8.10 Case: An Unpleasant Episode Abstract ‘Mansukh was 2 software developer working with a Bangalore-based Indian IT services company. He was at the lowest level in the company, which was a very hierarchical organization having about 15 levels. ‘The top managers hardly met the people atthe lower levels, and che management style was quite authoritarian based ‘on a system of command and contcol. Mansukh had aspirations to work on assigaments in other counties and all of a sudden he was given the opportunity to go onsite for four months to an Eastern European country, when one of his seniors was not feady with the passport. At the client site, his job was maialy to make presentations and offer clasfeations to the client on the codes developed by the offshore team in Bangalore. While he was abroad, a key member of the offshore team, Hasipriya, who was responsible for developing the code, was shifted to another project in the USA. The presentations made by Mansukh were also attended by his manager, Sarangi, as an observer, who later commented that the presentations did not {go well wth the client, A few days before his departure from the onsite location, Sacangi asked him to ix the bugs in the codes, In the instruction sheet supplied to him (and to the client), Mansulkh was shocked to notice that his name was mentioned as the person responsible for making the exzors (bugs). When he poined out that the codes were developed by Haripriy, Sarangi explained to him that as Haripriya was no longer with the project, someone else had to take the eesponsiblity for che bugs, and chat was the reason for mentioning. his name. He corrected the codes, but was very unhappy about being blamed for someone else's mistakes. Back in India, he wanted to move out of this project or, if that was not permitted, quit the job. Case Alternate theme(3) Jobs and roles, culture and diversity. “Welcome to V-Please Ailines (VPA). Here i your vegetarian food and, as requested by you at the time of ‘boarding, it was heated before any non-vegetarian food was placed in the plane’ oven’ aid the ailine host- ess condescendingly to Mansukh, who was on his way back in the company-booked flight from his four-month-long assignment at his liens premises, which was based in a predominant orthodox country in Eastern Europe. He looked at the aithostess quite aghast at her impolite manners bat accepted the food calmly without protest and kept his eyes down on the food. Fifty minutes into the fight, he began reflecting bout all that had happened during his four-month assignment a the clent ste. He worked with a company which offered IT services and consulting head quartered at the India’s IT capita, Bangalore, India Ie was engaged with several projects ranging ftom R&D to the mundane BPO ‘operations. It placed alot of emphasis on adherence to company’s processes and policies relating to a wideGroup and Team Dynamics 363 spectrum of company aspects such as leave entitlement, dress code, permissible refreshments in the office premises ete The hierarchical structure in the company comprised of a very large number of roles such as ‘general manager, assistant general manager, project manager, st. project manager, delivery manager, programme manager, operations manager, systems analyst, programmer analyst (PA), team leader, software engineer, senior software engineer, sofeware developer, senior software developer, eam member and junior ‘eam member. Mansaith who was in the lowest professional role in the company, software developer, had seen his delivery manager, who was positioned in 2 much higher role than him, only once in his two years of service in the company ‘Mansukh was working for a clients project in Eastern Europe, which required transitioning of the company’s core IT enabler service, from an old software package toa new system, to provide 2 quicker and user friendly execution of work activities and processes, It was expected that this would improve the efficiency of its employees and in tara provide effective and prompt services to its customers, Even though the higher management and the IT team of the client was excited about this new system, the employees ‘were not eager to work with it as they were used to the decade old software. “The project structure was as shown in the following organogram: Software Engineor Haripriva Onsite Project Offshore Project Manager ‘Manager Bhujanga Module Leader ‘Sarangi | sofware Engineer | ‘Mansukh “Mansukh was working in the project for about two yeats and, inspite of his relatively less experience in the project compared to other seniors, he was considered a fast learner and a person who solved problems jn new and unorthodox ways. Mansukh also wanted t0 go to the client site as he heard that there was considerably more of learning thece. Ie also provided an opportunity to earn significantly more money and deeper interaction with foreigners of that country: Mansukh had never gone out of India but harboured dreams of becoming a globetrotting Indian, meeting people of a multitude of new countries.364 CASES IN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR ‘Mansukh was attending a routine project states meeting in Bangalore, where discussions centred around. the new developments in the project and stock taking of the overall project completion as well s all the interdependent issues between different modules, Mansukh was half-asleep and engaged with his mobile while a person from a different module was talking about his deadlines, Suddenly he heatd his name being mentioned, He immediately sat up and looked towards his Offshore Project Manager Bhujanga. _Bhyjcnge: Have you completed coding for the requirement no, 14 of the purchase module? ‘Maniwklis No, not yet Thete ate a quite a few bugs in the code written previously which I have rated with the previous owner of the code, He is yee to respond. Bhajan: So, what are you doing now? Manzubh: As soggested by Sarangi, 1 am going theough the next requirement and exploring on how to incorporate that in ous system, _Bbajanga: Okay, (Looks towards Sassngi and motions to her) Saran: Mansukh, we need someone at the clients site to make some presentations about the completed ‘requirements in our modble in