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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Chapter 6
Learning and Performance Management

In This Chapter, You’ll Find:

Chapter Overview
Learning Outcomes
Key Terms
PowerPoint Guide
Review Questions and Answers
Discussion and Communication Questions and Suggested Answers
Ethical Dilemma
Self-Assessments—What about You?
Issues in Diversity
Experiential Exercises
Additional Examples
Case Study and Suggested Responses: Sir James Dyson: Learning to Achieve Success
Video: Profile on Barcelona Restaurant Group
Student Handouts:
Ethical Dilemma
What About You?: Task Goal Attribute Questionnaire
What About You?: How do you Correct Poor Performance?
Issues in Diversity: Race and Rewards at the Harlem Police Department
Experiential Exercise: Positive and Negative Reinforcement
Experiential Exercise: Correcting Poor Performance (Instructor’s Guidelines for the Exercise)
Experiential Exercise: Correcting Poor Performance
Experiential Exercise: Correcting Poor Performance
Experiential Exercise: The Death of Management
Case Study: Sir James Dyson: Learning to Achieve Success

Chapter Overview

This chapter begins by describing the behavioral theories of learning such as classical
conditioning, operant conditioning, and reinforcement theory. The chapter discusses learning in
organizations as facilitated through reinforcement, punishment, and extinction. Bandura’s social
learning theory and Jung’s personality approach to learning are also discussed. Next, the chapter
deals with goal setting at work, defining and measuring performance, rewarding performance,

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
2
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

and correcting poor performance. The next section defines performance and identifies the tools
used to measure it. This is followed by a discussion on the importance of performance feedback
and how it can be effectively delivered. The last two sections of the chapter discuss ways through
which managers can reward performance and strategies for correcting performance.

Learning Outcomes

After reading this chapter, students should be able to do the following:

1 Describe behavioral theories of learning.


The behaviorist approach to learning assumes that observable behavior is a function of its
consequences. Behaviorists argue that learning stems from classical and operant conditioning.
Classical conditioning is the process of modifying behavior by pairing a conditioned stimulus
with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit an unconditioned response. Operant conditioning is the
process of modifying behavior by following specific behaviors with positive or negative
consequences. Reinforcement theory holds that reinforcement enhances desirable behavior,
whereas punishment and extinction diminish undesirable behavior.

2 Describe social and cognitive theories of learning.


Albert Bandura’s social learning theory offers a complementary alternative to Pavlov’s and
Skinner’s behaviorist approaches. Bandura asserts that learning occurs when people observe
other people and model their behavior. Central to Bandura’s social learning theory is the notion
of task-specific self-efficacy, an individual’s internal expectancy to perform a specific task
effectively. The cognitive approach to learning is based on the Gestalt school of thought and
draws on Jung’s theory of personality differences. The personality functions of intuition, sensing,
thinking, and feeling all have learning implications. Each person has a preferred mode of
gathering information and a preferred mode of evaluating and making decisions about that
information.

3 Explain how goal setting can be used to direct learning and performance.
Goal setting is the process of establishing desired results that guide and direct behavior. Goal
setting can serve three functions:
• It can increase work motivation and task performance.
• It can reduce stress caused by conflicting or confusing expectations.
• It can improve the accuracy and validity of performance evaluation.

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
3
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

4 Define performance and identify the tools used to measure it.


Performance is most often called task accomplishment, the term task coming from Fredrick W.
Taylor’s conception of a worker’s required activity. Performance management is a process of
defining, measuring, appraising, providing feedback on, and improving performance.
Performance appraisals give employees feedback on performance, identify their developmental
needs, and influence promotion, demotion, termination, selection and placement decisions. Many
performance-monitoring systems use modern electronic technology to measure the performance
of vehicle operators, computer technicians, and customer service representatives. Goal setting
and MBO are results-oriented performance appraisal methods that do not necessarily rely on
modern technology.

