MGT 3332: Organizational Behavior Module 4 Assignment: Making a Tough Decision Guidelines and Rubric Overview: In this exercise, you will examine how to weigh a set of facts and make a difficult personnel decision about laying off valued employees during a time of financial hardship. You also will examine your own values and criteria used in the decision-making process. Begin this assignment by reviewing the following scenario:* ​Walker Space Institute (WSI) is a medium-sized firm located in Connecticut. The firm essentially has been a subcontractor on many large space contracts that have been acquired by firms such as Alliant Techsystems and others. With cutbacks in many NASA programs, WSI has an excess of employees. Stuart Tartaro, the head of one of the sections, has been told by his superior that he must reduce his section of engineers from seven to four. He is looking at the following summaries of their vitae and pondering how he will make this decision: 1. Roger Allison​, age 26, married, two children. Allison has been with WSI for a year and a half. He is a very good engineer, with a degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has held two prior jobs and lost both of them because of cutbacks in the space program. He moved to Connecticut from California to take this job. Allison is well-liked by his coworkers. 2. Dave Jones​, age 24, single. Jones is African American, and the company looked hard to get him because of affirmative action pressure. He is not very popular with his coworkers. Because he has been employed less than a year, not too much is known about his work. On his one evaluation (which was average), Jones accused his supervisor of bias against African Americans. He is a graduate of the Detroit Institute of Technology. 3. William Foster​, age 53, married, three children. Foster is a graduate of the “school of hard knocks.” After serving in Operation Desert Storm, he started to go to college but dropped out because of high family expenses. Foster has worked at the company for 20 years. His ratings were excellent for 15 years. The last five years they have been average. Foster feels his supervisor evaluates him unfairly because he does not “have sheepskins covering his office walls.” 4. Donald Boyer​, age 32, married, no children. Boyer is well-liked by his coworkers. He has been at WSI five years, and he has a B.S. and M.S. in engineering from Purdue University. Boyer’s ratings have been mixed. Some supervisors rated him high and some average. Boyer’s wife is a doctor. 5. Sherman Soltis​, age 37, divorced, two children. He has a B.S. in engineering from The Ohio State University. Soltis is very active in community affairs: Scouts, Little League, and United Way. He is a friend of the firm’s vice president through church work. His ratings have 1 MGT 3332: Organizational Behavior been average, although some recent ones indicate that his skills are out of date. He is well- ...

1. MGT 3332: Organizational Behavior
Module 4 Assignment: Making a Tough Decision
Guidelines and Rubric
Overview:
In this exercise, you will examine how to weigh a set of facts
and make a difficult personnel decision about laying off valued
employees during a
time of financial hardship. You also will examine your own
values and criteria used in the decision-making process.
Begin this assignment by reviewing the following scenario:*
Walker Space Institute (WSI) is a medium-sized firm located in
Connecticut.
The firm essentially has been a subcontractor on many large
space contracts that have been acquired by firms such as Alliant
Techsystems and
others. With cutbacks in many NASA programs, WSI has an
excess of employees. Stuart Tartaro, the head of one of the
sections, has been told
by his superior that he must reduce his section of engineers
from seven to four. He is looking at the following summaries of
their vitae and
pondering how he will make this decision:
1. Roger Allison, age 26, married, two children. Allison has
been with WSI for a year and a half. He is a very good engineer,
with a degree

2. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has held two prior
jobs and lost both of them because of cutbacks in the space
program. He
moved to Connecticut from California to take this job. Allison
is well-liked by his coworkers.
2. Dave Jones, age 24, single. Jones is African American, and
the company looked hard to get him because of affirmative
action pressure.
He is not very popular with his coworkers. Because he has been
employed less than a year, not too much is known about his
work. On
his one evaluation (which was average), Jones accused his
supervisor of bias against African Americans. He is a graduate
of the Detroit
Institute of Technology.
3. William Foster, age 53, married, three children. Foster is a
graduate of the “school of hard knocks.” After serving in
Operation Desert
Storm, he started to go to college but dropped out because of
high family expenses. Foster has worked at the company for 20
years. His
ratings were excellent for 15 years. The last five years they
have been average. Foster feels his supervisor evaluates him
unfairly
because he does not “have sheepskins covering his office
walls.”
4. Donald Boyer, age 32, married, no children. Boyer is well-
liked by his coworkers. He has been at WSI five years, and he
has a B.S. and
M.S. in engineering from Purdue University. Boyer’s ratings
have been mixed. Some supervisors rated him high and some
average.
Boyer’s wife is a doctor.

