People Management: Ethical Dilemmas in MBA 721 Case Study Report

This report analyzes a case study centered on Corey, an employee whose work performance declined due to personal and work-related stressors. The paper explores motivational theories such as McClelland's Need for Achievement, Operant Conditioning, and Adam's Equity Theory to understand Corey's situation. It examines the impact of task, role, interpersonal, and physical demands on employee stress, referencing Kahn's person-environment fit model. The report discusses the ethical considerations and practical challenges faced by managers in balancing individual needs with organizational requirements, and proposes strategies like flexible work arrangements and goal setting to improve Corey's performance. The student reflects on their own experiences and the application of these theories in a work context, highlighting the importance of addressing employee well-being and creating a supportive work environment. The paper emphasizes the significance of ethical decision-making in people management and provides a comprehensive analysis of the case study.

Running head: PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
People Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note;

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Introduction
Stress is a significant cause of poor work performance, and it can be the result of
many factors. It is a significant issue that both the managers and the employees worldwide
are worried about. Dealing with the theme of poor performance is a robust yet emotive issue,
and it is shocking that most of the organisations fail to address the same (Gross 2017).
However, the given case study of Corey has highlighted that he is expiring in a total of three
factors, and they are home demands, personal demands, and task demands. As per the case
study, Corey, who was once considered to be a high performer by his peers, colleagues and
bosses, has had undergone some changes in his life that have caused him to decrease his work
performance and receive the tag of “less than satisfactory” employee. It is very saddening for
Corey as well as Shadi, his supervisor. This has further led to the impact the organisational
outcomes negatively and loss in customer base. The main aim of this reflective paper is to
describe the case study of Corey and to make use of the things I have learnt throughout my
course in the process of decision making, taking into consideration the practical and ethical
nature of decision making. In shall be a reflection on the quality of decision making regarding
the people in organisations, concerning the case study that I have chosen. I will also be
outlining my practice in this paper.
Background
Corey has been working at his current job for four years, where he has built a rapport
as a high performer. He has consistently received a high-performance rating. However,
recently, Corey’s most recent evaluation completed three weeks ago, rated him as "less than
satisfactory." His supervisor, Shadi, was wondering why his previously active performing
team member was now performing so poorly. After discussing these results with Jennifer,
Corey’s Manager. Shadi found out that about six months ago Corey's behaviour changed at

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work, leading to Corey taking more extended lunches and getting to work later, Corey’s
relationship with the team has started to deteriorate due to Corey’s becoming increasing
short-tempered. Corey has had some personal thing in his life happen; he has separated from
his long term partner and was in the process of negotiating caring responsibility for their
eight-year-old son. In a meeting between Shadi and Corey, Corey advised Shardi that he is
struggling to manage his commitments and the current workload. He mentioned that he was
seeking some assistance outside of work to lead with his changed situation, although he
thought that he would benefit from flexible working arrangements to help. Shadi provided
Corey with a short-term agreement to work from home two mornings of the week to help him
adjust. Three weeks later, Corey's performance had not yet improved, and he had been calling
in sick to work more frequently. Corey's return has caused frustration between the rests of the
team. After a day off from work, Corey came back to the office and discussed his concerns
with Shadi, indicating that he would like to be transferred to another area that was less
pressured.
Motivational theory fitting with the situation
Corey has always been consistently receiving a high-performance rating from his
customers for the last four years. This display the method of need for achievement (nAch)
proposed by McClelland's. McClelland hypothesized that the specific needs of an individual
are acquired with the passage of time, and their life experiences shape them. Majority of
these needs are classified as either power, achievement or affiliation. The effectiveness and
motivation of a person in some job functions are all influenced by all these three needs, and
therefore, this theory is known as the “three need theory” or “learned needs theory”.
According to McClelland’s, the need for achievement (nAch), need for affiliation (nAff), and
the need for power (nPow) are the three primary learned needs of an individual. McClelland’s
theory has concluded that the three motives are mostly independent of each other; a person

