John James has worked at one of the world\u2019s largest
aerospace firms for more than 15 years. He was hired
into the division during the Clinton years when many
people were being brought onto the payroll. John had
not completed his engineering degree, so he was hired
as a drafter. Most of the other people in his department
who were hired at the time had completed their degrees
and therefore began careers as associate engineers. Over
the years, John has progressed through the ranks to the
classification of engineer. Many of the employees hired
at the same time as John have advanced more rapidly
because the corporation recognized their engineering degrees as prerequisites for advancement. Years of
service can be substituted, but a substantial number of
years is required to offset the lack of a degree.
John began exhibiting signs of dissatisfaction with
the corporation in general several years ago. He would
openly vent his feelings against nearly everything the
corporation was doing or trying to do. However, he did
not complain about his specific situation. The complaining became progressively worse. John started to exhibit
mood swings. He would be extremely productive at
times (though still complaining) and then swing into
periods of near zero productivity. During these times,
John would openly surf the Internet for supplies for a
new home repair project or for the most recent Dilbert
comics. His fellow employees were hesitant to point out
to management when these episodes occurred. Most of
the team members had been working together for the
entire 15 years and had become close friends. This is
why these nonproductive episodes of John\u2019s were such
a problem; no one on the team felt comfortable pointing
the problem out to higher management. As time progressed and John\u2019s friends evolved into his managers
while he remained at lower salary grades, John\u2019s mood
swings grew more dramatic and lasted longer.
During the most recent performance appraisal
review, John\u2019s manager (a friend of his) included a
paragraph concerning his \u201clack of concentration at
times.\u201d This was included because of numerous comments made by John\u2019s peers. The issue could no longer
be swept under the rug. John became irate at the review
feedback and refused to acknowledge receipt of his performance appraisal. His attitude toward his teammates
(continued)
Case Study 4.4 149
executives chimed in too. VW America boss Michael
Horn stated, \u201dWe\u2019ve totally screwed up.\u201d
With VW recalling millions of cars worldwide,
it had to set aside $6.5 billion to cover costs. That
resulted in the company posting its first quarterly loss
for 15 years of nearly $3 billion in late October 2015.
The company has reached an agreement with the U.S.
government to pay $14.7 billion in fines for its role in
the diesel emissions violations, with the likelihood of
even more penalties to come. The EPA has the power
to fine a company up to $37,500 for each vehicle that
breaches standards\u2014a maximum fine of about $18
billion. According to VW, \u201cThe costs of possible legal
action by car owners and shareholders cannot be estimated at the current time.\u201d
Postscript
It turns out that Volkswagen is not the only cheater. The
scandals that plagued Volkswagen have broadened, as
several Japanese firms are now admitting a systematic
culture of cheating. In May 2016, Mitsubishi president
Tetsuro Aikawa announced he would step down following his company\u2019s admission to cheating fuel efficiency tests, something that dates back to 1991 when
Japan introduced new regulations. Elsewhere, two other
Japanese carmakers now have their names involved in
the controversy. Suzuki has also announced \u201cdiscrepancies\u201d in fuel economy and emissions testing of 16
Japanese market models. Nissan, meanwhile, has faced
accusations from South Korea that some of its UK-made
Qashqais have defeat devices fitted to their engines.
The South Korean government apparently plans to fine
Nissan nearly $1 million, but the Japanese company
firmly denies any wrongdoing. Investigations are still
ongoing.41
Questions
1. How do you think Volkswagen executives could
justify this behavior? How do you think the
actions of the Japanese automakers influenced
VW\u2019s decision-making?
2. How would you personally respond if you were
a member of a project team developing a device
that was designed to cheat environmental testing?
What if you were the sole support for a large family with three children in college?
3. Is there a \u201cmoral\u201d to this story for you? What
would that moral be?