3. 5. Sherman Soltis, age 37, divorced, two children. He has a B.S.
in engineering from The Ohio State University. Soltis is very
active in
community affairs: Scouts, Little League, and United Way. He
is a friend of the firm’s vice president through church work. His
ratings have
1
MGT 3332: Organizational Behavior
been average, although some recent ones indicate that his skills
are out of date. He is well-liked and has been employed at WSI
for 14
years.
6. Warren Fortuna, age 44, married, five children. He has a B.S.
in engineering from Georgia Tech. Fortuna headed this section
at one
time. He worked so hard that he had a heart attack. Under
doctor’s orders, he resigned from the supervisory position.
Since then he has
done good work, though because of his health, he is a bit slower
than the others. Now and then he must spend extra time on a
project
because his skills became out of date during the eight years he
headed the section. His performance evaluations for the last two
years
have been above average. He has been employed at WSI for 14
years.

4. 7. Sandra Rosen, age 22, single. She has a B.S. in engineering
technology from the Rochester Institute of Technology. Rosen
has been
employed less than a year. She is enthusiastic, a very good
worker, and well-liked by her coworkers. She is well-regarded
by Tartaro.
Tartaro does not quite know what to do. He sees the good points
of each of his section members. Most have been good
employees and can all
pretty much do one another’s work. No one has special training.
He is fearful that the section will hear about the downsizing and
morale will drop.
Additionally, he believes work productivity would suffer. He
does not even want to talk to his wife about it, in case she
would let something slip.
Tartaro has come to you, Edmund Graves, personnel manager at
WSI, for some guidelines on this decision—legal, moral, and
best personnel
practice.
*Scenario adapted from: Glueck, W. F. (1978). Cases and
exercises in personnel (pp. 24-26). Dallas, TX: Business
Publications.
Prompt:
To complete this assignment, you will write a succinct two-page
paper explaining what you would do if you were in Tartaro’s
position. This
dilemma challenges you to make a fair, but difficult decision
regarding layoffs in an organization. Throughout this process,
you will examine your
rationale for selecting the people to be laid off, and may even
discover some personal biases.

5. Specifically, be sure to address the following critical elements:
● Identify who you would lay off and who you would keep on
the team and present the rationale for those selections
● Assess how your own biases may have influenced your
decisions. Did you stay true to the facts, or did your own values
and experiences
play into your decision-making?
● Assess the impact your decisions might have on the morale in
the organization
● Describe how you would move forward with the new team of
four, down from an original size of seven
2
MGT 3332: Organizational Behavior
● Support your perspective and thoughts with concepts and
theories presented in this module’s lesson. (Some typical issues
to consider
are survivor syndrome or guilt, leadership style, sexism, racism,
ageism, and communication.)
Guidelines for Submission: Your assignment must be submitted
as a Microsoft Word document, two pages in length, with
double spacing,
12-point Times New Roman type, 1-inch margins, and any
resources cited in APA format.
Instructor Feedback: This activity uses an integrated rubric in

6. Blackboard. Students can view instructor feedback in the Grade
Center.
Rubric
Criteria Satisfactory (100%) Needs Improvement (75%) Not
Evident (0%) Value
Decision
Identifies who should be laid off and
who should be kept on the team and
presents the rationale for those
selections.
Identifies who should be laid off and who
should be kept on the team and presents
the rationale for those selections, but lacks
in detail or clarity.
Does not identify who should be laid off and
who should be kept on the team and present
the rationale for those selections.
18
Bias
Assesses how personal biases
influenced decisions.
Assesses how personal biases influenced
decisions, but lacks in detail or clarity.

