skills concepts and behaviors - pearson...

Exhibit SB-1 provides a matrix indicating the relevantself-assessment and skill-module for Chapters 2 through18 in your textbook.

For each of the 16 skills, we provide the following.(1) A brief interpretation of what your self-assessmentresults mean. (2) A review of basic skill concepts andspecific behaviors associated with developing compe-tence in the skill. (3) A short scenario designed to pro-vide you with an opportunity to practice the behaviorsassociated with the skill. (4) Several reinforcement activ-ities to give you additional opportunities to practice andlearn the behaviors associated with the skill.

I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.—Confucius

This section on skill-building has been added to helpreaders apply and use OB concepts. The 16 skillsselected were chosen because of their relevance to devel-oping competence in interpersonal skills and their link-age to one or more of the topic areas in this book.

To maximize the learning of skills, we suggest com-bining text content and self-assessment feedback withthe skill-building modules in this section. The self-assess-ments are available online at www.prenhall.com/onekey.

598

Skill-Building Chapter/Topic Self-Assessment Module

2. Individual Behavior Disciplining Others (#33) Effective Disciplining3. Values and Attitudes Diversity Awareness (#9) Valuing Diversity4. Personality and Emotions EI Score (#23) Reading Emotions5. Perception and Decisions How Creative Am I? (#5) Creative Problem-Solving6. Motivation Concepts Goal Orientation (#14) Setting Goals7. Applied Motivation Job Motivation (#18) Designing Motivating Jobs8/9. Groups and Teams Leading a Team (#34) Creating Effective Teams10. Communication Listening Skills (#28) Active Listening11. Basic Leadership Leadership Style (#29) Choosing a Leadership Style12. Contemporary Leadership Do I Trust Others? (#31) Developing Trust13. Power and Politics Political Orientation (#37) Becoming Politically Adept14. Conflict and Negotiation Negotiation Style (#40) Negotiating15. Organization Structure Willingness to Delegate (#42) Delegating Authority16. Organizational Culture Right Culture? (#44) Reading an Organization’s Culture17. HR Policies and Practices Feedback Skills (#43) Performance Feedback18. Organizational Change Responding to Change (#49) Managing Resistance to Change

From Knowledge to SkillsEXHIBIT SB-1

Self-Assessment Interpretation

Complete the self-assessment (#33) on discipline. Thisinstrument assesses how good you are at discipliningothers. Use the results to reflect on how you would disci-pline an employee and how disciplinary action influ-ences an employee’s learning.

Skills Concepts and Behaviors

If an employee’s performance regularly isn’t up to paror if an employee consistently ignores the organ-ization’s standards and regulations, a manager mayhave to use discipline as a way to control behavior.What exactly is discipline? It is actions taken by a man-

SKILL-BUILDING MODULES 599

ager to enforce the organization’s expectations, stan-dards, and rules. The most common types of disci-pline problems managers have to deal with includeattendance (absenteeism, tardiness, abuse of sickleave), on-the-job behaviors (failure to meet perfor-mance goals, disobedience, failure to use safetydevices, alcohol or drug abuse), and dishonesty (theft,lying to managers).

The essence of effective disciplining can be summa-rized by the following eight behaviors.1

1. Respond immediately. The more quickly a disciplinaryaction follows an offense, the more likely it is that theemployee will associate the discipline with theoffense rather than with you as the dispenser of thediscipline. It’s best to begin the disciplinary processas soon as possible after you notice a violation.

2. Provide a warning. You have an obligation to warn an employee before initiating disciplinary action.This means that the employee must be aware of theorganization’s rules and accept its standards ofbehavior. Disciplinary action is more likely to beinterpreted by employees as fair when they havereceived a clear warning that a given violation willlead to discipline and when they know what that dis-cipline will be.

3. State the problem specifically. Give the date, time, place,individuals involved, and any mitigating circum-stances surrounding the violation. Be sure to definethe violation in exact terms instead of just recitingcompany regulations or terms from a union contract.It’s not the violation of the rules per se about whichyou want to convey concern. It’s the effect that therule violation has on the work unit’s performance.Explain why the behavior can’t be continued byshowing how it specifically affects the employee’s jobperformance, the unit’s effectiveness, and theemployee’s colleagues.

4. Allow the employee to explain his or her position. Regard-less of what facts you have uncovered, due processdemands that you give the employee the opportunityto explain his or her position. From the employee’sperspective, what happened? Why did it happen?What was his or her perception of the rules, regula-tions, and circumstances?

5. Keep the discussion impersonal. Penalties should be con-nected with a given violation, not with the personalityof the individual violator. That is, discipline shouldbe directed at what the employee has done, not atthe employee.

6. Be consistent. Fair treatment of employees demandsthat disciplinary action be consistent. If you en-force rule violations in an inconsistent manner, therules will lose their impact, morale will decline, andemployees will likely question your competence.

Consistency, however, need not result in treatingeveryone exactly alike; doing that would ignore mitigating circumstances. It’s reasonable to modifythe severity of penalties to reflect the employee’shistory, job performance record, and the like. Butthe responsibility is yours to clearly justify discipli-nary actions that might appear inconsistent toemployees.

7. Take progressive action. Choose a punishment that’sappropriate to the crime. Penalties should get pro-gressively stronger if, or when, an offense is re-peated. Typically, progressive disciplinary actionbegins with a verbal warning and then proceedsthrough a written reprimand, suspension, a demo-tion or pay cut, and finally, in the most serious cases,dismissal.

8. Obtain agreement on change. Disciplining shouldinclude guidance and direction for correcting theproblem. Let the employee state what he or she plansto do in the future to ensure that the violation won’tbe repeated.

Practicing the Skill

Read through the following scenario, then practice yourskill in a role-play conducted either in front of the classor in groups of two.

You’re a team leader in the customer servicesdepartment at Mountain View Microbrewery. Sandy isthe newest member of your 10-person team, havingbeen there only six weeks. Sandy came to MountainView with good recommendations from his or her pre-vious job as a customer support representative at a cardealership. However, not long after joining your team,Sandy was late in issuing an important purchasingorder. When you talked to Sandy about it, you were toldit was “lost.” But you discovered it in Sandy’s in-box,where it had been properly placed. Then, just last week,Sandy failed to make an immediate return call to anunhappy customer who could easily have been satisfiedat that point. Instead, the customer worked himself intoa rage and vented his unhappiness in a letter to thecompany’s CEO. The latest incident with Sandy cameup just yesterday. As part of your company’s quality-improvement program, your team members prepareperiodic reports on the service they provide to each cus-tomer and turn these reports over to an upper-manage-ment team who evaluates them. Sandy didn’t meet thedeadline for getting his or her report into this evalua-tion group and you received a call from one of the teammembers wanting to know where this report was.Because Sandy is still on probation for another sixweeks, it appears that the time has come for the two ofyou to talk about his or her failure to meet expectedwork-performance goals.

600 SKILL-BUILDING MODULES


Complete the self-assessment (#9) on diversity attitudes. Thisinstrument taps five dimensions that represent the range ofpositive and negative reactions to workplace diversity.

Skill Concepts and Behaviors

Diversity covers a wide variety of issues, including commu-nicating with employees whose first language isn’t Eng-lish, helping a diverse team cope with conflict, learningwhich rewards are valued by different groups, and deal-ing with discrimination. You can improve your handlingof diversity issues by following these eight behaviors.2

1. Embrace diversity. Successfully valuing diversity startswith accepting the principle of multiculturalism.Accept the value of diversity for its own sake—notsimply because you have to. You need to reflect youracceptance in all you say and do.

2. Recruit broadly. When you have job openings, work toget a diverse applicant pool. Avoid relying on refer-rals from current employees, since this tends to pro-duce candidates similar to your present workforce.

3. Select fairly. Make sure your selection process doesn’tdiscriminate. Particularly, ensure that selection testsare job-related.

4. Provide orientation and training for minorities. Makingthe transition from outsider to insider can be partic-ularly difficult for nontraditional employees.

5. Sensitize all employees. Encourage all employees toembrace diversity. Provide diversity training to helpall employees see the value in diversity.

6. Strive to be flexible. Part of valuing diversity is recogniz-ing that different groups have different needs and val-ues. Be flexible in accommodating employee requests.

7. Seek to motivate individually. You need to be aware of thebackground, cultures, and values of employees. Whatmotivates a single mother with two young childrenand who is working full time to support her family islikely to be different from the needs of a young, sin-gle, part-time employee or an older employee who isworking to supplement his or her retirement income.

