Question

DISSONANCE BETWEEN EMPLOYEES

Matt created his T-shirt business, T’d up, 30 years ago, building the company up from a small, no-name brand that he ran out of his parents’ garage while he was in school into a well-known local company that supplies custom T-shirts and other clothing and accessories for a wide variety of customers, both local and national. T’d up’s big break came 20 years ago when a local band became famous and sourced all of their concert clothing merchandise from Matt. Since then, T’d up has gone on to supply other bands (some famous, some not), high school fundraisers, various charity organizations, and even uniforms for other local businesses.

Matt is proud to say that he has never fired anybody, and he has employees who have been with him for decades because they like the casual work environment that is focused on creativity and design. The T’d up dress code is jeans and T-shirts, and Matt buys lunch for everyone every Friday. T’d up has been in the same shop that it moved into when Matt got his first big break three decades ago, which is really just a big warehouse with open space everywhere to facilitate group discussion and team interaction. Employees are encouraged to work together and try new things, and Matt gives all employees free reign to design and manufacture new product ideas. Because the company started so small, and grew slowly at first, Matt has been able to maintain his commitment to using only organically grown materials, and fair-wage labour in garment construction as well as graphic design, and eco-friendly dyes and inks used for printing materials.

In the past year Matt lost three valuable, experienced employees to retirement, and replaced them with four very recent graduates. The four new, young employees have, understandably, banded together to become a solid team and Matt is very pleased with their work product: They created a new design line that has quickly surpassed all other T’d up lines in terms of sales, even securing a large international order. Creating this new line took a huge amount of effort, and the new employees often worked late or came in on weekends, something that the rest of the team at T’d up doesn’t do.

The problem is that this new contract, and its attendant success, seems to have created a bit of jealousy among the older employees, who have been standoffish and unwelcoming. The new employees don’t seem to be blending in, even after months of everyone working together. Of the many complaints that Matt has fielded with regards to the new team is that they don’t speak up at meetings, but then send group e-mails describing their thoughts afterward. This communication style has been very difficult for the older employees, who are comfortable with one another and used to communicating face-to-face. While Matt realizes that the new employees lack the confidence to voice their thoughts in front of everyone, several older employees have complained that it is sneaky and underhanded saying, “If you have an opinion, say it to my face. Don’t just go back to your office and draft an e-mail criticizing my idea to the whole team!”

The new employees also spend a significant amount of their time at work on their phones, even preferring to text one another when they’re just on opposite sides of the same room. They don’t even try to pretend that they aren’t on social media, talking to the group about who tweeted what, and who Insta’d where, and who has seen what meme; conversations that attempt to include everyone but serve only to alienate the older employees and reinforce the growing divide between the two groups. Matt is very hesitant to create any new rules limiting online access, because he has always maintained a very casual and creative environment, and realizes that new ideas come from everywhere, but the older employees complain that the newbies are shirking their obligations by “playing online all day” rather than working. The new employees not only do not see their use of social networks during work time as a problem but also keep trying to encourage the older employees to increase their social media presence, explaining that T’d up’s brand needs to become more social media–friendly; a position that Matt’s advertising team agrees with.

Matt would be OK with these little challenges—after all, some differences are to be expected, and even encouraged—but there are larger issues developing that have Matt concerned. For instance, two of the new employees are vegan and made a presentation to the rest of the group that Matt thought had been very well received, about the importance of moving away from animal products in all of their merchandise (several of the classic design lines incorporate leather, goose down, and silk). After that presentation, however, a discussion between these two new employees and one of the older employees got heated, and harsh words were exchanged over who ate what for lunch! Matt would have thought it was all just a misunderstanding, except that some of the other older employees then made a point of bringing fried chicken in to work, eating it on the production floor with the intention of upsetting the vegans. When Matt scolded his older employees for behaving like children, he was accused by one of his most trusted long-time employees of playing favourites with the new employees.

Even more troubling is that two important orders for the new employees’ new product were delayed when paperwork went missing—something that has never happened before. While Matt would never accuse any of his employees of deliberately ruining a sale, one of the older employees, under strict confidentiality, mentioned that they knew with certainty that the order had been correctly entered into the system and that the only way the paperwork could have been misplaced was if someone deliberately deleted it from the system.

Matt is at a crossroad. He never imagined that hiring four new employees could bring such drastic changes to his company. He knows that something must be done, but he is unsure about how to proceed.

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following describes Matt’s ability to know or recognize quickly and readily the possibilities of a situation (i.e., that there are larger issues developing that have Matt concerned)?

(a) bounded rationality

(b) intuition​

(c) creativity

(d) risk aversion

2. Applying the basic interpersonal communication model to the new employees’ preference for communication via texting, which of the following is true?

(a) Feedback is not possible.

(b) A perceptual screen may affect both the communicator and the receiver.

(c) Message content can focus on only thoughts, not feelings.

(d) Voice is considered the medium.

