Week One Checkpoint
PART I
Case 1 - Managers Who Use Punishment
1. What conditions, if any, do you think justify the use of punishment?
The usage of punishment, a negative motivator, can be justified in following
situations
 Violating company’s rules and policies
 Actions leading to violation of rights of co-workers
 Using unethical practices at workplace
2. Do you think most managers use punishment? If so, why?
Studies indicate that some managers use punishment as a tool to get the work
done by the sub-ordinates. Their rationale for using punishment is that it gives
desirable results immediately. As we saw in our case, the salesman reporting to
Charles Park sold cars after the binder throwing incident. As well as individuals
start exhibiting the same behavior again and again so as to avoid the punishment.
Thus there is little need of reinforcement of punishment.
As punishment delivers desirable results immediately and requires less
reinforcement, thus managers use punishment.
3. What’s the downside of using punishment? Of using positive reinforcement?
The downsides of using punishment are as follows:
 Punishment is counter-productive for the manager-employee relationship.
The imposed punishment immediately prompts negative feelings/ attitude
against the person meting out the punishment.
 It is poor motivator. Once the fear of punishment is gone, so is the
motivation to perform.
 Results in employee leaving the job.
When positive reinforcements are used, the desired outcome is that the behaviour is
reinforced. Positive reinforcement is usually associated with reward or praises.
 Employees may exhibit the desired behavior just to win rewards rather than
understanding the underlying purpose.
 The employees who get verbal praises for everything they do, think that it is all
lip service.
4. Have you ever worked for a boss that used punishment? What was your
behavioral response?
As a matter of fact, I did work for a boss who used punishment for getting the work
done. My initial response was discussing my situation with the co-workers, is there
anything I am doing wrong. Once I understood her way of working I started doing
exactly the things which I was asked to do. There was no motivation to do well or
perform better. It was only performing the duties assigned to me. As soon as I got
better opportunity I quit that job.
PART II
Write a 200- to 250-word dialogue between yourself and the employee from Skill
Building Module #1, Sandy. This dialogue will depict how, if you were Sandy’s
manager, you would use each of the eight disciplining behaviors to discipline Sandy
for her poor performance.
Manager: Hi Sandy, how are you doing?
Sandy: I am fine, what about you?
Manager: Great! Sandy I want to discuss some important issues regarding your
performance so far.
Sandy: Oh! Sure.
Manager: Good customer service is our top priority. We have a quality management team
who works continuously with us to improve the customer experience. It is a really high
stake project with involvement from upper level management. Are you aware of this
program in our company.
Sandy: Yes, I am aware of the quality improvement program.
Manager: Good. As a part of this program, all the employees have to submit a periodic
report to the quality team. Today I got a call from quality management team member
stating that he did not receive the report from your side. Please explain, why you were not
able to submit the report.
Sandy: Actually, I didn’t had the format of the report. As well as I don’t know how to
write the report.
Manager: If I don’t have the format I can get it from other co-workers. You can take help
from others to write the report. There is always first time for everything. There are certain
things which we need to learn on the job. We in this organization are very serious about
the quality management program. Now tell me what you are planning to do about the
report.
Sandy: I will learn how to write a report and submit the next one on time.
Manager: What about the last one which you missed?
Sandy: Oh, the last one? I will work on it and submit it in three days.
Manager: Good, you promised me that you will submit the last report in three days and
will submit the next report in time. In this organization we work very hard to keep the
customers happy. Any negligence regarding customer issues are considered seriously. We
try our best to satisfy the customer at our end. Do you remember the unhappy customer
Mr. Smith you handled last week? He wrote a letter to the CEO stating his complains.
What do you think you could have done to avoid this situation?
Sandy: Probably, I should have called him and talked to him.
Manager: Not probably. You should have called him immediately and satisfied him. Such
type of negligence with customer issues is not acceptable in our organization. If some
other member of our team had committed the same mistake, I would have taken some
action against him. But as you are new, I will give you one more chance.
Sandy: Thank you for giving me a second chance.
Manager: First you lost the purchasing order, then the customer issue and you failed to
submit the quality report. Sandy, here I must tell you that I am disappointed at your
performance. If you continue your irresponsible behaviour, I will be forced to take some
action against you. If you need any help, the team members, including me are always
here to help you. Is there anything I can do immediately to help you?
Sandy: Thank you for the help. I will try my best to meet your expectations.
PART III
Is OB Mod a form of manipulation? And if it is, is it unethical for managers to
manipulate the behaviour of employees? Support your argument.
OB Mod is an approach to motivation, based on the application of learning theory to
people in the workplace. It is a form of manipulation, as it dictates the way employees
should act to increase the performance. The desirable behaviours are linked with positive
consequences and are encouraged. Whereas the undesirable behaviours are linked with
negative consequences and are discouraged. The performance based approach focuses on
specific behaviour at workplace which needs to be changed or manipulated. It avoids
sensitive personal counseling issues in a person's personal life, by focusing on what needs
to be done to improve performance.
Any animal can be trained to perform using reward and punishment, and humans
inherently hate manipulation because it reduces them to little more than animals. Thus it
is unethical for managers to manipulate the behaviour of employees. Instead of
manipulation managers can use positive reinforcement like recognizing individual needs,
redesigning their jobs and setting challenging goals.