8. Reinforce employee differences. Encourage employees toembrace and value diverse views. Create traditionsand ceremonies that promote diversity. Celebratediversity by accentuating its positive aspects. But alsobe prepared to deal with the challenges of diversitysuch as mistrust, miscommunication, lack of cohe-siveness, attitudinal differences, and stress.


Form into groups of three. Discuss the workplace prob-lems that each of the following employees mightencounter and what you could do (as a senior manager)to help the employees overcome the problems.

Lester is a 69-year-old accountant. He’s been withyour organization for more than 35 years, 22 of which hehas been the supervisor of cost accounting. His staff ofseven is made up of four women and three men, rangingin age from 23 to 51.

Sonya is the 36-year-old vice-president of researchand development. She oversees a staff of nearly 20 engi-neers and designers, only two of whom are female. She’sbeen in her job for three months, was hired from out-side, and replaced an executive who was widely per-ceived as a male chauvinist.

Ahman is a recent immigrant from Iran. He is 42, is adevout Muslim, and has limited skills in the English lan-guage. He has an engineering degree from his countrybut since he’s not licensed to practice in the UnitedStates, he works as a parts clerk. He is unmarried and hasno children but feels a strong obligation to his relativesback in Iran. He sends much of his paycheck to them.

Reinforcement Activities

1. Talk with several of your minority friends aboutbiases they may perceive in school or at work. If youwere a school administrator or manager, how mightyou deal with these types of biases?

2. Create a list of suggestions that you personally canuse to improve your sensitivity to diversity issues.


1. Talk with a manager at three different organizations.Ask each what guidance they’ve received from theirorganizations in disciplining employees. Have themdescribe specific employee discipline problemsthey’ve faced and how they’ve handled them.

2. Interview three of your current or past instructors.Ask them about their approaches to discipline. Howdo they handle late papers, cheating, excessiveabsenteeism, or other disciplinary problems?

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Complete the self-assessment (#23) on emotional intelli-gence. This instrument will provide you insights intoyour EI score. The higher your EI score, the better youare at accurately reading others’ emotions and feelings.


Understanding another person’s felt emotions is a verydifficult task. But we can learn to read others’ displayemotions. We do this by focusing on verbal, nonverbal,and paralinguistic cues.3

1. Ask about emotions. The easiest way to find out whatsomeone is feeling is to ask them. Saying somethingas simple as “Are you OK? What’s the problem?” canfrequently provide you with the information to assessan individual’s emotional state. But relying on a ver-bal response has two drawbacks. First, almost all of usconceal our emotions to some extent for privacy andto reflect social expectations. So we might be unwill-ing to share our true feelings. Second, even if wewant to convey our feelings verbally, we may beunable to do so. Some people have difficulty under-standing their own emotions and, hence, are unableto express them verbally. So, at best, verbal responsesprovide only partial information.

2. Look for nonverbal cues. You’re talking with a coworker.Does the fact that his back is rigid, his teethclenched, and his facial muscles tight tell you some-thing about his emotional state? It probably should.Facial expressions, gestures, body movements, andphysical distance are nonverbal cues that can provideadditional insights into what a person is feeling.Facial expressions, for instance, are a window into aperson’s feelings. Notice differences in facial fea-tures: the height of the cheeks, the raising or lower-ing of the brow, the turn of the mouth, the position-ing of the lips, and the configuration of musclesaround the eyes. Even something as subtle as the dis-tance at which someone chooses to position him orherself from you can convey their feelings, or lack offeelings, of intimacy, aggressiveness, repugnance, orwithdrawal.

3. Look for how things are said. As Janet and I talked, Inoticed a sharp change in the tone of her voice andthe speed at which she spoke. I was tapping into thethird source of information on a person’s emo-tions—paralanguage. This is communication thatgoes beyond the specific spoken words. It includes

pitch, amplitude, rate, and voice quality of speech.Paralanguage reminds us that people convey theirfeelings not only in what they say, but also in how theysay it.


Part A Form groups of two. Each person is to spend acouple of minutes thinking of a time in the past when heor she was emotional about something. Examples mightinclude being upset with a parent, sibling, or friend;being excited or disappointed about an academic or ath-letic achievement; being angry with someone over aninsult or slight; being disgusted by something someonehas said or done; or being happy because of somethinggood that happened.

Part B Now you’ll conduct two role-plays. Each will bean interview. In the first, one person will play the inter-viewer and the other will play the job applicant. The jobis for a summer management internship with a largeretail chain. Each role play will last no longer than 10minutes. The interviewer is to conduct a normal jobinterview except you are to continually rethink the emo-tional episode you envisioned in Part A. Try hard to con-vey this emotion while, at the same time, being profes-sional in interviewing the job applicant.

Part C Now reverse positions for the second role-play.The interviewer becomes the job applicant and viceversa. The new interviewer will conduct a normal jobinterview except that he or she will continually rethinkthe emotional episode chosen in Part A.

Part D Spend 10 minutes deconstructing the interview,with specific attention focused on what emotion(s) youthink the other was conveying? What cues did you pickup? How accurate were you in reading those cues?


1. Rent a video of an emotionally laden film such asDeath of a Salesman or Twelve Angry Men. Carefullywatch the actors for clues to the emotions they areexhibiting. Try to determine the various emotions pro-jected and explain how you arrived at your conclusion.

2. If you’re currently working, spend a day specificallylooking for emotional cues in interactions with col-leagues. Did this improve communication?



Complete the self-assessment (#5) that evaluates yourcreativity. This instrument will determine the degree towhich you display characteristics associated with a cre-ative personality. The following will help you to tap intomore of your creative talents.


The uniqueness and variety of problems that managersface demand that they be able to solve problems cre-atively. Creativity is partly a frame of mind. You need toexpand your mind’s capabilities—that is, open yourselfup to new ideas. Every individual has the ability toimprove his or her creativity, but many people simplydon’t try to develop that ability.

You can be more effective at solving problems cre-atively if you use the following 10 suggestions.4

1. Think of yourself as creative. Research shows that if youthink you can’t be creative, you won’t be. Believing inyour ability to be creative is the first step in becomingmore creative.

2. Pay attention to your intuition. Every individual has a subconscious mind that works well. Sometimesanswers will come to you when you least expect them. Listen to that “inner voice.” In fact, most cre-ative people will keep a notepad near their bed and write down ideas when the thoughts come tothem.

3. Move away from your comfort zone. Every individual hasa comfort zone in which certainty exists. But creativ-ity and the known often do not mix. To be creative,you need to move away from the status quo and focusyour mind on something new.

4. Determine what you want to do. This includes suchthings as taking time to understand a problembefore beginning to try to resolve it, getting all thefacts in mind, and trying to identify the most impor-tant facts.

5. Think outside the box. Use analogies whenever possi-ble. (For example, could you approach your prob-lem like a fish out of water and look at what the fishdoes to cope? Or can you use the things you have todo to find your way when it’s foggy to help you solveyour problem?) Use different problem-solvingstrategies such as verbal, visual, mathematical, ortheatrical. Look at your problem from a differentperspective or ask yourself what someone else, likeyour grandmother, might do if faced with the samesituation.

6. Look for ways to do things better. This may involve tryingconsciously to be original, not worrying about look-ing foolish, keeping an open mind, being alert toodd or puzzling facts, thinking of unconventionalways to use objects and the environment, discardingusual or habitual ways of doing things, and strivingfor objectivity by being as critical of your own ideas asyou would those of someone else.

7. Find several right answers. Being creative means contin-uing to look for other solutions even when you thinkyou have solved the problem. A better, more creativesolution just might be found.

8. Believe in finding a workable solution. Like believing inyourself, you also need to believe in your ideas. If youdon’t think you can find a solution, you probablywon’t.

9. Brainstorm with others. Creativity is not an isolatedactivity. Bouncing ideas off of others creates a syner-gistic effect.

10.Turn creative ideas into action. Coming up with cre-ative ideas is only part of the process. Once theideas are generated, they must be implemented.Keeping great ideas in your mind, or on papers thatno one will read, does little to expand your creativeabilities.


