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Case Study Critique
Case Study Critique
Performance management experiences many legal issues within human resource
management in public administration. Performance management is based on… One of the main
issues in human resource management is unfairness from supervisors in the work environment.
This negatively affects employees’ perceptions of the work environment, organizational
commitment, and job satisfaction. The unfairness of supervisors and managers employees feel a
lack of support from their organization. Unmet organization obligations tend to make employees
have negative feelings towards their organization, which they internalize as a failure to succeed
within the organization. This affects retention rates and organizational commitment because it
can cause negative work behaviors, such as, cheating, stealing, slow work performance, and
sabotage (Jain & Chhabra, 2024). Therefore, it is important to understand employees’ idea of a
dysfunctional organizational environment that validates self-serving behaviors and gives
recognition to employees’ interests at the expense of the collective good (De Clercq, et al., 2020).
When employees’ self-serving behavior is negatively affected it can lead to extreme stress, and
job performance and diminish an organization turnover rate.
Facts
Many employees tend to believe that their organization’s decision-making is based on
dysfunctional political representation, which is a major concern due to it causing an unfavorable
work environment that could potentially harm employees’ mental health and the quality of their
organization (De Clercq, et sl., 2020). The employees’ expectation of how they will be treated by
their organization relies on the political climate within the organization. This can hurt the
organizational commitment. The employees will start to develop feelings such as the following:
employees began to believe favoritism is taking place, employees began to feel afraid to speak
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Case Study Critique
up due to the fear of retaliation and feel like certain employees always get their way (De Clercq,
et sl., 2020). This alone makes employees feel threatened because their morale and performance
are being undermined. Also, an employee’s negative view of their organization’s politics can lead
to a decline in job performance requirements. When higher levels of stress are present in the
work environment lower levels of work motivation, job satisfaction, job performance, and
organizational commitment are seen from employees. Therefore, it is a critical challenge for an
organization when starts to feel as though its career has reached a plateau. Many employees
believe their organization only allows a small number of opportunities for their career growth
when organizational politics undermine their job performance. Therefore, it is argued that
employees’ belief in career plateau may stem from the extent to which an employee receives
disrespectful treatment from their manager or supervisor (De Clercq, et sl., 2020). One essential
element of the concept of organizational injustice and unfairness is leader interpersonal
unfairness (De Clercq, et sl., 2020). Therefore, understanding the social exchange theory has
helped researchers with employees’ perceptions of organizational politics and the decline in job
performance. According to social exchange theory, employees spend most of their time and
exertion in exchange for rewards from their organization, such as career growth, personal
development, monetary rewards, and higher salaries (De Clercq, et sl., 2020). Employees feel
that they are not receiving recognition from their organization when in a dysfunctional political
work environment. Why, because rewards that are given out by the organization tend to be based
on favoritism rather than high quality. This allows employees to experience a weak connection
between their job performance and desirable career growth opportunities. Also, this influences
frustration and confusion in the employees because of poor organizational support, limited career
growth, and a decline in job performance tasks (De Clercq, et al., 2020).
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Case Study Critique
Decisions
To determine how much employees view a dysfunctional organization can being harmful
to career growth, job satisfaction, and job performance researchers collected data from over 16
organizations that operate in different industry sectors (De Clercq, et al., 2020). Researchers
identified a target audience of 100 employees to ensure the issue of career plateau and career
growth issues are relevant to the research at hand. There were random surveys distributed to
random participants in the study. The data collection consists of a breaking point of two weeks
between each round conducted, and only three rounds were conducted for this study (De Clercq,
et al., 2020). The first two surveys consist of questions related to employees’ perception of
organizational politics, an explanation of their relationship with their supervisors and managers
at their organization, and questions regarding their feelings on career plateau. The third survey
was given to supervisors and managers, which asked them to analyze their employees’ job
performance (De Clercq, et al., 2020). All surveys were put in an enclosed envelope and returned
to the researchers. The research conducted was completely confidential, so the participants’
organizations did not know who participated. Explained to participants before surveys were
conducted that they needed to answer the questions honestly and there were no incorrect
answers. Researchers discovered that out of 450 surveys, there were a total of 298 completed.
