Summary of Chapter 12 in Ethical Dilemma Textbook

There is a change in productivity standards being imposed on this company and the department manager must respond. She has initial thoughts about reducing costs via reductions in headcount, however has feelings that she may be taking advantage of her employees. This paper presents a perspective of the pressure and stress associated with change and offers insight on options to manage the change. Further, there are ideas presented that are alternatives to a layoff, while keeping in mind the objective of improving performance. Finally, there are choices the manager has that will engage her employees, create the desired improvement and perhaps preserve the employment of all of the team.

Chapter 19 Page 3

There are many options available to Ellen and adopting them will quite possibly eliminate the need to reduce staff. Further, alternatives abound for her to increase productivity without over burdening her team and potentially creating a more stressful work environment. Stress is a dynamic condition in which an individual is confronted with an opportunity and the outcome may be uncertain (Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, & Boudreau, 2000). In this case, the workers may interpret the increased demands to be an ultimatum and the resulting lack of accomplishment may lead to termination. However, it has been determined that some stress may not be all bad and that a certain amount may have a positive value (Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling & Boudreau, 2000). There is a model of the relationship between stress and performance entitled the inverted U relationship (Zivnuska, Kiewitz, Hochwarter, Perrewe & Zellars, 2002). From this model, it would appear that some stress leads to an increase in performance; howeve...

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