Every time the phone rings, your stomach clenches andyour palms start to sweat. And it’s no wonder! As salesmanager for Brinkers, a machine tool parts manufac-turer, you’re besieged by calls from customers who areupset about late deliveries. Your boss, Carter Hererra,acts as both production manager and scheduler. Everytime your sales representatives negotiate a sale, it’s up toCarter to determine whether production can actuallymeet the delivery date the customer specifies. AndCarter invariably says, “No problem.” The good thingabout this is that you make a lot of initial sales. The badnews is that production hardly ever meets the shipmentdates that Carter authorizes. And he doesn’t seem to beall that concerned about the aftermath of late deliveries.He says, “Our customers know they’re getting outstand-ing quality at a great price. Just let them try to matchthat anywhere. It can’t be done. So even if they have towait a couple of extra days or weeks, they’re still gettingthe best deal they can.” Somehow the customers don’tsee it that way. And they let you know about their unhap-piness. Then it’s up to you to try to soothe the relation-ship. You know this problem has to be taken care of, butwhat possible solutions are there? After all, how are you


going to keep from making your manager mad or mak-ing the customers mad?


1. Take 20 minutes to list as many medical or health-care-related jobs as you can that begin with the letterr (for instance, radiologist, registered nurse). If you

run out of listings before time is up, it’s OK to quitearly. But, try to be as creative as you can.

2. List on a piece of paper some common terms thatapply to both water and finance. How many were youable to come up with?


Complete the self-assessment (#14) on goal orientation.This instrument is designed to tap a narrow set of yourgoals—specifically, learning and performance goalsrelated to your college course work. It can help you deter-mine what you want out of your educational experience.


Employees should have a clear understanding of whatthey’re attempting to accomplish. Managers have theresponsibility to see that this is done by helping employ-ees set work goals.

You can be more effective at setting goals if you usethe following eight suggestions.5

1. Identify an employee’s key job tasks. Goal setting beginsby defining what it is that you want your employees toaccomplish. The best source for this information iseach employee’s job description.

2. Establish measurable, specific, and challenging goals foreach key task. Identify the level of performanceexpected of each employee. Specify the target towardwhich the employee is working.

3. Specify the deadlines for each goal. Putting deadlines oneach goal reduces ambiguity. Deadlines, however,should not be set arbitrarily. Rather, they need to berealistic given the tasks to be completed.

4. Allow the employee to participate actively. When employ-ees participate in goal setting, they’re more likely toaccept the goals. However, it must be sincere partici-pation. That is, employees must perceive that you aretruly seeking their input, not just going through themotions.

5. Prioritize goals. When you give someone more thanone goal, it’s important to rank the goals in order ofimportance. The purpose of prioritizing is to encour-age the employee to take action and expend efforton each goal in proportion to its importance.

6. Rate goals for difficulty and importance. Goal settingshould not encourage people to choose easy goals.Instead, goals should be rated for their difficulty and

importance. When goals are rated, individuals can begiven credit for trying difficult goals, even if theydon’t fully achieve them.

7. Build in feedback mechanisms to assess goal progress. Feed-back lets employees know whether their level ofeffort is sufficient to attain the goal. Feedback shouldbe both self-generated and supervisor-generated.Feedback should also be frequent and recurring.

8. Link rewards to goal attainment. It’s natural foremployees to ask, “What’s in it for me?” Linkingrewards to the achievement of goals will help answerthat question.


You worked your way through college while holdingdown a part-time job bagging groceries at Food Townsupermarket chain. You liked working in the food indus-try, and when you graduated, you accepted a positionwith Food Town as a management trainee. Three yearshave passed and you’ve gained experience in the gro-cery store industry and in operating a large supermar-ket. Several months ago, you received a promotion tostore manager at one of the chain’s locations. One ofthe things you’ve liked about Food Town is that it givesstore managers a great deal of autonomy in runningtheir stores. The company provides very general guide-lines to its managers. Top management is concernedwith the bottom line; for the most part, how you getthere is up to you. Now that you’re finally a store man-ager, you want to establish an MBO-type program inyour store. You like the idea that everyone should haveclear goals to work toward and then be evaluated againstthose goals.

Your store employs 70 people, although except forthe managers, most work only 20 to 30 hours per week.You have six people reporting to you: an assistant man-ager; a week-end manager; and grocery, produce, meat,and bakery managers. The only highly skilled jobsbelong to the butchers, who have strict training and reg-ulatory guidelines. Other less skilled jobs include cashier,shelf stocker, maintenance worker, and grocery bagger.


Specifically describe how you would go about settinggoals in your new position. Include examples of goalsfor the jobs of butcher, cashier, and bakery manager.


1. Set personal and academic goals you want to achieveby the end of this college term. Prioritize and ratethem for difficulty.

2. Where do you want to be in five years? Do you havespecific five-year goals? Establish three goals you wantto achieve in five years. Make sure these goals are spe-cific, challenging, and measurable.


Complete the self-assessment (#18) on a job’s motivatingpotential. This instrument indicates how motivatingyour job is. Use this information as a base for looking atthe jobs for which you are responsible.


How do you enrich an employee’s job? The followingsuggestions, based on the job characteristics model,specify the types of changes in jobs that are most likely tolead to improving their motivating potential.6

1. Combine tasks. As a manager, you should seek to takeexisting specialized and divided tasks and put themback together to form a new and larger module ofwork. This will increase skill variety and task identity.

2. Create natural work units. The creation of natural workunits means that the tasks an employee does form anidentifiable and meaningful whole. This increasesemployee “ownership” of the work and improves thelikelihood that employees will view their work asmeaningful and important rather than as irrelevantand boring.

3. Establish client relationships. The client is the user ofthe product or service that the employee works on(and may be an “internal customer” or someone out-side the organization). Whenever possible, youshould establish direct relationships between workersand their clients. This increases skill variety, auton-omy, and feedback for the employee.

4. Expand jobs vertically. Vertical expansion gives employ-ees responsibilities and control that were formerlyreserved for management. It seeks to partially closethe gap between the “doing” and “controlling” aspectsof the job, and it increases employee autonomy.

5. Open feedback channels. By increasing feedback, employ-ees not only learn how well they are performing theirjobs but also whether their performance is improving,deteriorating, or remaining at a constant level. Ideally,this feedback should be received directly as theemployee does the job, rather than from his or hermanager on an occasional basis.


You own and manage Sunrise Deliveries, a small freighttransportation company that makes local deliveries ofproducts for your customers. You have a total of nineemployees—an administrative assistant, two warehousepersonnel, and six delivery drivers.

The drivers’ job is pretty straightforward. Each morn-ing they come in at 7:30 A.M., pick up their daily sched-ule, and then drive off in their preloaded trucks to maketheir stops. They occasionally will also pick up packagesand return them to the Sunrise warehouse, where they’llbe unloaded and redirected by the warehouse workers.

You’ve become very concerned with the highturnover among your drivers. Of your current six dri-vers, three have been working for you less than twomonths and only one’s tenure exceeds six months. Thisis frustrating because you’re paying your drivers morethan many of the larger delivery companies like UPSand FedEx. This employee turnover is getting expensivebecause you’re constantly having to spend time findingand training replacements. It’s also hard to develop aquality customer-service program when customers con-stantly see new faces. When you’ve asked departing dri-vers why they’re quitting, common complaints include:“there’s no room for advancement,” “the job is boring,”and “all we do is drive.” You know that you’re going tohave to do something to solve this problem.



1. Think of the worst job you’ve ever had. Analyze thejob according to the five dimensions identified in thejob characteristics model. Redesign the job in orderto make it more satisfying and motivating.

2. Spend one to three hours at various times observingemployees in your college dining hall. What specificactions would you recommend to make these jobsmore motivating?


Complete the self-assessment (#34) on leading a team.This instrument evaluates how well you diagnose teamdevelopment and manage the various stages of thatdevelopment. The higher your score, the better you areat creating effective teams.


Managers and team leaders need to be able to createeffective teams. You can increase the effectiveness ofyour teams if you use the following nine behaviors.7

1. Establish a common purpose. An effective team needs acommon purpose to which all members aspire. Thispurpose is a vision. It’s broader than any specificgoals. This common purpose provides direction,momentum, and commitment for team members.

2. Assess team strengths and weaknesses. Team memberswill have different strengths and weaknesses. Know-ing these strengths and weaknesses can help theteam leader build on the strengths and compensatefor the weaknesses.

3. Develop specific individual goals. Specific individualgoals help lead team members to achieve higher per-formance. In addition, specific goals facilitate clearcommunication and help maintain the focus on get-ting results.

4. Get agreement on a common approach for achieving goals.Goals are the ends a team strives to attain. Definingand agreeing on a common approach ensures thatthe team is unified on the means for achieving thoseends.

