Case for Organizational Behavior

Read the case carefully, then answer ALL the questions that follow on line.

Wrong Address?

Brittany Chambers continued to drum her fingers on her desk. She had a real problem and wasnt sure what to do next. She had a lot of confidence in Demar Palmer, but she suspected she was about the last person in the office who did. Perhaps if she ran through the entire story again in her mind she would see the solution.

Brittany had been Senior Vice President of Production for Cranston Industries for almost twenty years. Despite being born and grown in one of Jamaicas most violent and poverty stricken inner city garrisons and being raised with her eight siblings by a single mother who despite working hard on many occasions found it difficult to feed them she managed break out from the wretched poverty that she grew up in. After completing her high school education at one of non-traditional high schools near to where she lived she performed well enough for the Member of Parliament in her area to help her get her tertiary education at the College of Arts, Science and Technology (CAST) where she completed a diploma in Commerce. Through her participation in church activities she learnt the importance of honesty and hard work these were certainly not values she learnt from most of her family and the members of the community she grew up in.

Gerald Cranston the founder and owner of Cranston Industries had given her a chance despite her background, and Brittany had made the most of it. After working for a few years and proving her capabilities she began moving up the organizations hierarchy from the entry level position that she started with to the supervisory level and eventually into senior management. She even went back to school and upgraded her CAST diploma to a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree with a Major in Production and Operations Management and a Minor in Marketing. She also went on to do her MBA at UWIs Mona School of Business. She now was one of the most respected senior managers in the company. No one in the company, except for Mr. Cranston knew her background. While she was proud of her academic achievements she was somewhat ashamed of where she grew up and recognized that a strong stigma was attached to people from the area and many persons considered them to be thieves, killers, rapists and the dregs of Jamaican society. Brittany kept a link with her old community by still visiting the church that she used to attend a few time for the year. She now lived in a posh gated community in Upper St. Andrew and drove the Audi SUV that the company provided. Now in her early 60s she was content with her achievements.

Brittany had hired Demar Palmer fresh out of UTECH six months ago. Like Brittany, Demar was from the same inner city garrison and Brittany understood how Demar felt when Demar tried to explain his background and asked for an opportunity to prove his potential. Brittany decided to give him that opportunity just as Gerald Cranston had given her one. Demar eagerly accepted an entry level accounting position and soon showed that he was more than competent for the job.

Things had gone well at first. Everyone seemed to like Demar, and he made several new friends. Unlike Brittany however, Demar did not seem ashamed of where he came from. Actually he seemed very proud especially when the Premier League Football season started and the team that was based in his community was doing well. Demar would boast about their performance and tell his co-workers at lunch which member of the team were his childhood and school friends. He referred to them as his dogs and would talk in the worst patios when talking about them and the teams performance. Brittany often wished he would shut up about the football. Demar even allowed other members of the accounting section to drop him home on nights when they had to work late and see where he lived.

Brittany had been vaguely disturbed about two months ago, however, when another worker in the accounting division reported his wallet missing. She confronted Demar about this and was reassured when Demar understood her concern and earnestly but calmly asserted his innocence. Brittany was especially relieved when the wallet was found a few days later it had fallen between two desks and one of the office cleaners had found it with all its contents intact.

The events of last week, however, had caused serious trouble. First, a new personnel clerk had worked late with the members of the accounting division one night and had travelled with them to drop off Demar. She was from upper St. Andrew and began talking to many employees that it was a good thing give people like Demar a chance. Everyone in the organization and not just the members of the accounting division now knew where Demar lived. The next day, someone in bookkeeping discovered some money missing from petty cash. Another worker claimed to have seen Demar in the area around the office safe, which was open during working hours, earlier that same day. And to make matters worse one of the other senior managers new Samsung smart phone was missing. She had left it on her desk to go to the bathroom and when she returned it was gone. When she tried to call her phone it went straight to the voice message.

Most people assumed Demar was the thief. Even the worker whose wallet had been misplaced suggested that perhaps Demar had indeed stolen it but had returned it when questioned. Several employees had approached Brittany privately and requested that she get rid of Demar. They worried that he would bring all of his inner city thug friends and rob, rape and even kill them. Meanwhile, when Brittany had discussed the problem with Demar, Demar had been defensive and sullen and said little about the petty-cash situation and the missing phone other than to deny that he knew anything about them.

To her dismay, Brittany found that rethinking the story did little to solve the problem. Should she fire Demar? The evidence, of course, was purely circumstantial, in fact there was no evidence at all about Demar doing anything wrong yet everybody else seemed to see things quite clearly. Brittany feared that if she did not fire Demar, she would lose everyones trust and that some people might even begin to question her own motives.

Personality and Values

Question

Brittany was surprised that Demar was proud of his background. This suggests that there were significant differences in their value systems. Discuss this difference as well as any other generational value differences that may exist between Brittany and Demar.