Kartar Singhs Dilemma

Kartar is a scale-1 officer in Pinjore branch of Federal Bank. He has worked at the branch for three years and until recently was satisfied with his working environment and the interactions he shared with his coworkers. In addition, Kartar received personal fulfillment from helping customers visiting Bank daily and also did a productive job. Last year Federal Bank went through reorganization with some new MBAs and Probationary Officers joined the Bank and other staff members were reassigned various jobs. Kartars new boss, Kapoor, was transferred from Jaipur zone. Almost immediately upon taking his new position, Kapoor began finding fault with Kartars, customer interaction and other jobs being handled etc. Kartar began feeling as if he couldnt do anything right. He was experiencing feelings of anxiety, stress, and self-blame. Although his previous performance evaluations had been above average, Kartar was shocked by his first performance review under Kapoors authorityit was an extremely low rating. Kartar began trying to work harder, thinking that by working harder he could exceed Kapoors expectations. Despite the long hours and addressing Kapoors critiques, Kapoor continued to find fault with Kartars work. Staff meetings began to be a great source of discomfort and stress because Kapoor would put down Kartar and single him out in front of his colleagues. Kartar began to feel alienated from his family, friends, and colleagues at work. His eating and sleeping habits were adversely affected as well. Kartars activities held no joy for him and the career that he had once loved and been respected in became a source of pain and stress. He began to call in sick more often and started visualizing himself confronting and even hurting Kapoor, which created even more guilt and anxiety for Kartar. As time went on, Kapoor encouraged coworkers to leave Kartar alone to do his work. The perception of the coworkers became more sympathetic to Kapoors point of view. Kartars coworkers deliberated that perhaps Kartar really was a poor worker and that Kapoor knew better due to his position as the Manager of the branch. Eventually, Kartars coworkers began to distance themselves from him, in order to protect their own interests. They began to see Kartar as an outsider, with whom it was unsafe to associate. In an effort to resolve the situation, Kartar spoke to Kapoor directly, stating his feelings and expressing an interest in how they might improve the situation. Rather than making the situation better, what Kapoor perceived as Kartars insubordination served to anger Kapoor, and the personal attacks against Kartar intensified. Feeling frustrated and helpless, Kartar then decided to take his problem to the HRD. The Zonal human resources manager listened to Kartars complaints and suggested that Kartar return with documented evidence of what Kartar perceived to be Kapoors mistreatment. In an effort to help ease the situation, the HRD manager discussed the issue with Kapoor, which only

encouraged the flames of Kapoors anger and his negative behavior toward Kartar. As a last resort, Kartar decided to go to Kapoors boss Pant, the Zonal Manager. Pant met with Kapoor to get his side of the story. Kapoor portrayed Kartar as an unproductive employee with no respect for authority. The result was a strong letter of warning in Kartars personal file for insubordination.

Questions 1 Please identify and list the main issues in the above case 2 Discuss Kartars thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that transacted with his physical and social surroundings 3 What are the factors that affected Kartars and Kapoors attitudes? How would you handle the situation and what advice would you give both, to change their attitudes and how they should go about it.