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Case Incident: "What Am I Going to Do about Stella McCarthy?"

Course Title

Student’s name

Institution

Professor’s name

Date
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Table of Contents
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................2
Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
Body.............................................................................................................................................3
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................5
Recommendations........................................................................................................................5
References....................................................................................................................................8

Case Incident: "What Am I Going to Do about Stella McCarthy?"

Executive summary
This paper looks into the case of Stella McCarthy who is one among three other

accountants working at Todd Brothers Chevrolet. She fails to show up for work on two

consecutive days related to a lack of emotional strength. Her main task at the company is

handling accounting records and acts as an accounting officer as well. Additionally, she is tasked

with supporting and advising the organization in matters concerning computer systems and credit

and cost controls. The main reason for choosing to analyze this case study is because it entails

human behavior at the place of work. Furthermore, the paper will entail the code of conduct and

how issues such as this case study can be solved when they arise within an organization.

Introduction
The case study involves Stella McCarthy and Jim Murray. Jim Murray is the company’s

coordinator who replaced the initial boss after retirement in 1997. Stella McCarthy on the other

hand is an accountant working for Todd Brothers Chevrolet. Stella McCarthy is facing an issue

that occurred a few weeks ago and has affected her working capacity leading to her missing to

report for work for two days. Jim Murray gets involved and tries to find out the cause of the
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situation. On reaching out to Stella McCarthy, she narrates the reason for missing to show up to

work is attributed to a lack of emotional strength since her marriage was troubled.

Body
Issues in marriage are one among many factors that affect the behavior of a person in an

organization. As a manager attached to such organizations it is vital to look after the wellbeing of

the employees closely to notice any problems some of them may be going through be it personal

issues or at their workplace. Given Stella McCarthy is an accountant officer tasked with advising

the organization on issues related to cost control, computer systems control, and credit she is

facing problems with her marriage that have affected her work.

Stella works with other three accountants namely Tina Rothschild, Mike Sohal, and

Lawless. They handle the same tasks as Stella. As the case study points out, Jim Murray has

rarely had issues with managing the organization given Mike, Tina and Lawless have been

employees working for Todd Brother Chevrolet Company for the last four years which makes

them more experienced with individual behavior place of work. However, this is not the same

with Stella. She was employed in the company almost three months before Jim was promoted.

Her level of education and age are almost similar to her other three employees. She has a degree

in accounting and is in her early thirties. But of the recent weeks, she has been a nuisance to Jim.

The first instance of the issue facing her surfaced three weeks ago when she failed to

report to her workplace two consecutive days claiming she was sick which were Monday and

Tuesday. On Wednesday morning when she showed up for work, she seemed like one that had

not slept for several days. Jim intervened as he called her to his office and in an informal way he

tried to figure out the issue Stella was facing. Stella was frank and admitted she had not been

sick. She had called in sick because she did not have the emotional strength to report to work.
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She confessed to being facing issues within her marriage. Her husband was an alcoholic and he

had lost his third job that previous Friday. Her finances and children were causing her worry.

Stella had three children the first one was a son from a previous marriage who was seven years

old and two twin daughters who were three years old. Jim tried reassuring Stella by encouraging

her not to let the incident at hand lower her spirits and reminded her to consider the companies’

health plan that provides free counseling sessions.

Since the first encounter little change seemed to occur with Stella. When she came to the

office one could notice her thoughts wondered and she had to use three more sick days. She

spent a lot of time on the phone and Jim suspected it had to do with her issues. Two times in the

previous week Jim had noticed her crying at her desk. The previous day was the third day into a

new month and Stella should have finished the closing of the previous month’s books which is a

vital task related to her obligation at the workplace. Jim on inquiring about the closing numbers

Stella left her desk and went to the washroom with tears running down her face. Jim noticed the

last month’s book on her desk and on looking in them they were incomplete. Stella had failed to

meet the deadline and Jim was not certain on the time the final figures would be ready to hand

them over to Ross Todd (Hebb, 2005).

