Author Question: Ken Rogers and Chuck Rich, two supervisors in a steel mill, are discussing an employee both have ... (Read 71 times)

serike · **on:** Jul 7, 2018

Ken Rogers and Chuck Rich, two supervisors in a steel mill, are discussing an employee both have supervised. Ken believes the worker is a superior performer because of superior intelligence.

Chuck believes the worker has just been in the right place at the right time. In organizational behavior terms, what issue are the two men discussing and why is it important?
What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Explain the principle of comparable worth, and discuss why it is hard to put this principle into practice.

What will be an ideal response?

sokh · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 7, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Ken and Rich are discussing whether the worker's superior performance can be attributed to internal or external causes. An internal attribution assigns credit or blame to the individual actor based on some characteristic the individual possesses. Internal attributions tend to focus on ability, effort, and personality. Ken's belief that the worker's superior performance is a function of the worker's intelligence is an internal attribution.

Alternatively, an external attribution assigns the cause of the behavior to factors beyond the control of the individual, such as luck or task difficulty. Chuck's belief that the worker has been lucky in job assignments or timing is an external attribution.

Answer to Question 2

Comparable worth is the idea that jobs of equivalent worth or value to the organization should pay the same pay rates regardless of the personal characteristics of the person performing the work. Under comparable worth, pay rates would be determined by factors such as effort, skill, and responsibility of the job and not whether the job has been traditionally filled by workers of a particular gender, race, or ethnic background.

Although comparable worth makes sense in principle, it has been hard to put into practice. Organizations have resisted basing salaries on comparable worth because pay levels for some jobs would have to be raised. Moreover, it is difficult to determine the value of a job to an organization and to compare that job to various other jobs without making value-based decisions.