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can be high or low on all three, but one is usually dominant. (Kalliath et al. 2014 p. 179). In
Corey's case, the nAch is his dominant trait (Khurana and Joshi 2017). nAch is the needs of
an individual that seeks to accomplish goals that are difficult and challenging; these
individuals typically find environments which provide them with a high level of control and
personal responsibility along with social recognition for their achievements. It is to note that
the people with a high need for achievement (nAch) seek for excelling, and they tend to avoid
both the high-risk and low-risk situations. The achievers avoid low-risk situations as they
believe in the fact that the easily attained success is never a genuine achievement. On the
other hand, in the high-risk projects, the achievers seek the result as one of the chances
instead of one's effort. The individuals with high nAch prefer the work that has a reasonable
chance of success, i.e., 50% chance.
The next theory about Corey's case is that of Operant Conditioning. It is the theory
proposed by B.F. Skinner and is based upon the notion that learning is a function of change in
overt behaviour (Pavlov and Watson 2017). As per the theory, the difference in individual
action is due to the response to events of an individual that cause in his surrounding
environment. It is also to mention that by means of operant conditioning, a person makes
associated between a specific behaviour and its consequences (Usman and Oghu 2019). In the
case of Corey, the recent lacking of Corey is actions that are a result of environmental factors
that are shaping his work behaviour. Due to Corey's relationship breakdown and trying to
navigate caring arrangement for his eight-year-old son, this would be causing stress on
Corey. I think Corey and his manager need to discuss how they can work out some flexible
work-life balance.
Furthermore, the third theory in relation to this case study is that of Adam's Equity Theory. It
was developed by John Stacey Adams, and according to Ryan (2016), it outlines the basics of
the prevailing motivation theory. As per this theory, there are two fundamental elements in

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equity theory: inputs (what the person invests in their work) and outcomes (what they get
from it) (Kalliath et al. 2014 p. 182). Adams' conceptualization and much of the research
which has been conducted on equity theory concentrated predominantly on monetary
payment as the essential outcome variable (Kalliath et al. 2014 p. 182). It is to note that this
theory is all about balancing the effort of an employee that he or she puts into his or her work
and the result that they get in return for their efforts. In simple words, it is about the input and
the output. The inputs are comprised of skills, enthusiasm, and hard work and the outputs are
things such as responsibility, recognition and salary. A proper balance between these inputs
and outputs ensures that an employee is feeling satisfies and motivates and is aiding to the
organisational productivity. It is also to mention that it is essential for the organisations to
understand how this theory works as this will help in creating an effective corporate structure
in which the employees are encouraged for carrying out their work with the passion and
conviction every day.
Concluding the situation and theory
Robert Kahn was concerned with the social psychology of stress. His approach
emphasized how confusing and conflicting expectations of a person in a social role create
stress for the person (Su, Murdock and Rounds 2015). He extended the approach to
examining a person fit in the environment. A good person-environment fit occurs when a
person’s skills and abilities match a clearly defined, consistent set of role expectations. This
results in a lack of stress for the person. Stress occurs when the role expectations are
confusing or conflicting or when a person's skills and abilities are not able to meet the
demands of the social role. After a period of this stress, the person can expect to experience
strain, such as strain in the form of depression. (Nelson & Quick 2009, pp 220). It is to note
that work stresses are caused by the pressure and demands from both within and outside of

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the workplace. According to LePine et al. (2016), there are a total of four different categories
of stressors that underline the different casual circumstances for stress at workplace:
a) Task Demands- It refers to the sense of not knowing where a job will lead an
individual and whether the tasks and the activities will change or not. This is an
uncertainty that causes immense stress and manifests itself in the feeling of lacking
control and concerns regarding the career programs as well as time pressures.
b) Role Demands- It is to note that the conflict of role takes place when an employee is
exposed to confusing and inconsistent expectations (Van Woerkom, Bakker and
Nishii 2016). Some of the examples of this include the interole conflict, the intrarole
conflict, the person-role conflict and lastly, the role ambiguity. It is to note that the
interole battle is when there are two or more than two expectations or separation of
roles from a person. The intrarole conflict refers to the position with different
expectations of a single character. The person-role conflicts refer to the area when
ethics are challenges. Lastly, the role ambiguity refers to the confusion regarding their
experiences related to the expectations of other people.
c) Interpersonal Demands- The interpersonal demands are the demands like emotional
issues like abrasive personalities and offensive co-workers; sexual harassments in the
workplace that are directed towards women and poor leadership.
d) Physical demands- It is to note that in many types of work, people need to work
physically, and they are physically demanding. They include the strenuous activities,
extreme lousy working conditions, exposure to hazardous materials, travelling and
working in a very full and tight office.
All employees have good days and bad days. In this case study, the situation is that Corey
has some life-changing family circumstance that he is going through. Corey has built Rapport
and a positive, long-standing repetition, and this should be worth something. However,

