What a

starWhat a
jerk
Case Summary

Case Background:
What a star, What a Jerk is a Harvard Business review case study that tries to
highlight one of the most common issues faced by organisations, that is, how to
deal with a star performer who is very poor at people skills and bullies coworkers.
Jane Epstein has recently joined a new organization named TechniCo. Its been a
few months and her conversation with Rick Lazarus, a close friend from her
previous workplace, shows that she has a considerable good team to work with.
She provides an overview of her team to Rick where she specifically mentions of
a colleague, Andy Zimmerman, who seems to be a rainmaker kind of an
employee every organization has. He never misses a chance to bully his coworkers.He lacks a team-players attitude and does not honour others ideas
.Nevertheless, he is smart, efficient and a stellar performer of the organisation
who is ideally indispensible to the team and the organization. Amidst this
situation,Jane had an interaction with Andy and expressed her feelings about
Andys mean attitude towards his co-workers, to which Andy replied saying he
would listen to people more and stop bullying others. However, things didnt
change much. Now, Jane is in a big dilemma about how to deal with Andy. At
times, she feels like a kindergarten teacher who has to deal with petty people
issues and rather wishes to give more time to her work. However, she fails to
understand that managing people is the biggest role of a manager failing which
performance and bottom-line of the organization might get severely hampered.

Problem at hand:
What should Jane do to handle Andys mean streak at workplace?

Proposed Solution:
1. Confront Andy about his mean behaviour with a warning:
Jane should show leadership by strictly confronting Andy about his
behaviour in the team with a warning that if he doesnt change, he might
be fired. She should clearly define her expectations from Andy that he is
not just required to be good with numbers, but also good with people too.
Andy has survived in this organization because he is bringing good
business and TechniCo is tolerant to his behaviour but if he switches to
other organizations, he might be chucked out because of his poor people
skills. Its risky for him to be fired so, a warning might work.
2. Organize trainings:
Since Andy is a top performer, TechniCo wouldnt want to lose him.
Organizing right set of trainings might help Andy to reform his people

skills. Jane should coach her team members on developing

assertivenessand conflict management strategies.Since some of Andy's
negative behaviour happens in meetings, the entire teamwould probably
benefit from trainingin how to conduct effective meetings.Andy is currently
incapable of chairinga productive meeting, and the rest ofthe team has no
idea how to get a meetingback on track after Andy has derailedit.
3. Redefine his role and isolate him from the team:
Being a competent jerk, Andy is poisoning the team spirits in the
organization but at the same time, he is able to bring good business for
the company. So, Jane should redefine his role in such a way that he is
isolated from the team and hence, the team spirits is kept high at the
organization.
4. Reward Andy for excellent behaviour:
To encourage Andy to change his behaviour, he could be rewarded at
times for his excellent behaviour that helped the team achieve a goal. But
Jane needs to make sure his excellent behaviour blocks the mean
behaviour that she wants to change in Andy.
5. 360 degree feedback for performance appraisals:
Usually these days in companies, performance bonuses are a big
component of the compensation. Andy might be good at his business
acumen but is miserable at people skills. He might not score well if a 360
degree feedback is conducted for him where sub-ordinates, co-workers
and higher management give feedback about an employee. Fearing a poor
feedback might help Andy change his behavior