Chapter 3 - Case Exercise

John has been working as a software developer with Golden Systems, a technology startup in the East coast for the past 2 years.During his first year, he was considered a rising star at the company and he was a valued resource for his team and the company. John was one of two expert of a specific technology highly valued by the company. He gave a few classes on this technology to other developers.

During John's second year, Golden Systems experienced a high growth phase. The number of employees doubled. Among the new employees, there were developers that were as experienced and knowledgeable as John. John felt that his standing among the old and new employees had fallen. In addition, John started experiencing personal issues that included family members involved in legal issues, personal health problems and financial instability. All this issues, in particular his health issues, prevented him from coming into the office at least a couple of days every week. John also started taking time off during regular business hours and started working off business hours to make the time. His communication with other members in the team deteriorated. He work quality and performance became inconsistent. He was seen as unreliable by other members in the team. John was able to remedy some of his personal issues but his health continued to be a factor that affected his performance. He filled out a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) form that allowed him to take time off as needed by his medical condition.

At the end of the second year, John was placed in a personal improvement plan (PIP) and was given 60 days to achieve the goals outlined in the plan. During the meeting to explain the PIP his manager told him that he could no longer work outside regular business hours to make up the time he was missing during the day due to personal issues. In addition, he was told that failure to achieve the goals of the PIP would result in his termination.

John's initial reaction was one of denial. He did not agree with the PIP. He started raising a lot of issues with tasks that he undertook that could affect his performance. He started requesting a lot of assistance from his manager and team members to overcome any small problem that could affect his progress. Instead of taking ownership of his tasks, he seemed to find barriers that prevented him from completing his tasks.

John's manager wanted to help John improve. But John's current attitude did not warrant his manager's aid. John's manager had to be careful about John's FMLA protection, but needed to ensure that the PIP objectives were achieved or needed to recommend John's termination. John had initially been a great asset to the company, how could the manager turn this situation around?

Source: https://wiki.shanti.virginia.edu/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=37455043

Exercise Questions:

1. What is the causal link between John's work attitude and job performance? What factors may (a) increase; and (b) decrease the strength of relationship between attitude and performance.
2. What are the three most important factors that make people satisfied at work?
3. If you are John's manager, how would you help John? What consequences of your action will be on your other subordinates?