Foundations of Individual Behavior

Differing Perceptions at Clarkston Industries

Susan Harrington continued to drum her fingers on her desk. She had a real problem and wasn’t

sure what to do next. She had a lot of confidence in Jack Reed, but she suspected she was about

the last person in the office who did. Perhaps if she ran through the entire story again in her mind

she would see the solution.

Susan had been distribution manager for Clarkston Industries for almost twenty years. An early

brush with the law and a short stay in prison had made her realize the importance of honesty and

hard work. Henry Clarkston had given her a chance despite her record, and Susan had made the

most of it. She now was one of the most respected managers in the company. Few people knew

her background.Susan had hired Jack Reed fresh out of prison six months ago. Susan understood

how Jack felt when Jack tried to explain his past and asked for another chance. Susan decided to

give him that chance just as Henry Clarkston had given her one. Jack eagerly accepted a job on

the loading docks and could soon load a truck as fast as anyone in the crew.Things had gone well

at first. Everyone seemed to like Jack, and he made several new friends. Susan had been vaguely

disturbed about two months ago, however, when another dock worker reported his wallet

missing. She confronted Jack about this and was reassured when Jack understood her concern

and earnestly but calmly asserted his innocence. Susan was especially relieved when the wallet

was found a few days later.

The events of last week, however, had caused serious trouble. First, a new personnel clerk had
come across records about Jack’s past while updating employee files. Assuming that the

information was common knowledge, the clerk had mentioned to several employees what a good

thing it was to give ex-convicts like Jack a chance. The next day, someone in bookkeeping

discovered some money missing from petty cash. Another worker claimed to have seen Jack in

the area around the office strongbox, which was open during working hours, earlier that same

day.

Most people assumed Jack was the thief. Even the worker whose wallet had been misplaced

suggested that perhaps Jack had indeed stolen it but had returned it when questioned. Several

employees had approached Susan and requested that Jack be fired. Meanwhile, when Susan had

discussed the problem with Jack, Jack had been defensive and sullen and said little about the

petty-cash situation other than to deny stealing the money.

To her dismay, Susan found that rethinking the story did little to solve his problem. Should she

fire Jack? The evidence, of course, was purely circumstantial, yet everybody else seemed to see

things quite clearly. Susan feared that if she did not fire Jack, she would lose everyone’s trust

and that some people might even begin to question her own motives.

Case Questions

1. Explain the events in this case in terms of perception and attitudes. Does personality play

a role?

2. What should Susan do? Should she fire Jack or give him another chance?
Group Dynamics

A Difficult Task Force

José has been appointed chair of a steering task force to design the primary product line for a

new joint venture between companies from Japan, the United States, and South America. The

new joint venture company will make, sell, and service pet caskets (coffins) for the burial of

beloved pets, mostly dogs and cats. One month earlier, each company had assigned personnel to

the task force:

 From the Japanese company, Furuay Masahiko from Yokohama, assistant to the

president of the Japanese company; Hamada Isao from Tokyo, director of marketing from

its technology group; and Noto Takeshi from Tokyo, assistant director of its financial

management department.

 From the United States company, Thomas Boone from Chicago, the top purchasing

manager from its lumber and forest lands group; Richard Maret from Buffalo, the

codirector of the company’s information systems group; and Billy Bob "Tex" Johnson

from Arizona, the former CEO, now retired and a consultant for the company.

 From the South American company, Mariana Preus from Argentina, the head of product

design for that company’s specialty animal products group; Hector Bonilla from their

Mexico City division, an expert in automated systems design for wood products; and

Mauricio Gomes, in charge of design and construction for the plant, which will be located

in southern Chile to take advantage of the vast forest there.

away from their normal assignments to participate in the joint venture.As chair of the task force,

José had scheduled an initial meeting for 10:00 A.M. José started the meeting by reviewing the

history of the development of the joint venture and how the three company presidents had

decided to create it. Then, José reviewed the market for the new high-end, designer pet coffins,

stressing that this task force was to develop the initial design parameters for the new product to

meet increasing demand around the world. He then opened the meeting for comments and

suggestions.

Mariana Preus spoke first: "In my opinion, the current designs that we have in production in our

Argentina plant are just fine. They are topnotch designs, using the latest technology for

processing. They use the best woods available and they should sell great. I don’t see why we

have to design a whole new product line." Noto Takeshi agreed and urged the committee to

recommend that the current designs were good enough and should be immediately incorporated

into the plans for the new manufacturing plant. José interrupted the discussion: "Look, the

council of presidents put this joint venture together to completely revolutionize the product and

its manufacture based on solid evidence and industry data. We are to redesign the product and its

manufacturing systems. That is our job, so let’s get started." José knew that the presidents had

considered using existing designs but had rejected the idea because the designs were too old and

not easily manufacturable at costs low enough to make a significant impact on the market. He

told the group this and reminded them that the purpose of the committee was to design a new
product.

The members then began discussing possible new design elements, but the discussion always

returned to the benefits of using the existing designs. Finally, Tex spoke up: "I think we ought to

do what Mariana suggested earlier. It makes no sense to me to design new caskets when the

existing designs are good enough to do the job." The others nodded their heads in agreement.

José again reminded them of the task force’s purpose and said such a recommendation would not

be well received by the council of presidents. Nevertheless, the group insisted that José write a

memo to the council of presidents with the recommendation to use existing designs and to begin

immediately to design the plant and the manufacturing system. The meeting adjourned and the

members headed to the golf course at 10:45 A.M.

José returned to his computer and started to write the memo, but he knew it would anger the

presidents. He hoped he would not be held responsible for the actions of the task force, even

though he was its chair. He wondered what had gone wrong and what he could have done to

prevent it.

Case Questions

1. Which characteristics of group behavior discussed in the chapter can you identify in this

case? How did group cohesiveness and social loafing affect the committee’s actions?

2. If you were in Jose’s position, what would you have done differently? What would you

do now?