Matthew - Job-Demand-Control-Support model - Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Question 1 (10 points - 300 words) What behaviours are usually associated with each of the “big five” personality traits”? How would Matthew score (low or high) on each? Provide evidence to support your answer.   

Question 2 (10 points - 300 words)

(a) Use the Job-Demand-Control-Support model to analyse Matthew’s job. 

(b) Would anyone in this job be stressed? Hint: what factors (other than the demands of the job) might impact on whether someone experiences stress? 

Question 3 (10 points - 300 words)

(a) Explain the relationship between team norms and team cohesiveness in relation to team performance. How does this explain Matthew’s changing approach to his work at Advert Co.? 

(b) Identify five ways management can decrease cohesion in Matthew’s team.  

Question 4 (10 points – 300 words) Identify and explain the five sources of power (e.g. French & Raven, 1959). Which sources of power could Matthew utilise in order to respond to or influence the challenging work environment that has developed at Advert Co.?  

Question 5 (10 points – 300 words) Using equity theory, analyse the different perceptions AND responses of Anisa and Henry in relation to their pay.

Advert Co. Case 

Anisa Liem and Henry Hassan were transferred on a two year contract from the Indonesian to the Auckland (NZ) office of Advert Co., a large graphic design and advertising company. Both Anisa and Henry were enthusiastic about their new role in Auckland. They anticipated being able to do a much wider variety of tasks than they did in while in Indonesia. Advert Co. is much larger and offered design, production, copyediting, and marketing services to a wide range of clients. In addition, they knew that, in time, they would have the opportunity to manage their own clients, seeing them through from the very first concept and design meetings to the development of full advertising campaigns.  

Both Henry and Anisa were required to sit a competency, cognitive ability, and verbal reasoning test when they arrived. The tests were administered in English (their second language) and they both tried very hard; scoring well above average in the numeracy sections. Unfortunately they scored poorly overall, due to the extra time it took to translate the questions and misunderstanding some of the wording. 

Initially they were both happy with the pay increase they would receive, especially in light of their comparatively low test scores. They would continue to get their usual salary, which was equivalent to $260 NZ dollars per week and would also get an accommodation allowance of NZ $200 per week, in addition to a one-off relocation bonus of NZ $3000. However, it was not long before they found out that the Kiwi employees in the same department, doing the exact same job, were earning nearly $900 per week. 

Within a few weeks of realising the difference in the rates of pay, Anisa began to post personal items home to Indonesia using the company postal service, she would surf the internet during work time and take long lunch breaks. Sometimes she would delegate part of her workload to her Kiwi colleagues, reasoning that, if they were being paid more, then they should also do more work. Anisa feels quite uncomfortable with her behaviour, realising that she is essentially stealing from the organisation by using their internal post, slacking off, and taking more time at lunch. Anisa thinks of herself as an honest and hardworking person and these activities are neither honest nor hardworking. She convinces herself it is OK however, telling herself she is just making up for the low salary. 

Henry, on the other hand, was very impressed with the level of relevant qualifications the Kiwis had, most had at least a BBus degree (Henry and Anisa only finished high school in Indonesia). In addition, he is very aware of the low score he received on the tests he sat, reasoning that they indicate he is less able than others to do a good job. He was also aware that what his colleagues did in their roles was really helped by the fact that most have English as their first language.  Henry continues to work as hard as he can for Advert Co. 

Henry thinks the pay difference is fair, while Anisa believes it is unfair. Anisa becomes really focussed on the fact that her work is as good, or better, than her colleagues whereas Henry often reflects on the fact that they are so much better at speaking English and never make copywriting errors. 

Henry continues to feel very lucky to earn his salary. He is very keen to buy the latest watch now that he is earning more money. Gary, a senior copyeditor at Advert Co. who was born and raised in New Zealand, is surprised to see Henry wearing an expensive Tag Heuer luxury watch which would have cost several times his monthly discretionary income. Gary still wears an old Casio he got as a teenager. It tells they time perfectly which, he reasons, is surely all you need from a watch? 

Anisa’s work at Advert Co. 

Back at work, Anisa has been tasked with creating an advertising campaign for holiday home and room rental company Bookabach, which began in New Zealand but has expanded worldwide. The brand’s goal is to increase sales and bookings, and they want a new advertising campaign to help achieve this goal. For years, they have run ads that focus on money savings and property availability and comparisons of price. 

