...Sometimes an employee can be nasty, bullying, or simply hardhearted. What should you do, though, when that person also happens to be a top performer? HBR CASE STUDY What a Star-What a Jerk by Sarah Cliffe From:Jane Epstein To: Rick Lazarus Sent 5/74/01 Subject settling in Hi Rick. I'm starting to get settled in at TectmiCo-I miss you and the rest of the gang, and the adrenaline of working with clients when I'm *on,* but I'm thrilled not to be living in airports anymore. Hope Mary and the kids are well. I've inherited a good team here. They're all strong performers, and most of them are nice, too. I'm sure they're still wondering about me-but so far, so good. Partial cast Caroline's been here longest; she seems pragmatic, very good with people. Juggling work-family issues and a recent divorce-but she pulls her weight and then some. She's universally trusted (I think). Tom's the joker. A naturaJ sales guy-a bouncy golden retriever personality that cloaks real drive, know what I mean? Younever really get inside, but there don't seem to be many internal climate changes anyway. Jack's intense, maybe an intellectual-I haven't quite figured him out. I think he may be shy (?). Anyhow, then there's Andy Zimmerman, who's got me slightly worried-maybe because he intimidates me just a bit. He's very bright, but he's aggressive-doesn't suffer fools gladly. He'll bear watching, I think. Better run. By the way, I love being back in Minneapolis. And, glory be, the hometown...
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...Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively? By James Haskett JAMES HESKETT James Heskett is a Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School. ORIGINAL ARTICLE The annoying employee who makes his numbers while alienating those around him will gain needed attention in the coming months with at least one book about to be published on the subject. This is an age-old problem that most managers handle badly. You know the story by now. It concerns high-performing employees, known by some as "stars" and by others as "destructive heroes" or "brilliant jerks," those who generate a great deal of business while creating problems for colleagues. They are demanding to the point of being abusive, they make promises to clients that their colleagues cannot meet, they take too much credit for success, and they generally are unable to adhere to commonly shared values of members of the organization. The management response to this kind of situation is too often ineffective. By their own admission, their managers are reluctant to rock the boat as long as the numbers continue to be good. In doing so, they underestimate the costs to the organization, including the loss of other talent. And when they do act, they do so much too slowly, often after most of the damage has been done. Jack Welch has written about the phenomenon of what he calls "jerks" or "bullies" from his own experience. At GE they were referred to as a "Type 4" manager, "the person who delivers on all...
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...Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively? By James Haskett JAMES HESKETT James Heskett is a Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School. ORIGINAL ARTICLE The annoying employee who makes his numbers while alienating those around him will gain needed attention in the coming months with at least one book about to be published on the subject. This is an age-old problem that most managers handle badly. You know the story by now. It concerns high-performing employees, known by some as "stars" and by others as "destructive heroes" or "brilliant jerks," those who generate a great deal of business while creating problems for colleagues. They are demanding to the point of being abusive, they make promises to clients that their colleagues cannot meet, they take too much credit for success, and they generally are unable to adhere to commonly shared values of members of the organization. The management response to this kind of situation is too often ineffective. By their own admission, their managers are reluctant to rock the boat as long as the numbers continue to be good. In doing so, they underestimate the costs to the organization, including the loss of other talent. And when they do act, they do so much too slowly, often after most of the damage has been done. Jack Welch has written about the phenomenon of what he calls "jerks" or "bullies" from his own experience. At GE they were referred to as a "Type 4" manager, "the person who delivers on all...
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...Can the Brilliant Jerk Be Managed Effectively? By James Haskett JAMES HESKETT James Heskett is a Baker Foundation Professor, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School. ORIGINAL ARTICLE The annoying employee who makes his numbers while alienating those around him will gain needed attention in the coming months with at least one book about to be published on the subject. This is an age-old problem that most managers handle badly. You know the story by now. It concerns high-performing employees, known by some as "stars" and by others as "destructive heroes" or "brilliant jerks," those who generate a great deal of business while creating problems for colleagues. They are demanding to the point of being abusive, they make promises to clients that their colleagues cannot meet, they take too much credit for success, and they generally are unable to adhere to commonly shared values of members of the organization. The management response to this kind of situation is too often ineffective. By their own admission, their managers are reluctant to rock the boat as long as the numbers continue to be good. In doing so, they underestimate the costs to the organization, including the loss of other talent. And when they do act, they do so much too slowly, often after most of the damage has been done. Jack Welch has written about the phenomenon of what he calls "jerks" or "bullies" from his own experience. At GE they were referred to as a "Type 4" manager, "the person who delivers on all...