5 Explain the importance of performance feedback and how it can be delivered effectively.
Good performance appraisal systems develop people and enhance careers. They should explore
individual growth needs and future performance. However, in order to coach and develop
employees successfully, the supervisor must establish mutual trust. This means she must be
vulnerable and open to challenge from the subordinate while maintaining responsibility for the
subordinate’s best interests. Good supervisors are skilled, empathetic listeners who encourage
employees to discuss their aspirations. Effective performance appraisal systems have five key
characteristics: validity, reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, and equitability.

6 Identify ways managers can reward performance.


While pay and rewards for performance have value, so too do trust, fun, and meaningful work.
Individual reward systems foster independent behavior and encourage creativity, problem
solving, and distinctive contributions to the organization. Individual reward systems directly
affect individual behavior and encourage competition within a work team. Too much
competition, however, may create a dysfunctional work environment. Team reward systems solve
the problems caused by individual competitive behavior in that they encourage cooperation, joint
efforts, and the sharing of information and expertise. Some organizations have experimented
with individual and group alternative reward systems. At the individual level, these include skill-
based and pay-for-knowledge systems that emphasize skills or knowledge possessed by an
employee beyond the requirements for the basic job. At the group level, gain-sharing plans
emphasize collective cost reduction by allowing workers to share in the gains achieved by
reducing production costs.

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

7 List several strategies for correcting poor performance.


According to Harold Kelley’s attribution theory, managers make attributions, or inferences,
concerning employees’ behavior and performance. The attributions may not always be
accurate. Supervisors and employees who share perceptions and attitudes tend to evaluate
each other highly. Those who do not share perceptions and attitudes are more likely to blame
each other for performance problems. Kelley’s attribution theory proposes that individuals
make attributions based on information gathered in the form of three informational cues:
consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency. Certain combinations of cues suggest an internal
attribution, while other combinations suggest that the cause of the poor performance is
external. On the basis of the informational cues, the supervisor makes either an internal
(personal) attribution or an external (situational) attribution. Internal attributions might
include low effort, lack of commitment, or lack of ability. External attributions are outside
the employee’s control and might include equipment failure or unrealistic goals. Figure 6.5
presents an attribution model of supervisors’ responses to poor performance. Supervisors
may choose from a wide range of responses. They can, for example, express personal
concern, reprimand the employee, or provide training. Supervisors and coworkers are often
more effective guides than formally assigned mentors from higher up in the organizational
hierarchy. Consequently, they have important coaching, counseling, and mentoring
responsibilities to their subordinates. In either case, supervisors can play a helpful role in
employee problem-solving activities without accepting responsibility for the employees’
problems. They may also refer the employee to trained professionals.

Key Terms

Learning (p. 85)


Classical conditioning (p. 85)
Operant conditioning (p. 85)
Positive consequences (p 86)
Negative consequences (p. 86)
Reinforcement (p. 86)
Punishment (p. 87)
Extinction (p. 88)
Task-specific self-efficacy (p. 88)
Goal setting (p. 89)
Management by objectives (MBO) (p. 90)
Performance management (p. 92)
Performance appraisal (p. 92)
360-degree feedback (p. 94)

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Consensus (p. 97)


Distinctiveness (p. 97)
Consistency (p. 97)
Mentoring (p. 98)

PowerPoint Guide

Introduction
Slide 2—Learning Outcomes

LO1 Describe behavioral theories of learning.


Slide 3—LO - 6.1
Slide 4—Behavioral Models of Learning in Organizations
Slide 5—Reinforcement, Punishment, and Extinction
Slide 6—Figure 6.1: Reinforcement and Punishment Strategies

LO2 Describe social and cognitive theories of learning.