5. Encourage acceptance of responsibility for both individualand team performance. Successful teams make mem-bers individually and jointly accountable for theteam’s purpose, goals, and approach. Membersunderstand what they are individually responsible forand what they are jointly responsible for.

6. Build mutual trust among members. When there is trust,team members believe in the integrity, character, andability of each other. When trust is lacking, members

are unable to depend on each other. Teams that lacktrust tend to be short-lived.

7. Maintain an appropriate mix of team member skills andpersonalities. Team members come to the team withdifferent skills and personalities. To perform effec-tively, teams need three types of skills. They needpeople with technical expertise, people with prob-lem-solving and decision-making skills, and peoplewith good interpersonal skills.

8. Provide needed training and resources. Team leadersneed to make sure that their teams have both thetraining and the resources they need to accomplishtheir goals.

9. Create opportunities for small achievements. Building aneffective team takes time. Team members have tolearn to think and work as a team. New teams can’tbe expected to hit home runs every time they cometo bat, especially at the beginning. Instead, teammembers should be encouraged to try for smallachievements initially.


You’re the leader of a five-member project team that’s beenassigned the task of moving your engineering firm into thebooming area of high-speed intercity rail construction. Youand your team members have been researching the field,identifying specific business opportunities, negotiatingalliances with equipment vendors, and evaluating high-speed rail experts and consultants from around the world.Throughout the process, Tonya, a highly qualified andrespected engineer, has challenged a number of thingsyou’ve said during team meetings and in the workplace.For example, at a meeting two weeks ago, you presentedthe team with a list of 10 possible high-speed rail projectsand started evaluating your organization’s ability to com-pete for them. Tonya contradicted virtually all your com-ments, questioned your statistics, and was quite pessimisticabout the possibility of getting contracts on these projects.After this latest display of displeasure, two other groupmembers, Bryan and Maggie, came to you and complainedthat Tonya’s actions were damaging the team’s effective-ness. You originally put Tonya on the team for her unique

Judy Leale

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expertise and insight. You’d like to find a way to reach herand get the team on the right track to its fullest potential.


1. Interview three managers at different organizations.Ask them about their experiences in managingteams. Have each describe teams that they thought

were effective and why they succeeded. Have eachalso describe teams that they thought were ineffec-tive and the reasons that might have caused this.

2. Contrast a team in which you have been in which mem-bers trusted each other with another team in whichmembers lacked trust with each other. How did theseconditions develop? What were the consequences interms of interaction patterns and performance?


Complete the self-assessment (#28) on listening skills.The higher your score, the better listener you are.


Too many people take listening skills for granted. Theyconfuse hearing with listening. Hearing is merely pick-ing up sound vibrations. Listening is making sense out ofwhat we hear; and it requires paying attention, interpret-ing, and remembering. Active listening is hard work andrequires you to “get inside” the speaker’s head in orderto understand the communication from his or her pointof view.

Eight specific behaviors are associated with active lis-tening. You can be more effective at active listening ifyou use these behaviors.8

1. Make eye contact. We may listen with our ears, but oth-ers tend to judge whether we’re really listening bylooking at our eyes.

2. Exhibit affirmative nods and appropriate facial expressions.The effective active listener shows interest in what’sbeing said through nonverbal signals.

3. Avoid distracting actions or gestures. When listening,don’t look at your watch, shuffle papers, play with yourpencil, or engage in similar distractions. They makethe speaker feel that you’re bored or uninterested.

4. Ask questions. The critical listener analyzes what he orshe hears and asks questions. This behavior providesclarification, ensures understanding, and assures thespeaker that you’re really listening.

5. Paraphrase. Restate in your own words what thespeaker has said. The effective active listener usesphrases such as “What I hear you saying is. . . . ” or“Do you mean . . . ?” Paraphrasing is an excellentcontrol device to check whether or not you’re listen-ing carefully and is also a control for accuracy ofunderstanding.

6. Avoid interrupting the speaker. Let the speaker completehis or her thoughts before you try to respond. Don’t

try to second-guess where the speaker’s thoughts aregoing.

7. Don’t overtalk. Most of us would rather speak our ownideas than listen to what others say. Although talkingmight be more fun and silence might be uncomfort-able, you can’t talk and listen at the same time. Thegood active listener recognizes this fact and doesn’tovertalk.

8. Make smooth transitions between the roles of speaker and lis-tener. In most work situations, you’re continually shift-ing back and forth between the roles of speaker andlistener. The effective active listener makes transitionssmoothly from speaker to listener and back to speaker.


Break into groups of two. This exercise is a debate. Per-son A can choose any contemporary issue. Some exam-ples: business ethics, value of unions, stiffer college grad-ing policies, gun control, money as a motivator. Person Bthen selects a position on this issue. Person A must auto-matically take the counterposition. The debate is to pro-ceed for 8 to 10 minutes, with only one catch. Beforeeach speaks, he or she must first summarize, in his orher own words and without notes, what the other hassaid. If the summary doesn’t satisfy the speaker, it mustbe corrected until it does.


1. In another class—preferably one with a lecture for-mat—practice active listening. Ask questions, para-phrase, exhibit affirming nonverbal behaviors. Thenask yourself: Was this harder for me than a normallecture? Did it affect my note taking? Did I ask morequestions? Did it improve my understanding of thelecture’s content? What was the instructor’s response?

2. Spend an entire day fighting your urge to talk. Listenas carefully as you can to everyone you interact withand respond as appropriately as possible to under-stand, not to make your own point. What, if anything,did you learn from this exercise?



Complete the self-assessment (#29) on leadership style.This instrument is designed to tap the degree to whichyou are task- or people-oriented. These results suggestyour preferential style. But effective leadership dependson properly matching up leadership style with a situa-tion that is congruent. By knowing your leadership ten-dency, you can put yourself into situations that willincrease your likelihood for success.


Simply put, leadership style can be categorized as task-or people-oriented. Neither one is right for all situa-tions. Although there are a number of situational vari-ables that influence the choice of an effective leadershipstyle, four variables seem most relevant:

1. Task structure. Structured tasks have procedures andrules that minimize ambiguity. The more structureda job is, the less need there is for a leader to providetask structure.

2. Level of stress. Situations differ in terms of time andperformance stress. High-stress situations favor lead-ers with experience. Low stress favors a leader’sintelligence.

3. Level of group support. Members of close-knit andsupportive groups help each other out. They can pro-vide both task support and relationship support. Sosupportive groups make fewer demands on a leader.

4. Follower characteristics. Personal characteristics offollowers—such as experience, ability, and motiva-tion—influence which leadership style will be mosteffective. Employees with extensive experience,strong abilities, and high motivation don’t requiremuch task behavior. They will be more effective witha people-oriented style. Conversely, employees withlittle experience, marginal abilities, and low motiva-tion will perform better when leaders exhibit task-ori-ented behavior.


You recently graduated from college with your degree inbusiness administration. You’ve spent the past two sum-mers working at Connecticut Mutual Insurance (CMI),filling in as an intern on a number of different jobs whileemployees took their vacations. You have received andaccepted an offer to join CMI full time as supervisor ofthe policy renewal department.

CMI is a large insurance company. In the headquar-ters office alone, where you’ll be working, there are

more than 1,500 employees. The company believesstrongly in the personal development of its employees.This translates into a philosophy, emanating from thetop executive offices, of trust and respect for all CMIemployees. The company is also regularly atop most listsof “best companies to work for,” largely because of itsprogressive work/life programs and strong commitmentto minimizing layoffs.

In your new job, you’ll direct the activities of 18 pol-icy-renewal clerks. Their jobs require little training andare highly routine. A clerk’s responsibility is to ensurethat renewal notices are sent on current policies, to tab-ulate any changes in premiums, to advise the sales divi-sion if a policy is to be canceled as a result of nonre-sponse to renewal notices, and to answer questions andsolve problems related to renewals.

The people in your work group range in age from 19to 62, with a median age of 25. For the most part theyare high school graduates with little prior working expe-rience. They earn between $1,850 and $2,400 a month.You will be replacing a long-time CMI employee, JanAllison. Jan is retiring after 37 years with CMI, the past14 spent as a policy-renewal supervisor. Because youspent a few weeks in Jan’s group last summer, you’refamiliar with Jan’s style and are acquainted with most ofthe department members. But people don’t know youvery well and are suspicious of the fact that you’re freshout of college and have little experience in the depart-ment. And the reality is that you got this job becausemanagement wanted someone with a college degree tooversee the department. Your most vocal critic is LillianLantz. Lillian is well into her 50s, has been a policyrenewal clerk for over a dozen years, and—as the“grand old lady” of the department—carries a lot ofweight with group members. You know that it’ll be veryhard to lead this department without Lillian’s support.

