Management Chapter 1 Kinickiwilliams Management The Exceptional Manager What You How You Managers Hot

Kinicki/Williams: Management, 9e: Chapter 1 The Exceptional Manager: What You Do, How You Do It

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MANAGER’S HOT SEAT VIDEO

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Students may complete the “Work-Life Balance” Manager’s Hot Seat exercises in Connect® for

this chapter.

Introduction

Many organizations recognize the need for work-life balance. This scenario explores this

very issue, as well as prompts discussion about corporate culture. In addition, the case

shows one approach for delivering negative news to disgruntled employees.

Learning Objectives

2. To analyze the influences of corporate culture.

3. To identify effective approaches for delivering negative news.

Scenario Description

Overview

Samantha Peters, technical director at Quantum Gaming, a video-game company,

is conducting a scheduling meeting where she must ask employees to put in a

serious amount of extra time to meet a valued customer’s request. In addition to

various challenges of her leadership, a discussion of the Quantum Gaming’s

overall responsibilities to its workers, corporate culture, and work-life balance

issues sidetrack the meeting. The employees pressure Samantha to make a

decision right then and there; however, she cannot confirm their requests before

talking to upper management.

Profile

▪ Samantha Peters—Technical Director, Quantum Gaming—has been a

technical director at Quantum Gaming for 12 years, managing a creative force

of 40 people.

▪ Graham Hulbert—Programmer, Quantum Gaming—has been in the

company’s design department for 21 years and is a little resentful of Peters for

holding the position of technical director, although he hasn’t shown any

ambition for the position himself.

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▪ Miranda Cortez—Animator, Quantum Gaming—started working in the team

two years ago after returning from unpaid maternity leave. Before that, she

had been working for the marketing department’s design team, but found her

position too stressful and creatively limited.

▪ Tom Anderson—Modeler/Designer, Quantum Gaming—has been at the

company since he graduated from university last fall. He’s still a little shell–

shocked about being in the working world.

Discussion Questions

Leaning Objective #1 To recognize the need and importance for workers to balance work

and family/life.

Why is it important for Quantum Gaming workers to ask for a balance between work

demands and their life? Why is it a smart move on the part of Quantum Gaming to help

workers strike this balance?

Leaning Objective #2 To analyze the influences of corporate culture.

What is the corporate culture of Quantum Gaming based on the meeting? Is this a place

where you would like to work? Why or why not?

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before current ones are finished in an effort to bring in more business and increase

revenues. Finally, Quantum values the bottom line by pandering wholeheartedly to

Arcadian’s last–minute request to change their game’s central character.

The answer to the second question will vary by students’ personalities. While most

probably wouldn’t enjoy the working conditions at Quantum Gaming, some will thrive in

it.

Leaning Objective #3 To identify effective approaches for delivering negative news.

How effective was Samantha’s approach in delivering the negative news?

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APPLICATION-BASED ACTIVITY

There are no application-based activities for this chapter.

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CREATING A PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Prepared by Angelo Kinicki©

Background on Personal Development

Personal development is an active, circular process that one pursues in order to improve a small

set of targeted skills or competencies. In the current context, we are interested in developing

competencies associated with career readiness. Chapter 1 discussed the 27 competencies

associated with career readiness: These competencies were categorized into the knowledge, soft

skills, attitudes, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to become career ready. The overall

goal of this assignment is to assist you in creating a development plan targeted at improving your

career readiness.

The assessment phase generally entails the use of self-assessment surveys. Your text contains

links to 40 Self-Assessments that relate to various career readiness competencies. The purpose of

these assessments is to obtain a baseline evaluation of your interpersonal strengths and

weaknesses along a host of relevant competencies. The key decision in this phase is to select the

set of competencies you want to develop. We recommend one of two approaches. The first is to

focus on two of the following competencies based on the frequency with which these

competencies were discussed in the Career Corner sections within your textbook: Understanding

the Business, Critical Thinking/Problem Solving, Emotional Intelligence, Positive Approach, and

The second phase entails the creation of a development plan to build on strengths and reduce

weaknesses. This plan should specifically identify what you intend to do in order to develop

yourself. There are six generic categories of developmental activities you should consider using

when creating your plan. They are:

1. Learning from on-the-job or school-related activities. Examples include:

CAREER

READINESS

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• Represent your team at a meeting or formal presentation.

2. Learn from off-the-job activities. Examples include:

• Join community groups.

3. Model others who possess the targeted competencies. This may involve:

• Identifying people in the class/organization who possess the desired competency

4. Educational activities.

• Take formal courses or attend training seminars.

5. Experiment. Try out new behaviors and ways of working and see what happens. Discuss

results with others.

6. Consult the detailed feedback that comes with the Self-Assessment being used. This

feedback provides specific recommendations for how you might improve the KSAO

being measured.

The third phase involves marshalling the resources and support needed to accomplish the plan.

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someone other than yourself (e.g., your team members, friends, family members, professors, or

people from the company in which you intern).

This assignment requires you to work on all these four phases. Let us now consider a process for

helping you identify which of the career readiness competencies to focus your developmental

activities.

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Getting Started

Once you have taken the relevant Self-Assessments, it is important to categorize your scores into

strengths and weaknesses. The feedback report for each assessment will assist in making this

determination. As you look over the feedback from each assessment, concentrate on what you

Choose Development Areas

People typically think about development as “fixing”—improving problem areas or overcoming

“weaknesses.” Development is not only about working on weaknesses, it also is about building

strengths—capitalizing on what you do well and getting even better at it so that you can become

As you think about development areas, be sure to consider your strengths. Because of your

specific career goals, there may be a higher payoff to working on a specific strength. The issue

is: Where can you and your future/current organization get the biggest payoff from your efforts?

