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To evaluate a difficult career choice under compelling organizational circumstances. To analyse a complex organizational culture to understand the nuances of career decisions. To relate career dilemmas to relevant conceptual and theoretical strands of organizational behaviour. To interpret the leadership style and its interaction with organizational culture. To determine possible strategic recourses to deal with the dynamics of destructive leadership and toxic cultures.

The case is about the experiences of Raamit Pell, a Middle-level Executive at Accadia Management Services, and his encounters with a new boss, Pret Sohn. Raamit Pell had joined Accadia at a time when the organization was undergoing some political and cultural turmoil. When Pret Sohn came in as the new Chief Executive Officer six months later, there were a lot of expectations. But, Pret Sohn too began following Accadia’s existing political culture, indulging in unhealthy organizational practices. He caused mental harassment to many executives. One such executive was Raamit Pell. Despite Raamit’s excellent performance, Pret Sohn denied him a well-deserved promotion. Sohn justified it by saying that performance alone did not matter. Raamit felt deeply disturbed and considered quitting Accadia. He was reluctant to leave as a defeated man. Subsequently, he received an offer from another subsidiary of Accadia’s holding agency. As he was undergoing a three-month mandatory notice period for his release, Raamit became concerned about his decision to leave Accadia. Deep in his mind he longed to redeem his hurt pride at Accadia. So, he was pondering whether he had taken the decision to resign in haste.

Level: Post-graduate/doctoral and executive education programmes in management and allied subjects. Courses: Courses in Career Decisions, Organizational Behaviour, Leadership, Organizational Culture and Organizational Ethics.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 7: Management Science.

The case would be specifically useful in courses related to Corporate Governance, Board Dynamics, Leadership, Organizational Behaviour, Corporate Ethics and Strategic Management.

For Post-graduate/Doctoral and Executive Programme/Management Development Programme level courses in Corporate Governance, Board Dynamics, Leadership, Organizational Behaviour, Corporate Ethics and relevant areas of Strategic Management.

The case relates to the imminent departure of Raamit Pell, the founding CEO of Xcelent Services, an educational service provider, to his parental organization at Kozerton after completing his current five-year term. Raamit had moved from Kozerton to become CEO of Xcelent Services. Many of Raamit’s senior executives at Xcelent were not happy about his decision to return. They felt that his departure at this moment might, on the one hand, slow down the ongoing major expansion plans and on the other aggravate a mutiny, under covert Board patronage involving a powerful clique of certain senior executives. The parental agency finally agreed to release him. On the day of Raamit’s farewell, where surprisingly even the clique members were present, many executives appeared sad. Observing the mood, Raamit wondered whether his decision to return to Kozerton was the right one.

To understand the internal governance, leadership and behavioural environment of a company. To understand the impact of internal power equations of a company on the morale of its people. To analyze both the inconsistency between the stated goals of the organization and the revealed actions of its top decision-makers; and the lack of restraint on the power struggle among the top actors of the organization. To identify effective strategies for addressing such issues in future so that their fallouts would be minimized. To relate the behaviour in an organization to the organizational behavioural theories related to leadership, corporate governance, corporate ethics, managerial behaviour and agency problems.

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CSS 11: Strategy.

Organizational ethics and related issues.

Graduate course on Strategic Human Resource Management and specialization courses in Banking.

This case details the account of a human resources (HR) manager of a multinational bank in India who “used” his position to bring on board his cronies to secure his position and utilize the inherent powers in the position to further his own ends. The case elaborates how the Manager HR went about his job soon after taking over and the consequences this had on the Indian operations and the morale of officers. The case requires the students to analyze and suggest ways in which this organization can prevent such occurrences in future.

