Fred Maiorino Case Study Essay

OverviewFred Maiorino began his career at Schering-Plough in 1958 at the age of 28. He had been a successful gross revenue representative work on Jim vibrating reed took over the position of General Sales Manager for South Jersey sales govern in 1987. In 1988, Fred received his lowest for constantly performance evaluation of Good which was lower than any other sales representatives in the district. In fact, Freds salary increase at the end of the hind end was less than half of the average of other sales representatives who were at least 20 years junior to him. When vibrating reed first came to New Jersey sales district, he turned to Fred for help and attractionship. He implemented a untested performance evaluation measuring system which rated salesmen according to two different measures. This new system included evaluations based on product market share gains and critical incidents of effective and unable(p) salesmen actions recorded during joint calls do by district pass enger cars and sales reps.Moreover, Reed began coaching his subordinates and providing them with medical journals to help improve sales pitches. Unfortunately, even after working at Schering-Plough for over three decades as a highly successful salesman, Fred was terminated over coffee with Jim Reed at a local diner. This paper discusses why the different initiatives taken by Schering-Plough to trigger Fred Maiorino had fai guide. It also examines Reeds intent in the alleged go bad of psychological write out and, contributions to the unfairness and discrimination against Fred. Finally, this paper will provide recommendations for alternate(a) coaching, goal-setting and leadership approaches that Schering-Plough could befuddle adopted instead to ensure employee retention and loyalty.Breach of Psychological ContractAt the beginning of their race, Jim Reed informed Fred that he would petition Freds help in leadership. Although Reed may suck up made the remark in a casual manne r, Fred took it seriously as he was up to(p) to recall the conversation even after a few years. Older employees tend to enjoy collaborative tasks through social interactions to a greater extent than competitive tasks (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004, p. 441). In fact, employees in their midliferespond more positively to managerial strategies that promote cooperation instead of competition (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). In this case, it is fairly logical to think that Fred may have put on that he would be promoted or provided with a salary hike if he was successful in helping Reed design a leadership stick out for the district. In fact, this particular conversation with Reed may have led him to believe that Reed would acknowledge his hard work and loyalty by actually taking Freds advice or letting him help with the new strategy thereby, creating a psychological train between the two parties involved. A psychological attain emerges when an employee believes that a promise of future benefit or return has been made in return for his contributions and, an obligation has been created for the employer (Robinson, Kraatz, & Rousseau, 1994).In other words, a psychological contract refers to the belief or perception of mutual obligations of an employee (Rousseau, 1989). Unfortunately, the assigned case does non indicate that Reed lived up to his promise of taking Freds help in motivating, mentoring and training new employees. match to Humphrey (2003) such acts can be deflating as the motivational benefits of bottom-up empowerment are forgone or lost. Moreover, violation of psychological contracts may lead to lower motivation and change magnitude intentions to quit (Raja, Johns & Bilgrami, 2011). Thus, breach of such emotional contracts in the workplace may give rise to distrust, dissatisfaction and in peak cases dissolution of the relationship between an employee and his employer (Roehling, 1997). In fact, breach of the psychological contracts lead to appearances that und ermine organizational effectiveness and efficiency (Lemire & Rouillard, 2005).Reeds behavior increased Freds state of vigilance to the position where he began to industriously monitor how well Schering-Plough was meeting the terms of their psychological contract. Moreover, in Freds eyes, Schering-Plough has breached the psychological contract with Fred. Fred had dedicated over 35 years of him life to the company only to find out it had made plans to make him retire archean. Furthermore, Fred began to lose his faith in Schering-Plough when he realized that younger salespersons were being hired to replace long-term hard-working employees like him. In addition, Reed referred Freds decision to decline the early retreat plan as a foolish act.According to Zagenczyk, Gibney, Kiewitz, and Restubog (2009), supervisors supportiveness/discouragement strengthens/weakens therelationship between employers and employees. A study that included 297 responses from 31 organizations confirmed a rela tionship between the existence of psychological contract and employee commitment. In fact, those with relational psychological contract exhibited more commitment to the workplace than those with transactional contracts (Chiang, Liao, Klein & Jiang, 2012).Violation of Procedural JusticeReeds evaluation and spying on Fred resulted in the latter being suspended without pay for two days. This led to an increase in Freds feelings of in nicety and violation. Additionally, Fred and Reed held different views of the measurement of Freds performance at work, flexibility, goal-setting and the purpose of coaching. In fact, Reeds communication of matching market share goals and what was judge of Fred was highly complex and ambiguous. Such behavior on Reeds part raised questions about procedural justice at Schering-Plough. Procedural justice is heady on the basis of the quality of what is being communicated an employee. In other words, procedural justice is based on the extent to which an emplo yee feels whether his employer communicated crucial decisions in a sensitive and ethical manner (Harvey & Haines III, 2005). In other words, how a decision is made and communicated is what counts most (Harvey & Haines III, 2005). Unfortunately, Reeds behavior implied that he regarded Fred as psyche worthy of respect.This was further attested when Reed felt that it was not important to let Fred know the dates when he saw Freds company car pose in his driveway during work hours. Moreover, the new performance evaluation system implemented by Reed showed that Fred was doing very good. However, Reed decided to way more on the least desirable component of Freds evaluation and give Fred and overall good. The results of the evaluation were humiliating for Fred as it was his lowest ever rating and was certainly lower than all other new hires who were at least 20 years younger to him. The assigned case study does not tell us how exactly Reed communicated his evaluations of Freds performanc e to Fred, but it does tell us that he evaluated Fred the very same