Take Home Quiz 3
Organizational Behaviour I
Akshatha Kulkarni
Section F
2015PGP019
Question 1: Making her way back to the other side of the floor, Benton decided to ask Scoville her questions. He leaned back in his chair, and in what was to Benton his familiar all-knowing manner, gave her his answers. He ended by saying: “Don’t worry about asking me questions. You’re in a learning mode as an assistant and can’t be expected to know that much.”
Answer: In this situation Benton (Agent) Adult → Scoville (Respondent) Adult
Scoville Parent → Benton Child
Benton is asking clarifications for her questions from Scoville and is expecting a rational response. Her adult is appealing to Scoville’s adult and is seeking a logical response. However, after answering her questions Scoville says in a very patronising manner that it was okay for her to ask questions as she wasn’t expected to know much. In saying so, he comes across as a parent who is treating Benton as somebody who is inferior to him, ie like a child.
Question 2: As she returned to her cubicle, she noticed Vernon walking in her direction, and she was surprised and disturbed by his insistence that she come back to his office immediately. Once inside his office, Vernon quickly shut the door, leaned back in his chair, and said to Benton:
I don’t know what you are doing, but I never want to see you doing word processing in this company again. We have secretaries to do that kind of work and there is no reason why you, particularly a woman, should be seen doing it. It destroys your credibility not only with the people on your team, but also in the secretaries’ eyes.
Benton, slightly annoyed, responded:
You really misinterpreted the situation. I was only there for a few minutes and thought it would be much quicker to fix the heading on one of my charts myself than to wait until one of the other secretaries had some time to make the correction. We really don’t have adequate coverage with our secretary on vacation.
Answer: Vernon (Agent) Parent → Benton (Respondent) Child
Benton Adult → Vernon Adult
Here Vernon comes across as a parent who asserts his authority over her and tells her to come back to his office immediately and to never do secretarial work again. This he does because he is concerned about Benton’s credibility and image in the office and hence treats her like a child. Benton responds like an adult and rationally explains the situation and tells him that secretary was on leave and it would be quicker of she herself did it. She is appealing to the adult in Vernon and tries to get him to look at it from a logical point of view.
Question 3: For the first time feeling genuine animosity toward her boss, Benton proclaimed:
That is patently false. Half of the material is already on Ron’s desk and I’m going to finish the rest this afternoon. I was upset because he treated me like some servant girl, and I was getting tired of his patronizing attitude. I have never felt too good for this kind of work. In fact, when I was at Right-Away last summer, I counted inventory, I dusted the shelves, I …
Linton cut her off, shouting:
This is a team effort. Everyone is overworked. You’ll just have to contribute. Copying is a part of your job, even if you are a Harvard MBA.