OB Activity
OB Activity
OB Activity
Prelim Activity #1
Note:
Reflection paper format:
Tony Stark had just finished his first week at Reece Enterprises and decided to drive
upstate to a small lakefront lodge for some fishing and relaxation. Tony had worked for the
previous ten years for the O'Grady Company, but O'Grady had been through some hard times of
late and had recently shut down several of its operating groups, including Tony's, to cut costs.
Fortunately, Tony's experience and recommendations had made finding another position fairly
easy. As he drove the interstate, he reflected on the past ten years and the apparent situation at
Reece.
At O'Grady, things had been great. Tony had been part of the team from day one. The job
had met his personal goals and expectations perfectly, and Tony believed he had grown greatly
as a person. His work was appreciated and recognized; he had received three promotions and
many more pay increases.
Tony had also liked the company itself. The firm was decentralized, allowing its
managers considerable autonomy and freedom. The corporate Culture was easygoing.
Communication was open. It seemed that everyone knew what was going on at all times, and if
you didn't know about something, it was easy to find out.
The people had been another plus. Tony and three other managers went to lunch often
and played golf every Saturday. They got along well both personally and professionally and truly
worked together as a team. Their boss had been very supportive, giving them the help they
needed but also staying out of the way and letting them work.
When word about the shutdown came down, Tony was devastated. He was sure that
nothing could replace O'Grady. After the final closing was announced, he spent only a few
weeks looking around before he found a comparable position at Reece Enterprises.
As Tony drove, he reflected that "comparable" probably was the wrong word. Indeed,
Reece and O'Grady were about as different as you could get. Top managers at Reece apparently
didn't worry too much about who did a good job and who didn't. They seemed to promote and
reward people based on how long they had been there and how well they played the never-
ending political games.
Maybe this stemmed from the organization itself, Tony pondered. Reece was a bigger
organization than O'Grady and was structured much more bureaucratically.
It seemed that no one was allowed to make any sort of decision without getting three
signatures from higher up. Those signatures, though, were hard to get. All the top managers
usually were too busy to see anyone, and interoffice memos apparently had very low priority.
Tony also had had some problems fitting in. His peers treated him with polite
indifference. He sensed that a couple of them resented that he, an outsider, had been brought
right in at their level after they had had to work themselves up the ladder. On Tuesday he had
asked two colleagues about playing golf. They had politely declined, saying that they did not
play often. But later in the week, he had overheard them, making arrangements to play that very
Saturday.
It was at that point that Tony had decided to go fishing. As he steered his car off the
interstate to get gas, he wondered if perhaps he had made a mistake in accepting the Reece offer
without finding out more about what he was getting into.
Case Questions:
1. What are the several concepts and characteristics from the field of organizational
behavior that are illustrated in this case?
The characteristics which you will really notice from the field of organization
behavior that are illustrated in this case is about the relationship of Tony to it's co-
workers and its manager where he can really approach them like a friend even there
is a position gap between him and his manager and they get along well personally
and professionally. Tony and his mates or co-workers can perform their work as
freely ad they can because they had a manager that very supportive and letting
them work on their own without pressure. The other behavior that illustrated in this
case is when Tony's environment change, due to shutdown of his late company. The
environment change and also the culture of company that he works recently is
different from before, he is a newbie so he has no any friends and he need to adjust
his self to adopt new culture and belief in order for him to fit in the company he
worked at.
2. What advice can you give Tony? How would this advice be supported or tempered
by behavioral concepts and processes?
As his advisor I would advice that after knowing that there is a possibility that he might
lose his job. He should prepare his self for the different challenges that he might face.
There's also a lot of choices he can choose when ot comes to his problem in his work but
it's up to him what will he choose like, he can choose to change his environment if he is
not comfortable to work with its new co-workers and with a new culture, or he can
choose to stay at work but he need to adopt new beliefs in order for him to stay in a
position that he worked for.
End!!!