Slide 7—LO - 6.2
Slide 8—Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Slide 9—Table 6.2: Personality Functions and Learning
Slide 10—Beyond the Book: Innovation in Education

LO3 Explain how goal setting can be used to direct learning and performance.
Slide 11—LO - 6.3
Slide 12—Goal Setting at Work
Slide 13—Figure 6.2: Goal Level and Task Performance

LO4 Define performance and identify the tools used to measure it.
Slide 14—LO – 6.4
Slide 15—Evaluating Performance

LO5 Explain the importance of performance feedback and how it can be delivered
effectively.
Slide 16—LO – 6.5
Slide 17—360-Degree Feedback
Slide 18—Effective Appraisal Systems

LO6 Identify ways managers can reward performance.


Slide 19—LO – 6.6

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
6
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Slide 20—Individual or Team Rewards


Slide 21—Power of Earning

LO7 List several strategies for correcting poor performance.


Slide 22—LO – 6.7
Slide 23—Kelley’s Attribution Theory
Slide 24—Figure 6.5: Attribution Model
Slide 25—Mentoring
Slide 26—Beyond the Book: Mentoring in the White House
Slide 27—Barcelona Restaurant

Key Terms
Slide 28—Key Terms

Summary
Slide 29–31—Summary

Review Questions and Answers

1. Define the terms learning, reinforcement, punishment, and extinction.

Learning is a change in behavior acquired through experience. Reinforcement is a strategy to


cultivate desirable behavior by either bestowing positive consequences or withholding
negative ones. By contrast, punishment is a strategy to discourage undesirable behavior by
either bestowing negative consequences or withholding positive consequences following an
undesirable behavior. Extinction is a strategy to weaken a behavior by attaching no
consequences (either positive or negative) to it.

2. What are positive and negative consequences in shaping behavior? How should they be
managed? Explain the value of extinction as a strategy.

Managers have access to positive and negative reinforcement strategies to assist employees
in their pursuit of goals in the workplace. Positive consequences are the results that the
person finds attractive or pleasurable. Negative consequences are the results that the person
finds unattractive or aversive. The recipient of the consequences defines them as positive or
negative. Therefore, individual personality differences as well as gender and cultural
differences may be important in their classification. Extinction is a strategy to weaken a
behavior by attaching no consequences (either positive or negative) to it. This strategy may
require time and patience, but the absence of consequences eventually weakens a behavior.

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

3. How can task-specific self-efficacy be enhanced? What are the differences in the way
introverted and extraverted and intuitive and sensing people learn?

There are four sources of task-specific self-efficacy: prior experiences, behavioral models
(witnessing the success of others), persuasion from other people, and assessment of current
physical and emotional capabilities. Prior success can also enhance one’s self-efficacy.
Introverts need time to study, concentrate, and reflect on what they are learning. They think
well when they are alone. Extraverts need to interact with other people and learn best by
exchanging ideas with others. An intuitive thinker prefers to analyze data and information,
looking for the meaning behind the analysis and focusing on the big picture. A sensing feeler
prefers to learn through interpersonal involvement and focuses on details and practical
applications.

4. What are the five characteristics of well-developed goals? Why is feedback on goal
progress important?

Well-developed goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Goal
acceptance is thought to lead to goal commitment and then to goal accomplishment.
Feedback helps employees assess how well their efforts lead to the accomplishment of their
goals.

5. What are the purposes of conducting performance appraisals? What are the benefits of
360-degree feedback?

Accurate appraisals help supervisors fulfill their dual roles as evaluators and coaches.
Performance appraisals give employees feedback on performance; identify their
developmental needs; and influence promotion, demotion, termination, selection, and
placement decisions. 360-degree feedback is based on multiple sources of information to
improve the accuracy of performance appraisals. The 360-degree feedback provides a well-
rounded view of performance from supervisors, peers, followers, and customers.

6. How can managers and supervisors best provide useful performance feedback?

Both supervisor and employee should try to make performance feedback a constructive
learning experience, since feedback has long-term implications for the employee’s
performance and for the supervisor–employee working relationship. American Airlines
follows three guidelines for providing evaluative feedback. First, supervisors refer to
specific, verbatim statements and specific, observable behaviors displayed by the employee.