The primary learning objective is to help the student understand the significance of organizational ethics values and react to issues arising from dealing with unethical practices. It will also make them aware of what can happen if systems are deliberately flouted and reporting protocol relating to information flows are ignored. Specifically, it will help them to select the right people, who are aware of the culture of the organization and what this culture implies in terms of working ethically. Communicate the working standards expected of its employees, especially newly trained ones. Analyze the challenges an employee can face when he or she tries to do things in the organization which are not ethical. Evaluate the different ways in which errant employees should be handled.

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This case has three primary objectives. First, it allows students to think through a conceptual cost and benefit analysis associated with the decision-making process in line with basic economic thinking. Students will revisit core concepts of marginal benefit vs marginal cost, the notion of opportunity costs and the role of sunk costs in this type of analysis, while also highlighting the nature of market structure, oligopolies and competition across firms in an industry. The second goal of this case is to consider the role of business ethics in the DC-10 case: specifically, to consider the potential influence of moral awareness and moral disengagement in unethical decisions made by McDonnell Douglas. Students will develop an understanding of these concepts and solidify their learning by applying them to the case and engaging in active discussion. Finally, the third goal of the case allows students to explore organizational culture and specifically offer recommendations for organizations thinking about the link between decision-making, the role of ethics and culture.

The technical reports released by the National Transportation Safety Board along with secondary data such as available public data such as news reports were used to round out the synopsis of the case study.

This case explores the accidents of two McDonnell Douglas DC-10s in the early 1970s at the onset of the jumbo jet race between Boeing, Lockheed and McDonnell Douglas. It explores the series of events during the “Windsor Incident” in 1972 and the subsequent accident over Paris in 1974. It explores the reasons why the cargo door on the DC-10 was faulty and subsequently why the door was not fixed. It examines the interplay of industry suppliers such as McDonnell Douglas and how they interact with oversight authorities such as the Federal Aviation Authority. The Teaching Note focuses on the economic thinking at McDonnell Douglas, behavioral ethics and organizational culture.

This case is best explored over a 90 min session but could be expanded to take up one 3 h session. The authors have used this case format in an undergraduate organizational behavior class, an MBA Leadership and Organizational Change class, and an MBA Economics of Managers class. It works particularly well in the MBA setting, as students with work experience can see the links between the mistakes made by McDonnell Douglas and their workplaces.

This case is focused on the allegations of corrupt practices within the strategic leadership at the board level of an international sports organization – the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The theoretical premise is that the practices and decisions of the AFC’s leadership will have a profound impact on the AFC’s performance. However, because the AFC is the continental governing body, the impact is theorized to be far larger, across an entire industry. In writing the case, the authors were guided by upper Echelons theory (UET) (Hambrick and Mason, 1984; Hambrick, 2007; Hambrick et al., 2015), which argues that an organization’s strategic direction is directly influenced by its leader’s values. The authors selected UET for the theoretical framework, as it considered a spectrum of factors from industry, leader characters (values), their choices and the results of their actions. Such a comprehensive theory aligned with the complexities of the AFC and its leadership. In constructing the case roadmap using UET, the authors first adopted an ethnographic methodology. This was motivated by the fact that one of the authors had been embedded for many years as part of the leadership team at the AFC. His career work notes based on direct interactions and observations of these leaders helped in two ways: to identify the complex set of personal characteristics of these leaders (i.e. background, their careers outside football and financial standing) as they originated from 47 different nationalities. UET refers to these as observable factors to better theorize the hidden intentions of their alleged corrupt behaviors. UET identifies this second set of non-observable factors as psychological factors. These two different sets of observations combined helped to theorize their drivers, intentions and strategic decisions (options). For the second methodology, the authors accessed archival, publicly available media news and reports to understand the consequences of their actions to the AFC and the Asian football industry. This completed the final parts of the UET framework (Yamak et al., 2014).

This case relied on information that was widely reported within international media, press announcements by various organizations, published decisions by tribunals and publicly available information on the AFC. All of the names and positions in this case are actual persons.