Here are the steps to follow:

1. Set aside time to read and think about the questions listed below. Your objective is to

2. Take out a separate sheet of paper for notes and record your answers to the questions

3. Consider this general question when selecting priority development areas.

“Would working on these areas support my current and future career goals, my

performance goals at school or work, and/or my effectiveness at personally influencing

others? Could working on these areas improve my ability to obtain a job after

graduation, working with others on school/work projects, or meeting personal/family

needs?

A. Strengths: Which competencies were evaluated as strengths? Is this an important

competency you need to model for others? Is it an area you want to improve in

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order to gain recognition and support? If you were to focus on this strength and

improve it, would it enhance your current or future success and influence?

B. Liabilities or weaknesses: What competencies were rated lowest? Are there

problem areas where improvement is needed? Would working on these problem

areas improve your current or future job performance? What is the biggest

roadblock to your career success based on your assessments? What can happen if

you don’t act on your weaknesses? What are the areas you need to focus on to

improve your ability to manage change, work with others, and influence others?

Do you really want to improve? Do you really believe that you need to improve

these areas? Are you motivated to change?

4. You are now ready to select two KSAOs for development. Do not select until you

reconsider the general question that was posed earlier: “Would working on these areas

support my current and future career goals, my performance goals at school, work,

and/or my effectiveness at personally influencing others? Could working on these areas

improve my success in my future internship, working with others, or meet personal/family

needs?

5. Write the label or description of the competency/style/behavior in the space below.

Development Areas:

Competency 1: _____________________________________________________

Competency 2: _____________________________________________________

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Preparing a Personal Development Plan

There are three subtasks associated with this step.

1. Begin by writing your Leadership Style Summary Paragraph (this needs to be

submitted with your detailed development plan).

Write a paragraph self-description about strengths and talents, leadership style, and potential

areas for improvement or modification. Write it as though someone else were describing you.

2. Determine the developmental actions you will employ.

Consider the six generic types of developmental activities discussed earlier and determine which

ones are best suited for your targeted competencies. It is recommended that you obtain

3. Complete the personal development plan posted on Blackboard.

The key is to be thoughtful, detailed, and realistic.

Kinicki/Williams: Management, 9e: Chapter 1 The Exceptional Manager: What You Do, How You Do It

Personal Development Plan Date: Jan 3, 2019

Development Areas

(List the competencies/

styles/behaviors

targeted for improvement)

List the Action Steps Required (What

will you do to improve in this area?)

Success Criteria (How will

success be measured?)

Target Dates

Start Completion

Resources Required/

Potential Barriers to Resolve

1. Assertiveness

(Weakness)

1. Read the book. The assertiveness

workbook: How to express your

ideas and stand up for yourself at

work and in relationships / Randy J.

Paterson”

with Power) and Project 10 (Inspire

Your Audience)

1. Complete the exercises

in the book. Choose 5

action items from the

book and put them into

practice. After one

week, ask for feedback

from the team on those

particular items and

verify if they agree to

2. At the end of the

speech, get ratings from

3. Getting elected to

student government

position.

Jan 2019

Mar 2019

The book. The assertiveness

workbook: How to express

your ideas and stand up for

yourself at work and in

relationships / Randy J.

Paterson

too much and not speaking

up.

People-pleasing. Prone to

avoid potential conflict

situation.

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3. Apply for student government

position and put into practice

assertiveness to convince the

interviewer.

5. Express my opinion when I disagree

with someone on an issue.

4. Getting ideas pushed

through the student

government body 60%

of the time.

5. 50% of time, people

should accept my

inconvenient is asked of

me.

Self-esteem. Lack of self-

esteem and self-confidence.

Aggressiveness. In trying to

be assertive, need to make

sure that conduct is not

Jan 2019

Jul 2019

2. Problem Solving /

Analytical Skill

(Strength)

1. Complete one Sudoku a week.

2. Join Toastmasters and take up the

role of speech evaluator. Critically

evaluate each speech and put forth

evaluation in front of the audience.

against the views of the columnist.

Then write a paragraph stating the

arguments for that opinion.

4. Volunteer to come up with the

1. Target 50%

improvement on

Sudoku solving time.

2. Take feedback from the

audience and other

evaluators and also

figure out if there was

something that I might

have missed out on any

70% of the time.

Jan 2019

Jun 2019

Oct 2019

Aug 2019

Time Management. Few of

these activities will depend

on my effective time

management. With increasing

workload, I may tend to

deviate from the plan.

Role Availability. Due to

space constraint, Evaluator

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5. Apply two recommendations from

Management book to develop

cognitive fitness:

a) Exposure to new experiences.

Engage in 1 activity every

month that I have never done

before.

Possible options could be

playing golf, watching

American football, volunteering

for Net impact club activities,

learning languages, etc.

Should be able to meet the

target 100% every month

for the next 10 months.

Jan 2019

Mar 2019

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Jan 2019

Oct 2019

Kinicki/Williams: Management, 9e: Chapter 1 The Exceptional Manager: What You Do, How You Do It

Personal Development Plan Date:_______________

Development Areas

(List the competencies/

styles/behaviors

targeted for improvement)

List the Action Steps Required (What

will you do to improve in this area?)

Success Criteria (How will

success be measured?)

Target Dates

Start Completion

Resources Required/

Potential Barriers to Resolve

1.

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2.

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