CASE STUDY

AL RUSKIN

PRESENTED BY (GROUP 2)
TOULICK
KEBBA
VIJAY
CHANTHY

Synopsis
Al Ruskin, a Harvard Business School graduate who passed out 3 years earlier,
drops in one Sunday afternoon to see one of his professors.
He works for Amalgamated Industries for the last 3 years,
albeit in various positions and departments.
He is currently working in the Market Research Division
for the company.
He is here to discuss with his professor about his job and the situations and
issues that he is facing at his workplace with his supervisors and the top
management .

The divisional hierarchy

Before we go further, we need to look at the divisional hierarchy

Vice President

of the department where Al Ruskin works.

Division
Manager

The Market Research Division is broken down into four

different sections. Each section has around 6 people who
report to one section chief who in turn report to a couple of

Assistant Managers

assistant managers in the division.

The assistant managers report to a manager in the division who Section Chief

Section Chief

in turn report to the Vice President.

Section

Section

Section

Section

The Problem .
Al is not satisfied with what is happening around him .
He is NOT HAPPY with the fact that the supervisors behave more like analysts than as
managers.
He is NOT HAPPY with the fact that the supervisors dont include the analysts while taking important decisions
on the work done by the analysts.
He is NOT HAPPY with the fact that higher management doesnt trust the work done by the analysts and in turn
tries to redo the work already done, hence wasting valuable time. This further dissatisfies the analysts in that
they are not being able to gain the confidence of the higher management.
He is NOT HAPPY with the fact that important decisions regarding him were taken without even consulting him or
taking him into confidence.
He is NOT HAPPY with the fact that there is too much unnecessary work pressure at the workplace.
He is NOT HAPPY with the fact that he thinks that all the supervisors are busy in competing with each other
instead of taking care of the immediate team they are responsible for.

Objectives .
Q1. Attempt a casual analysis of Al Ruskins behavior by making use
of an appropriate framework from behavioral sciences.
Q2. Suggest remedial measures and provide rationale for the same.

Analysis of Al Ruskins behaviour

.
Behaviour is the outer manifestation of the inner psychic
process
Organizational behaviour is the study of how people behave while in
groups and as individuals. Much of what a manager does has to do with
trying to get people to work as effectively as possible. It can involve trying
to motivate an individual worker or it can involve trying to understand how
to get workers who are part of a team to interact with one another in such
a way that they are able to work more efficiently and effectively.
Therefore, having an understanding of Als behaviour is vital to this study.
We will take up various concepts to try to understand the reasons behind
Als behaviour .

Personality traits .

Low job satisfaction Al definitely suffers from low job satisfaction. One of the
reasons is that the senior management doesnt trust the work of the employees.
They will sit down and double cross the work submitted to them. Lack of trust
has a negative impact on the employees.

The other reason given is that there is always a situation of crisis for every job
that
comes in even when its not needed.

Arrogance He has passed out of Harvard Business School. So he has an air of

superiority around him. He mixes with only the people who has passed out of the
same school. Also he has the belief that because he is from Harvard, he can do a
better job than anyone else. Also he believes that the way he deals with
situations is better than anyone elses.

Personality traits continued .

Cognitive Dissonance Al has certain preconceived ideas based on which his

behaviour is determined in the workplace. So when he is faced with contradictory
ideas and thoughts, he feels uncomfortable and thinks of quitting his job.

Negative Emotionality - Though Al enjoyed working as the field analyst, since he

joined the headquarters, he does not share a good rapport with his boss. This has
led to a negative emotional impact towards the organization.
Though the above traits suggest the critical side of Als personality, he does
have positive personality traits as well. He helps the local team in the district office
when he was posted there showing traits of a good team player as well.

Remedial measures .

Being more Responsible He blames all of his problems on others. He needs to

start owing up and take responsibility for his actions. He should concentrate on his
drawbacks and try to improve himself rather than finding faults with others.

Change in Perception Al has a stereotypical perception that nothing good is going

to happen in the organization. This perceptual disruption needs to be changed. He
needs to take it upon himself to make his and his teams perception change for the
positive towards the benefit of the organization.

Greater team spirit He needs to motivate his team to work

towards a common organizational goal. He needs to develop
interpersonal skills within his team and help his current team the
way he did for the team on the field.

Remedial measures continued .

We also need to consider what needs to be done by the organization to improve the
situation.

Setting high expectations The managers currently does not trust the work
done by the employees. They re-evaluate the work submitted by the people. This
creates low morale among the people. The managers should instead create
an environment of high expectations from the employees. This
will motivate them to do better in their work.

Collective Paradigm In this ever changing environment,

organizations need to go through a paradigm shift to sustain. To bring in this shift,
the biggest challenge is to convert individual paradigm to collective paradigm. So

Remedial measures continued .

the managers need to concentrate on this. They need to understand
the behaviour of the employees and do the necessary changes for
not only the individual success but the overall organization success
as well. They need to align the individual thought process with that
of the organization. Only then will the organization succeed.

Thank You