My Job or My Values
This decision-oriented critical incident describes Stacey Garrison’s personal dilemma of whether to candidly express her concerns about the human resource management practices of Lexi and Mark (owners of the bakery where Garrison works), or to instead keep quiet to assure that she remained in the “in-group” at the bakery. The decision point arose when Garrison and two of her fellow bakers were invited to lunch with the bakery owners and asked whether Alex, another baker who had not been invited to lunch, should be fired. Garrison was shocked that the owners would openly discuss possibly terminating one baker with the other three bakers, and felt compelled to tell the owners her true feelings. However, Garrison enjoyed benefits as an informal member of the managers’ in-group, and she feared that expressing her true feelings would jeopardize those benefits and put her at risk of retribution.
- Evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of relying on informal human resource management practices
- Appraise the concept of informal in-groups in relations between employees and their managers, and how employee in-group/out-group status may influence managerial decisions
- Formulate managerial actions that create and sustain organizational culture
- Assemble a defensible rationale for what they would do if they were in Garrison’s position, and why