BUS272 TB

336 Part 3 Interacting Effectively
OB at Work
is not unusual and 20 to 30 percent increases have been approved on occasion. You would like to get Lisa as large an
increase as C.J. will approve.
C.J.’s role: All your supervisors typically try to squeeze you for as much money as they can for their people. You
understand this because you did the same thing when you were a supervisor, but your boss wants to keep a lid on costs.
He wants you to keep raises for recent hires generally in the range of 5 to 8 percent. In fact, he has sent a memo to all
managers and supervisors stating this objective. However, your boss is also very concerned with equity and paying people
what they are worth. You feel assured that he will support any salary recommendation you make, as long as it can be
justified. Your goal, consistent with cost reduction, is to keep salary increases as low as possible.
The negotiation: Alex has a meeting scheduled with C.J. to discuss Lisa’s performance review and salary adjustment.
Take a couple of minutes to think through the facts in this exercise and to prepare a strategy. Then you have up to 15
minutes to conduct your negotiation. When your negotiation is complete, the class will compare the various strategies
used and the outcomes that resulted.
ETHICAL D I L E M M A
The Lowball Applicant
Consider this first-person account:
I am a human resources manager, so I interview people
every day. Sometimes the managers in my company ask
me to pre-screen candidates, which I do after discussing
the job at length with the manager. I usually start the
candidate screening with a few personality–job fit tests;
then conduct an interview, following a list of job-specific
questions the manager has given me; and finally discuss
the job requirements, our company, and the pay/benefits.
By that time in the process, the candidate usually has a
good idea of the job and is eager to suggest a high level
of pay at the top of the advertised bracket or, often, above
the pay bracket. However, this isn’t always the case.
One time in particular, an excellent candidate with
outstanding qualifications surprised me by saying that
since she wanted flextime, she would accept a rate below
the pay bracket. Confused, I asked her if she wanted
a reduction in hours below full time. She said no, she
expected to work full time and only wanted to come in a
little late and would leave a little late to make up the time.
I guess she figured this was a concession worth slashing
her salary for, but our company has flextime. In fact, she
could have asked for five fewer hours per week, still been
considered full time by our company policies, and negotiated
for above the advertised pay grade.
I knew the manager would be highly interested in this
candidate and that he could probably get her to work the
longer full-time hours at a lower rate of pay. That outcome
might be best for the company, or it might not. She obviously
didn’t fully understand the company policies in her
favour, and she was unsophisticated about her worth in
the marketplace. What should I have done?
Questions
1. If the human resources manager were to coach the
applicant to request a higher salary, would the coaching
work against the interests of the organization? Is
it the responsibility of the human resources manager
to put the organization’s financial interests first?
2. What do you see as the potential downside of the
human resources manager abstaining from discussing
the pay issue further with the candidate?
3. If the candidate were hired at the reduced rate she
proposed, how might the situation play out over the
next year when she gets to know the organization
and pay standards better?
CASE INCIDENTS
Choosing Your Battles
While much of this chapter has discussed methods for
achieving harmonious relationships and getting out of
conflicts, it’s also important to remember that there are
situations in which too little conflict can be a problem. 112
As we noted, in creative problem-solving teams, some
level of task conflict early in the process of formulating a
solution can be an important stimulus to innovation.
However, the conditions must be right for productive
conflict. In particular, individuals must feel psychologically
safe in bringing up issues for discussion. If people fear that