Business

Case Questions

1. What about you? Put yourself in the position of the Atlanta educators whose dilemma is described in the case. If there was a real possibility that you'd lose your job because your students performed badly, how would assess your situation and your options? What if there were a real possibility that you'd lose a pay raise and promotion? How about the possibility that you'd be reassigned to a much less desirable school? Be prepared to argue either side of your case.

2. Think about a class that you're taking now or have taken in the past. What key performance indicator (KPI) played the most important role in the instructor's evaluation of your performance? What did it tell you about your instructor's strategy for teaching the course? Do you think that it was too narrowly focused or otherwise unreasonable? If so, how do you think your instructor could have improved his performance-evaluation strategy?

3. Again, what about you? After having read this case, have you reconsidered your attitude toward how much control or accountability you'd like to have in a job? If, for example, you're studying to be a teacher, how do you feel about a career goal such as moving up to principal or even multischool administrator? How does your concept of an ideal work/life relationship affect your thinking on the subject?

4. As we saw in Chapter 13, incentives “represent special compensation opportunities that are usually tied to performance”—that is, to a certain form of workplace behavior. They can also be tied to other forms of workplace behavior—such as complying with an employer's policies regarding legal and ethical conduct (its so-called compliance and ethics, or C&E, program). Incentives can be either “soft” (consisting of nontangible encouragement or recognition) or “hard” (typically consisting of tangible, often monetary rewards). What “C&E” incentives affect the way you conduct yourself, whether at work or at school? How do they stack up against the incentives to behave in accord with Campbell's Law? Is there any tension between the two sets of incentives? What do you do—or can you do—to resolve any tension as you make decisions affecting your behavior?