Using your knowledge of leadership concepts, whichleadership style would you choose? And why?


1. Think of a group or team to which you currentlybelong or of which you have been a part. What type ofleadership style did the leader of this group appear toexhibit? Give some specific examples of the types ofleadership behaviors he or she used. Evaluate the lead-ership style. Was it appropriate for the group? Why orwhy not? What would you have done differently? Why?

2. Observe two sports team (either college or profes-sional—one that you consider successful and theother unsuccessful). What leadership styles appear to


be used in these team situations? Give some specificexamples of the types of leadership behaviors youobserve. How would you evaluate the leadership

style? Was it appropriate for the team? Why or whynot? To what degree do you think leadership styleinfluenced the team’s outcomes?


Complete the self-assessment (#31) on how trusting youare of others. The higher your score, the less faith youhave in others.


Trust plays an important role in any manager’s relation-ships with his or her employees. Given the importanceof trust, today’s managers should actively seek to developit within their work group.

You can be more effective at developing trust amongyour employees if you follow these eight suggestions.9

1. Practice openness. Mistrust comes as much from whatpeople don’t know as from what they do know.Openness leads to confidence and trust. So keeppeople informed, make the criteria on how decisionsare made overtly clear, explain the rationale for yourdecisions, be candid about problems, and fully dis-close relevant information.

2. Be fair. Before making decisions or taking actions,consider how others will perceive them in terms ofobjectivity and fairness. Give credit where credit isdue, be objective and impartial in performanceappraisals, and pay attention to equity perceptions inreward distributions.

3. Speak your feelings. Managers who convey only hardfacts come across as cold and distant. If you shareyour feelings, others will see you as real and human.They will know who you are and their respect for youwill increase.

4. Tell the truth. Being trustworthy means being credible.If honesty is critical to credibility, then you must beperceived as someone who tells the truth. Employeesare more tolerant of hearing something “they don’twant to hear” than finding out that their managerlied to them.

5. Show consistency. People want predictability. Mistrustcomes from not knowing what to expect. Take the timeto think about your values and beliefs. Then let themconsistently guide your decisions. When you knowyour central purpose, your actions will follow accord-ingly, and you will project a consistency that earns trust.

6. Fulfill your promises. Trust requires that people believethat you are dependable. So you need to ensure that

you keep your word and commitments. Promisesmade must be promises kept.

7. Maintain confidences. You trust people who are dis-creet and on whom you can rely. So if people makethemselves vulnerable by telling you something inconfidence, they need to feel assured that you won’tdiscuss it with others or betray that confidence. Ifpeople perceive you as someone who leaks personalconfidences or someone who can’t be depended on,you won’t be perceived as trustworthy.

8. Demonstrate competence. Develop the admiration andrespect of others by demonstrating technical andprofessional ability. Pay particular attention to devel-oping and displaying your communication, negotia-tion, and other interpersonal skills.


You’ve owned and managed your wine shop for morethan 15 years. During that period, you’ve grown from astore with 600 square feet and two employees to yourcurrent 15,000 square foot facility and 18 employees.

You pride yourself on treating employees well. You pro-vide highly competitive wages, profit sharing, and gener-ous benefits. For instance, all employees get three weekspaid vacation after one year and four weeks after five years.You also pay all the premiums on health benefits foremployees and their dependents. The result has been tocreate a very stable and loyal workforce. In fact, you haven’thad an employee voluntarily quit in more than six years.

In the past year, the competitive environment of yourbusiness has changed drastically. Both Wal-Mart andCostco have opened stores near you and they carry awide selection of popular wines at prices that you couldnever profitably match. You’ve had to drop prices onalmost all of your best-selling products in order to keepcustomers. As a result, your profits have dried up. You’recurrently barely breaking even. There won’t be anyemployee profit sharing for this year. Moreover, you’rebeginning to realize that your generous wage and bene-fit offerings make it impossible for you to competeagainst the major warehouse chains who buy in hugequantities and pay below-market wages. You need to cutsalaries and benefits. But you realize that this is likely toundermine morale and the trust you’ve built with yourstaff over the years. How can you reduce your employee


costs and still maintain the trust you’ve developed withyour employees?


1. Keep a one-week log describing ways that your dailydecisions and actions encouraged people to trust youor to not trust you. What things did you do that led totrust? What things did you do that may have led todistrust? How might you have changed your behavior

so that the situations of distrust could have been situ-ations of trust?

2. Review recent issues of a business periodical (such asBusiness Week, Fortune, Forbes, Fast Company, or theWall Street Journal) for articles in which trust (or lackof trust) may have played a role. Find two articles anddescribe the situation. Explain how the person(s)involved might have used skills at developing trust tohandle the situation.


Complete the self-assessment (#37) on political orienta-tion. This instrument is designed to assess your ability toplay politics. The higher your score, the better your polit-ical skills. Individuals with strong political skills are astutein sizing up situations, have the ability to influence others,are adept at developing and using networks of people,and are skillful at appearing to be genuine and sincere.


Forget, for a moment, the ethics of politicking and anynegative impressions you might have of people whoengage in organizational politics. If you want to be morepolitically adept in your organization, follow these eightsuggestions:10

1. Frame arguments in terms of organizational goals. Effec-tive politicking requires camouflaging your self-inter-est. No matter that your objective is self-serving; allthe arguments you marshal in support of it must beframed in terms of the benefits that will accrue to theorganization. People whose actions appear to bla-tantly further their own interests at the expense of theorganization are almost universally denounced, arelikely to lose influence, and often suffer the ultimatepenalty of being expelled from the organization.

2. Develop the right image. If you know your organization’sculture, you understand what the organization wantsand values from its employee—in terms of dress,associates to cultivate and those to avoid, whether toappear to be a risk taker or risk-aversive, the pre-ferred leadership style, the importance placed ongetting along well with others, and so forth. Thenyou are equipped to project the appropriate image.Because the assessment of your performance isn’talways a fully objective process, you need to pay atten-tion to style as well as substance.

3. Gain control of organizational resources. The control oforganizational resources that are scarce and impor-tant is a source of power. Knowledge and expertiseare particularly effective resources to control. Theymake you more valuable to the organization and,therefore, more likely to gain security, advancement,and a receptive audience for your ideas.

4. Make yourself appear indispensable. Because we’re deal-ing with appearances rather than objective facts, youcan enhance your power by appearing to be indis-pensable. You don’t really have to be indispensable aslong as key people in the organization believe thatyou are. If the organization’s prime decision makersbelieve there is no ready substitute for what you aregiving the organization, they are likely to go to greatlengths to ensure that your desires are satisfied.

5. Be visible. If you have a job that brings your accom-plishments to the attention of others, that’s great.However, if you don’t have such a job, you’ll want tofind ways to let others in the organization knowwhat you’re doing by highlighting successes in rou-tine reports, having satisfied customers relay theirappreciation to senior executives, being seen atsocial functions, being active in your professionalassociations, and developing powerful allies whospeak positively about your accomplishments. Ofcourse, the skilled politician actively and success-fully lobbies to get the projects that will increase hisor her visibility.

6. Develop powerful allies. It helps to have powerful peo-ple on your side. Cultivate contacts with potentiallyinfluential people above you, at your own level, andin the lower ranks. These allies often can provide youwith information that’s otherwise not readily avail-able. In addition, there will be times when decisionswill be made in favor of those with the greatest sup-port. Having powerful allies can provide you with acoalition of support if and when you need it.


7. Avoid “tainted” members. In almost every organization,there are fringe members whose status is question-able. Their performance and/or loyalty is suspect.Keep your distance from such individuals. Given thereality that effectiveness has a large subjective com-ponent, your own effectiveness might be called intoquestion if you’re perceived as being too closely asso-ciated with tainted members.

8. Support your boss. Your immediate future is in thehands of your current boss. Because he or she evalu-ates your performance, you’ll typically want to dowhatever is necessary to have your boss on your side.You should make every effort to help your boss suc-ceed, make her look good, support her if she isunder siege, and spend the time to find out the crite-ria she will use to assess your effectiveness. Don’tundermine your boss. And don’t speak negatively ofher to others.


