Assignment:
Jackie Ney was an enthusiastic employee when she began working in the accounting department at Steelfab Corp. In particular, she prided herself on discovering better ways of handling invoice and requisition flows. The company had plenty of bottlenecks in the flow of paperwork throughout the organization and Jackie had made several recommendations to her boss, Mr. Johnston, which would improve the process. Mr. Johnston acknowledged these suggestions and even implemented a few. but he didn't seem to have enough time to either thank her or explain why some suggestions could not be implemented. In fact. Mr. Johnston didn't say much to any of the other employees in the department about anything they did.
At the end of the first year, Jackie received a 6 percent merit increase based on Mr. Johnston's evaluation of her performance. This increase was equal to the average merit increase among the 11 people in the accounting department and was above the inflation rate. Still. Jackie was frustrated because she didn't know how to improve her chances of a higher merit increase next year. She was also upset that another new employee, . Jim Sandu, received the highest pay increase (10 percent) even though he was not regarded by others in the finance department as a particularly outstanding performer.
According to others who worked with him on some assignments. Jim lacked the skills to perform the job well enough to receive such a high reward. However, Jim Sandu, had become a favored employee of Mr. Johnston and they had even gone on a fishing trip together.
Jackie's enthusiasm toward Steelfab fell dramatically during her second year of employment. She still enjoyed the work and made friends with some of her co-workers, but the spirit that had once carried her through the morning rush hour traffic had somehow dwindled. Eventually, Jackie stopped mentioning her productivity improvement ideas. On two occasions during her second year of employment, she took a few days of sick leave to visit friends and family in Vermont. She had used only two sick days during her first year and these were for 3 legitimate illness. On one occasion, even her doctor had urged Jackie to stay at home. But by the end of the second year, using sick days seemed to "justify" Jackie's continued employment at Steelfab. Now, as her second annual merit increase approached. Jackie started to scout around seriously for another job.
Questions
1. What symptoms exist in this case to suggest that something has gone wrong?
2. What are the root causes that have led to these symptoms?