Researchers reached out once more to the participants and gained over 262 responses (De
Clercq, et al., 2020). The overall response rate for the study was 51%. As a result, researchers
discovered that employees’ negative belief of a lack of support from their organization decreases
the likelihood that employees will participate in enhancing their job performance tasks and duties
(De Clercq, et al., 2020).
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Case Study Critique
The decision that the researchers made to conduct a survey was not the appropriate way
to conduct this study. Surveys are an effective way to gather a substantial amount of data, but
employees’ responses more than likely lack the large amount of detail needed for the study to be
successful (Nigro, 2013, pg.104). However, personnel interviews would have been the
appropriate action for this study to have accurate information. Conducting personal interviews
would allow researchers to follow up on questions and answers that are unclear quickly.
Although personnel interviews are very time-consuming and expensive it is a useful tool for
gaining accurate information on the administration of the job questionaries (Nigro, 2013,
pg.105). Personnel interviews with the supervisor would have allowed researchers to have a
better understanding of how they rate their employees’ job performance, their mental health, and
the level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment they feel they receive from their
employees.
Solutions
The results of the study encouraged organizations to not expose employees to
dysfunctional politics because it will affect employees’ self-serving motivation. Detrimental
consequences on employees’ job performance when there is a decrease in self-serving
motivation. Some employees reject that they do experience negativity from the organization’s
politics for fear that they could be viewed as overly complaining. It is in an organization’s best
interest to identify the presence of any dysfunctional politics within the organization to eliminate
any possible negative outcomes, such as insufficient promotions and retention policies (De
Clercq, et al., 2020). Furthermore, to prevent a negative effect on employees’ job performance
due to employees having a negative career belief, organizations should try to create a desirable
work environment in which employees receive support, respect, and recognition from
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Case Study Critique
supervisors and managers. Employees become less sensitive to hardship in the work environment
when they receive support and respect from management (De Clercq, et al., 2020). This will
influence employees to believe that their organization cares about their career growth. However,
there are plenty of other ways that research could suggest solving this problem for employees
who experience politics dysfunctional politics in an organization.
There are alternative solutions for dysfunctional politics within an organization.
Organizations need to conduct quarterly meetings that allow employees to express their
concerns. Also, need to give employees surveys during these meetings that employees can insert
in and be confidential, so supervisors can get everyone’s opinions even if they are afraid to speak
up in the meetings that are conducted. Then, supervisors can take that information and work on
how they can change employees’ beliefs about their organization. Also, the organization needs to
implement quarterly training for supervisors and managers that discusses how to show respect
for employees, ensures supervisors and managers understand that unfavorable behaviors are not
tolerated, and reminds them employees should have equal opportunities. Supervisors and
managers are more likely to be why employees lack career growth, which impacts their mental
health and social identity (Jain & Chhabra, 2024). Abusive supervisors and managers can shape
how employees view themselves and their attitude toward the organization (Jain & Chhabra,
2024). In the bible, scripture Leviticus 19:15, states “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall
not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your
neighbor”. This means in order to solve the issue of unfairness within in organization. One must
not judge based on favoritism for promotional growth, rewards, and recognition, but choose the
employees who have excellent job performance. This will in turn make employees feel as though
their job performance does not get noticed by supervisors.
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Case Study Critique
Conclusion
In conclusion, the study conducted by the researchers shows many issues that unfairness
and dysfunctional politics in an organization can have on performance management in public
administration. Employees who experience unfairness and dysfunctional politics within their
organization tend to feel like the organization is not meeting the obligations that they promised to
them. This causes a hostile environment for both employees and management. Therefore, to
avoid employees having any negative thoughts towards the organization management needs to
create a positive work environment where they treat everyone with respect. Management treating
employees with respect will ease the burden of organizational politics.
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Case Study Critique
Reference
De Clercq, D., Haq, I. U., Azeem, M. U., & Hassan, A. (2020). How career plateau beliefs and
leader interpersonal unfairness harm job performance in dysfunctional organizational
settings.Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences,37(3), 197-
210. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.1560
Jain, V., & Chhabra, B. (2024). Career plateau and counterproductive work behaviour: A
moderated moderation model of abusive supervision and job
embeddedness.International Journal of Organizational Analysis (2005),32(4), 662-
680. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-01-2023-3595
Nigro, L. Nigro, F. & Kellough, J. (2013).EThe New Public Personnel Administration 7th
Edition.Cengage Learning.
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