You used to be the star marketing manager for HiltonElectronics Corporation. But for the past year, you’vebeen outpaced again and again by Sean, a new man-ager in the design department, who has been accom-plishing everything expected of him and more. Mean-while, your best efforts to do your job well have beensabotaged and undercut by Maria—your and Sean’smanager. For example, prior to last year’s international

consumer electronics show, Maria moved $30,000 fromyour budget to Sean’s. Despite your best efforts, yourmarketing team couldn’t complete all the marketingmaterials normally developed to showcase all of yourorganization’s new products at this important industryshow. And Maria has chipped away at your staff andbudget ever since. Although you’ve been able to meetmost of your goals with less staff and budget, Maria hascontinued to slice away resources from your group. Justlast week, she eliminated two positions in your team ofeight marketing specialists to make room for a newdesigner and some extra equipment for Sean. Maria isclearly taking away your resources while giving Seanwhatever he wants and more. You think it’s time to dosomething or soon you won’t have any team orresources left.


1. Keep a one-week journal of your behavior describingincidences when you tried to influence othersaround you. Assess each incident by asking: Were yousuccessful at these attempts to influence them? Whyor why not? What could you have done differently?

2. Outline a specific action plan, based on concepts inthis module, that would improve your career pro-gression in the organization in which you currentlywork or an organization in which you think youwould like to be employed.


Complete the self-assessment (#40) on your negotiatingstyle. After adjusting for situational context, we can saythat generally the higher your score, the better you areat negotiating. You will, for instance, favor collaboration,rationality, a direct communication style, and otherbehaviors that tend to favor effective negotiations.


You can be more effective at negotiating if you use thefollowing five recommended behaviors.11

1. Begin with a positive overture. Studies on negotiationshow that concessions tend to be reciprocated andlead to agreements. As a result, begin bargaining witha positive overture—perhaps a small concession—and then reciprocate the other party’s concessions.

2. Address problems, not personalities. Concentrate on thenegotiation issues, not on the personal characteris-

tics of the individual with whom you’re negotiating.When negotiations get tough, avoid the tendency toattack this person. Remember it’s that person’s ideasor position that you disagree with, not him or herpersonally. Separate the people from the problem,and don’t personalize differences.

3. Pay little attention to initial offers. Treat an initial offeras merely a point of departure. Everyone must havean initial position. These initial offers tend to beextreme and idealistic. Treat them as such.

4. Emphasize win–win solutions. Inexperienced negotia-tors often assume that their gain must come at theexpense of the other party. That needn’t be the case.There are often win–win solutions. But assuming azero-sum game means missed opportunities fortrade-offs that could benefit both sides. So if condi-tions are supportive, look for an integrative solution.Frame options in terms of the other party’s interestsand look for solutions that can allow this person, aswell as yourself, to declare a victory.


5. Create an open and trusting climate. Skilled negotiatorsare better listeners, ask more questions, focus theirarguments more directly, are less defensive, and havelearned to avoid words or phrases that can irritatethe person with whom they’re negotiating (such as“generous offer,” “fair price,” or “reasonable arrange-ment”). In other words, they’re better at creating theopen and trusting climate that is necessary for reach-ing a win–win settlement.


As marketing director for Done Right, a regionalhome-repair chain, you’ve come up with a plan youbelieve has significant potential for future sales. Yourplan involves a customer information service designedto help people make their homes more environmen-tally sensitive. Then based on homeowners’ assess-ments of their homes’ environmental impact, yourfirm will be prepared to help them deal with problemsor concerns they may uncover. You’re really excitedabout the competitive potential of this new service. Youenvision pamphlets, in-store appearances by environ-

mental experts, as well as contests for consumers andschool kids. After several weeks of preparations, youmake your pitch to your boss, Nick Castro. You pointout how the market for environmentally sensitive prod-ucts is growing and how this growing demand repre-sents the perfect opportunity for Done Right. Nickseems impressed by your presentation, but he’sexpressed one major concern. He thinks your work-load is already too heavy. He doesn’t see how you’regoing to have enough time to start this new service andstill be able to look after all of your other assigned mar-keting duties.


1. Negotiate with a course instructor to raise the gradeon an exam or paper on which you think you shouldhave received a higher grade.

2. The next time you purchase a relatively expensive item(e.g., automobile, apartment lease, appliance, jewelry),attempt to negotiate a better price and gain some con-cessions such as an extended warranty, smaller downpayment, maintenance services, or the like.


Complete the self-assessment (#42) on willingness todelegate. This instrument taps excuses for failing to del-egate and errors managers use when delegation is doneimproperly. The higher your score, the better your dele-gation skills.


Managers get things done through other people.Because there are limits to any manager’s time andknowledge, effective managers need to understand howto delegate. Delegation is the assignment of authority toanother person to carry out specific duties. It allows anemployee to make decisions. Delegation should not beconfused with participation. In participative decisionmaking, there’s a sharing of authority. In delegation,employees make decisions on their own.

A number of actions differentiate the effective dele-gator from the ineffective delegator. There are fivebehaviors that effective delegators will use.12

1. Clarify the assignment. The place to begin is to deter-mine what is to be delegated and to whom. You needto identify the person who’s most capable of doing

the task and then determine whether he or she hasthe time and motivation to do the task. Assuming youhave a willing and able individual, it’s your responsi-bility to provide clear information on what is beingdelegated, the results you expect, and any time orperformance expectations you may have. Unlessthere’s an overriding need to adhere to specificmethods, you should delegate only the resultsexpected. Get agreement on what is to be done andthe results expected, but let the employee decide thebest way to complete the task.

2. Specify the employee’s range of discretion. Every act of del-egation comes with constraints. Although you’re del-egating to an employee the authority to performsome task or tasks, you’re not delegating unlimitedauthority. You’re delegating authority to act on cer-tain issues within certain parameters. You need tospecify what those parameters are so that theemployee knows, in no uncertain terms, the range ofhis or her discretion.

3. Allow the employee to participate. One of the best sourcesfor determining how much authority will be neces-sary to accomplish a task is the person who will beheld accountable for that task. If you allow employ-ees to participate in determining what is delegated,


how much authority is needed to get the job done,and the standards by which they’ll be judged, youincrease employee motivation, satisfaction, andaccountability for performance.

4. Inform others that delegation has occurred. Delegationshould not take place in a vacuum. Not only do youand the delegatee need to know specifically what hasbeen delegated and how much authority has beengiven, but anyone else who may be affected by thedelegation act also needs to be informed.

5. Establish feedback channels. The establishment of con-trols to monitor the employee’s progress increasesthe likelihood that important problems will be iden-tified early and that the task will be completed ontime and to the desired specifications. Ideally, thesecontrols should be determined at the time of the ini-tial assignment. Agree on a specific time for the com-pletion of the task and then set progress dates whenthe employee will report back on how well he or sheis doing and any major problems that may havearisen. These controls can be supplemented withperiodic checks to ensure that authority guidelinesaren’t being abused, organizational policies arebeing followed, proper procedures are being met,and the like.


You’re the director of research and development for alarge pharmaceutical manufacturer. You have six peoplewho report directly to you: Sue (your secretary), Dale(laboratory manager), Todd (quality standards man-ager), Linda (patent coordination manager), Ruben(market coordination manager), and Marjorie (seniorprojects manager). Dale is the most senior of the fivemanagers and is generally acknowledged as the chiefcandidate to replace you if you are promoted or leave.

You have received your annual instructions from theCEO to develop next year’s budget for your area. Thetask is relatively routine but takes quite a bit of time. Inthe past, you’ve always done the annual budget yourself.But this year, because your workload is exceptionally

heavy, you’ve decided to try something different. You’regoing to assign budget preparation to one of your subor-dinate managers. The obvious choice is Dale. Dale hasbeen with the company longest, is highly dependable,and, as your probable successor, is most likely to gainfrom the experience. The budget is due on your boss’desk in eight weeks. Last year it took you about 30 to 35hours to complete. However, you have done a budgetmany times before. For a novice, it might take doublethat amount of time.

The budget process is generally straightforward. Youstart with last year’s budget and modify it to reflect infla-tion and changes in departmental objectives. All thedata that Dale will need are in your files, online, or canbe obtained from your other managers.

You have just walked over to Dale’s office andinformed him of your decision. He seemed enthusiasticabout doing the budget, but he also has a heavy workload.He told you, “I’m regularly coming in around 7 A.M. andit’s unusual for me to leave before 7 P.M. For the past fiveweekends, I’ve even come in on Saturday mornings to getmy work done. I can do my best to try to find time to dothe budget.”

