocking in work poor Rosie subsequently suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to a panel clinic; and subsequently she was given one week off. The HR executive managed to talk to Rosie when she was in the clinic and she told the executive about her situation.

After meeting with Rosie, the HR executive met with the Alisha. Alsiha justified her actions stating that personal life must never be used as an excuse to slack in work. The manager told the HR executive that she would sent a formal report to the HR department requesting the termination of Rosie due to the inability to fully commit to work.

You are now considering what actions to take.

1) Analyze the case study above

2) From your analysis come up with a solution to solve the problem

Answer 1

1. The very important character is this case study is Alisha and managing this type of situation is very challenging for her. She maintains that decorum that the personal life should be kept away from professional life and it cannot be used as an excuse in the work. However, how she handled this case is not right because as a good manager or in charge she needs to empathetic with her team. She needs to maintain productivity as well as the motivation factor within the employees. This is difficult to find the balance between the but in the long term, it strengthens the commitment and the leadership of all the team members. Instead of demanding Rosie to perform well, she should have supported in her hard times. Instead of helping Rosie in this situation Alisha the manager should have empathized with her because even encouraging someone is more than help. In the future, if anyone in the team faces the same problem it would be easier for that person to go to superior for the problem.

2. SOLUTION
Concerning the Rosie, HR should have followed up on the Rosie and should have asked the Rosie to perform work from home as her family member was suffering from home and even the doctors are not aware of that when to discharge the patient. Another thing that can be done is the employee should be referred to the psychologist of the company for the counseling because the employee was not able to maintain the work-life balance so it is the work of the organization to make sure that the employee doesn’t feel depressed in the organization. The organization needs to point out the employee and improvise his professional skills so that the preparation might have to benefit the company in many ways. Instead of terminating the employee, the organization should have put the employee on the refresher once again but termination is not the way.

Concerning the Alisha, HR must have corrected the leadership style employed by the executive because the action of the executive might have deteriorated the life of the Rosie, so it is utmost necessary to maintain and to establish such policies that organization can handle this type of situation in a better way and beneficial way for both the company and the employee. The Human resource in the organization is very essential if the human resource is treated well they will try their level best to perform well for the organization. SO in conclusion the executive should have to adopt new policies for the flexibility of these cases.