OBAT WORK180 Part 2Striving for Performance
ETHICAL DILEMMAEXERCISE
Pressure to Be a Team Player
“OK I admit it. I’m not a team player. I work best when I
work alone and am left alone,” says Zach Sanders.
Zach’s employer, an office furniture manufacturer,
recently reorganized around teams. All production in the
company’s Winnipeg factory is now done in teams. Zach’s
design department has been broken up into three design
teams.
“I‘ve worked here for four years. I’m very good at what
I do. And my performance reviews confirm that. I’ve scored
96 percent or higher on my evaluations every year I’ve been
here. But now everything is changing. I’m expected to be
part of our modular-office design team. My evaluations andpay raises are going to depend on how well the team does.
And, get this, 50 percent of my evaluation will be on how
well I facilitate the performance of the team. I’m really frus-
trated and demoralized. They hired me for my design skills.
They knew I wasn’t a social type. Now they’re forcing me to
be a team player. This doesn’t play to my strengths at all.”
Is it unethical for Zach’s employer to force him to be a
team player? Is Zach’s employer breaking an implied con-
tract that it made with him at the time he was hired? Does
the employer have any responsibility to provide Zach with
an alternative that would allow him to continue to work
independently?CASEINCIDENT
A Virtual Team at T. A. Stearns
T. A. Stearns is a national tax accounting firm whose main busi-
ness is tax preparation services for individuals. Stearns’ superior
reputation is based on the high quality of its advice and the
excellence of its service. Key to the achievement of its reputa-
tion are the state-of-the-art computer databases and analysis
tools that its people use when counselling clients. These pro-
grams were developed by highly trained individuals.
The programs are highly technical, in terms of both the
code in which they are written and the tax laws they cover.
Perfecting them requires high levels of programming skill as
well as the ability to understand the law. New laws and inter-
pretations of existing laws have to be integrated quickly and
flawlessly into the existing regulations and analysis tools.
The creation of these programs is carried out in a virtual
environment by four programmers in the greater Vancouver
area. The four work at home and are connected to each
other and to the company by email, telephone, and confer-
ence software. Formal on-site meetings among all of the pro-grammers take place only a few times a year, although the
workers sometimes meet informally at other times. The four
members of the team are Tom Andrews, Cy Crane, Marge
Dector, and Megan Harris.
These four people exchange email messages many times
every day. In fact, it’s not unusual for them to step away from
guests or family to log on and check in with the others. Often
their emails are amusing as well as work-related. Sometimes,
for instance, when they were facing a deadline and one of
Marge’s kids was home sick, they helped each other with the
work. Tom has occasionally invited the others to visit his farm;
and Marge and Cy have gotten their families together sev-
eral times for dinner. About once a month the whole team
gets together for lunch.
All four of these Stearns employees are on salary, which,
consistent with company custom, is negotiated separately
and secretly with management. Although each is required
to check in regularly during every workday, they were tolde.List specific behaviours exhibited during the planning and building sessions that you felt were help-
ful to the group. Explain why you found them helpful.
f.List specific behaviours exhibited during the planning and building sessions that you felt were dys-
functional to the group. Explain why you found them dysfunctional.Source:This exercise is based on “The Paper Tower Exercise: Experiencing Leadership and Group Dynamics” by Phillip L. Hunsaker and Johanna S.
Hunsaker, unpublished manuscript. A brief description is included in “Exchange,” Organizational Behavior Teaching Journal4, no. 2 (1979), p. 49.
Reprinted by permission of the authors. The materials list was suggested by Sally Maitlis, Sauder School of Business, UBC.