7. Does not assess how personal biases
influenced decisions.
18
Morale
Assesses the impact of bias on the
morale in the organization.
Assesses the impact of bias on the morale
in the organization, but lacks in detail or
clarity.
Does not assess the impact of bias on the
morale in the organization.
18
Moving
Forward
Describes approach for moving forward
with new team.
Describes approach for moving forward
with new team, but lacks in detail or clarity.
Does not describe approach for moving
forward with new team.
18
Support Supports perspective and thoughts with
concepts and theories from lesson

8. resources.
Supports perspective and thoughts with
concepts and theories from lesson
resources, but lacks in detail or clarity.
Does not support perspective and thoughts
with concepts and theories from lesson
resources.
18
Mechanic
s
No grammar or spelling errors that
distract the reader from the content. All
Minor errors in grammar or spelling that
distract the reader from the content. All
Major errors in grammar or spelling that
distract the reader from the content and/or
10
3
MGT 3332: Organizational Behavior
sources used are cited using APA
Style, 6th ed.

9. sources used are cited using APA Style,
6th ed.
errors made in citing sources using APA
Style, 6th ed.
Total 100%
4
1302 Notes – 08 – February 11, 2021
Theses
1. Drafting a Thesis Sentence
2. Brainstorming for Better Work (with some new techniques)
3. Your Post-Brainstorming Thesis (Post Thesis as Quiz for
attendance)
4. Homework Help
5. Checklist of Graded Assignments, Week 4
HOMEWORK for NEXT TIME: 1-Finish PEERMARKing 3 of
your fellow
students’ paragraphs, as well as one of your own under “Writing
Uploads” -- click on
“Mark Paragraphs” to see what has been assigned to you and
answer the questions.
This is due Friday. 2-Look at the Feedback on your Paragraph
(available Saturday
morning). 3-Brainstorm, discover, & UPLOAD Thesis Sentence.
4-Plan to Revise
your paragraph and upload the best version by Wednesday,

10. February 17, 2021.
1. Drafting a Thesis Sentence
To draft a thesis sentence for your upcoming essay, you need to
know what the essay
assignment asks. Look in our Class Notes 04 for the handout
called “Instruction for
Fiction ESSAY – OPTIONS.” It has not just the two options for
your essay, but step-by-
step instructions.
Either: Option 1) Show how the author uses 2 to 4 various
techniques to create the
same effect (Example: Rebecca Roanhorse’s “Welcome to Your
Authentic Indian
ExperienceTM” uses its protagonist, antagonist, and irony to
disprove how the American
public sees Native Americans) or Option 2) Argue against
something that almost
everyone who reads the story assumes is true—using evidence
from the story to do
so. (Example: The hospital at the start of Jonathan Nolan’s
“Memento Mori” is
actually a prison.)

11. Don’t draft your thesis sentence right away. Instead, go back to
the story you want to
writ about and use some of these techniques to brainstorm ideas.
2. Brainstorming for Better Work
While everyone finishes reading each other’s paragraphs (three,
plus your own, by
Friday night), start working on the idea for your ESSAY. “Start
working on” does not
mean that you start writing it already. Start exploring ideas.
Build material to eventually
write. Building material = brainstorming. Many of you will use
your existing paragraph
inside your essay, and I bet most of you would like to (one less
paragraph to write fresh,
yes?) So remember to include it in some of these techniques:
Free-writing:
Have you ever been mostly through a last-minute essay when
you suddenly realized
Settings-
Future –

12. Sedona - Work
– Bar -
Apartment -
gutter
Work
Plot
Long expo &
denouement –
climax lost job
& girl
Characters
jesse – wolf –
theresa – boss
- daranne -
How public
sees
NatAms in
“W2YAIE”

13. Subtext –
irony of
situation… or
opposite of
that?
POV – 2nd
person even in
the title. YOU
YOU YOU
Subtext:
Allusion to
western movies
books TV
what it should have been about? One crazy paradox about
writing is the fact that many
people do not know what they want to say until they say it (in
writing). Getting to that
point early lets you create that aha! experience well before the
deadline. To free-write,
set a timer for maybe 3 minutes (or play a song, and write to the

