The Transferred Sales Representative

Harold Burns served as district sales representative for an appliance firm. His district covered the central part of a
midwestern state, and it included about 100 retail outlets. He had been with the company for 20 years and in his present
job and location for 5 years. During that time he met his district sales quota each year.

One day Burns learned through local friends that the wife of a sales representative in another district was in town to
try to rent a house. She told the real estate agency that her family would be moving there in a few days because her
husband was replacing Burns. When Burns heard this news, he refused to believe it.

Two days later, on January 28, he received an express mail letter, postmarked the previous day, from the regional sales
manager. The letter read:

Dear Harold:
Because of personnel vacancies we are requesting that you move to the Gunning district, effective February 1. Mr.
George Dowd from the Parsons district will replace you. Will you please see that your inventory and property are properly
transferred to him? I know that you will like your new district. Congratulations!
Sincerely yours,
(Signature)

In the same mail he received his 20-year service pin. The accompanying letter from the regional sales manager read:

Dear Harold:
I am happy to enclose your 20-year service pin. You have a long and excellent record with the company. We are honored
to give you this recognition, and I hope you will wear it proudly. Our company is proud to have many long-service
employees. We want you to know that we take a personal interest in your welfare because people like you are the
backbone of our company.
Sincerely yours,
(Signature)

Harold Burns checked his quarterly sales bulletin and found that sales for the Gunning district were running 10 percent
below those in his present district.

Questions
1. Comment on the positive and negative events in this case as they relate to organizational behavior. (Max of 10
sentences)

2. Was a human resources approach to Burns applied in this instance? Discuss. (Max of 10sentences)

1. The case shows the poor state of HR and the leadership teams when dealing with people movement. If we look at
the positives, the only thing which would stand out from the case is HR putting some bit of effort to congratulate
Burns by sending him a pin. The pin would reflect the 20 years of work he had done for the firm. The negative
outputs outweigh the positives by a huge margin however. if these is an impending movement, it is duty of the HR
and leadership to call up the member in question and explain the changes being planned. But instead of that ,HR
and other teams sent a letter to Burns asking him to move to a new region within matter of days. The HR also
congratulates Burns in the same letter. This shows very poor planning and decision making from HR as well as

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 leadership teams. In an ideal company which has well defined, organization culture and behavior, such actions
would have been identified and probably discouraged from deploying.

2. No. There was no human resources approach in this instance. The main role of HR department is to ensure the
employees are satisfied and content with the work and ensure they have all the right facilities to do the work
properly. Another major part of HR is to ensure the staff retains for a long period and they feel appreciated and
valued to the firm.

In the given case, everything an ideal HR would do is clearly not being done. In fact, the HR has done opposite of a
conventional good HR practice. This is reflected in the letter which is shared to Burns. The same letter asks him to
move to a different region immediately and congratulates him for his long and excellent service. This shows that the
HR principles are being violated and not followed well.

As you begin to understand organizational behavior, why do you think it has become a popular field of interest? (Max of
10 sentences)

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