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
8
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

This specificity enhances the acceptance of the feedback while discouraging denial. Second,
the feedback focuses on changeable behaviors, not intrinsic or personality-based attributes.
Third, the session is planned ahead of time and the person who will receive the feedback is
notified so that both parties can be ready.

Supervisors should start coaching and counseling sessions with something positive. Once the
session is under way and rapport is established, the evaluator can introduce more difficult
and negative material. No one is perfect, so everyone can learn and grow through
performance feedback and review sessions. Critical feedback is the basis for improvement.
Managers should be aware, however, that although specific feedback can improve initial
performance, it may also undermine the learning needed for later, more independent
performance.

7. What are the two possible attributions of poor performance? What are the implications of
each?

A number of problems trigger poor performance. These include poorly designed work
systems, poor selection processes, inadequate training and skills development, lack of
personal motivation, and personal problems intruding on the work environment.

If the poor performance can’t be attributed to work design or organizational process


problems, then supervisors should examine the employee. The problem may lie in (1) some
aspect of the person’s relationship to the organization or supervisor, (2) some area of the
employee’s personal life, or (3) a training or developmental deficiency. In the latter two
cases, poor performance can be treated as a symptom rather than as a motivated
consequence. In such cases, identifying financial problems, family difficulties, or health
disorders may help the employee solve problems before they become too extensive.

Poor performance may also stem from an employee’s displaced anger or conflict with the
organization or supervisor. In such cases, the employee may be unaware of the internal
reactions causing the problem. Such angry motivations can generate sabotage, slowdown
work, and cause work stoppages. The supervisor might be attributing the cause of the
problem to the employee while the employee is attributing it to the supervisor or
organization. Supervisors must treat the poor performance as a symptom with a deeper cause
and resolve the underlying anger or conflict.

8. How do mentors and peers help people develop and enhance their careers?

Success in the mentoring relationship depends on openness and trust. This relationship may

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
9
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

help address performance-based deficiencies or personal problems. Mentoring offers


protégés many career benefits. The relationship can significantly enhance the early
development of a newcomer and the midcareer development of an experienced employee.
Peer relationships can also enhance career development. Executive coaching is increasingly
used to outsource the business mentoring functions. Informational, collegial, and special
peers aid the individual’s development by sharing information, career strategies, job-related
feedback, emotional support, and friendship.

Discussion and Communication Questions and Suggested Answers

1. Which learning approach—the behavioral approach or Bandura’s social learning


theory—do you find more appropriate for people?

Students’ answers will vary. This answer may have to do with how much importance
students place on the task-specific self-efficacy aspect of Bandura’s theory. It is obviously a
more complex set of dynamics to consider. Instructors should encourage students to consider
the type of learning (e.g., level of complexity) as another variable.

2. Given your personality type, how do you learn best? Do you miss learning some things
because of how they are taught?

Students’ answers will vary. Students will often be able to determine what they do not like
about learning opportunities more readily than they can identify how they would learn more
comfortably. It is interesting to ask students whether grading completely through group
grades would change their view of individual studying and learning. Many college classes
are taught by Intuitive-Thinking (NT) instructors, who use a particular style. Instructors
should have students discuss what the NT teaching/learning style is and how it affects other
learning styles.

3. What goals do you set for yourself at work? In your personal life? Will you know if you
achieve them?

Students’ answers will vary. Instructors should encourage students to discuss this question
beyond the obvious, “complete a business degree.” They can evaluate their goals using the
characteristics of effective goals, and discuss how they get feedback on their goal progress.

4. If a conflict occurred between your self-evaluation and the evaluation given to you by
your supervisor or instructor, how would you respond? What, specifically, would you
do? What have you learned from your supervisor or instructor during the last reporting

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
10
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

period?

Students’ answers will vary. The key is to gather as much information as possible about the
other’s position. A key in approaching differing views is preparation. Instructors should
suggest to students that they respond only after thinking through the information for a day or
so. Students can use their knowledge of the perceptual process to analyze this question.