14. end of the song).
During that time, write as fast as you can, as sloppy as you want
on the topic of your
chosen story and its techniques (going fast is part of the
process; some call it “puking
the ideas onto the page”). It’s like a “zero draft.” Do not use a
clock for these
exercises. You want the creative part of your brain for this, and
the part of your brain
that tells time is not the creative part. Use a lot of colors,
though. Repeat as necessary.
Blind-writing:
This is like free-writing, but on a keyboard and with the screen
hidden (behind a piece
of paper, if you can’t turn off your monitor). Texting counts.
Again, set a timer or write
to the end of a song, go as fast as you can, and don’t worry
about mistakes; this part is
supposed to be fun and messy.
Listing:
A favorite: just to start scribbling lists. Like, list the stories
you’re considering (if you’re

15. willing to change). Then list all the characters, and the
exposition, and the climax, and
the denouement, and the point of view, etc. Then maybe list
some of the story’s effects
(especially the one you may have mentioned in your paragraph).
Mind-mapping: Video
Mind mapping one appeals to more visual people. Start with a
point in the middle of a
page, and then branch off of it to smaller and more specific
points. The example here
isn’t a great piece of mind-mapping. If I were more artistic on
the computer I would
branch off “characters” with a circle for each character, and
branch off “settings” with a
new circle for each setting, etc.
As I did this, it occurred to me that I
have got to include a settings
paragraph in my initial idea, so now
it’s “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian
ExperienceTM” uses its protagonist,

16. antagonist, and irony to disprove how the
American public sees Native Americans.
OR I could write an essay about how
“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian
ExperienceTM” point of view, secondary
characters, & settings to bring the
reader into the Native American
experience. New ideas thru mind-
mapping and brainstorming.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpTgMFyvQGs
https://www.adelaide.edu.au/writingcentre/sites/default/files/do
cs/learningguide-mindmapping.pdf
S.C.A.M.P.E.R.: video
I just learned this one, and think it would be a great mnemonic
for people who want to
experiment with option two (where you argue an alternative
reading to the story). The
word SCAMPER is a mnemonic for various ways to look at your
topic: Substitute –
Combine – Adapt – Modify (or Magnify or Minify) – Put to

17. Another Use –
Eliminate – Reverse. Let’s say you really want to write about
“Happy Endings,” part D
(the one about Fred & Madge surviving a tidal wave—nobody
writes about that one).
• Substitute – What if John & Mary faced a tidal wave? Would
they survive? What if Fred & Madge faced an
earthquake instead, or a forest fire, or a hurricane, or a
landslide? What if they don’t escape the tidal wave?
What if they aren’t virtuous and grateful, & instead they loot
other houses and make a killing on real estate?
What if thousands don’t drown—could Made & Fred have saved
them?
• Combine – What if part D were combined with part C (could
Madge &/or Fred stop the murder?) What if
it were combined with part B (could either stop Mary’s
suicide?) What if Fred and Madge were different
personalities in the same person who has dissociative identity
disorder? What if Fred and Madge were one
person w/o D.I.D. (gender fluid, happy living alone, owning
their own house—now that I think of it, this
whole story is about pairs)? What if we combined the tidal wave
with a malaria outbreak, and landslides,
and an earthquake?

18. • Adapt – What would have to change to get a happy ending?
(Religion? Relief? Sacrifice to a greater
good?) What would have to change for readers to remember part
D as well as they do B & C? (More
suspense? Rounder characgters?) How would Madge or John
have to change to save her first marriage?
• Magnify - Could more stories be added than A through F (the
whole alphabet)? Could more characters be
added to the 5 in all parts—name Mary’s friends, and Fred’s,
and what about their extended families? Could
“Happy Endings” become a book instead of a short story?
Put to Another Purpose - If this is a feminist story, how could it
become more pro-male? Could this be
changed to challenge mystery tropes instead of romantic tropes?
Could this be used for a script or a poem?
• Eliminate – What if part D only about Madge, or only about
Fred? If Madge’s first husband hadn’t
committed murder/suicide, would her marriage to Fred be as
happy? If there were no natural disaster, that
would be boring. Remove their “charming house,” and the threat
would be different. (Thought: The
charming house appears in at least 3 stories, and the
homeowners are never the victims. Hmm!)
• Reverse – What if Part D were the second story, and “Happy
Endings” moved from E through A? What if
Madge cheated on John, instead of vice versa? What if Fred &
Madge start “virtuous & grateful” and end