150 Chapter 4 \u2022 Leadership and the Project Manager
FIGURE 4.5 Salary Grade Classifications at This Corporation
Vice President
Director
G 26 Engineering Manager
G 24 Senior Staff Engineer
G 22 Staff Engineer
G 20 Senior Engineer
G 18 Engineer
G 16 Associate Engineer
G 14 Senior Drafter
G 12 Drafter
G 10 Associate Drafter
Small Salary Gap
Large
Salary
Gap
Salaried
Employees
Hourly
Employees
became extremely negative. He demanded to know who
had spoken negatively about him, and his work output
diminished to virtually nothing.
Analysis of the Problem
Clearly John has not been happy. To understand why,
the history of his employment at this company needs
to be looked at in greater detail. The group of coworkers that started together 15 years earlier all had similar
backgrounds and capabilities. A group of eight people
were all about 22 years old and had just left college;
John was the only exception to this pattern as he still
needed two years of schooling to finish his engineering degree. All were single and making good money
at their jobs. The difference in salary levels between an
associate engineer and a draftsman was quite small.
Figure 4.5 shows the salary grade classifications at this
corporation.
This group played softball together every Wednesday, fished together on the weekends, and hunted elk
for a week every winter. Lifelong bonds and friendships
were formed. One by one, the group started to get married and begin families. They even took turns standing
up for each other at the weddings. The wives and the
children all became great friends, and the fishing trips
were replaced with family backyard barbecues.
Meanwhile, things at work were going great. All
these friends and coworkers had very strong work ethics and above-average abilities. They all liked their work
and did not mind working extra hours. This combination of effort and ability meant rewards and advancement for those involved. However, since John had not
yet completed his degree as he had planned, his promotions were more difficult to achieve and did not occur as
rapidly as those of his friends. The differences in salary
and responsibility started to expand at a rapid rate. John
started to become less satisfied.
This large corporation was structured as a functional organization. All mechanical engineers reported
to a functional department manager. This manager was
aware of the situation and convinced John to go back
for his degree during the evenings. Although John had
good intentions, he never stayed with it long enough to
complete his degree. As John\u2019s friends advanced more
quickly through the corporation, their cars and houses
also became bigger and better. John\u2019s wife pressured him
to keep up with the others, and they also bought a bigger house. This move meant that John was living above
his means and his financial security was threatened.
Until this point, John had justified in his mind that
the corporation\u2019s policies and his functional manager
were the source of all his problems. John would openly
vent his anger about this manager. Then a drastic change
took place in the corporation. The corporation switched
over to a project team environment and eliminated the
functional management. This meant that John was now
reporting directly to his friends.
Even though John now worked for his friends,
company policy was still restrictive and the promotions
did not come as fast as he hoped. The team leader gave
John frequent cash spot awards and recognition in an
attempt to motivate him. John\u2019s ego would be soothed
for a short time, but this did not address the real problem. John wanted money, power, and respect, and he
was not satisfied because those around him had more.
Although he was good at what he did, he was not great
at it. He did not appear to have the innate capability to
develop into a leader through expert knowledge or personality traits. Additionally, due to the lack of an engineering degree, he could not achieve power through
time in grade. By now, John\u2019s attitude had deteriorated
to the point where it was disruptive to the team and
something had to be done. The team leader had to help
John, but he also had to look after the health of the team.
This detailed history is relevant because it helps to
explain how John\u2019s attitude slowly deteriorated over a
period of time. At the start of his career, John was able to
feel on a par with his peers. When everyone was young
and basically equal, he knew that he had the respect of
his friends and coworkers. This allowed John to enjoy a
sense of self-esteem. As time passed and he gave up in
his attempt at the college degree, he lost some of his selfesteem. As the gap grew between his friends\u2019 positions
in the company and his position in the company, he perceived that he lost the esteem of others. Finally, when
he became overextended with the larger home, even his
basic security was threatened. It is difficult to maintain
a level of satisfaction in this situation. The problem was
now distracting the team and starting to diminish their
efforts and results. Because of the friendships, undue
pressure was being placed on the team as they tried to
protect John from the consequences of his actions.
The team leader had to try to resolve this problem.
The challenge was significant: the leader had to attempt
to satisfy the individual\u2019s needs, the group\u2019s needs, and
the task needs. When John\u2019s individual needs could not
be met, the group atmosphere and task completion suffered. It was time for the team leader to act decisively
and approach upper management with a solution to the
problem.
