1. Which Big Five personality dimension is affecting Latoya Washington’s behavior?
2. What role are perception bias and attitudes playing in this case, and which determinant of job satisfaction would influence Washington?
3. What type of power do Polito and Washington appear to be using during the meeting?
4. Which political behavior seems to be stopping Washington from getting what she wants, and which political behavior could be of most help to her if she wants to continue to use graduate assistants for grading exams?
5. What does the psychological contract have to do with this case?
6. In sending her memo to the department, Washington used which conflict management style?
7. Was sending the memo a wise political move? What might Washington have gained or lost by sending it?
8. What would you do if you were Polito?
(a) Would you talk to the dean and let him know that Washington said she would appeal the policy decision? If so, which kind of political behavior would this approach represent?
(b) Would you draft a policy directly stating that graduate assistants cannot be used to grade objective exams?
(c) Would your answer to (b) be influenced by your answer to (a)?
9. If you were Washington, once you saw that you had no support during the meeting, would you have continued to defend your position or agreed to stop using graduate assistants to grade exams? Would your answer be different if you were not a tenured faculty member?
10. If you were Washington and Polito drafted a policy that department members agreed with, would you appeal the decision to the dean? Would your answer be different if you were not a tenured faculty member?
11. If you were the dean of SAS, knowing that the VP did not want to set a collegewide policy, and Washington appealed to you, what would you do? Would you develop a schoolwide policy for SAS?
12. Should Jim Weston have spoken up in defense of Washington during the meeting? If you were Weston, would you have taken Washington’s side against the other seven members?
13. What are the ethical issues in this case, and how do perception and attitudes influence ethics?
14. At what level (collegewide, by schools, or by departments within each school) should a graduate assistant policy be set?
15. What type of change is Polito making?
16. Which of the major reasons for resistance to change is Washington exhibiting?