This case focuses on the role and influence of the AFC as the Asian football governing body. The AFC is a member of the world football governing body – FIFA. With a US$1bn budget, the AFC has a strong impact on the future of football among Asia’s three billion people. Unfortunately, the AFC has been unable to create the value in its sports events or properties that attracts fans and investors. Central to this problem is the issue of corruption and corruption allegations within the AFC, especially with regard to its leadership. This case, therefore, attempts to highlight the various issues, discusses the circumstances around these challenges and brings forth the complexities of leading a truly international organization across 47 countries. Such factors are then tied to the value of the organization’s products or services in the marketplace.

The case is written and designed for a graduate level (MBA) class or an upper level undergraduate class such as corporate strategy, leadership, international management, international marketing, contemporary issues in management, cross-cultural management, sports management and sports marketing. In general, the case will also be a good fit for courses that discuss leadership, organizational strategy, organizational structure, organizational ethics and organizational behavior.

This case will help students to improve their understanding of several important aspects of an organization’s culture and the importance of ethics in developing an organization’s culture. Students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of the concept of values and their importance in business and learn what organizations should do to make their culture more value-driven. Students will be able to identify the impact an organization’s blurred culture causes and understand the concept of “value congruence” and its need to get higher employee performance. Students will be able to understand the importance of Holland’s person-job fit theory, in an organizational context, along with the impact of Hofstede’s national culture on the organizations’ culture of a country. Students will realize how a result-driven performance management system impacts an employee’s morale negatively, and discover why an organization should balance on giving equal importance to both result and behavior-based performance appraisal system. Students will develop sensitivity to the application of the “triple bottom line” and deontological approach in ethics, and determine how to formulate policies for sustainable and ethical process-driven organizations.

There are two aspects to this case. On the one hand, it talks about the ethical dilemma faced by the protagonist Mr. Vijay Shekhar while working with Smartschool.com, with its head office in Bangalore, India. On the other hand, the case focuses on the performance management system at Smartschool.com, its existing framework and the impact it has on employees and other stakeholders. It also emphasizes the importance of establishing a value-driven culture in an organization for its long term sustenance.

Graduate and under-graduate business students/MBA level.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 6: Human resource management.

This case can be used in teaching business ethics, organizational behaviour and human resource management. More specifically, romance in the workplace, discrimination, absenteeism, sneaking and cyberloafing in the workplace.

This case can be used for both undergraduate and postgraduate students particularly for business ethics, organizational behaviour, human resource management and leadership courses. Students/participants are challenged to identify the major issue in the case and help the decision maker to make a decision.

This case demonstrates the unethical behaviour of Natacha and Noman Ali. Natacha refused to comply with the company’s code of conduct and breached the company’s rules and regulations. Natacha used the company’s resources to carry out her personal business and also cheated on her attendance records, and the Director of Enforcement and the Inspectorate Division, Noman, continued to back and support her. Madam Siti Hajar had consulted and advised her many times, but Natacha did not pay attention to her advice. Madam Siti was in a dilemma: whether to report this unethical situation to the top management or to tolerate this situation and remain silent.

Expected learning outcomes are as follows: to identify and describe major issues related to workplace unethical behaviour; to provide examples of the concepts of commitment, dedication, fairness, discrimination and ethical leadership; to identify and analyse individual and organizational factors that may affect individuals’ unethical behaviour; to instruct students of the scientific methods involved in making decisions; and. to help students to think thoroughly, deeply and critically to make decisions that can solve the problem at hand.

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CSS 6: Human Resource Management.

Mr Qazi was sitting in his office in the Multan branch, reviewing his past month’s key performance indicators when he got a call from his Town Operations Supervisor, Mr Ahmed, based in Bahawalpur. Ahmed was recently promoted and transferred to Bahawalpur, from Multan branch. He informed Qazi about the huge inventory variances, which were not earlier reported by the previous Town Operations Supervisor, Mr Sagheer. Qazi was informed that differences were around 2.37% of total sales vs the allowable company limit of Zero inventory variance. Qazi was worried about whether to report these differences to higher management or not. He was very well aware that reporting might even cost him his job, and that of Sagheer too. He could not see any solution to the recovery of the inventory or cash against the same. Should Qazi take a risk and let go of Sagheer? Should he report the differences?

