Jensen Shoes Case
The main obstacle that Jane Kravitz faced in this case is that one of the staff members she was responsible for supervising, Lyndon Brooks did not carry out the tasks he was assigned. Brooks was responsible for developing a marketing strategy for the African American and Latino population. As the deadline was approaching Kravitz was not seeing any progress from Brooks. Brooks also told Kravitz that he wanted to go to a trade show and take the week off after that as well to stay with his brother. This was one of the many issues that Kravitz faced with Brooks who did not take his given deadline seriously.
Kravitz decided to offer Brooks her assistance with the project but Brooks replied by saying that he had never wanted to be in this position. This was another issue in this case that Kravitz had to face and was responsible for. Kravitz later approached Brooks and made it very clear that now was not the time for him to slack off. Brooks kept on resisting but they finally came to an agreement that he would do only one of the projects. This is an additional issue in this case because Kravitz shouldn’t have had to give Brooks that option. By doing this Brooks also added extra work for Kravitz to do on top of all the work that she already had been assigned previously which frustrated her even more.
In order to keep Brooks motivated Kravitz threw him a birthday party, hoping it would inspire him to meet his deadline. Kravitz checked in with Brooks and asked him for written updates, which he’d provide scarcely. Kravitz began having serious doubts about whether Brooks would even complete the one project. This is an example of another issue that Kravitz faces with Brooks and him completing his project by the deadline. Kravitz shouldn’t have to constantly worry about him finishing his project on time or have to indulge him in any manner. One final issue was that Brooks wasn’t even showing any progress with the one project that he had agreed to do which was inexcusable. This was something that Kravitz should never have had to deal with in the first place, because she attempted to understand Brooks, but all he did was take advantage of her flexibility with him by not taking his work seriously. Chuck Taylor was the leader of the entire marketing assignment. It was obvious that Taylor had a negative attitude toward Lyndon. In Taylor’s perspective, Brooks was unfaithful, and he would never be impressed with Brooks’s job performance no matter how well Brooks did; also, it seemed that Taylor has never rewarded Brooks with his accomplishments. Because all Brooks’s previous performances showed that he was actually a professional and diligent businessman. Because it was mentioned that Brooks was an African-American, there is a great chance that Taylor had racial discrimination toward Brooks. Taylor’s assumption of Brooks based on prejudice was biased. Taylor’s attitude and behavior would kill Brooks’s motivation if Taylor continued to behave the same way.
Kravitz took this job seriously as an opportunity to advance to the next level. She gave herself lots of pressure not only because she didn’t want to disappoint her boss, but also because she believed in gender differences. In her perspective, finishing the project on time and impressing Taylor were the most important things, so she put her expectation as a manager on Brooks, too, forgetting that they were actually in different positions. Kravitz was friendly and respectful toward Brooks initially because she had good first impression of Brooks, and she assumed he could do greatly. Kravitz’s behaviors of helping Brooks to do the environmental project and rewarding his performance were good ways of motivating a staff, but Kravitz did not take Brooks’s attitude of not wanting to be only a staff into consideration seriously. She fell into the similar-to-me effect which she interpreted Brooks’s situation with her own similar experience, which turned out that her rewards were not the type of motivation Brooks wanted.
Kravitz felt a sense of anxiety after Taylor revealed unfaithfulness on Brooks, so during the conversation over the San Diego trip, she kept emphasizing on deadline of the s.o.’s. She did not pay attention to Brooks’s feeling, which would likely to cause Brooks more reluctant to do his work. She characterized Brooks’s behavior as “company style” which was an external cause that she could not control, although the other staffs she was working with did not have the same problem. Kravitz was stressed because deadline was coming up and Brooks was constantly behaving in an uncooperative way. Her attitude toward Brooks changed hugely. She put stress on him as a final attempt; however, a warning would not be effective, since this was not the first time that Brooks behaved in this way. Kravitz’s original description of Brooks revealed that he was a skilled and professional businessman, but he was a highly motivation-driving person. In current situation, a job promotion would be the best motivation for Brooks. He did greatly on the environmental project most likely because this was a special project that he could see an opportunity of getting back to managing position; however, Taylor ignored Brooks’s accomplishment, and even devalued his performance. Therefore, Brooks did not achieve any satisfaction from his work, and he was likely to be unhappy with Taylor’s attitude. At this time, he was given two s.o.’s which he thought to be heavily loaded and no-opportunity existing. Of course he would be reluctant to do the work. Brooks’s such behavior was a form of protest to his boss of his dissatisfaction on, but his abrupt and reluctant behavior received only negative reactions from his boss that gradually put himself in a bad reputation that less managers would like to work with him. Brooks is actually going farther from promotion. It also seemed Brooks lacked social skill. He was not communicative enough about what he was doing according to Kravitz, and his attitude was unpleasant and he did not explain his concerns well when having conversation with his boss. If Brooks could clearly explain his needs and discontentment in time, he would not put himself in such a bad situation. When Kravitz first began to tell her story, she stated that Taylor was less than enthusiastic about Brooks’s reports. This itself is a red flag pointing out Taylor’s perceptual biases against Brooks. He never specified Brooks’s weaknesses but has low expectations of Brooks anyway. This is the Golem effect in which people holding low expectations of another tends to lower that individual’s performance. Even when Kravitz reported Brooks’s spectacular performance on the environmental project, Chuck was not impressed. According to the goal-setting theory, an assigned goal affects a worker’s self-efficacy which influences job performance. As goals become too difficult, job performance decreases because people reject the goals thinking that the goals are unrealistic or unattainable. Brooks’s self-efficacy was lowered because he felt he was given too much work which led to job dissatisfaction. A consequence of job dissatisfaction is absenteeism which Brooks was practicing. Brooks planned on going on a personal trip in the middle of the company’s development of a new major marketing strategy. Kravitz became frustrated and explained her role as a manager, or more specifically, a female manager. Kravitz believed in sex-role stereotypes which are narrow-minded beliefs about women. However, her belief was unfortunately accurate because of what is known as the glass ceiling which is an invisible barrier that keeps women from advancing as rapidly as men. Brooks could be a victim of discrimination because it was specified that he was African American which may be the reason for Taylor’s prejudice and discrimination against Brooks. Also because of Brooks’s ethnicity, Kravitz pressured Brooks to do his s.o. on the African American vertical market. Brooks resisted and kept insisting on doing the s.o. on the Latino vertical market. Kravitz accepted just the one s.o. and was left with a few choices for her next move. Kravitz could show Brooks that she recognized his workload compared to the other two team members. She could offer him a reward for doing two s.o.’s in addition to the environmental project. Although it might cost the company, it would motivate Brooks to complete the tasks assigned to him. Brooks might or might not cooperate depending on the valence of the reward. Kravitz could resort to do the last s.o. herself. Although she already had a heavy workload, she was spending more time meeting with Brooks and trying to motivate him to do the last strategic objective. Doing this s.o. herself allows all the objectives to be done on time she could make sure it was done correctly without having to monitor Brooks’s progress. It showed that no matter what obstacles were put in front of her, she would complete the task at hand. Her team would not be penalized and she would be given the bonus she wanted. Brooks would not get a bonus or get the job he wanted and might become even more unmotivated to complete future tasks.