Managing Down at MIC$*$

Roshni has been feeling extremely stressed for the past two weeks. She has signs of palpitations, exhaustion, loss of appetite, and sleeplessness. She is constantly afraid of failing at or losing this crucial project that she has been made part of recently It was not easy for her to deal with what was going on in her work with her new Project Head, Robin.

Roshni works in one of the largest American companies, MIC Research & Development, with its Indian head office in Bangalore, India. Roshni is an IIT graduate who was offered this job, given her superior skills in image sensor design. Roshni contributes significantly to her team, given her expertise in designing camera sensors for the high$-$end commercial phones that MIC supplies worldwide. It has been three years since she joined this company.

She has been promoted twice and recently awarded the Best Employee for overall per formance and contribution to the team. In fact, the seniors have been so happy with her contributions that she was also offered a crucial managerial position. Right now, her work involves both technical and administrative tasks.

Roshni has recently been through an extremely low phase in her life, both physically and emotionally, as she lost a very dear family member. However, her commitment to her work has been admirable. She understood that her role is crucial for this project to succeed. She tried to bounce back from the loss quickly so that her work and the project were not ham pered. Such is her loyalty to the company.

This would be the first time for Roshni to feel disconnected and burned out at work. She had a great working relationship with her boss, Srinivas, who has recently resigned. Robin is a veteran in MIC who took over this project as Srinivass substitute as the Project Manager. Robin is tough to work with, mainly because of his idiosyncratic way of working, such as$,$ not allowing team members to talk with each other, overriding their ideas, jumping to conclusions without having enough information in hand, and bis overall unempathetic approach to the team members. Most people at MIC are aware of Robins attitude. However, he has been performing consistently for many years in MIC and is one of the oldest employees there. Although this doesnt discount the fact that he has been disrespectful to people on several occasions and judged them for the wrong reasons.

Srinivas, the ex$-$boss, supported Roshni from the beginning as he knew that she was dedicated, hardworking and dependable from the beginning as he knes notice period he ensured to share the nitty gritty of his tail Siti Robins However, Robin being stubborn self, believed that hegrity of his team with Robin. However, Re compane He liked to credit the success of the projects to his of skills and competencies than the teams.

Robin tends to exhaust his team members regularly by conducting long meetings. Recently; in one of the meetings, he pinpointed Roshni as incompetent. He callously described her work as careless. He went on to say that she is distracted because of her personal issues and that she should quit the project if she cannot allot sufficient time to work. Roshni felt dis heartened and demotivated by the whole incident. She wrote two emails to Robin asking for a personal meeting. However, Robin refused, citing his busy schedule as a reason.

Roshni was deeply impacted. She started avoiding people at work and did not feel like connecting with anyone. After a few days, however, during her lunch break, Roshni tried to discuss this situation with her colleagues. She elaborated on how Robins working style is creating serious distractions for her. The colleagues affirmed Robins behaviour as unacceptable and mentioned that he has always been like that with people. However, they were not very sure how they could help Roshni as they did not wish to be in Robins bad books.

The same night Roshni had extreme chest pain and was taken to a private hospital. She finally told her spouse about the episodes of burnout at work that were causing her issues mentally, emotionally, and physically. She expressed her displeasure about Robins characterization of her attitude towards work as careless without understanding the real cause behind the issues. She would have felt better if she had got a chance to explain herself without being demeaned in front of her colleagues, especially for the wrong

Reasons. Roshni feels disoriented and clueless as to what is next in store for her with Robin!

Discussion Questions

Primary Concepts

Attribution, internal $($dispositional$)$ vs$.$ External $($situational$)$ attribution, biased decision$-$ making, fundamental attribution error, self$-$serving bias, Kellys attribution theory consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus

Questions

$1.$ Would you attribute Robins rude behaviour towards Roshni to his disposition or Situation?

$2.$ Highlight the scenarios from the case that reflect on fundamental attribution error And self$-$serving bias.

$3.$What possible antecedent$($s$)$ are affecting Robins biased judgment?

$4.$ How could Robin improve his assessment of Roshni?

$5.$ Use Kellys theory of causal attribution framework $($consistency$,$ distinctiveness, and consensus$)$ to analyze whether Robins behaviour towards Roshni is due to his inter$-$ nal or external factors.

$6.$ Assess Roshnis work performance on consistency.

$7.$ If you were in Roshnis place, how would you have handled this situation and im$-$ proved things for yourself?

Related Concepts

Set $1$: Job burnout, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, lack of personal acc plishment

Questions

$1.$ Why Roshni feels job burnout? Explain.

$2.$ Elaborate on Roshnis condition in the following aspects:

$($a$)$ Emotional exhaustion

$($b$)$ Depersonalization

$($c$)$ Lack of personal accomplishment

Set $2$: Leaders, leadership styles, leader$-$member exchange

Questions

$1.$ Is Robin a good leader? Elaborate.

$2.$ How would you describe Robins leadership style?

$3.$ What factors may improve leader$-$member exchange relationship between Robin and Roshni? List them.