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...What is my cultural identity? I am a 15-year-old African American Teenager. I have 7 siblings. I only live with 1 sibling who is a track star. I have a musical and sporty type of cultural identity. “Please, sir, I want some more.”, When I hear this sentence I think of the movie Oliver Twist. Oliver Twist is a part of my cultural identity. When my family has special events there is jerk chicken taco’s always on the table for birthdays, parties, reunions, family outings. The United States Map is a map of all the places I want to go in the world and where all parts of my family are. My culture is important to me Maps represent my culture and me. The United States shows all the places I want to travel and where some of my family is. The United States map shows 50 countries of where my family is spread out. Maps are full of color, plots are map defines a country. When people look at maps they see places where they want to go. When I look at a map I see places where I want to visit the rest of my family is. When some people look at the family they can see places where their home was. Maps are important to me because I can look and remember where I have family and where my family lives. Maps...
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...Or maybe it was loud, like a drummer banging to the beat. The magnificent sounds of life are wonderful at least for now. I can hear everything around me since my name is Mr. Good Ears. With all of this being said, I am outraged by the way you young rock stars take me for granted. Just because I am small in size and appear to sit around all day doing nothing doesn’t mean I have no purpose in life. You see, for the last 14 years, I have been on your left and right side of your face. Every day of my life that I can remember, I’ve had to sit through all the physical and verbal abuse that you jerk like to call music. I just want to tell you that as an ear; I do have many purposes in life. In case you guys don’t know, sounds are everywhere, and you jerks have two cool parts on your body that let you hear them all: me, your ears? I am made up of three different parts: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. I am in charge of collecting sounds, processing them, and even sending the sound waves to my neighbor your brain. My outer ear called the pinna is the part of me that people can see. It’s the part that you rock stars use to put holes in me. Another words, it’s what people pierce to wear earrings and what your friend whispers into when it’s time for a secret. Eyeglasses also have a tendency to sit on me. Besides providing cosmetics for your face, the main job of the outer ear is to collect sounds, whether a phone ringing or dog barking. My outer ear also...
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...a chuckle behind her hand. Pointing the remote control at the television, she clicked off the sitcom she'd been watching. Her lips crooked into a half smirk. "This one turned into a jerk, too?" Stephanie dropped her purse onto the coffee table and flopped onto the couch. She kicked her shoes off, scaring the cat who ran into the other room. Staring at the ceiling, she said, "All men should crash and burn." "That good?" Courtney sat forward, flicking her long black hair behind her shoulders. "There's got to be a couple of good men out there. All we need is one good man each. Is that too much to ask?" Stephanie lifted pained eyes to her roommate and best friend. "I don't think there's two good guys in this whole universe. I give up. I've had it. I'm not kissing any more toads." Courtney looked thoughtful, tapping her chin with her forefinger. "Maybe we've been looking in the wrong universe." Her friend was losing it big time. "What are you talking about?" Handsome Patrick had seemed so perfect, so wonderful. Until she'd caught him with Alyssa tonight, telling her the moon and stars shone only for her, that they were soulmates - the same pathetic lines he'd snared her with. Some soulmate! Jumping to her feet, Courtney paced in front of her. "What we need is a vacation away from the city to someplace totally different." "With totally different kinds of men." Despite herself, her interest was piqued. "We need men who are...
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...The Most Pivotal Organizational Change of the 20th Century “Jack Welch the Man With the Plan” By: Schavalia A. Holmes HR587, Professor: M. Luckett TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION 3 JACK WELCH BECOMES GE’s CEO 4-5 JACK WELCH ON GLOBALIZATION 5 JACK WELCH, LEADER, HIS MANAGEMENT STYLE REVEALED 5-7 JACK WELCH OUTLOOK ON WHAT MAKES A GOOD LEADER 7-11 JACK WELCH METHODOLOGY INCORPORATES KELLER’S MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE COURSE TCO’S ……………………………………………………………………………………………………12-13 JACK WELCH BEST CEO (MANAGER) EVER, OR IS HE THE “GRINCH WHO STOLE MASSIVE EMPLOYEES LIVELIHOODS? 14-16 CONCLUSION 16-17 BIBLIOGRAPHY 18 INTRODUCTION How do you take a company through restructuring and enable it to sustain the change and make it one of the largest multinational corporations in the world? Well, John F. Welch Jr. (Jack Welch) succeeded in doing just that. Welch climbed the corporate ladder and became Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GE. Jack Welch (Welch) used integration techniques, well developed strategies, and made many acquisitions, while selling off or closing down its less productive companies and divisions. His task was to reinvent GE’s culture and change business operation by converting managers into leaders. He empowered his employees, gave them special rewards, devised training programs and opened the door for employees to acquire stock options. Welch’s mission was to transform the GE organization...
