Differing Perceptions At Clarkston Industries Case Study: Analyzing Perception And Attitudes

Answer 1

Summary of the Case ‘Differing Perceptions at Clarkston Industries’ –

The case study focuses on the different perceptions of different workers at the Clarkson Industries. Susan is the distribution manager of the Clarkson Industries working from the past twenty years. She understands the importance of hard work and honesty after her short stay in prison. She had been given a chance by Henry Clarkson with the help of which she became capable of proving herself. Susan found Jack Reed in the similar situation and therefore provided him a chance to prove himself. She believed that everyone should be given at least one chance to in order to prove oneself. Everything went smoothly for a while.  Jack was liked by everyone in the workplace and made several friends as well. A wallet of a worker went missing for which Jack was confronted by Susan when he reassured her that he completely understands her concern and therefore asserted his innocence. However, the wallet was found a few days later. Later on, the personnel clerk came to know about the past records of Jack and mentioned it in front of the other employees thereby creating trouble for Jack. When the petty cash money went missing, Jack was assumed as the thief as he was seen around that area. All the employees requested the concerned authority to fire Jack due to his background. The same problem was discussed with Jack and got his defensive reaction. At the end, the whole situation has put Susan in the dilemma whether to fire Jack or not. Now Susan was unable to find the right direction and suspected that she was the one and only person in the office who has lots of confidence in Jack.

A perception can be defined as a feeling, idea or opinion regarding someone or something, specifically one formed on the basis of little evidence or without conscious thought (Simpson, Phillips, Wong, Clarke and Thornton, 2018). In other words, perception is a process which involves interpreting somthing and using it at a later time for judging and giving a verdict on situation, group, person, etc. Perception can be regarded as the strong conflicting factor among Jack, Susan and fellow co- workers at the Clarkson Industries. Perception plays an important role in determining the reaction of individual in the given context and the establishment of communication with them. The fellow workers of Jack and Susan all have perceived the image of Jack as a hard- working and good employee at first (Beane, Ponnapalli. and Viswesvaran, 2017). The difference lies in the fact that Susan was aware of Jack’s past and the co- workers were unaware. However, this did not brought any changes in his perception about Jack as he had had personal experience of being convicted of a crime and therefore required to reinvent herself. Susan was able to understand the feelings of Jack when he tried to explain his past and wanted a second chance. That chance was given by Susan which also resulted in changing his perceptions. He was now perceived by the co- workers as a thief due to which they blamed him for the money lost. Susan was not sure regarding what to believe but still it was clear that her initial perceptions were changed as she also started to doubt Jack (Swider, Zimmerman and Barrick, 2015).

Answer 2

On the other hand, an attitude can be defined as the psychological tendency which is expressed at the time of evaluating a situation, person, issue or object with a degree of favor or disfavor (Eiser and van der Pligt, 2015). Attitude can be either positive, negative or mixed evaluation of an object which is expressed at a certain level of intensity. A complex organization of evaluative feelings, beliefs and tendencies towards specific actions. Prior to the time when Susan and the co- workers came to know about Jack’s past as a convict, their attitude towards him was at a positive and at the emotional level (Kruglanski, Jasko, Chernikova and Milyavsky, 2018). The case study clearly specified that everyone used to like Jack and he also had a number of new friends. A positive attitude was experienced by Susan towards Jack on a cognitive and behavioral level as well. The measurement of the behavioral intent level is made with the help of observing verbal statements and behaviors about intentions and the cognitive level is reflected through the beliefs and perceptions of a person (Antons and Piller, 2015).

Personality can be defined as the unique combination of thought, emotional and behavioral patterns held by a person (Syed, Saeed and Farrukh, 2015). In other words, the role played by an individual in the public is signified by personality.  The personality of Jack was such that he was liked by everyone and also made several friends in the organization. In the context of this case study, personality of Jack did not play an important role as his background overpowered his behavioral patterns. In other words, co- workers gave prime importance to the perceptions over the personality of Jack and they wanted Susan to fire him (Men, 2014). However, Susan should consider the changes brought in the personality of Jack and his behavioral patterns in the workplace before making any decision in this context. Moreover, Susan should not get influenced or biased by the perceptions of the workers while making the decision.    

