INTRODUCTION TO TEACHING NOTES FOR
ADDITIONAL CASES
This document includes teaching notes for the additional cases in Organizational Behavior, Tenth Edition.
Each case analysis includes a list of the most relevant case topics, a brief case synopsis, and a case analysis.
The Additional Cases do not have any discussion questions. This gives instructors more flexibility to use
these cases for assignments or in-class discussion. However, many of the teaching notes include case
questions with suggested answers. Alternatively, some teaching notes present a suggested analysis of the case
in terms of symptoms, problems, and recommendations.
The next page provides a matrix of topics related to the additional cases in this book. The primary topics—
those discussed specifically in the teaching notes—are indicated with a black dot. Secondary topics are
indicated with a white dot. Secondary topics are not explicitly discussed in the teaching notes but are
potentially relevant to the case.
Case Chapter-> 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Arctic Mining
Consultants
Bayou Life Assurance
and Waltham Financial
CentraClear Inc.
Keeping Suzanne
Chalmers
The Regency Grand
Hotel
Tamarack Industries
,Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior
Conifer Corp.
Verberg Kansen N.V.
Vêtements Ltée
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior
Chapter 2: Individual Differences: Personality and Values
Chapter 3: Perceiving Ourselves and Others in Organizations
Chapter 4: Workplace Emotions, Attitudes, and Stress
Chapter 5: Foundations of Employee Motivation
Chapter 6: Applied Performance Practices
Chapter 7: Decision Making and Creativity
Chapter 8: Team Dynamics
Chapter 9: Communicating in Teams and Organizations
Chapter 10: Power and Influence in the Workplace
Chapter 11: Conflict and Negotiation in the Workplace
Chapter 12: Leadership in Organizational Settings
Chapter 13: Designing Organizational Structures
Chapter 14: Organizational Culture
Chapter 15: Organizational Change
, Chapter 1: Introduction to the Field of Organizational Behavior
ARCTIC MINING CONSULTANTS
These case teaching notes were prepared by Steven L. McShane, Interconnected Knowledge.
Primary Case Topics
Motivation, individual performance (MARS), leadership, and team dynamics
Case Synopsis
A crew of four people staked claims for Arctic Mining Consultants. The case describes their production over
the seven days, as well as incidents that occurred over this time. In particular, the case describes how the
leader (Parker) reacts to the lower performance of Millar and the other crew members.
This is one of my favorite cases because it covers diverse topics and has a personal touch to it. Students seem
to be very involved in the case—it is written in a way that they can easily visualize (even though few of us
have worked in these harsh conditions). We don‘t have an epilogue, except to say that Millar works in the
forest industry in a management position.
Symptoms
The main symptoms in this case are that Millar‘s work effort decreased by the end of the project, Millar was
thinking about quitting during the assignment, Millar did not accept subsequent job offers from Parker, and
Millar felt dissatisfied with the assignment and with Parker.
Problem Analysis
The main problems in this case relate to the issues of motivation, leadership, and team dynamics.
Motivation
Expectancy theory explains why Millar didn‘t work as hard at the end of the assignment, and why he did not
accept further assignments. Millar had a low E-to-P expectancy due to Parker‘s poor coaching. Rather than
working with Millar on further improving his performance, and rewarding Millar for his good performance,
Parker criticized Millar. This criticism continually weakened Millar‘s perception that he is able to perform
this type of work. Millar‘s low perception of competence made him ―give up‖ during the last day. (This is
significant because Millar‘s extra effort would have enabled the crew to complete the assignment on time.)
Millar‘s lack of effort on the last day can also be explained by his P-to-O expectancy. Specifically, Millar
believed that he received insults from Parker no matter how well he performed the task. Notice that on the
days that Millar completed 8.5 and 7 lengths, Parker said nothing. On days when Millar‘s performance was
lower, Parker criticized Millar.
The P-to-O expectancy also explains the effect of pay and the bonus on Millar‘s motivation. Specifically, on
the last day, Millar felt that getting an extra day‘s pay was almost as good as receiving the bonus, particularly
considering the hard work (a negative outcome) he would have to endure to complete the work by the end of
the day.
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