5. What rewards are most important to you? How hard are you willing to work to receive
them?

Students’ answers will vary. Instructors should encourage students to develop a gradual
rating of the rewards. Not all of the rewards are necessarily worth the cost. They may have
some ethical issues related to high performers.

6. Have students prepare a memo detailing the consequences of behavior in their work or
university environment (e.g., grades, awards, suspensions, and scholarships). Their
memos should include their classification of these consequences as positive or negative.
Tell students to be prepared to discuss whether the organization or university should
change the way it applies these consequences.

Students’ answers will vary. In response to the final question (Should your organization or
university change how it applies these consequences?), students should provide supporting
evidence, based on material from the chapter, why changes should or should not occur.

7. Develop an oral presentation about the most current management practices in employee
rewards and performance management. Find out what at least four different companies
are doing in this area. Be prepared to discuss their fit with the text materials.

Students’ answers will vary. Based on the fit between current management practices
identified and text materials, students can discuss how successful they believe the various
management practices will be.

8. Interview a manager or supervisor who is responsible for completing performance


appraisals on people at work. Ask the manager which aspects of performance appraisal
and the performance appraisal interview process are most difficult and how he or she
manages these difficulties.

Students’ answers will vary. This is also a good opportunity for students to share experiences
(both positive and negative) that they have had as employees being appraised. The

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
11
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

contrasting perspectives of the managers/supervisors and the students (as employees) should
provide for some interesting discussion.

Ethical Dilemma

The purpose of Ethical Dilemmas is to encourage students to develop their awareness of ethical
issues in the workplace and the managerial challenges they present. The dilemmas are set up to
present situations in which there is no clear ethical choice. The goal of the instructor is to guide
students through the process of analyzing the situation and examining possible alternative
solutions. There are no “right” answers to the questions at the end of each scenario, only
opportunities to explore alternative generation and generate discussion of the appropriateness of
each alternative. The student portion of the activity is provided on a handout at the end of this
chapter guide.

1. Using consequential, rule-based, and character theories, evaluate Margaret’s options.

Margaret’s options are to insist that her sales team use the company’s preferred process for
completing expense reports or allow them to continue with the process that they are currently
using. In other words, Margaret should use a new, more time-consuming process that is more
accurate but eliminates the “extra money” that they are accustomed to getting, or she should
leave the current process in place even though it is less accurate and not the process that the
company wants them to use.

Consequential Theory

The sales team might not prefer to use the new process because it is more time consuming
and eliminates the extra money that they receive when the old process is employed.
However, it will make Margaret and her sales team comply with the company’s desired
process for expense reports, thus saving the company money. Margaret and her sales team
might still prefer to employ the old process as it will enable them to keep receiving extra
money, but it might keep Margaret and the sales team from complying with the
management’s wishes.

Rule-Based Theory

Margaret’s obligation is to comply with the company’s desired method of completing


expense reports. She has no obligation to appease her sales team by continuing to use the old
method.

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
12
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Character Theory

According to the scenario, Margaret has employed the current method of completing
expense reports because it is the method that she learnt when she was new to the company.
In other words, she has not employed the old method out of any particular loyalty toward her
sales team. But she does seem to care about pleasing her supervisors, and this can be
observed by her insistence that the sales team complete expense reports on time and her
gratification that they do so. If she employs the new method, it would also please her boss,
but if she does not do it, she may damage her relationship with her boss.

2. What should Margaret do? Why?

Based largely on the rule-based theory but also to some extent on the consequential and
character theories, Margaret should switch to the new method for completing expense
reports. Her sole obligation in this scenario is to comply with the company’s desired method
for completing expense reports. Moreover, it would be unethical for her to continue using a
method that results in employees getting more money than they are entitled to in travel
reimbursements. Additionally, she can save the company money by changing to the new
method, which benefits the entire company, and her desire to please her bosses will be best
met by changing to the new method.

