Nitesh Kumar 201931029

INTRODUCTION
This is a Harvard Business review case study written by Sarah Cliffe which deals with human
attitude and behavior. The case tries to highlight one of the most common problem faced by an
organization that is how to handle a high performing employee who is rude and have a bullying
attitude towards other members of the organization. The basic and the most important role of a
manager is to of set goals and establish a proper organization structure and keep on motivating
the team members.
Jane Epstein is starting to settle down in her work organization named TechniCo. It can be
inferred from the case that she has a good team to work with, with people coming from different
background and having different skill set and personality. She provides an overview of her team
members to her ex colleague Rick Lazarus. Her team comprises of Caroline, Tom, Jack and
Andy. In her conversation with Rick she expresses her worries about Andy and how his behavior
and bulling attitude effect and hampers the performance of other team members.
After some incidents, Jane decides to talk to Andy about the situation and how it is effecting the
team, but she failed to make an impact on him. He does not respect others’ ideas as well as he
does not take into account the human errors that may occur occasionally. Nevertheless, he is
smart, efficient and a great performer of the organization who is an important member of the
team.
CASE OBJECTIVES
 Studying different behavioural patterns prevailing in an organisation.
 Effective management of human resources within an organisation and maintaining
organisational structure.
 How good leadership qualities can have an impact on organisation.
PERSONALITY ANALYSIS
o Caroline: Realistic, Practical, Extravert, Sociable, Gregarious, Cooperative,
Trustworthy
o Tom: Retriever, Funny
o Jack: Passionate, Intellectual, Introvert, Calm
o Andy Zimmerman: Extrovert, Sensing, Self-Confident, Assertive, Aggressive,

Intimidating, Productive, Creative.
o Jane Epstein: Extrovert, Perceiver, Calm, Confident, Cooperative.

PROBLEM AT HAND
What should Jane do to handle Andy’s mean streak at workplace?
(Sometimes an employee can be nasty, bullying or simply hard-hearted. What should we do, though, when
that person also happens to be a top performer?)
CASE ANALYSIS
Jane Epstein here compares herself to a kindergarten teacher which shows that she is facing
problems in managing the workforce in her new organization.
She does not understand a simple fact that the basic role of a manager is “to manage” people.
Jane, herself is responsible for the mismanagement among her team members. She is the one
who have to tell Andy strictly that a positive and a healthy work environment is one of the
important aspects in an organization along with his numbers and performance.
Andy Zimmerman is the star performer of the company but he is highly impatient, he has a
aggressive and bullying attitude towards his team members and other employees. He also steps
over his boss’s authority. Though he is not a team player, he still manages to perform
extraordinarily. Jane faces the problem of not being able to handle Andy and correct his attitude
towards the team. Jane is in dilemma, how to deal with Andy.
PROPOSED SOLUTIONS
1. Confront Andy about his behaviour with a strict warning:
Jane should show leadership by strictly confronting Andy about his behaviour in the team
with a warning that if he doesn’t change, she might fire him from the organisation. She
should clearly define her expectations from Andy that he is not just required to be good
with numbers, but also good with people too. She should inform Andy along with other
members of the team about what type of behaviour is accepted and what’s not accepted.
Pros:
 Can have a proper organisation structure

 Clearly defined job responsibilities will ensures more productivity.
Cons:
 Andy might repeat his behaviour which will effect other employees and will question
Jane’s leadership qualities.
 Communication gap among employees may increase.
2. Organize trainings:
Since Andy is a top performer, TechniCo wouldn’t want to lose him. Organizing right set
of trainings like Professional Development Programmes might help Andy improve his
behaviour. Jane should coach her team members on developing conflict management
strategies. The entire team would probably benefit from training in how to conduct
effective meetings. Andy is currently incapable of handling a productive meeting, and the
rest of the team has no idea how to get a handle Andy’s behaviour.
Pros:
 This will help Andy to learn people skill and to make a good tuning with other team
members.
 Other team memebers will learn how to manage other team memebers
Cons:
 This can led to spoil all sessions as he would not be interested to take part in these
sessions and if somehow, he participated he can show his mean behaviour there too.
3. Isolate him from his team

As Andy brings business to company so Jane should restrict him to bring business only,
as this will make him feel isolated so that others can work freely with fresh minds which
in turn results to increase efficiency of other co-workers.
Pros:
 This method will increase the overall productivity of organization and will increase team
spirit of other co-workers as they will not have any fear to get bullied by someone.
 Andy will perform at his best without being dependable on others.
Cons:
 This will lower the work spirit of Andy and can worsen his behavior too and it can also
force Andy to leave organization.
BEST POSSIBLE SOLUTION

Jane should show some leadership qualities and give a strict warning to Andy about his behavior
and if he repeats his bullying behavior Jane should instruct Andy to join the Professional
Development Program and after finishing the Program he should be assign his own team with
AAs. This will give a chance to Jane to observe Andy’s Behavior without effecting the other
team members working environment.
CASE CONCLUSION
When it comes to studying human behavior in organizations, there are no simple answers. There
are many reasons why certain teams fail. This is because team members are unwilling to
cooperate with each other, they fail to receive support from management, some managers are
ineffective when it comes to controlling and some team fail to coordinate their efforts
effectively.
To build successful teams organizations may provide training in team skills, compensate team
performance, provide managerial support, promote employee support, promote cooperation
within and between team and select team members based on their skills.
MANAGERIAL LEANINGS
 To identify managerial problems and to develop healthy work relationship amongst the
employees.
 To learn the importance of being an effective manager and controlling dynamic situations
that may arise in an organization.
 The attitude and behaviour of an individual employee has an impact on the productivity
of the team and the organization as a whole.

Nitesh Kumar 201931029

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INTRODUCTION

o Tom: Retriever, Funny

o Jack: Passionate, Intellectual, Introvert, Calm

o Andy Zimmerman: Extrovert, Sensing, Self-Confident, Assertive, Aggressive,

o Jane Epstein: Extrovert, Perceiver, Calm, Confident, Cooperative.

What should Jane do to handle Andy’s mean streak at workplace?

 Can have a proper organisation structure

3. Isolate him from his team

BEST POSSIBLE SOLUTION

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