Micro Organizational Behaviour

MGMT 2383 Micro Organizational Behaviour

Fall 2017

This assignment is an individual assignment. Each student is responsible for submitting their own work. Assignments are due on October 31, 2017 at 11:59pm. They can be submitted in hard copy or emailed to mike@melenchuk.ca with MGMT 2383 - Assignment in the subject line. Part One: Mini Case: Lynx Trucking

Read the following case and answer the questions that follow. Your answers should be written in complete sentences and refer, where possible, to concepts from the textbook and lectures.

Despite being illegal and simply wrong, discrimination still occurs in Canadian workplaces.

Although most will say it is generally subtle, Cheryl Khan’s experience was anything but. In her

testimony to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, Khan testified that her employer, Lynn Tompkins,

used racial slurs to demean her, her children and her South Asian coworkers. Witnesses testified that he

referred to South Asian employees as “stupid or dumb” and said, “Why did we hire them? Are there not

any good white people we could hire?” When several employees wanted to take time off to attend

Dhiwali, an important Hindu religious occasion, he was heard saying, “the f...ing Indians don’t want to

work.” Former employees testified that it was a poisonous atmosphere where minority workers were told

they were lazy and lucky to have a job.

Khan worked as a dispatcher for Tompkins, the owner of Lynx Trucking in Rexdale, Ontario.

She had previously worked 11 years in the industry and over 5 years as a dispatcher but was gone from

Lynx in less than a year. Khan was absent for two days for her son’s hospitalization with suspected

cancer and came back to find someone else in her desk.

When questioned about his actions at the Human Rights Tribunal, Tompkins denied Khan’s

accusations of racial taunts and brought current employees as witnesses. He admitted he was a tough

boss who would yell and scream a lot, but that was just his style. He claims he did not use racist

language. The adjudicator decided in favour of Khan, saying the testimony of Khan and her witnesses

was “clear and unproblematic” whereas Tompkins and his witnesses were inconsistent and contrived to

hide his behaviour. Tompkins’ “deliberately cruel” insults showed he felt Khan to be inferior. The

Tribunal ordered Tompkins to pay $25,000 to Khan for the harm she experienced from the

discriminatory treatment, to pay her an additional $6,750 in lost wages for wrongful dismissal, and to

create an anti-harassment policy at Lynx. Tompkins was ordered personally to take anti-harassment

training.

References: M. Welsh, Racist taunts cost boss $25,000, The Star, February 17, 2010, www.thestar.com/news/article/766704--racist-taunts-cost-boss-25-

000 (accessed October 25, 2010)

Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario Decision, Khan versus 820302 Ontario, February 5, 2010,

http://multimedia.thestar.com/acrobat/22/2a/8f7b37004d8786e17c79e6c59057.pdf (accessed October 25, 2010);

D. Doorey, Racial Slurs by Employer Breach Human Rights Code , Doorey’s Workplace Law Blog, February 17, 2010,

www.yorku.ca/ddoorey/lawblog/?p=1669&cpage=1 (accessed October 25, 2010).

2

Questions: (no more than three pages double spaced total) 1. Assuming BELIEF + VALUE = Attitude and then Behaviour, explain Tompkins’ behaviour towards the staff. 2. Some employees at Lynx chose to stay despite the verbal abuse from the owner. Explain why 3. If we believe that the trucking industry culture (“a rough and tumble world”) contributed to Tompkins’ behavior,

what does this indicate about the locus of control. Explain. 4. Tompkins’ verbal abuse is eroding the levels of Maslow’s Need Hierarchy; what level or levels are affected? Explain.

Part Two: Self Reflection (no more than two pages double spaced)

Given your career progression, academic and professional, to date explain where you believe that you fit within Alderfer’s ERG Theory model by way of examples and future direction.