Possible Courses of Action
The team leader put a lot of thought into his options.
Because of the friendships and personal connections, he
knew that he could not make this decision lightly. He
decided to talk individually to the team members who
were John\u2019s close friends and then determine the best
solution to present to upper management.
After talking with the team members, the team
leader decided on the following list of potential options:
1. Do nothing.
2. Bypass company policy and promote John.
3. Talk John into going back to college.
4. Relocate John to a different project team.
5. Terminate John\u2019s employment.
The option to do nothing would be the easiest
way out for the team leader, but this would not solve
any problems. This decision would be the equivalent
of burying one\u2019s head in the sand and hoping the problem would go away by itself. Surprisingly, this was a
common suggestion from the team members. There
appeared to be a hope that the problem could be overlooked, as it had been in the past, and John would just
accept the situation. With this option, the only person
who would have to compromise was John.
The second option of bypassing company policy
and promoting John to a higher level would be a very
difficult sell to management. John was recently promoted to a salary grade 18 (his friends were now 24s
and 26s). This promotion was achieved through the
concerted efforts of his friends and the team leader. The
chances of convincing management to approve another
promotion so quickly were extremely low. Furthermore, if the team leader was successful at convincing
management to promote John, what would the longterm benefits be? John would still not be at the same
level as his friends and might not be satisfied for long.
Chances were good that this would be only a temporary
fix to the problem. After the shine wore off the promotion, John would again believe that his efforts exceeded
his rewards. It would be nice to believe that this solution would eliminate the problem, but history seemed
to indicate otherwise.
The third option of trying to talk John into going
back to college and finishing his engineering degree
would be the best solution to the problem, but probably the least likely to occur. If John could complete
his degree, there would be no company policies that
could obstruct his path. He would then be competing
on an even playing field. This would allow him to justifiably receive his advancement and recapture his selfesteem. If he did not receive the rewards that he felt
he deserved, he would then have to look at his performance and improve on his weaknesses, not just fall back
on the same old excuse. This solution would appear to
put John back on the path to job satisfaction, but the
problem with it was that it had been tried unsuccessfully several times before. Why would it be different this
time? Should the corporation keep trying this approach
knowing that failure would again lead to dissatisfaction and produce a severe negative effect on the team?
Although this third solution could produce the happy
ending that everyone wants to see in a movie, it did not
have a very high probability of success.
The fourth option of relocating John to a different
team would be an attempt to break the ties of competition that John felt with his friends and teammates. If
this option were followed, John could start with a clean
slate with a completely different team, and he would
be allowed to save face with his friends. He could tell
them of his many accomplishments and the great job
that he is doing, while complaining that his new boss
is holding him back. Although this could be considered
smoke and mirrors, it might allow John the opportunity to see himself in a new light. If he performs at his
capabilities, he should be able to achieve the esteem of
others and eventually his self-esteem. The team would
consider this a victory because it would allow everyone
to maintain the social relationships while washing their
hands of the professional problems. This option offered
the opportunity to make the situation impersonal. It
should be clear, however, that this solution would do
nothing to resolve the true problem. Although it would
allow John to focus his dissatisfaction on someone other
than his friends and give him a fresh start to impress his
new coworkers, who is to say that the problem would
not simply resurface?
The fifth option, termination of employment,
would be distasteful to all involved. Nothing to this
(continued)
Case Study 4.4 151
152 Chapter 4 \u2022 Leadership and the Project Manager
point had indicated that John would deserve an action
this severe. Also, since this option also would sever the
social relationships for all involved and cause guilt for
all the remaining team members, resulting in team output deteriorating even further, it would be exercised
only if other options failed and the situation deteriorated to an unsafe condition for those involved.
Questions <\/p>\n
1. As the team leader, you have weighed the pros
and cons of the five options and prepared a
presentation to management on how to address
this problem. What do you suggest?
2. Consider each of the options, and develop an argument to defend your position for each option. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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