worst-coworker

by

This assignment asks you to consider a current or past coworker who has low levels of either job performance (chapter 2), organizational commitment (chapter 3), or both. You are asked to draw on concepts from the course to explain exactly why this coworker is so ineffective, and how you and his/her supervisors might react, given that knowledge. The paper should be 1000 words in length (all inclusive).

Your paper can focus on either a current coworker or a past coworker. The coworker should be a real person, as opposed to an amalgam of multiple individuals. Moreover, some portions of the paper work better if the coworker is of a similar hierarchical level to you–as opposed to a boss or a supervisor. The paper should include the following three sections:

  1. Background – Describe the coworker. Give enough detail that it’s clear why you feel the way you do about this person, with enough richness that the section “brings the person to life” for the reader. Feel free to omit or disguise any details that might be sensitive in nature.
  2. Explanations – Drawing on key terms from Chapters 4-7 and 9, provide an explanation of why, in your estimation, this employee has low levels of job performance and/or organizational commitment. When I say “key terms”, I’m referring to the words that are bolded in the chapters and that appear in the Key Terms section at the end of each chapter. Given the strict word count, you’ll need to strike a balance between breadth of coverage (i.e., the number of key terms mentioned) and depth of coverage (i.e., how detailed your use of a given key term is in explaining the employee’s attitudes and behaviors)
  3. Recommendations – Flowing out of the key terms discussed in the previous section, describe what the top managers or leaders in the company could do, very specifically, to improve the performance and/or commitment of your coworker. Then describe what you, personally, could do to make this coworker more effective. Finally, answer the following questions: Is this employee a “problem that cannot be fixed” to some extent? If so, describe what the top managers or leaders in the company could do to avoid similar problems in the future.

Beyond the parameters above, please bring your own self-expression, initiative, and creativity to the content and style of the paper. 80% of the paper grade will revolve around content issues, with 20% revolving around writing style issues. Papers should be submitted via Blackboard as a Word document or a PDF file by the due date.