3. While the older employees rely on face-to-face communication, the new employees prefer to use e-mail and texts. What is the most likely reason for this difference?

(a) The new employees are digital natives.

(b) The older employees distrust echo chambers.

(c) Older employees rely on social media to communicate.

(d) Digital communication tends to be less creative.

4. The two vegans getting into an argument with an older employee over “who eats what for lunch” is most likely an example of which stage of group development?

(a) forming

(b) performing

(c) storming

(d) conflict

5. In an attempt to address the conflicts that are arising, Matt will point out to his older employees that the new team (and their new ideas and ways of doing things) have already resulted in success, which benefits everybody. In what way is Matt framing the conflict?

(a) win-win

(b) zero-sum

(c) collaborating

(d) negotiating

6. Matt believes that he can ensure that his goals are met while at the same time ensuring that his employees’ concerns are met. Matt is attempting to use which type of conflict management style?

(a) accommodating

(b) competing

(c) collaborating

(d) compromising

7. Matt wants to use the bases of power that have been shown to be the most effective in order to move his team through this adjustment period. This implies that he should rely most heavily on which bases of power?

(a) expert and referent

(b) reward and coercive

(c) legitimate and referent

(d) reward and expert

8. At 6'4" (194 cm), Matt is significantly taller than the average person; he also has blue eyes and, at age 65 he still has a full head of hair. He can also speak three languages, and he has MBTI of ENTP. These are all elements of what type of leadership theory?

(a) behavioural theory

(b) transformational leadership

(c) descriptive theory

(d) trait theory

9. Which component presented in the case scenario describes a T’d up ritual?

(a) Matt has never had to fire anyone.

(b) New employees prefer e-mail to communicate rather than meeting face-to-face.

(c) Matt buys lunch for everyone on Fridays.​

(d) Matt is famous around town for designing merchandise for popular bands.

10. In order to increase teamwork behaviours, Matt has informed his old employees that for every day that they are observed working positively with the new employees, they will not have to clean the screen machine, a task that everyone dislikes. This is an example of what type of consequence?

(a) positive reinforcement

(b) punishment

(c) praise

(d) negative reinforcement

Answer 1

Multiple Choice

1.    Which of the following describes Matt's ability to know or recognize quickly and readily the possibilities of a situation (i.e., that there are larger issues developing that have Matt concerned)?

(a) bounded rationality- Answer

(b) intuition         

(c) creativity

(d) risk aversion

2.    Applying the basic interpersonal communication model to the new employees' preference for communication via texting, which of the following is true?

a) Feedback is not possible.

(b) A perceptual screen may affect both the communicator and the receiver.

(c) Message content can focus on only thoughts, not feelings.-ANSWER

(d) Voice is considered the medium.

3.    While the older employees rely on face-to-face communication, the new employees prefer to use e-mail and texts. What is the most likely reason for this difference?

(a) The new employees are digital natives.

(b) The older employees distrust echo chambers.-ANSWER

(c) Older employees rely on social media to communicate.

(d) Digital communication tends to be less creative.

4.    The two vegans getting into an argument with an older employee over "who eats what for lunch" is most likely an example of which stage of group development?

(a) forming

(b) performing

(c) storming-ANSWER

(d) conflict

5.    In an attempt to address the conflicts that are arising, Matt will point out to his older employees that the new team (and their new ideas and ways of doing things) have already resulted in success, which benefits everybody. In what way is Matt framing the conflict?

(a) win-win

(b) zero-sum

(c) collaborating-ANSWER

(d) negotiating

6.    Matt believes that he can ensure that his goals are met while at the same time ensuring that his employees' concerns are met. Matt is attempting to use which type of conflict management style?

(a) accommodating-ANSWER

(b) competing

(c) collaborating

(d) compromising

7.    Matt wants to use the bases of power that have been shown to be the most effective in order to move his team through this adjustment period. This implies that he should rely most heavily on which bases of power?

(a) expert and referent-ANSWER

(b) reward and coercive

(c) legitimate and referent

(d) reward and expert

8.    At 6'4" (194 cm), Matt is significantly taller than the average person; he also has blue eyes and, at age 65 he still has a full head of hair. He can also speak three languages, and he has MBTI of ENTP. These are all elements of what type of leadership theory?

(a) behavioural theory

(b) transformational leadership

(c) descriptive theory-ANSWER

(d) trait theory

9.    Which component presented in the case scenario describes a T'd up ritual?

(a) Matt has never had to fire anyone.-ANSWER

(b) New employees prefer e-mail to communicate rather than meeting face-to-face.

(c) Matt buys lunch for everyone on Fridays.    

(d) Matt is famous around town for designing merchandise for popular bands.

10. In order to increase teamwork behaviours, Matt has informed his old employees that for every day that they are observed working positively with the new employees, they will not have to clean the screen machine, a task that everyone dislikes. This is an example of what type of consequence?

(a) positive reinforcement

(b) punishment

(c) praise

d) negative reinforcement-ANSWER

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