way the second clip. This time he sent Fred a memo letting him know that he was capable of doing better. The procedures involved in decision-making and the method of communication employ affect employee behavior at work (Harvey & Haines III, 2005).IneffectivePerformance Appraisals and Goal-Setting Systems Right after Reed informed Fred that he would need the latters help, he implemented a new idea system that evaluated employees based on new criteria. However, this new system seemed to worsen his relationship with Fred. Job relatedness, formalization, reliability, open communication, trained appraisers, ease of use, employee availability and appeal procedures are among some of the characteristics of an effective appraisal system (Caruth & Humphreys, 2008). The newly implemented system barely met any of the above categories. General guidelines instead of large policies and written instructions were used by the c ompany. It is important to use appraisal systems that encourage improvement and are not regarded as threats to be feared by employees (Hammer, 2007).As such, performance evaluations should be followed by accurate description and diagnosis of the ratings so that employees are able to discuss, understand and prevent future problems (Lee, 2005). This was lacking in Reeds appraisal system. Moreover, recording and monitoring employee behavior during joint calls may have led Fred to be more cautious and nervous during client interactions. According to Gray (2002) such systems do not encourage competency or loyalty as they are distorted by evaluator bias. Fred never conceit his performance rating was fair in fact, he resisted it because older workers are more likely to avoid situations that put them at a disadvantage when compared to younger employees (Kanfer & Ackerman, 2004). The following paragraphs discuss what Reed could and should have done better to improve Freds situation and cir cumstances.Improving Leadership StyleOne of the major issues that led to Freds decision to take Schering-Plough to court was Reeds ineffective leadership style. It is important for managers to know what behaviors promote achievement of results and what behaviors are plain ineffective (Lindbom, 2007). In fact, one of the most important job duties of a manager is to improve his followers performances. This meant, Reed should have communicated better with Fred. In fact, he should have asked Fred about his problems and listened to him instead of simply pushing him and sending him memos for poor performance. Continuous feedback and dialog would have allowed Reed to understand Freds needs, strengths, and weaknesses better while construction a stronger bond with him.Once this bond was built, it would have been much easier for Reed to alter Freds behavior according to the interest of the organization. An effective manager is attuned to item-by-item(a) followers and takes the right decisio n at the right time (Buzady, 2011). This allows the manager or leader to interact and alter workloads during difficult times. Transformational leaders focus on matching behaviors and communication instead of goals and skills (Humphreys & Einstein, 2004).Therefore, Reed could have improved Freds motivation and performance by communicating in a way that would have been easy for Fred to understand and relate to. Moreover, a leader must encourage and understand the ideals and values that his followers share. In order to come to a coarse ground with followers, an effective leader must think less about himself and more for others (Kerfoot, 2004). Congruency can only be reached when a leader looks beyond himself and more toward the opportunities for advancement of his followers. Leaders should ensure that challenging work that is valued is provided to subordinates while considering the followers ability. He should always consider the followers self-esteem and self-concept, communicate goa ls understandably and understand the relationship between paying attention to private followers and job satisfaction (Isaac, Zerbe & Pitt, 2011). Moreover, it is recommended that sales leaders employ a more active style of leadership in order to improve participation and performance.Therefore, Reed should have considered adopting transformational leadership style (Bass, 1993). Transformational leaders are those who are able to formulate the ability within their subordinates to look beyond their own self interests and align their goals with that of the organization. Although transactional leadership style is more popular among sales managers and is believed to induce desired responses in employees, transformational leadership has been found to produce higher such results (Dubinsky, Yammarino, Jolson & Spanger, 2001). Transformational leader hold deep personal value systems that allow them to unite their followers while modifying their goals (Bass,1999). Moreover, transformational l eader demonstrate individual consideration, charisma and inspirational motivation all of which were lacking in Reed from Freds point of view.Improving CoachingFurthermore, Reed unavoidable to change his way of coaching his subordinates.Reeds concept of coaching included handing out manuals and writing memos that stated Fred was capable of doing better. Today, most organizations are determined to improve the ability of managers to coach their subordinates effectively. Many organizations shelve out millions of dollars to promote and facilitate a health coaching environment. In fact, coaching is considered a managers top priority in many companies. Therefore, Reed should have designed one-on-one periodical meetings with his subordinates where he could have discussed ways to improve individual sales performance. Moreover, instead of punishing Fred for products that he was selling less of, Reed should have first appreciated Freds top selling products. Subordinates look before to rein forcement when they do the right things and welcome constructive criticism when they recognize their work needs improvement (Robinson & Rousseau, 1994).Improving Reward System. A abrupt change in the reward systems is usually not well accepted among employees who perform consistently. Therefore, it was critical for Reed to first speak to his subordinates regarding changes in Reed used a highly ineffective reward system where the company ended up awarding Fred less than his expected salary increase. Instead, Reed should have made every effort to determine what rewards his subordinates valued and how much effort they were willing to make to attain the rewardsperformance and work with them to improve on it. Constant coaching, mentoring and one-on-one monthly individual performance evaluations would have given employees an idea of what rewards to expect from the new system. In fact, the unexpected and unprecedented reward might have actually de-motivated Fred to the point where he did not find it necessary to work on his weaknesses in selling the two major products of the company.ReferencesAvolio, B. J., Bass, B. M., & Jung, D. I. (1999). 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