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...counting how many red beads “defects” were in the count, there was also an overseer that was dismissing and reported what was the number that each brought defect beads. The daily production operation for each worker includes: 1) poring the beads from the first box into the second box and then back into the first box (to mix the beads), 2) dipping the paddle into the first box without shaking it, 3) carrying the loaded paddle to each inspector for separate counts and then verification, and 4) dumping the day's work back into the supply box. The six workers perform this operation four times to represent four days' work. Even with this “perfect” procedure and “excellent” management this process did not change the outcome of the experiment. This is because the management was actually bad based on that the manager of the business was showing bad management skills. Such as being a “jerk”, using a screening process on his employees, also treating his employee if they do badly they will be fired. He was also belittling them, he told them that there can’t be no communication with the employees, also he was very demanding. He also used some motivational practices that were ineffective. Such as giving the employee incentives which just cause employees to do anything to receive this incentive and may cause for production to fall instead of increase. They implemented a STAR system which was to stop think act review, which this system was just giving a fancy name for the current produces that...
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...The grandmother tries to convince her son, Bailey, and his wife to take the family to east Tennessee for vacation instead of Florida. She points out an article about the Misfit, an escaped convict heading toward Florida, and adds that the children have already been there. John Wesley, eight years old, suggests that the grandmother stay home, and his sister, June Star, says nastily that his grandmother would never do that. On the day of the trip, the grandmother hides her cat, Pitty Sing, in a basket in the car. She wears a dress and hat with flowers on it so that people will know she is “a lady” if there’s an accident. In the car, John Wesley says he doesn’t like Georgia, and the grandmother chastises him for not respecting his home state. When they pass a cotton field, she says there are graves in the middle of it that belonged to the plantation and jokes that the plantation has “Gone with the Wind.” Later, she tells a story about an old suitor, Edgar Atkins Teagarden. Edgar brought her a watermelon every week, into which he carved his initials, E. A. T. Once he left it on the porch and a black child ate it because he thought it said eat. The family stops at a restaurant called the Tower, owned by Red Sammy Butts. Red Sammy complains that people are untrustworthy, explaining that he recently let two men buy gasoline on credit. The grandmother tells him he’s a good man for doing it. Red Sam’s wife says she doesn’t trust anyone, including Red Sam. The grandmother asks her...
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...“Reality” television [738 words] Summary of When Reality TV Gets Too Real by Jeremy W. Peters [153 words] In When Reality TV Gets Too Real, Jeremy W. Peters debates the ethics of not stopping dangerous situations from happening on Reality Television. For this, several examples of such occurrences are cited, first when a participant took up drunk driving in the show Intervention, as well as similar episodes in Breaking Bonaduce, The Real World and Road Rules, and citing lawsuits against Big Brother, Kid Nation and Extreme Makeover, the last one getting sued for something else entirely. A number of occasions is also named where the producer of Intervention stops dangerous situations from developing, namely when to prevent suicide, drunk driving and to call paramedics in the event of an overdose. The article also states that the practise of simply filming while not stopping developing catastrophes are not technically illegal but somewhat unethical. The text ends with the comment “It's a very, very delicate balance”, leaving the issue open for interpretation. Outline of text 2 through 4 [252 words] In When Reality TV Gets Too Real, it is debated that Reality TV has a habit of creating dangerous or traumatic situations for viewers, simply because doing so is legal and gives higher rating. At times, some producers might draw the line though, and try to stop some situations from spiralling out of control, but those a more often the exception than the rule...