Anisa decides that the Bookabach holiday rental brand needs a new strategy for their marketing communications. She decides to include familiar sites, pleasant and uplifting music, fun and quirky stopmotion cartoon animation, and an attractive endorser with a warm voice to narrate the advertisement.  The advertisement focuses on feelings consumers might get when staying at a Bookabach.

A survey of customers showed that the new, feel-good advertisement did not achieve its main goals of raising sales for the brand; sales and bookings for Bookabach properties remained flat. Anisa was disappointed, as she was sure lots of fun and colour and good music in an advertisement would make more people want to book with her brand. The survey results (available in Excel as part of this case) showed that people had different attitudes towards the “feel good” advertisement than toward the “functional” advertisement. 

Henry’s work at Advert Co. 

Henry also had an interesting job in planning out where to place a series of advertisements for a new, midrange mobile phone that cost $600 NZD. His goal was to place advertisements in spots that would get the most attention and notice from the phone’s target customers. The phone features plenty of storage for photos and apps, and fast processing speed for hand-held gaming. Importantly, its price point was not super cheap, but also not super expensive. 

Henry thought about the customer journey, and decided to place advertisements for the new phone at bus stops, on billboards along the highway, on social media apps targeting people with older mobile phones (3+ years old), on YouTube pre-roll advertisements, and he also found 3 influencers to partner with on YouTube and Instagram to help raise hype for the new phone. He also paid Google search to feature this new mobile phone at the top of the search queue. He used all of the above tactics for exposure for 3 months straight. 

He thought about putting the advertisements in the newspaper, on Trade Me and during the nightly news on TV, but he considered who his target audience was, and decided against it. In the end, the campaign was successful at helping the mobile phone company sell its new phones: Sales were 2% higher than expected. 

Meet their co-worker, Matthew 

Matthew Jones, a recent graduate from Dunedin, was hired at the same time as Henry and Anisa. He really wants to make a good impression in his new job and is keen to make the most of this new opportunity. He is the sort of person who gets stressed easily and worries about things. In the first few weeks in his new job he often turns up to work half an hour early and is happy to stay late to make sure he keeps on top of his workload. 

Matthew and the rest of his team are managed very closely and are not really trusted by management to get their work done without being monitored. Matthew hates the lack of autonomy that the organisation offers. He is not surprised that others in his team often seem to complain about their own workload and regularly miss deadlines. Most arrive at work late and, though they seldom leave early, they will take long lunch breaks if they can, chat with each other, talk on the phone to their friends and surf the internet. 

Although they keep themselves separate from the rest of the organisation, they all get on well together, and there is a pleasant and friendly atmosphere in the team. They will cover for each other if someone is “pulling a sickie” and exaggerate to management about how long tasks really take so that they can work slowly and take plenty of breaks.  Matthew really wants to be liked by his workmates. As he is a naturally shy person, he sometimes finds it difficult to make friends. It does not take long for Matthew to realise that he has to fit in with the rest of his team if he wants them to like him. He particularly admires Samuel, a fun loving, vivacious, and popular designer who always seems to be surrounded by friends. So, (although it goes against his nature), he soon begins to relax about his own deadlines and go out for extended lunches with his colleagues. He and Samuel become firm friends and although he is not happy about not being very productive at work, he decides that he loves working for Advert Co. more than ever. 

Four months later 

Matthew’s mum calls to advise Matthew that his father is unwell and asks that he make plans to visit. While he agrees to do so, he is concerned how it might impact his work at Advert Co. Due to a decline in performance within Matthew’s team, management initiates a new performance-based reward scheme. The goals the team is required to achieve in order to get rewards are not only significantly more challenging than the level at which they are currently performing but also include more ambiguous requirements such as to “improve work quality” and to “try hard.” For example they are expected to not only design new layouts for many of the print advertisements of Advert Co.’s clients, but also to learn how to use the brand new computer software required for the redesign. Although some feedback is given by management and clients about whether the finished product is satisfactory, no proper computer training is given and not a single team member manages to master the new computer software before the first deadline passes. 

Matthew becomes increasingly stressed. He feels that the work is too hard and he is unsupported by management. His peers are also under a lot of pressure so he cannot rely on them to help him either.  

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