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“But … That’s Not Part of My Job!”: Power and Illegitimate Task Requests

Final Case Study

Raimundo Nonato Franco Sobrinho (2116951)

University Canada West

MGMT 601: Leadership in the Global Context

Marc Legacy

09/18/2022
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Executive Summary

“’But … That’s Not Part of My Job!’: Power and Illegitimate Task Requests” (M.

Minei, 2022) count the story of how a leadership style associated with bad habits, lack of

supervision, and poor communication increases stress, demotivation, and high turnover in a

department at Coda Inc.

The main aspects discussed were what the influence of culture, management,

leadership, and communication to attract and retain talents. Illegitimate tasks in the workplace

are symptoms of a poor combination of those aspects.

Recommendations to solve these difficulties in the long-term pass through a

complete organizational culture restructuration. In the short term, the recommendation is for S.J.

and Cory to do “the simple” and have an honest conversation about feelings and complaints.

This report concludes that organizations with poor and weak cultures are guided

to present less effectiveness in attracting and retaining talents as well as illegitimate tasks in the

workplace are only a symptom of that.

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Introduction

Illegitimate tasks happen so frequently in some roles that became a sort of

common sense as in some administrative internship positions and the popular idea that they are

there to make photocopies, serve coffee, etc. But, what the case study “’But … That’s Not Part

of My Job!’: Power and Illegitimate Task Requests” (M. Minei, 2022) can show us is much more

than simply a popular common sense. The case study counts the story of how a leadership style

associated with bad habits, lack of supervision, and poor communication increases stress,

demotivation, and high turnover in a department at Coda Inc.

The discussion about why people leave their jobs has no conclusion. Many

professionals believe that people “leave their managers, not their jobs” (Kelly, 2019). However,

research by (Elzinga, 2021) showed that yes, people leave jobs due to bad bosses, but it’s not the

main cause for that and good managers are more likely to make difference only in good

companies. In fact, there are a lot of variables involved including personal feelings and goals as

well as culture and corporate structure that have to be considered when we talk about retention

and turnover.

Aspects of Organizational Culture

Cultural aspects of an organization

Organizational culture is one of the most important aspects for corporations and

one of the confounded. According to Wong (2022), we can see a company culture in action when

we see how the CEO responds to a crisis, how the team adapts to changes in customers’ demands

and how managers correct employees who made mistakes. This set of behaviors and values

affects all aspects of a business, and organizations that can create a strong culture are not just

more likely to overcome crises and difficult times but also to come out stronger.
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To exemplify the importance of culture for talent attraction and retention Wong

(2022) shows that the company’s culture is considered by 77% of workers before applying for a

job. Also, a high number of employees change their jobs to work in a better culture organization

even if the new job pays less. In terms of retention, almost two-thirds of employees indicate the

culture as the main cause to stay in their jobs.

The Manager’s role

Didier Elzinga (2021) shows in his research that the combination of management,

leadership, and organizational culture is the key for businesses to attract and retain talent. His

data showed that 89% of the sample employees intend to stay in their jobs when they experience

great management, great leadership, and career development against only 22% when the business

has poor managers, poor leaders, and offers little or no development opportunities. For those

businesses with poor development opportunities, the results show that the manager’s role doesn’t

make difference when, in contrast, in businesses with strong culture and development

opportunities managers with strong leadership skills have 10% more workers intended to stay

than those with great culture and poor managers.

The importance of communication

Communication is vital in any aspect of human life and for corporations may be

the key to success or failure. It’s an important way for people not just to share information but

also to build relationships, morale, satisfaction, and engagement. According to Communication

Statistics in the Workplace 2022 — Pumble (2022), 86% of employees and executives point to a

lack of collaboration and communication as a cause for failures in the workplace, and teams who

communicate effectively present 25% more productivity. In terms of retention, the same report

says that effective communication increases retention by 4.5 times, and 52% of employees
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interviewed say they stay in their jobs because they feel valued. In fact, communication is part of

the culture and leaders have a crucial role to align employees with the company’s culture.

However, if the company doesn’t preserve and stimulate good cultural habits it’s impossible to

achieve effective communication.

Contextualizing with the Case Study

In our Case Study, we can see clearly that the company faces difficulties in those

three elements. Coda Inc. has employees that stay there even under a manager who is described

through the grapevine as “a tough boss who overstepped and didn’t respect the position” and

accepts naturally illegitimate tasks. The lack of management supervision is clear when the Senior

supervisor, Dana, just “was not going to be happy” with the high turnover under Cory’s

supervision. The poor culture is easily seen when Parker asked S. J. if he was thinking that he

was to get away unscathed which shows that people accept clearly inadequate managers’

behaviors and turned them into common sense. And the poor communication is evident when

Cory doesn’t understand why S.J. desires to leave the job.

Recommendations

The business presents a lack of organizational culture and to solve effectively in

the long run a complete restructuring that has to start with the high managers. It’s needed to

consolidate what values and behaviors the company will adopt and how it will communicate

them to workers through its leaders. The company needs to look deeper not only at the

customer’s demands but also at the employee’s demands and create a new environment where

workers and managers can communicate effectively, including about illegitimate tasks since in

the current way of thinking they are legitimate.

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In the short term, to try to bypass S. J.’s exit there is no more effective way than

do the simple, have a good conversation in an honest way. Maybe, at first, Cory will resist any

changes and even not understand the complaints and S.j.’s reasons to exit but neither of them has

anything to lose talking honestly at this moment.

Conclusions

In this case study as in life, there are no isolated aspects and everything is

interconnected. A poor organizational culture leads to the hiring and development of poor

managers and leaders and builds ineffective communicative teams. As we saw in this work,

strong culture creates effective teams that create great environments that will attract and retain

talents.
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References

M. Minei, E. (2022, January 3). “But . . . That’s Not Part of My Job!”: Power and Illegitimate

Task Requests. Sage Publishing. Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://sk-sagepub-

com.ezproxy.myucwest.ca/cases/but-thats-not-part-of-my-job-power-and-illegitimate-

task-requests

Elzinga, D. (2021, August 16). The biggest lie in HR: People quit bosses not companies. Culture

Amp. Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/biggest-lie-

people-quit-bosses

Kelly, J. (2019, November 22). People Don’t Leave Bad Jobs, They Leave Bad Bosses: Here’s

How To Be A Better Manager To Maintain And Motivate Your Team. Forbes. Retrieved

September 18, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2019/11/22/people-

dont-leave-bad-jobs-they-leave-bad-bosses-heres-how-to-be-a-better-manager-to-

maintain-and-motivate-your-team/?sh=6b756edc22b9

Wong, B. K. (2022, August 11). Organizational culture: Definition, importance, and

development. Achievers. Retrieved September 18, 2022, from

https://www.achievers.com/blog/organizational-culture-

definition/#:%7E:text=Organizational%20culture%20affects%20all%20aspects,comforta

ble%2C%20supported%2C%20and%20valued.