19. with “no problems” – does that make a difference?
By playing with these (which I really just did tonight, Sept. 9)
I’ve got several ideas for
an Option 2 essay –
• Readers think Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” is about
the inevitability of
death, but both setting and characterization show it’s also about
the importance of
home ownership.
• Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings” argues that there are no
happy endings—but
she deliberately leaves out death as a happy ending, through
blessed relief, religious
fulfilment, or the idea of sacrificing for a greater good.
• Some see Atwood as a feminist author, but elements of
“Happy Endings” –
especially the woman-as-victim angle and the insistence on
romantic pairings – say
otherwise.
(Remember what I said about there being more ideas out there
than leaves in a jungle?
This is what I meant.)

20. https://study.com/academy/lesson/scamper-brainstorming-
methods-
example.html#:~:text=The%20SCAMPER%20method%20of%20
brainstorming%20is%20a%20structured%20approach%20to,pro
blem%2Dsolving%20and%20creating%20solutions.
https://www.designorate.com/a-guide-to-the-scamper-technique-
for-creative-thinking/
Six Thinking Hats – This is another new one for me. It was
initially created for group
brainstorming, in which each person pretends to wear a
different color hat, but an
individual can also try on different hats. Here’s a colorful
explanation. For the rest of us:
• White Hat – Facts. What would a robot, or Mr. Spock, or
Sheldon Cooper notice
about the story? (Word count? Year it was published? Who
wrote it and their
reputation?)
• Red Hat – Feelings. What would the most emotional person in
the world notice
about the story? What would make them cry? Laugh? Shout in
anger?
• Yellow Hat – Benefits. What would (the Unbreakable) Kimmy
Schmidt or Pollyanna
think of this story? What are its most wonderful parts? Can this
story do good in the
world? How?

21. • Green Hat – Creativity. Imagine the most artistic artist (like
Bill Hader’s Stefon on
SNL) gets hold of this story, and immediately starts talking
about music and
paintings and a sculpture and a collage. What would this artist
see that you cannot?
• Black Hat – Cautions. What would Eeyore (Pooh’s donkey
friend) or Marvin the
Android (from Hitchhiker’s Guide) think of this story? What are
its worst aspects?
Could this story do evil in the world? How?
• Blue Hat – Process. The organizing hat, it controls the others,
asking, “How can we
turn this into a thesis?” and “Can we support this idea?” and
“How many paragraphs
would that make?”
3. Your Post-Brainstorming Thesis
Before you start writing an essay, have a thesis sentence. We
discussed some of this in
part 1 of today’s notes, but now (hopefully) you’ve
brainstormed and have even better
ideas. (Please note the fact, if brainstorming really helped give
you better ideas. The
logical part of your brain will try to tell you in the future that
it’s just a waste of time,

22. and you can just skip that step – you need proof against that
part of your brain!)
Here is an excellent video (under 6 minutes) that explains thesis
sentences even better
than I could have (Ariel Bissett, How to Write An Essay: Thesis
Statements). The only
big difference is that she says college essays are rarely “5-
paragraph themes.” You can
still do 5-paragraph themes, but you are no longer required to.
4-paragraph themes, if
very well supported, are also acceptable, as are 6-paragraph
themes.
As mentioned, your Fiction Essay can start with one of two
kinds of thesis sentences,
demanding different kinds of support. Remember that you will
add an introductory
paragraph and a concluding paragraph, so you will eventually
need a minimum of two
academic/body paragraphs to write the minimum-requirement 4-
paragraph theme:
Fiction Essay Thesis Sentence Options
1-[Author] uses [2 to 4 Techniques] for [Effect] 2- [Detail]
from [Story] is actually [Difference]