Main effects could apprehend an employee using skills gained during training within a

personal related relationship. On the other hand, a minor effect could happen within the same

employee work environment through the use of skills learned during MET to enhance the

relationship between individuals on a personal and non-job-related level. Spillover effects on the

other hand take place when emotions, behaviors, stress, and moods are transferred to the work

domain as in this case study (Stanford University, 2021). Spillover effects involve the use of

skills gained during MET for instance conflict management, emotional intelligence, job-related
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communication, and stress management. Each of these skills learned during MET has a huge

impact on employees and how certain behaviors and mindsets can spill over at the places of

work. Perceiving it from a behavioral aspect, when workers share experiences grown through

MET, satisfaction at work and the well-being of families increase. Additionally, activities like

MET at places of work guarantee increased productivity and satisfaction (Hebb, 2005).

Conclusion
On this case concerning Stella McCarthy, I have gained some knowledge whereby in an

organization or any given place of work it is important not to perceive individuals as single,

married, or divorced rather as individuals on a continual path towards relationship reversion and

advancement. On this pathway, people may come across broken and failing relationships that

result in anxiety, stress, and depression within the working place, significantly affecting

productivity and the general operation of an entire organization. Thus spillover effects of skills

taught during an organization’s behavior sessions such as conflict and stress management,

emotional intelligence, and job-related communication can assist in an organization’s effort in

the formation of employee-centered professional development advancement. Moreover, in the

social perspective of an employee’s commitment to employment and marital solidity, gaining an

understanding of the factors that affect the work and marital roles can play a huge positive

impact on the employee’s relationships both at the place of work and home-based.

Recommendations
Both bad and good experiences at the workplace and home may spill over into another

part. Thus understanding an organization’s outcome related to the organization’s behavior and

how its effects may affect the working environment can enhance human capital development

professionals with more options that can be put into consideration in wellbeing and health-

related program plans (Hebb, 2005). Marriage enrichment is developed in such a manner to
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enhance a couple’s relationship including solving issues that may come along with it such as in

the case of Stella. The ideal aim of organizational behavior has always been to help couples be

more aware of themselves and get a deeper understanding of their partners, consider their

partner’s thoughts and feelings, develop effective communication to solve problems, and

encourage intimacy and empathy within the marriage. Marriage enrichment programs mainly

educate on effective communication, emotional intelligence skills, and how to manage stress

(Gibson, Konopaske, & Ivancevich, 2011). As for the case of Stella, such a program would have

been of need and had a big impact on the issues she was facing in her marriage which was then

affecting her at her place of work.

Even as human capital development specialists look into understanding how

marriage enhancement programs can influence the place of work, a framework to demonstrate

organization behavior, talent enhancement development, and the work environment and

conditions are required. As more and more organizations begin to be more attentive to the

relational health status within their workforce, better retention rates and competitive gains in

marketing positive outcomes may be witnessed due to a better understanding of the marriage

enrichment effects within the employees in an organization. Given the organization behavior

system saturates working environments, organizations ought to focus on the transferrable skills

gained through engaged participant’s organization behavior involvement. For instance,

organizations such as Chic-Fil-A and HH Gregg creatively incorporate marriage enrichment

systems into the organization’s environment by use of social events for the workforces together

with their partners (Gibson, Konopaske, & Ivancevich, 2011). similarly, corporate health

promotions are meant to enrich workplace relationships enhance a culture of appreciation leading

to a better working environment. Instances of identity effects of an organization behavior within

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the place of work provide comprehension on human capital development experts related to an

organization's behavior (Eddy, 2015).

References

Gibson, J., Konopaske, R., & Ivancevich, J. (2011, March 18). Organizations: Behavior,

structure, processes. McGraw Hill.

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https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/organizations-behavior-structure-

processes-gibson-ivancevich/M9780078112669.html.

Hebb, D. O. (2005, April 11). The organization of behavior: A Neuropsychological

Theory. Google Books.

https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Organization_of_Behavior.html?

id=uyV5AgAAQBAJ.

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, R. &. (2019). Organizational behavior, 18th edition. Pearson.

https://www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/program/Robbins-Organizational-

Behavior-Plus-2019-My-Lab-Management-with-Pearson-e-Text-Access-Card-

Package-18th-Edition/PGM2703216.html.

Eddy, W. B. (2015). Public organization behavior and development. Cambridge, Mass:

Winthrop Publishers

Stanford University. (2021, November 1). Organizational behavior. Stanford Graduate

School of Business.

https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/programs/phd/fields/organizational-behavior.
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