Jack should not be fired by Susan due to the fact that Jack is regarded as a capable and hard- working worker in the case study. Moreover, everything was good till the time everyone became aware of his records. After this, Jack’s record was discussed by the personnel clerk with other workers in the Clarkson Industries and immediately the missing money was reported by the co- worker. His records made everyone doubt his intentions and therefore they wanted to fire him as well. It is hard to believe that Jack committed the theft at the exact moment when he was most likely to be accused of it. The co- workers wanted to fire Jack due to his background and not because of his behavior on the job. It can also be possible that someone have planned to frame Jack in this situation for creating circumstances that go against him. Someone else might have taken the money for his or her own reasons and diverted attention towards Jack.

Answer 3

In other words, Susan should come out of this dilemma by considering the entire situation again. Susan is capable enough of making the right decision as she herself went through the situation and was given a chance by Henry Clarkson which allowed him to prove herself. The whole circumstance has taken place only after the time when the details regarding the background of Jack was known to each and every individual in the workplace. This was the time when everyone gave preference to their perception over the personality of Jack. They forgot the fact that the behavioral patterns of Jack is such that everyone liked him and consider him as a friend (Petty, 2018). Moreover, he is a hard working individual as well. Only when everyone came to know about Jack’s past, they started blaming him for the missing petty cash and also regarded him as the thief. Therefore, Susan should give preference to the changed personality of Jack and should not fire him. In other words, Susan should give a second chance to Jack as it is only Susan who can understand his situation.  Susan can make the use of a number of ways for improving the perception of the employees such as by authentic communication, positive attitude, etc. (Vogel and Wanke, 2016). Authentic communication will provide an opportunity to Jack to make others understand their situation in the way it should be understood. Though Jack have behaved in a defensive manner about the situation at once but communication will play an important role in this regard. Effective communication will assist Susan in receiving the required response from Jack in order to make the correct decision (Blaschke and Schoeneborn, 2016). The defensive behavior of Jack was due to the fact that he was blamed by everyone in the workplace for the lost money. Open communication will allow him to feel comfortable and explain himself in a comfortable manner (Elsbach, 2014). As per the fact given in the case study, it can be concluded that it was not Jack’s fault and therefore, he should be given another chance. 

References

Antons, D. and Piller, F.T., 2015. Opening the black box of “Not Invented Here”: Attitudes, decision biases, and behavioral consequences. Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(2), pp.193-217.

Beane, D., Ponnapalli, A. and Viswesvaran, C., 2017. Workplace Religious Displays and Perceptions of Organization Attractiveness. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 29(2), pp.73-88.

Blaschke, S. and Schoeneborn, D. eds., 2016. Organization as communication: Perspectives in dialogue. Taylor & Francis.

Eiser, J. R., and van der Pligt, J. 2015. Attitudes and decisions. Psychology Press.

Elsbach, K.D., 2014. Organizational perception management. Psychology Press.

Kruglanski, A.W., Jasko, K., Chernikova, M. and Milyavsky, M., 2018. The rocky road from attitudes to behaviors: Charting the goal systemic course of actions. In The Motivated Mind(pp. 261-306). Routledge.

Men, L.R., 2014. Strategic internal communication: Transformational leadership, communication channels, and employee satisfaction. Management Communication Quarterly, 28(2), pp.264-284.

Petty, R.E., 2018. Attitudes and persuasion: Classic and contemporary approaches. Routledge.

Simpson, A., Phillips, K., Wong, D., Clarke, S. and Thornton, M., 2018. Factors influencing audiologists’ perception of moral climate in the workplace. International journal of audiology, 57(5), pp.385-394.

Swider, B.W., Zimmerman, R.D. and Barrick, M.R., 2015. Searching for the right fit: Development of applicant person-organization fit perceptions during the recruitment process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(3), p.880.

Syed, N., Saeed, A. and Farrukh, M., 2015. Organization commitment and five factor model of personality: Theory recapitulation. Journal of Asian Business Strategy, 5(8), pp.183-190.

Vogel, T. and Wanke, M., 2016. Attitudes and attitude change. Psychology Press.