Specify exactly what you would say to Dale and theactions you would take if Dale agrees to do the budget.


1. When watching a video of a classic movie that hasexamples of “managers” delegating assignments, payexplicit attention to the incidence of delegation. Wasdelegating done effectively? What was good about thepractice? How might it have been improved? Examplesof movies with delegation examples include The Godfa-ther, The Firm, Star Trek, Nine-to-Five, and Working Girl.

2. The next time you have to do a group project for aclass, pay explicit attention to how tasks are dele-gated. Does someone assume a leadership role? If so,note how closely the delegation process is followed.Is delegation different in project or study groupsthan in typical work groups?


Complete the self-assessment (#44) on identifying theright organizational culture for you. The result will sug-gest whether you fit better in a more formal and struc-

tured culture or a more informal and flexible one.Your success and satisfaction in an organization will beinfluenced by how well its culture fits your personalpreference.



The ability to read an organization’s culture can be avaluable skill. For instance, if you’re looking for a job,you’ll want to choose an employer whose culture is com-patible with your values and in which you’ll feel com-fortable. If you can accurately assess a potentialemployer’s culture before you make your job decision,you may be able to save yourself a lot of grief andreduce the likelihood of making a poor choice. Simi-larly, you’ll undoubtedly have business transactions withnumerous organizations during your professionalcareer, such as selling a product or service, negotiatinga contract, arranging a joint work project, or merelyseeking out who controls certain decisions in an organi-zation. The ability to assess another organization’s cul-ture can be a definite plus in successfully performingthose pursuits.

You can be more effective at reading an organiza-tion’s culture if you use the following behaviors. Forthe sake of simplicity, we’re going to look at this skillfrom the perspective of a job applicant. We’ll assumethat you’re interviewing for a job, although these skillsare generalizable to many situations. Here’s a list ofthings you can do to help learn about an organization’sculture.13

1. Do background work. Get the names of formeremployees from friends or acquaintances, and talkwith them. Also talk with members of professionaltrade associations to which the organization’semployees belong and executive recruiters whodeal with the organization. Look for clues in storiestold in annual reports and other organizational lit-erature; and check out the organization’s Web sitesfor evidence of high turnover or recent manage-ment shake-ups.

2. Observe the physical surroundings. Pay attention tosigns, posters, pictures, photos, style of dress, lengthof hair, degree of openness between offices, andoffice furnishings and arrangements.

3. Make note about those with whom you met. Whom did youmeet? How did they expect to be addressed?

4. How would you characterize the style of the people you met?Are they formal? Casual? Serious? Jovial? Open? Reti-cent about providing information?

5. Look at the organization’s human resources manual. Arethere formal rules and regulations printed there? Ifso, how detailed are they? What do they cover?

6. Ask questions of the people with whom you meet. Themost valid and reliable information tends to comefrom asking the same questions of many people (tosee how closely their responses align). Questionsthat will give you insights into organizationalprocesses and practices might include: What’s the

background of the founders? What’s the back-ground of current senior managers? What are thesemanagers’ functional specialties, and were theypromoted from within or hired from outside? Howdoes the organization integrate new employees? Isthere a formal orientation program? Are there for-mal employee training programs and, if so, how arethey structured? How does your boss define his orher job success? How would you define fairness interms of reward allocations? Can you identify somepeople here who are on the “fast track”? What doyou think has put them on the fast track? Can youidentify someone in the organization who seems tobe considered a deviant and how has the organiza-tion responded to this person? Can you describe adecision that someone made that was wellreceived? Can you describe a decision that didn’twork out well, and what were the consequences forthat decision maker? Could you describe a crisis orcritical event that has occurred recently in theorganization and how did top managementrespond?


After spending your first three years after college graduation as a freelance graphic designer, you’relooking at pursuing a job as an account executive at agraphic design firm. You feel that the scope of assign-ments and potential for technical training far exceedwhat you’d be able to do on your own, and you’re look-ing to expand your skills and meet a brand-new set of challenges. However, you want to make sure you“fit” into the organization where you’re going to bespending more than eight hours every work day.What’s the best way for you to find a place where you’llbe happy and where your style and personality will beappreciated?


1. If you’re taking more than one course, assess the cul-ture of the various classes in which you’re enrolled.How do the classroom cultures differ?

2. Do some comparisons of the atmosphere or feelingyou get from various organizations. Because of thenumber and wide variety that you’ll find, it will prob-ably be easiest for you to do this exercise usingrestaurants, retail stores, or banks. Based on theatmosphere that you observe, what type of organiza-tional culture do you think these organizations mighthave? If you can, interview three employees at eachorganization for their descriptions of their organiza-tion’s culture.



Complete the self-assessment (#43) on feedback skills.This instrument is designed to assess how good you areat providing performance feedback. Your results tell youhow effective you are when giving feedback and canhelp you determine where your strengths and weak-nesses lie.


Many managers are derelict in providing performancefeedback, especially when it’s negative. Like most of us,managers don’t particularly enjoy communicating badnews. They fear offending the other person or having todeal with the recipient’s defensiveness. Nevertheless,providing performance feedback is an important part ofeffective employee communication.

You can be more effective at providing feedback ifyou use the following six specific suggestions.14

1. Focus on specific behaviors. Feedback should be specificrather than general. Avoid such statements as “Youhave a bad attitude” or “I’m really impressed with thegood job you did.” They’re vague and although theyprovide information, they don’t tell the recipientenough to correct the “bad attitude” or on what basisyou concluded that a “good job” had been done so theperson knows what behaviors to repeat or to avoid.

2. Keep feedback impersonal. Feedback, particularly thenegative kind, should be descriptive rather thanjudgmental or evaluative. No matter how upset youare, keep the feedback focused on job-related behav-iors, and never criticize someone personally becauseof an inappropriate action.

3. Keep feedback goal-oriented. Feedback should not begiven primarily to “blow off steam” or “unload” onanother person. If you have to say something nega-tive, make sure it’s directed toward the recipient’sgoals. Ask yourself whom the feedback is supposed tohelp. If the answer is you, bite your tongue and holdthe comment. Such feedback undermines your credi-bility and lessens the meaning and influence offuture feedback.

4. Make feedback well timed. Feedback is most meaningfulto a recipient when there’s a very short intervalbetween his or her behavior and the receipt of feed-back about that behavior. Moreover, if you’re particu-larly concerned with changing behavior, delays inproviding feedback on the undesirable actions lessenthe likelihood that the feedback will be effective inbringing about the desired change. Of course, mak-

ing feedback prompt merely for the sake of prompt-ness can backfire if you have insufficient informa-tion, if you’re angry, or if you’re otherwise emotion-ally upset. In such instances, “well timed” could mean“somewhat delayed.”

5. Ensure understanding. Make sure your feedback is con-cise and complete so that the recipient clearly andfully understands the communication. It may help tohave the recipient rephrase the content of your feed-back to find out whether or not it fully captured themeaning you intended.

6. Direct negative feedback toward behavior that the recipientcan control. There’s little value in reminding a personof some shortcoming over which he or she has nocontrol. Negative feedback should be directed atbehavior that the recipient can do something about.In addition, when negative feedback is given con-cerning something that the recipient can control, itmight be a good idea to indicate specifically what canbe done to improve the situation.


Craig is an excellent employee whose expertise and pro-ductivity have always met or exceeded your expecta-tions. But recently he’s been making work difficult forother members of your advertising team. Like hiscoworkers, Craig researches and computes the costs ofmedia coverage for your advertising agency’s clients.The work requires laboriously leafing through severallarge reference books to find the correct base price andadd-on charges for each radio or television station andtime slot, calculating each actual cost, and compilingthe results in a computerized spreadsheet. To makethings more efficient and convenient, you’ve alwaysallowed your team members to bring the referencebooks they’re using to their desks while they’re usingthem. Lately, however, Craig has been piling booksaround him for days and sometimes weeks at a time. Thebooks interfere with the flow of traffic past his desk andother people have to go out of their way to retrieve thebooks from Craig’s pile. It’s time for you to have a talkwith Craig.


1. Think of three things that a friend or family memberdid well recently. Did you praise the person at thetime? If not, why? The next time someone close toyou does something well, give him or her positivefeedback.


2. You have a good friend who has a mannerism (forinstance, speech, body movement, or style of dress)that you think is inappropriate and detracts from

the overall impression that he or she makes. Comeup with a plan for talking with this person. What willyou say? How will you handle his or her reaction?