1. Demonstrate the fraud and integrity-related issues. Why and how happened? 2. Analyzed the role of organizational policies in the decision of blow the whistle. 3. Identify the behaviors that helped a whistle-blower. 4. Assess the ethical dilemmas in which professional duties may conflict with personal ethics. 5. Propose organizational policies to encourage whistle-blowing and to discourage the fraud or integrity-related issues.

Teaching Notes are available for educators only.

CSS 9: Operations and logistics.

BBA.

Human resource management, business ethics, public policy.

The case can also be taught in MBA/postgraduate in management programmes in general management or HR classes to give a lesson in organizational conflict and resolution, negotiation skills (strategies, tactics and power in negotiation) towards the middle or end of the course. The course can also be taught in MBA/postgraduate in management programmes in business ethics classes to make students appreciate the various approaches to ethics – end-results, duty, social contract and personalistic ethics. It also helps students learn how to institute ethics into the cultural fabric of the organization. In public policy programmes, it could be taught to illustrate the crucial role and at times unintended outcomes of actions of street level bureaucracies in policy implementation. The course can also be taught in refresher training programmes for executives to give lessons in conflict management, mediation strategies, union negotiations and ethics.

This teaching case is based on a real incident that took place in a defence production factory of India in the year 2009. It succinctly unfolds a small showdown between two officers that acquires a disproportionate size and explosive dimension and vitiates the environment of the entire organization. The case is a narration of a small row that in no time became a full-blown organizational dispute with layers of issues. Two officers, one very senior and the other influential, got entangled in a conflict, unfortunately in the presence of a large audience; dissatisfied workers and officers fanned the sentiments and encouraged them to unethically leverage legal privileges by gaming in the name of caste and sexual harassment to gain power in the messy dispute. The protagonist Ram Sharma, the General Manager (head) of the factory, is in a precarious situation as the conflict not only puts his managerial skills but also his moral standards and ethics to test.

After discussion and analysis of this case, the students should be able to: appreciate and evaluate the complexities and multiple facets of an organizational conflict including ethical challenges faced in a real life situation, recommend the options and course of action a manager could resort to in a high stake and time bound situation, learn to develop a basic framework for analysing, negotiations and strategize to resolve a conflict as a manager-mediator in such a situation, learn to handle difficult negotiation bound by complexities of unethical and legal disputes, answer to themselves the criticality of ground level bureaucracy's role in implementation of public policies (optional if the faculty decides to discuss the part provided in the teaching note). For international students, this is a case to learn dynamics of “negotiations in Indian context”. Overall development of critical thinking and analytical skills.

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The case highlights the ethical dilemmas people face in various business situations. The case throws light on the causes and consequences of violation and the problems related to enforcement of shared organizational values/code of conduct.

This case can be used in courses on human resource management, OB and corporate ethics and is suitable for the postgraduate and undergraduate students of business schools.

The case narrates the dilemma faced by the Vice President of human resources (VP-HR) of a company when he discovered a major violation of the company's code of conduct by the Vice President of research and development (VP-R&D). The VP-R&D is almost indispensable to the company given his unique expertise and criticality of the new Design Centre which he is spearheading single-handedly. Sacking the VP-R&D has the potential of delaying commissioning of the new centre and putting new business wins in jeopardy. On the other hand, not taking any action may erode employees faith in code of conduct and company values. The VP-HR must decide fast whether and how to take action on gross violation of company's code of conduct.

The students will gain understanding of shared organizational values, code of conduct and ethics, know about the causes and consequences of violation of shared values, discover ways to institutionalize shared organizational values and resolve ethical dilemma.

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