Practise group development, team roles, conflict, loafing, bullying and performance monitoring, applying each account to workplace decisions and evidence.
Feba is a manager in an IT company. She has decided to monitor her employees while they work from home to improve their productivity on their tasks.
Suggest one way that Feba could monitor the productivity of her employees while they work at home.
Feba is a manager in an IT company. She has decided to monitor her employees while they work from home to improve their productivity on their tasks.
Suggest one way that Feba could monitor the productivity of her employees while they work at home.
Award 2 marks for an outline of monitoring employees' productivity.
Award 1 mark for a basic outline/identification of monitoring employees' productivity.
Syllabus content:
Performance monitoring of employee productivity (exemplified by the following key study).
Key study looking at concentration levels when being monitored: Claypoole and Szalma (2019), focus on experiment 1, specifics of methodology for experiment 2 will not be needed.
Likely suggestions:
- Webcam
- Video recorder
- Electronic performance monitoring
- Counting/monitoring mouse clicks/movements
Example:
Feba could set up a webcam on the employee's home computer. (1) This will monitor productivity as Feba will be able to see when her employees are working and how long it takes them to submit a task. (1)
Other appropriate responses should also be credited.
2
1 mark - specific idea (not just identification)
1 mark - how it will monitor productivity
Explain why the way you have given in part (a) would improve productivity on tasks.
Explain why the way you have given in part (a) would improve productivity on tasks.
Award 2 marks for an explanation of why the application would improve productivity.
Award 1 mark for a basic outline/identification of why the application would improve productivity.
Example:
The findings by Claypoole and Szalma were that sustained attention improved in the participants when they were being monitored by the webcam compared to the control group that wasn't being monitored. (1) Feba monitoring her employees using a webcam should find that productivity on tasks increases while she is monitoring them as they will feel pressured to work while being watched. (1)
Other appropriate responses should also be credited.
2
Hawthorne effect is creditworthy if relevant to the way suggested in part (a).
Outline what is meant by 'holism', including an example from Thomas-Kilmann's five conflict
handling modes.
Outline what is meant by 'holism', including an example from Thomas-Kilmann's five conflict-handling modes.
Award 2 marks for an outline of the term/concept in context. Award 1 mark for a basic outline of the term/concept.
Example:
Behaviour can be explained by looking at all the components that make it up OR take a big picture view of behaviour. (1)
Thomas-Kilmann's five conflict model can be considered to be holistic as it suggests that conflict is made up of many components - the individual employees involved, the situation where conflict has arisen and the best strategy to resolve this conflict (1). Thomas-Kilmann offers five strategies (e.g. competition and compromise) and suggest that each conflict will require a different approach. (1)
Other appropriate responses should also be credited.
2
Context = Thomas-Kilmann's five conflict handling modes. No credit for stating the theory has five modes and is therefore a complex way of handling conflict as re-stating what is in the Q.
Competition, Collaboration, Compromise, Avoidance, Accomodation.
Explain one weakness of holism, using an example from Thomas-Kilmann's five conflict
handling modes.
Explain one weakness of holism, using an example from Thomas-Kilmann's five conflict-handling modes.
Award 2 marks for a detailed explanation of a weakness in context.
Award 1 mark for a basic explanation of a weakness.
Likely weaknesses:
- Difficult to identify a single cause of the conflict.
- Difficult to train managers/employees to resolve conflict as there are so many different ways of resolving it.
- Hard to know if the conflict has been resolved for everyone involved.
Example:
One weakness of holism is that it is difficult to establish a single cause of the behaviour/conflict. (1) Employees could appear to be using the avoiding conflict handling mode, but it will be difficult for the manager to determine if this is true for all involved or the is the only cause of the conflict.
Other appropriate responses should also be credited.
2
1 mark for outline of weakness (either generic or specific to T-K and holism).
1 mark for example from T-K.
Arjun is being bullied at work by his manager, Tia. When Arjun is interviewed about the bullying, he says it started when Tia was promoted to manager. Tia can become stressed at work and this increases the bullying. Arjun worries about the bullying all the time and thinks that Tia is encouraging his team to talk to others about him.
Suggest why Tia is bullying Arjun, using your knowledge of the causes of bullying at work.
Award 3-4 marks for a detailed answer with clear understanding of the causes of bullying linked to suggesting why Tia is bullying Arjun.
Award 1-2 marks for a basic answer with some understanding of the causes of bullying linked to suggesting why Tia is bullying Arjun.
Suggested reasons for bullying:
Individual/personality
The bully
- Competition/status for jobs
- Feelings of envy/uncertainty over own ability
- The victim
- Personality provokes aggression in others
- Any of sensitive, suspicious, angry, lower self-esteem and anxious in social situations.
4
No context = max 2 marks.
1 or more suggestion.
13
The workplace/situation
- Poor design
- Poor leadership behaviour
- Socially exposed victim
- Low moral standards
- Low morale
Example:
Bullying is caused by personality and situational factors. (1) One situational factor is that Tia has become Arjun's manager, and this might have caused predatory bullying where Tia has power over Arjun. (1) In addition, Tia is displacing her stress onto Arjun in the form of bullying rather than dealing with her work stress. (1) Arjun appears to have a personality that may make him more prone to bullying, such as being suspicious, when he says he thinks his team is talking about him.
(1) Or Arjun is anxious in social settings so notices subtle changes in others' behaviours which he has interpreted as talking about him behind his back. (1)
Other appropriate responses should also be credited.