OB CASE STUDY

“What Customers Don’t Know Won’t Hurt Them, or

Will It?”

Submitted to: Prof. Shrimi Shrivastava

By Group 2

Devbrat Somani (01)

Kaustav Kanti Paul (08)

Nikita Bawri (15)

Heta Mehta (31)

Jitendra Ahuja (48)

Sanchari Sinha (54)

Q.1. Using concepts from reinforcement theory, explain why Elena might be
motivated to lie to customers. With reinforcement theory in mind, do you
think that Elena will confess to the legal representative? Why or why not?

According to Reinforcement theory, Theorists believe that the behavior of an

individual is environmentally caused, i.e. an individual’s behavior depends on the
consequences of the behavior. In this case also Elena saw her supervisor lying to
the customers just to make more money which also motivated Elena to do the
same. He also told her that if she wanted to reach higher levels, she should learn
how to handle and lie to customers at her advantage.

Reinforcement theory in itself doesn’t study behavior but tells us that what
determines the behavior. Similarly in this case Elena was focused towards her
promotion and she knew that if she work on the lines of her supervisor she will
surely get the promotion and thus I feel that Elena will not confess.

Q. 2. How might the rental office’s climate influence Elena’s behavior? What
factors contribute to the current climate? What steps could you take to
improve the ethics at this office?

The climate of the rental office has been created solely by the supervisor. The
reason why such a climate has been maintained by all the other employees is
because they are all well aware that the performance management takes the earning
revenue as a factor for deciding whether the employee is worth promoting or not.
Thus, Elena too wasn’t spared from getting affected by this atmosphere and that
resulted into her repeated lying to her customers.

To improve the ethics at this office, the legal department would need to conduct
an audit on the ethical standards held. Also, the supervisor should be warned
against unethical practices and if needed, strict action should be taken against him
so that the employees seek a lesson from his behavior.
Q. 3. Do you blame Elena for her behavior or do you attribute her behavior to
external factors? How do concepts from attribution theory fit in?

Behavior of Elena is solely accountable on herself because had she realized her
ethical shortcoming in the beginning of her career, she would not have taken the
step of lying to the customers all the way till she reached a dreadful point when she
was responsible for the injury caused to one of her customers. Though there was
some influence of her supervisor on her behavior initially, but later on she herself
took to lying to her customers to earn more revenue and thus enhance her chances
of being promoted.

Attribution theory is an attempt to determine whether an individual’s behavior is

internally or externally caused. According to this theory when one specific
behavior of an individual becomes more and more consistent then it is attributed to
internal causes. In the given case, Elena’s consistent behavior of lying to her
customers can thus be said to be internally caused rather than attributing the causes
to the external environment.

Q. 4. Consider Elena’s personality. Would you predict that escalation of

commitment will occur (and she will lie to the legal representative), or will she
decide to come clean? Explain your answer.

Keeping in mind Elena’s ambitious personality, I would say that Elena would
perhaps lie to the legal representative and choose not to come clean. I would blame
her ethical shortcomings for this. At the beginning of her career, Elena was
persuaded to lie to her customers in the lure of promotion, and thus, her ambition
took over her ethics. Gradually, she encountered many instances where her
supervisor asked her to lie and pretty soon, it became her second nature. Here in
this situation, Elena knows that if she tries to come clean in front of the head of the
legal department, then she might have to wash her hands off the promotion as well
as her job, and certainly, she wasn’t too keen on taking a risk of speaking the truth
at this stage of her career where promotion wasn’t too farfetched. Thus, I think
Elena would deny of knowing the problem with vehicle and choose to remain
ignorant.
Q. 5. Do you think Elena would make a good leader some day? Why or why
not? What factors might this depend on?

According to me, Elena would not make a good leader in the future. Elena is
persuasive and has been good in sales up to this point. A good leader is the one who
stands up for his/her principles and voice her concern when something seems wrong.
For a leader, the priority is advancing the company towards achieving the set goals
and not advancing his/her own position. A leader strives for the growth of the
company by walking on the path of his/her ethics and moral values and doesn’t
compromise on the same. But Elena is too ambitious to stick to her moral values.
Elena was initially hesitant to lie to her customers but eventually, she developed this
habit into her characteristic. Owing to these factors Elena would not emerge out as
a good leader.

Q. 6. What emotions might Elena be experiencing? How might Elena’s

emotions affect her decision to tell the legal department manager about the
incident with Mr. Reynolds?

Elena might be experiencing plethora of emotions like:

1. Guilt: In spite of knowing that there is a large lump on the outside well of
the passenger-side front tire of the compact car which could prove fatal-
Elena rented the car to Mr. Jim Reynolds who eventually ended up being
seriously injured.
2. Shock: Elena was shocked to hear what happened with Mr. Reynolds – she
thought that the car will be fine as Mr. Reynolds would have it only for a
day, but Mr. Reynolds got seriously injured.
3. Anger: Elena had worked hard to get where she was. She regretted not
having told her supervisor that she wasn’t going to lie to customers, even if
it meant getting a better rate.
4. Fear: Elena feared that some legal action will be taken against her if she
admitted the truth.
5. Worries: Elena’s mind raced with worried thoughts about how she let
herself get into this position while remembering when her supervisor first
told her to lie to a customer.
The emotion that could affect Elena’s decision to tell the legal department manager
about the incident with Mr. Reynolds is fear- though Elena knew that Mr.
Reynolds got injured because she rented him a defective car- but she could not
accept it- If she told the truth, becoming a manager would probably be out of the
question, at least for a long while(the fear of losing position and power) and at the
same time she feared some legal action could be taken against her(fear of
punishment).

It can be other way round as well, it may so happen that Elena’s guilt feeling
becomes so intense that she doesn’t care about her career and legal punishment and
she tells the truth to the legal department manager to come out of her guilt.