Case Review Essay

Submitted By jonherrema
Words: 922
Pages: 4

Case Review: Hy Dairies, INC.
Jonathan Herrema
Davenport University
Management 645
Dr. Mc
May 15, 2015

Abstract
This paper reviews the Case Study 3.1 in the book Organizational Behavior by Mcshane and Von Glinow. This review looks at the situation that occurred between an employee and their boss. The review digs deeper into what issues occurred between the two of them and what was the main issue. Recommendations and implementations are given for this specific situation.

Situation This case involves the company Hy Dairies, Inc. Hy Daries is a milk product manufacturer. Hy Dairies has just received great sales numbers. Syd Gilman, the vice president of Hy Dairies, has reviewed the information and is pleased with the numbers. Syd is pleased with the numbers and contributes much of the credit to Rochelle Beauport, the current assistant brand manager. For her success, Syd is looking to reward Rochelle with an offer of the market research coordinator. Syd sees this offer as a great opportunity and promotion within the company. Rochelle sees the offer as a downgrade in positions. Due to her previous work experience, she believes that the company is trying to keep her down in the company.

Key Issues Within this situation there are multiple issues that are in play between Syd and Rochelle. One issue that I see is that both parties are making assumptions about the other party. I would assume in this case that Syd is a white male, based on the fact that they state Rochelle is a “woman of color” in the company. Rochelle is assuming that because she is of color and Syd is white, that is why he is offering the job that would “sideline” her, as it states in the case. The case states that Syd assumes that her reaction is one that is positive, which is not the case. Both of theses assumptions cause the issue as a whole to get larger. A second issue that I see is there is a lack of communication between the two. I believe that both parties could have helped the situation with a simple question to one another. If Syd would not have assumed that Rochelle was happy and had asked her what was wrong, Rochelle would have had the opportunity to inform him how she was feeling. Within the case there is no mention of any further discussion of why Syd was offering Rochelle the position. With Syd’s explanation of why he was offering Rochelle the job, Rochelle could have better understood why. On the flip side, if Rochelle would have had the courage to speak with Syd about how she was feeling, she would have seen that Syd in fact was not offering her the position to get rid of her, in a sense, but was offering her the position because he saw it as a positive experience for her. Syd saw the offer as a positive because it is something that he went through and it helped his career. Rochelle saw it as a negative because she did not know that full reason behind it, and never inquired about it. The third issue that I see in this case is stereotyping. Stereotyping is defined as, “the perceptual process by which wee assign characteristics to an identifiable group and then automatically transfer those features to anyone we believe is a member of that group (McShade & Vone Glinow, 2013, pg. 76). I see the stereotyping coming from the side of Rochelle. In the case it states that Rochelle had had a pervious experience with an employer that disregarded women. In the case is states, “Her previous employer had made it quite clear that women ‘couldn’t take the heat’ in marketing management and