this latest phase, Makeand was supposed to do that but his via has expired 2s the dates were repeatedly postponed. Would you be interested? Mancubh: Yes, | would like to go. What isthe duration of the assignment and when do I have to travel? Sarangi: Your presence willbe requted for around 3-4 weeks, as your presentation wil take place along with ‘other modules" presentations. You will have to go three weeks prior tothe presentations i order for You to prepare the systems there with our latest code. Pease prepare yourself to leave by next week ‘Mansi 1s too shore a notice, but TU go. Bhwjianga: Now, that's setled, well move on to... ‘As the meeting continued, Mansukh was too excited to go back to his eatatonic state even though he fet being forced to sit through the meeting ‘Atthe ead of ewo months of onsite work at de /cline ste, he believed that this was the most hectic petiod since the beginning of his working life, His predecessor left large pat of his work unfinished as the few lines of code written by him did aot take care of rach ofthe requirements and some ofthe codes were ‘not even incoxporated inthe systems at the client site These systems Were maintained by Manskh’s company to periodically show he client the progress of the software development as wel as for training the cients users on the modules already completed. In his second month there, he made hs presentations to the cient users with some support from Bangalore where the rest ofthe project's team members were based. ‘As part of a schedaled onsite projet review, Sarangi was visiting the onsite team from Bangalore. She ‘gave the feedback to Mansukh that the presentations were aot well received by the clients team and that ariprya with whom Mansukh had been working on a huge requirement, RQU9 forthe customer for more than thrce months was leaving as she was allocated to another projet for which she was requied,to go to the United States of America.Group and Team Dynamics 365 A couple of days after Sazangi’s arrival, a user from the client approached Mansukh and got his doubts clatified. It was purely related to functional aspects and some of the software requirements ‘which he needed clarity on. All the requirements/changes in one of the modules of the software were consolidated from different departments of the client company and was given to Mansukh’s company for initiating the development work. It so happened that sometimes, people from one department would snot know exactly how or why some change were requested in the first place by another department. ‘They would then come to Mansukh or the other onsite team members t0 seek clarifications on the fanctional aspects of the software, This was repeated by different clint employees at different points Of time during project implementation. Sarangi, who sat with Mansukh, would only observe without participating in the discussions. After a few days of her observing Mansuleh, she called him for a ‘one-on-one meeting, Saramyj: have some comments regarding the clasifications you provide to the client's employees off and on. Mansueh: Yes please, tll me, ‘Sarangi: Wese you offically assigned by anyone for this role? Mansub: No madam, But as [have made all the presentations regarding our module to them, they approach ‘me to seek claifiations. Therefore, like everyone else here atthe client site, I clarify them to the best of sy knowledge and refer them torif I caa’t help them. Sarangi Okay. But from now on, refer them to me as Ihave been dealing with them from the time the inital sequirements were gathered and I know each and every detail. Mansukb: Oki, “Mansuk thought that his familiarity withthe requirements was adequate ashe was the one who developed the sofewase. Even then, he agreed to Sarangi. But the client's users did not stop approching Mansukh for most of theitcasfcations, Mansukh aso fel hat it woulda’ be good to turn them down or send them to ‘others for simple clasfieatons which he could deal oa his own and continued to casfy things For them. For higher-level queries, he referred them to Sarangi. Even though she was avare ofthis, she did not make an issue about this again, ‘After another three weeks and during the fourth month of his onsite assignment, Mansukh aod Onsite project manager Sazagam (fer oganogram) assembled fox a meeting with Sarangi. Mansukh wanted to £0 back to India a dhe end of the fourth month ‘Sarangi: I have assigned to you some bugs that you have to fix before leaving for India ‘Mancubh: Yes, 1 have seen the email. But I coulde't help notice that you have mentioned my name in not just the ownership of fixing the bugs but also for creating the them. You know very well that Haripsiya ‘worked on it and it was her doing, Knowing that, how come, you gave my name? Saran: Iis to be done by you as both of you were working on that requirement asa team, Now that she has left, chat responsiblity is yours.366 ‘CASES IN ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR ‘Mansuks: I understand that fixing them is my responsiblity. But my name cannot be associated for creating the bug. Please remove my name. Sarangi 1 cas'e do that. As isa team responsibil, and, in her absence, it should be you. ‘Manuf she's not thexe anymore in tis project, why can't you put her name in the column that shows the person who created the bug? Seragam: Do no just argue. I agree with Sarangi. Please complete the bug-fixing before you leave. [As the meeting concluded, Mansukh was complecely disillusioned with the entire episode, but accepted the sintaion with a senge of helplessness. He tied to reason wit Samivaad later in a one-on-one meeting which after a few minutes of argument ended on a similar note. Mansulth felt that there could be something else ‘hich he was not able to fathom that may have led to a prejudiced behaviour towards him from both Saragarn a well as Sarangi With preat difficulty he completed all the bug-fixes and was on his way back co India. He felt totally dejected by the way things turned out and decided that the first thing he would do after returning to Bangalore would be to get out of the project and opt for another project. He was also very decided that if ‘that did not happen he would resign from the job.