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Sy, Kaira
Sy, Mandy
Tan, Jannusz
Wong, Kassandra
HUMANBE K35
I. Point of View
In this case study, our group chose to judge from the perspective of the supervisor.
This mutual decision we made was unanimous due to the agreement that there will be
less bias if we came from the point of view of the supervisor. Regardless of what
perspective we chose, we were still able to analyze and study the sides of each party.
Team Alvarez and team Fredrico.
II. Statement of the Problem
What was the cause of the conflict within the employees of Liberty Construction
Company?
III. Areas for consideration
Noteable concepts discussed in the chapter that were very relevant in the case study
was role ambiguity, status symbols, and social system. Role ambiguity was very evident
between Alvarez and Fredrico. Alvarez, being the full-time employee was challenge and
offended as the supervisor gave the newer backhoes to Fredrico a part timer. Fredrico,
with no intention of taking the new backhoe was caught off guard. This later created aconflict between the two.
In this case, the backhoes were treated as status symbols in the company. If you have
been given the newer backhoe, it is automatically presumed that you are better or more
important than of the others. Thus, bringing you up that in that imaginary social ladder.
From a more holistic view point, we can observe that a social system is present. Since
all parts of the system are interdependent, the change of one part of the system can
greatly affect the others. Like in Alvarezs and Fredricos situation, the work balance
was affected due to the controversy between the two parties. Leaving the company with
two opposing teams, one for Alvarez and the other for Fredrico.
IV. Alternative courses of action and why
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VI. Expected impact on the companys Financial, Customers, Internal Business
Processes, and Learning and growth
With the better working conditions, efficiency is expected. Leading to a better
financial standing and achieving employee satisfaction. With the implementation of a
corporate database, it is hoped that more of the processing can be centralized andautomated. So that productivity is reached. Consequently, customer satisfaction is also
achieved. With the fast paced service they are receiving from the motivated and work
enthusiastic employees, customer satisfaction is already a given. Leading to a fulfilling
internal business process wherein we accomplish to serve others with good service.
And through the process, the employees are trained and exposed to corporate cultural
attitudes related to both individual and corporate self-improvement. Wherein they learn
and grow as they serve the company.
VII. Guide Question: Discuss this case in terms of the social system, equilibrium,
the psychological contract, role, status, and status symbols.
As we all know, a social system is a system composed of complex interactions
among human beings in an organization. This includes all stakeholders of the
organization such as the manager, members, customers and employees. Considering
that all parts of a social system are mutually interdependent with each other, the
behavior of one member can have an impact on the other members, as well as the
other parts of the system, regardless of whether it is a big or small impact. The concept
of social system can be further explained through alvarez's behavior, by which his
strong dissatisfaction for his current job position affected the other employees of the
company. Because of his problem, the employees started to group into two, one
supporting alvarez and the other supporting federico, the employee who got the former
job position of alvarez.
The issue got bigger when the two opposing groups started to cause work
problems for one another. Due to this, job conflicts ensued inside the organization,
which then contributed to the organization's overall social disequilibrium. A system can
only achieve social equilibrium if all of its parts are in harmony. Since the company's
workers are going against each other, the impact of their reckless actions threw the
whole organization out of balance, which resulted to the company having social
disequilibrium.
Looking at the issue in alvarez's perspective, it seems that he might have felt that
his psychological contract was broken down. Psychological contract embodies the
psychological involvement of each employee in an organization, which includes their
contributions and expectations while working in the organization. In return, they expect
to be given economic rewards for the contributions that they will make. Considering that
Alvarez was a regular employee of the company, included in his psychological contract
was his perception of being prioritized over temporary employees and expectation of
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being retained to operate the second backhoe. Since alvarez's expectations were not
met, he became dissatisfied with his job, which led to his resignation.
Both the owner and the employee are guided by their own roles, but it seems that
they did not have an accurate role perception of each other. The manager perceived
that alvarez would just comply with his orders and be okay with it. Alvarez, on the otherhand, perceived that the owner would not reassign him because he was a regular
employee. Since their roles were not clarified by one another, conflict aroused when the
manager re-assigned alvarez to an older machine.
Since the owner has a higher status, he has the authority to assign the person who
will operates the machine. However, he doesn't just assign employees in a random
manner. He assigned Michael Federico on a newer backhoe because of his status,
which can be based from his educational background, ability, skills and seniority. Since
he has already been working for the company for nine months, albeit his status of being
a temporary worker, he was given the new machine. In our opinion, he might have been
a temporary worker because he was still in college because if not, he would have been
hired by the company as a regular employee.
In their organization, it may be possible that the backhoes are used as a status
symbol. Status symbols are external objects visible in an organization, which may be
used as an evidence of one's social rank. In this case, operating on a newer machine
might show that you have a higher rank than those operating on an older machine. This
might be a factor that affected alvarez's dissatisfaction of being replaced, which led him
to feel status anxiety.
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