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...after every rotation. I see myself personified by that fan; going around in circles, wincing after every circle made, until people learn to eventually drown out the noise. After graduating college, I felt the “real world” was mine to conquer, to climb to the top and thrust my flag in for all to admire. I still remember moving in to my new place seven years ago. My parents gave me enough money to lees out a place of my own, as a sort of graduation present. The first night I slept in my new apartment, on my new mattress, the only thing I could think about was how this was a stepping stone for the start of my legacy. My eyes closed, I think about those times and feel my face cracking into a grin, the naivety of youth coupled with dreams of stars and fluff. I recall setting my sights lower and lower as time went by, to where I am at now- your average pencil pusher from nine to five. I open my eyes and look at my bedside clock, eight-thirty it tells me. I go wash up a bit and decide on eating out today. I like walking outside, watching other people going about their trivial activities, some even considering it to be important. I eat at a local Chinese restaurant, a place where I’ve grown partial to the food. After eating I go on a walk. I do that from time to time, walking aimlessly. It’s really mostly to escape the loneliness of the apartment for a while. Sometimes I even...
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...An apple with a bite taken out of it. A tall man on stage wearing a black mock turtleneck with matching jeans. These iconic images from the last half of the twentieth century have embodied the public faces of one of the most successful businesses and in the history of the world. But how many of us actually know of what went on behind the scenes; how did the home computer industry start and how much of it was due to the drive and vision of Steve Jobs. • Summary On a warm June day in 2005, Steve Jobs went to his first college graduation - as the commencement speaker. The billionaire founder and leader of Apple Computer wasn't just another stuffed-shirt businessman. Though only fifty years old, the college dropout was a technology star, a living legend to millions of people around the world. In his early twenties, Jobs almost single-handedly introduced the world to the first computer that could sit on your desk and actually do something all by itself. He revolutionized music and the ears of a generation with a spiffy little music player called the iPod and came with it was a wide selection of songs at the iTunes store. He funded and nurtured a company called Pixar that made the most amazing computer-animated movies such as Toy Story, Cars, and Finding Nemo - bringing to life imaginary characters like never before. Though he was neither an engineer nor a computer geek, he helped create one gotta-have-it product after another by always designing it with you...
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...Human Resource Management Student Name: Katie Greene - 08541876 Question: When work-place bullying takes place in an organization, it is because leadership and management of the organization allow it to happen. Do you agree? Introduction Bullying in the workplace has been defined as “harassing, offending, socially excluding someone or negatively affecting someone’s work tasks...repeatedly and regularly,” (Einarsen, 2003). By this we understand that bullying is a process that stems from a series of actions foregone. The forms of bullying which take place in an organisation are vast and range from verbal abuse to violence to sexual discrimination and harassment. While occurrences of bullying arise because management allow them to, literature suggests that there are various other factors which lead to it. The following sections attempt to explore these determinants. There is much evidence to suggest that workplace bullying is encouraged by management (O’Connell et al, 2007) and other evidence that suggests the opposite view (Einsaren, 2003). I will determine that one of the main responsibilities lies with management, but that other factors such as personalities, workplace ethic, policies, working culture, organizational behaviour and industrial nature have their own roles to play. Through my research I established that a knock-on effect exists within the concepts produced in the literature. We must firstly look at definitions of bullying and conflict to establish why it occurs...
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...------------------Remembering the Champ---------------------- "What a great par this is gonna be". Those of you that have had the pleasure of playing golf with Brian might recall hearing him call that one out. If you haven't heard it, then I'll give you his explanation for it. My name is Matt Lynch. As one of Brian's golfing buddies from Overbrook Golf Club I've been asked to make a few comments about the golf and Overbrook portion of his life. It is an honor to do so. Regarding his phrase "what a great par this is gonna be".....Brian was a very good golfer and part of that included being an accurate driver off of the tee. Occasionally though, even Superman would hit an errant tee shot...one destined for the trees or thick rough or some other obstacle. It's at that moment, when he knew that he'd hit a bad one, that he'd say "what a great par this is gonna be". He'd explain it like this. He saw no sense in cursing about the bad shot; no sense in slamming your club, much less ever tossing your club. That was all just wasting energy on something that was over. The shot was history and there's nothing you could do about it so why waste the energy crying about it? Instead, it would be so much smarter, so much more productive to channel all of that energy into the next shot. Look forward. Figure out what you can do to salvage the situation and turn a rough start into a great par. I KNOW that's how he conducted himself on the golf course and I believe that's how he...
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