Question: Web Site Development Corporation ( WSDC ) is a small business organization located in Toronto. WSDC creates simple websites for individuals and small businesses. The
Web Site Development Corporation WSDC is a small business organization located in Toronto. WSDC creates simple websites for individuals and small businesses. The President of
the company is a friendly and competent individual named Joe.
Joe spends his time at WSDC with marketing and business development activities so he is often away from the office. Whenever there is a new project, he will describe
the project plan very carefully and thoroughly to his team of three employees. After the project is underway, he relies on his project team to manage themselves and he provides minimal direct
supervision.
Team member # is named Lisa. She is the official leader of the team because shes been
working at WSDC for several years and is most familiar with how projects are run there. Lisa has many responsibilities as a team leader. She oversees the execution of projects, she resolves problems, she interacts with clients, and she trains and delegates tasks to the other Team members. She is a very efficient manager. Shes familiar with organizational procedures at
WSDC and is the main liaison between the team and Joe. In fact, Joe and Lisa are brother and sister.
On most days, Lisa is an exemplary team leader. However, when she feels stressed or overwhelmed, she sometimes behaves unpredictably and carelessly. She becomes flustered
easily. She might speak confrontationally or condescendingly to others. She blames them for simple mistakes or misunderstandings, treating them as if they are incompetent or negligent.
She jumps into problem solving mode by taking over and fixing the problems without input from others. Last year, a new team member was hired and quit within weeks of experiencing the bad
side of Lisas personality. Lisa occasionally speaks abruptly to Joe when shes feeling stressed, but he calmly reminds her that hes the boss and his sister backs down.
Lisa is very important to the success of WSDC she is a key employee and is virtually irreplaceable. When she is not feeling stressed, shes a very pleasant and helpful team leader.
In other words, of the time, Lisa is a pleasure to work with. Unfortunately, the other of the time, Lisa is a nightmare to work with!
Team member # is named Bella. She is a junior member of the team, with limited responsibilities due to her limited experience with web development projects. Bellas role on the
team is typically to follow any instructions that Lisa gives to her and she is happy to do so As Bella becomes more experienced in the next few years, she will eventually be given more
responsibilities. Until that happens, shes happy to have a junior role on projects. When Lisa gets occasionally frustrated with Bella, Bella doesnt get bothered by it and doesnt let it affect
her mood.
Team member # is named Hector. He is the newest member of the team. Hector has very good technical skills with web development projects, from working at other companies in the
past. When Joe hired Hector, Joe made it clear to the entire team that Hector would be given some of Lisas responsibilities to lighten her heavy workload. Hector is confident and friendly,
with a logical mind. Even though his skills are in demand everywhere, he joined WSDC because he liked the idea of having a few important project responsibilities but not being the overall team leader.
During the first five months after Hector was hired, Lisa devoted a lot of time to giving him training and orientation. Hector would occasionally see flashes of impatience from Lisa but she
would make an effort to be polite with him.
Joe would periodically visit Hectors office to check up on him to make sure that he was settling in well at WSDC During those conversations, Joe would occasionally ask if Hector was having
any problems or concerns with Lisa. Joe acknowledged that Lisa sometimes became stressed and she wasnt very good at managing that stress when interacting with others. Although he
didnt excuse her behaviour, he said that he and his sister had an unhappy childhood and theythey had to be selfsufficient early because their parents werent very responsible. Whenever
Joe asked Hector about Lisa, Hector replied honestly that he had no issues at all with Lisa and respected her role at WSDC
One day, after Hector had been working at WSDC for six months, he walked into work and could tell instantly from Lisas demeanour that she was in a very bad mood. And within an hour,
she confronted him about a small problem that had come up on a project. She interrogated himwith questions about the problem, didnt wait to hear his replies, scolded him for not dealing with
the problem sooner, blaming him for not dealing with the problem properly, and then she huffed and abruptly said, Ill deal with it and turned away to go to her office.
Hector knew that Lisa had a volatile temper but felt shocked at her behaviour with him. Why?
Because he wasnt the one who made the mistake that caused the problem!
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