A COCKROACH IN THE RASAM case study solution
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A COCKROACH IN THE RASAM.
The other day, there was a major hungama in a high profile organization in Bangalore. A senior Executive found a cockroach in his rasam and screamed the roof down. Very logical. Most people would have done likewise. What happened subsequently was, however, appalling.
This senior executive summoned the canteen supervisor, caught hold of his collar, forced Him to kneel in front of everyone and insisted he drink the rasam. The canteen supervisor left in Tears and never returned to the building. The organization, like all organizations do, tried to Sweep the incident under the carpet. Now you know what carpets are for in all sophisticated Organizations, along with flower-pots, paintings and smiling receptionists.
I throw this real life incident open for a case study discussion. The concerned
Organization did not have a union, even if it had, the canteen supervisor would have been there On contract. Should we, therefore assume that senior executives in high profile organizations are Better behaved with unionized workers?
Or should we assume that the organization has failed to instill basic values in its senior
executives? That, in the lemming-like race to success, human values is regarded as highly expendable? That people as people fail to count as long as the sales-curve is moving up in the right direction even if behavior patterns leave much to be desired?
Ironically, it is fashionable in high profile organizations to talk in terms of not just IQ but
- Should all organizations, especially high profile ones, insist that their senior executives be constantly ratedfor both IQ and EQ? Should one test of EQ be whether or not the senior executives know the names of the junior-most staff, including contract workers like toilet cleaners, who keep the premises clean for top brass attending to the small or the big job in between the organizationally crucial jobs?
I grew up in a steel township called Rourkela where there was once an instance of a leopard in the blast furnace. The then general manager, who had earlier worked with a public sector unit manufacturing pharmaceuticals, remarked that, in his previous job, he had come across the odd fly in the ointment. A leopard in the blast furnace was, he remarked, something of a novelty for him.
Those were the days of the Nehruvian era when PSU steel plants were regarded as the temples of modern India and the rationale for any enterprise was the employment it generated and the happiness of its workers. We have since progressed to a high profile era where a burnt-out cockroach in burnt-out rasam trigger of extreme reactions among senior executives who may or may not have read Graham Greens's "A burnt out case".
BEHAVIOURIAL SCIENCE 2009
It is fashionable in the case of such incidents to blame those directly involved. In this instance, there were three participants, the cockroach which got cooked in the rasam, the traumatized canteen supervisor who has sworn never to return to the building where he was humiliated and the senior executive who must surely be wondering why he over treated. A case study could increase awareness among the others that organizational Goals cannot be separated from societal goals. That what's good for society is also good for business and for the organization.
- Analyze the case with regards to your knowledge of Emotional Intelligence?
- What according to you should have been the Sr. Executives action?
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