23. Each effect = 1 academic paragraph, each with
support from the story.
1 paraph = assumption & 1 or 2 paragraphs =
difference, with support from the story.
https://fgc-consulting.fr/en/the-six-thinking-hats-of-de-bono/
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C1CHZL_enUS737US737
&sxsrf=ALeKk02IHyxvSmcPHr2jeqHcqm_XJvQe7Q:159963805
0983&q=how+to+write+an+effective+thesis+sentence+ariel+bis
sett&spell=1&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjX7bCOzNvrAhVFSK0KHS
3YALMQBSgAegQIFRAt&biw=974&bih=494#kpvalbx=_LYpY
X4WMKYKgsQXoz5SYDA15
Next week, we do outlines. But you must come up with at
LEAST one thesis sentence
that you are considering (it may change once you’re writing it),
and upload it. Say what
option you have chosen (Option 1 or Option 2).
The Thesis Sentence Must:
• Be one sentence (with a main subject & verb –
you may need to work on it to get it down to one
sentence, but this is vital)
• Be as short as possible (much of the length will
go to the title and author)
• Name the story (quotation marks for the title)

24. • Name the author
Optional:
• Option 1 might want to hint at the content
• If you can’t decide between two thesis sentences,
clearly label each and upload them together.
Remember that if you really want to include the
paragraph you’ve already written, then your thesis
sentence must fit it—it’s no good to save a little time
if it ruins the unity of your essay. For example, if your
Fiction Paragraph’s topic sentence was: The girls’
extraterrestrial origin, in Neil Gaiman’s “How to Talk to
Girls at Parties,” is obvious in their dialogue, then a
good thesis sentence mirght be: The girls’ extraterrestrial
origin, in Neil Gaiman’s “How
to Talk to Girls at Parties,” is revealed in the setting, in the
foreshadowing, and in the
girls’ dialogue. (See what I did there?) If your Fiction
Paragraph’s topic sentence was:
Rachel Swirsky explains why the speaker’s fiancé was attacked
but mostly through
subtext, then a good thesis sentence might be: Because Rachel
Swirsky’s explanation of
the paleontologist’s attack is mostly given in subtext, the
speaker’s fiancé could in fact
have been the aggressor.

25. Upload this on our MyTCC page under “Writing Uploads” and
“Fiction Essay Thesis
Sentences.”
4. Homework Help
The instructions for how to do the homework are in parts 1, 2,
& 3 of these notes. The
best extra advice I can give you is to set aside time to encourage
your creative side
while brainstorming (different colors, fun music, etc.), because
creativity likes to have
fun. Our homework, as listed at the top of these notes, is to:
• Finish the PeerMark assignment from Notes 07
Option 1:
Rebecca Roanhorse’s “Welcome to
Your Authentic Indian ExperienceTM”
uses its protagonist, antagonist, and
irony to disprove how the American
public sees Native Americans. OR
Option 1:
“Welcome to Your Authentic Indian
ExperienceTM” by Rebecca Roanhorse
brings the reader into the Native
American experience through point
of view, secondary characters. OR

26. Option 2:
The hospital setting in Jonathan
Nolan’s “Memento Mori” is actually
a prison. OR
Option 2:
Although Margaret Atwood’s “Happy
Endings” argues that there are no
happy endings, she is wrong.
• Take time to look at the feedback your paragraph got (as of
Saturday) before you
start revising it for a final-draft upload on Wednesday.
• Brainstorm. Your ideas really do get better and come more
easily if you
brainstorm!
• Don’t go with the first draft of your thesis sentence. Let it sit,
then make it better.
5. Checklist of Graded Assignments, Week 4
□ Take EXAM 1: Fiction by end-of-day Wednesday, February
10, online, under
“Tests and Quizzes” on our MyTCC page.
□ PeerMark Fiction Paragraphs (due end-of-day Friday,
February 12)
□ (Ungraded – Brainstorm Your Essay!)

27. □ Upload Thesis Sentence (due end-of-day Sunday, February
14)
□ Revise and Upload Final Draft of Fiction Paragraph (end-of-
day Wed, Feb. 17)