Artifact 3

Management Challenges and Recommendations

Alex and Sandra

Alex and Sandra work at American SteelCo. in the detailing department. Sandra is a recent graduate and has been with the company for 3 months; Alex is her supervisor and has been with the company for 20 years. Alex notes that Sandra’s punctuality, company loyalty, and other behaviors are unprofessional and thinks she should buckle down or move on. Monte, the CEO, sees promise in Sandra and does not want to lose her. Sandra is eager to earn a promotion and receive feedback immediately.

There are many theories and perceptions that we can unpack in this situation; however, we have narrowed it down to just 4 major issues:

Internal Attributions, Self-enhancement Bias, Job Specialization, and Gender Differences

Internal Attributions

Alex has observed different behaviors that Sandra exhibits. He has noticed that she comes to work late and leaves early, chats heavily to other co-workers at work, does not contribute in team meetings, etc. Sandra constantly asks for feedback and hints towards promotions, but Alex has noticed that she does not go above and beyond the bare minimum. Alex views Sandra’s behaviors as being influenced by internal characteristics which is known as internal attributions. (Management Principles)

Alex’s perception about Sandra comes solely from internal attributions. Sandra’s behavior is outside of how Alex and other co-workers behave (low consensus), she acts the same way in different situations (low distinctiveness), and she acts the same in similar situations (high consistency).

Self-Enhancement Bias

Self-enhancement bias means that Sandra overestimates her work and capabilities. (Management Principles) Sandra’s behaviors that indicate she has some self-enhancement bias include pestering about a promotion when she has only worked at American SteelCo for three months, leaving early and claiming to finish work at home, and asking Alex if she can work one day a week at home when she struggles to complete her work on time.

Sandra believes that because of how long Alex has been at the company, Alex’s skills are outdated; making him underqualified. This indicates that Sandra might possess a narcissistic personality.

Job Specialization

Sandra’s job entails preparing plans and drawings for steel structures for freeway signs and construction jobs. Her range of different activities are low, yet Alex typically finds her multi-tasking. Sandra finds herself trying to bring up ideas with Alex and feels like she is not being given opportunities to show the full range of her talents. Sandra appears to be bored with the tasks given to her, “Both boredom and burnout can lead to job dissatisfaction and low employee morale” (Adeyoyin, Samuel Olu; Agbeze-Unazi, Florence; (2015) Effects of Job Specialization and Departmentalization on Job Satisfaction among the Staff of a Nigerian University Library. Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)). She may also not finish work on time because she feels unmotivated by the day-to-day tasks and sees a promotion as a way to work on more extensive projects.

Gender Differences

Alex is annoyed with Sandra’s consistent need for feedback. Sandra is upset because Alex will not listen to her new ideas or provide her with immediate feedback. As a man, Alex “tends to focus more on competition, data, and orders in their communication” (An Introduction to Organizational Behavior). Sandra is also not contributing to meetings and may be resisting participation because she is trying to be cooperative with the team.

Solutions

Monte, Alex, and Sandra should use the rational decision-making model to sit down and discuss what is going on in Sandra’s life to better understand where she is coming from in her requests and behaviors. This conversation could remove internal attributions that Alex sees in Sandra. If Monte and Alex talk about the logistics and the quality of work that Sandra is providing, Sandra may come to the realization that she actually needs to step up her game because she is not providing the type of work that she believes she is providing.

To overcome the job specialization, Alex should try job enlargement or job enrichment for Sandra. By giving her more tasks or a greater sense of autonomy, Alex might be able to make Sandra feel more valued at American SteelCo. If Sandra had a greater sense of being valued, she might not need to constantly text or email Alex for feedback on her performance. By giving Sandra more autonomy, Alex might also realize that Sandra works better with a bigger workload and is capable of working from home.

For the communication and gender differences issues, management could create a monthly (or semi-monthly) one-on-one for Sandra and Alex to go over the previous month’s work and the expectations for the next month’s work. The goal would be to reduce the requests for feedback from Sandra and give Alex a chance to observe Sandra’s work and not focus on the internal attributions he has towards Sandra. Management could also create an end of meeting survey for those that attend the meetings; the survey would be anonymous with questions like “How many ideas did you add to the meeting?”(less than 2, 3-5, 5 or more). Or “Briefly explain your overall take-away from the meeting?” The goal of the survey would be to gain a census of how often people are contributing ideas in the meetings and what ideas people think are the most important. If most attendees are providing two or less ideas, then Sandra may believe that providing input at meetings is not that important.

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