Complete the self-assessment (#49) on how well yourespond to turbulent change. The higher your score,the more comfortable you are with change. Not all peo-ple, of course, handle change well. Use your score tounderstand the type of changes that may intimidatepeople.


Managers play an important role in organizationalchange, often serving as change agents. However, man-agers may find that change is resisted by employees.After all, change represents ambiguity and uncertainty,or it threatens the status quo. How can this resistance tochange be effectively managed?

You can be more effective at managing resistance tochange if you use the following suggestions.15

1. Assess the climate for change. A major reason that somechanges succeed and others fail is the readiness forchange. Assessing the climate for change involvesasking a number of questions. The more affirmativeanswers you get to the following questions, the morelikely it is that change efforts will succeed:

Is the sponsor of the change high up enough to havepower to deal effectively with resistance?Is senior management supportive of the change andcommitted to it?Is there a strong sense of urgency from senior man-agement about the need for change, and is this feel-ing shared by the rest of the organization?Do managers have a clear vision of how the futurewill look different from the present?Are there objective measures in place to evaluate thechange effort, and have reward systems been explic-itly designed to reinforce them?Is the specific change effort consistent with otherchanges going on within the organization?Are functional managers willing to sacrifice theirself-interests for the good of the organization as awhole?Does management pride itself on closely monitoringchanges and actions taken by competitors?

Are managers and employees rewarded for takingrisks, being innovative, and looking for new and bet-ter solutions?Is the organizational structure flexible?Does communication flow both down and up in theorganization?Has the organization successfully implementedmajor changes in the recent past?Is employee satisfaction and trust in managementhigh?Is there a high degree of interaction and cooperationbetween organizational work units?Are decisions made quickly and do decisions takeinto account a wide variety of suggestions?

2. Choose an appropriate approach for managing the resis-tance to change. There are six tactics that have beensuggested for dealing with resistance to change. Eachis designed to be appropriate for different conditionsof resistance. These include education and communica-tion (used when resistance comes from lack of infor-mation or inaccurate information), participation(used when resistance stems from people not havingall the information they need or when they have thepower to resist), facilitation and support (used whenthose with power will lose out in a change),manipulation and co-optation (used when any other tac-tic will not work or is too expensive), and coercion(used when speed is essential and change agents pos-sess considerable power). Which one or more ofthese approaches will be effective depends on thesource of the resistance to the change.

3. During the time the change is being implemented and afterthe change is completed, communicate with employeesregarding what support you may be able to provide. Youremployees need to know that you are there to sup-port them during change efforts. Be prepared tooffer the assistance that may be necessary to helpyour employees enact the change.


You’re the nursing supervisor at a community hospitalemploying both emergency room and floor nurses.Each of these teams of nurses tends to work almostexclusively with others doing the same job. In your


professional reading, you’ve come across the conceptof cross-training nursing teams and giving them morevaried responsibilities, which has been shown toimprove patient care while at the same time loweringcosts. You call the two team leaders, Sue and Scott,into your office to explain that you want the nursingteams to move to this approach. To your surprise,they’re both opposed to the idea. Sue says she and theother emergency room nurses feel they’re needed inthe ER, where they fill the most vital role in the hospi-tal. They work special hours when needed, do what-ever tasks are required, and often work in difficult andstressful circumstances. They think the floor nurseshave relatively easy jobs for the pay they receive. Scott,leader of the floor nurse team, tells you that his groupbelieves the ER nurses lack the special training andextra experience that the floor nurses bring to the hos-pital. The floor nurses claim they have the heaviest

responsibilities and do the most exacting work.Because they have ongoing contact with patients andfamilies, they believe they shouldn’t be called awayfrom vital floor duties to help the ER nurses completetheir tasks.


1. Think about changes (major and minor) that youhave dealt with over the past year. Perhaps thesechanges involved other people and perhaps theywere personal. Did you resist the change? Did othersresist the change? How did you overcome your resis-tance or the resistance of others to the change?

2. Interview managers at three different organizationsabout changes they have implemented. What wastheir experience in implementing the change? Howdid they manage resistance to the change?

1. Based on W.B. Boise, “Supervisors’ Attitude Toward Disciplinary Actions,”Personnel Administration 28, no. 3 (1965): 24–27.

2. Based on T. Cox, Jr., Cultural Diversity in Organizations (San Francisco:Berrett-Koehler, 1993), pp. 225–41; and C. Harvey and M.J. Allard,Understanding and Managing Diversity: Readings, Cases, and Exercises, 2nd ed.(Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall 2002).

3. Based on V.P. Richmond, J.C. McCroskey, and S.K. Payne, Nonverbal Behav-ior in Interpersonal Relations, 2nd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall,1991), pp. 117–38; L.A. King, “Ambivalence over Emotional Expressionand Reading Emotions in Situations and Faces,” Journal of Personality andSocial Psychology, March 1998, pp. 753–62; and H.A. Elfenbein and N.Ambady, “Predicting Workplace Outcomes from the Ability to Eavesdropon Feelings,” Journal of Applied Psychology, October 2002, pp. 963–71.

4. Based on J. Calano and J. Salzman, “Ten Ways to Fire Up Your Creativity,”Working Woman, July 1989, p. 94; J.V. Anderson, “Mind Mapping: A Tool forCreative Thinking,” Business Horizons, January–February 1993, pp. 42–46;M. Loeb, “Ten Commandments for Managing Creative People,” Fortune,January 16, 1995, pp. 135–36; and M. Henricks, “Good Thinking,”Entrepreneur, May 1996, pp. 70–73.

5. Based on S.P. Robbins and P.L. Hunsaker, Training in InterPersonal Skills, 3rded. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003), pp. 66–69.

6. Based on J.R. Hackman, “Work Design,” in J.R. Hackman and J.L. Suttle(eds.), Improving Life at Work (Santa Monica, CA: Goodyear, 1977), pp.132–33.

7. Based on Robbins and Hunsaker, Training in InterPersonal Skills, pp. 182–86.8. Based on Robbins and Hunsaker, Training in InterPersonal Skills, pp. 39–42.9. Based on F. Bartolome, “Nobody Trusts the Boss Completely—Now What?,”

Harvard Business Review, March–April 1989, pp. 135–42; J.K. Butler, Jr.,

“Toward Understanding and Measuring Conditions of Trust: Evolution of aCondition of Trust Inventory,” Journal of Management, September 1991, pp.643–63; and L.C. Abrams, R. Cross, E. Lesser, and D.Z. Levin, “NurturingInterpersonal Trust in Knowledge-Sharing Networks,” Academy of Manage-ment Executive, November 2003, pp. 64–77.

10. Based on H. Mintzberg, Power In and Around Organizations (Upper SaddleRiver, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1983), p. 24; and S.P. Robbins and P.L. Hunsaker,Training in InterPersonal Skills, pp. 131–34.

11. Based on J.A. Wall, Jr., and M.W. Blum, “Negotiations,” Journal of Manage-ment, June 1991, pp. 278–82; J.S. Pouliot, “Eight Steps to Success in Negoti-ating,” Nation’s Business, April 1999, pp. 40–42; and R. Walker, “Take It orLeave It: The Only Guide to Negotiating You Will Ever Need,” INC., August2003, pp. 75–82.

12. Based on Robbins and Hunsaker, Training in InterPersonal Skills, pp. 95–98.13. Based on A.L. Wilkins, “The Culture Audit: A Tool for Understanding

Organizations,” Organizational Dynamics, Autumn 1983, pp. 24–38; D.M.Cable, L. Aiman-Smith, P.W. Mulvey, and J.R. Edwards, “The Sources andAccuracy of Job Applicants’ Beliefs about Organizational Culture,” Academyof Management Journal, December 2000, pp. 1076–85; S. Shellenbarger,“How to Find Out If You’re Going to Hate a New Job Before You Agree toTake It,” Wall Street Journal, June 13, 2002, p. D1; and D.W. Brown, “Search-ing For Clues,” Black Enterprise, November 2002, pp. 115–20.

14. Based on Robbins and Hunsaker, Training in InterPersonal Skills, pp.52–54.

15. Based on J.P. Kotter and L.A. Schlesinger, “Choosing Strategies forChange,” Harvard Business Review, March–April 1979, pp. 106–14; and T.A.Stewart, “Rate Your Readiness to Change,” Fortune, February 7, 1994, pp.106–10.

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