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Corey's behaviour changed at work, leading to Corey taking more extended lunches and
getting to work later, Corey’s relationship with the team has started to deteriorate due to
Corey’s becoming increasing short-tempered. Corey has had some personal thing in his life
happen; he has separated from his long term partner and was in the process of negotiating
caring responsibility for their eight-year-old son. I think about it, just like company or
companies go through struggling times, and they ask the employee to stick it out. The
emotional support plan that the company can do for Corey and provide him with flexible
working from home options with some clear daily outcome specific as this will support
Corey; when staff goes through difficult times, this takes prominence in mind. To save Corey
some time, it would be relevant to use the Goal Setting Theory concerning drive some work
outcome and provide Corey with some positive communication loops like options of a virtual
catch up when he is working from home.
Reflection of theory and practice to personal and work-related applications
I selected this case study because it is relatable with my working experience. I was
thinking about a recent issue that I had with a younger female staff member that initially did
not report to me. This staff member was acutely aware of the time; she never came in a
minute last and never stayed a minute late. She spent quite a lot of time on her phone what
appeared to be texting. This behaviour doesn't seem to be alarming out of character in the
grand scheme of things, and her work productivity became very low to do hardly anything.
She appeared to be consumed with her phone, and she also didn't participate in team or group
meetings, she seemed to be not interested in being there. Other staff started making
comments of it that does she even have any work to do and why the management is
entertaining such working ethics. The team became very aggressive and started to fight and
engage in conflicts with the other groups inside the office premises. However, when I learnt
about her past work and contribution to the organisation, I became shocked about knowing

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that she was once used to be an excellent performer. Just like Corey, this staff of mine also
was considered to be a top performer. Many of the times, she was even given rewards and
recognition for her contribution and skills and her dedication towards work. Gradually her
commitment and performance got decreased, and she started experiencing bullying in the
workplace. I then decided to have a one-to-one conversation with her and called her to the
meeting room. At first, she was hesitating to open up and was saying that if the organisation
does not want her to be here and if it thinks that she is unproductive then she is ready to quit
the job. However, I tried my best to make her understand that there is nothing like this and
that we do appreciate her contributions. Gradually she did share that she is very stressful and
that the enormous responsibility being the elder daughter, that has come upon her shoulder
after the death of her father is disturbing her. Her mother is a heart, and after the death of her
father, she is struggling hard to survive. She has a younger brother who is so young to handle
the situations. As a result, she has to manage everything, and all these are preventing her
from focussing on the office works. Also, she also shared that due to her extreme dedication
and positive work performance and production, she was given with the massive amount of
tasks to do with high targets and fewer deadlines. Naturally, this made her I think that it is
because of the stress that she was facing in her environment that has changed her a lot. She
also confessed that she is struggling to manage his commitments and the current workload
and mentioned that she needs some assistance outside of work to lead with his changed
situation, like flexible working arrangements. This will help her to balance her home and
office work.
After going through this case study of Corey, I have very quickly related it to that
younger female staff member. I understand this very well that workplace bullying can involve
threats to the personal and professional image of an employee and can also hamper his or her
status, forcing them to undergo deliberate isolation. I think stress management has a

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significant role to play in this regard. It refers to the full spectrum of therapies and techniques
that are aimed towards controlling the stress level of an individual, particularly chronic stress
for improving the everyday functioning. For reducing the pressure at the workplace,
managers should always monitor the workload of every employee and ensure that it is all in
line with their resources and capabilities. With the same, they should also be explicit and
transparent regarding their general expectations as well as their long-term goals and
objectives for ensuring that there is no discrepancy in between what he or she is looking for
and the staff or employee is working towards.

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