Self-Assessments—What about You?

6.1 Task Goal Attribute Questionnaire

This exercise is designed to give students an insight into their goals at work or school by
examining the importance they place on the task-goal attributes of participation in goal setting,
feedback on goal effort, peer competition, goal specificity, and goal difficulty. It provides a
useful introduction to the topic of goal setting and once completed allows students to share
results and personal experiences of goal setting with the class. The student portion of the activity
is provided on a handout at the end of this chapter guide.

6.2 Do You Learn From The Consequences Of Behavior?

Reinforcement and punishment represent the positive and negative consequences of behavior.
Positive consequences are the results that the person finds attractive or pleasurable. They might
include a pay increase, bonus, promotion, transfer to a more desirable geographic location, or
praise from a supervisor. Negative consequences are the results that the person finds unattractive
or aversive. They might include disciplinary action, an undesirable transfer, a demotion, or harsh

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
13
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

criticism from a supervisor. The recipient of the consequences defines them as positive or
negative. Therefore, individual personality differences as well as gender and cultural differences
may be important in their classification.

For this exercise, students should create two lists. One for the positive consequences of behavior
that they have experienced and the other for the negative consequences of behavior that they have
experienced. Students should compare these two lists and explain why a behavior was connected
to a consequence. Then, students should suggest ways to modify their behavior such that their
behavior attracts more positive consequences than negative consequences. The student portion of
the activity is provided on the review card in the student edition of ORGB.

6.3 How Do You Correct Poor Performance?

The experience of poor performance is universal; everyone has performed poorly at one time or
another. The real significance of poor performance is found in correcting it—understanding why
the poor performance occurred and developing plans to prevent similar poor performance in the
future. The first step is describing the event in detail, including an assessment of how the
performance came to be labeled as “poor”. The second step involves listing all the possible
contributing causes of the poor performance. In doing so, students should consider internal as
well as external factors. The rest of the process is largely useless if no plan is developed to ensure
better performance in the future. This exercise can be followed up later in the semester by asking
students to discuss the effectiveness of their plans, once they have had the opportunity to
implement them.

As students list contributing factors to their poor performance, it is important that they consider
internal as well as external factors. As a follow-up to this challenge, instructors should ask
students to summarize the effectiveness of their plan once they implement it. The student portion
of the activity is provided on the review card in the student edition of ORGB and on a handout at
the end of this chapter guide.

Issues in Diversity

Race and Rewards at the Harlem Police Department

Off-duty police officer Omar J. Edwards was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow officer on
May 28, 2009. Edwards was chasing a suspected car thief in East Harlem, New York and had
drawn his gun when the incident occurred. While accidents such as this are unfortunate, they are
not unusual, especially in the line of police work. This particular accident, however, would affect
rank-and-file minority police officers in a very significant way. After the accident, Police

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
14
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Commissioner Raymond Kelly vowed to increase the number of minority officers in top-level
Harlem police department positions. By all accounts, Commissioner Kelly is “a fair-minded
leader of a hierarchical organization,” so why the emphasis on promoting minority officers, and
why now?

For one thing, the off-duty police officer was black and the shooter was white. This fact
“resurrected the volatile cross section of race, politics, and the use of deadly force by police
officers.” Conventional wisdom suggests that public servants should represent the community in
which they serve so that they might have a better understanding of the residents and vice versa.
While the number of blacks and Hispanics at the rank of captain or higher has risen significantly
since 2001, whites make up the majority of the Harlem Police department’s executive corps.

Harlem Police department’s reward system operates in almost the same way as it does in all
police departments. Promotion of rank-and-file officers to captain depends on their performance
in the civil service exams. Promotions above the captain rank are discretionary. While
Commissioner Kelly admits that minority officers have enjoyed a quicker promotion than white
officers of the same rank, Roy Richter, the president of the Captain’s Endowment Association,
points out that “[T]his police commissioner rewards performance regardless of race or gender.”

1. How will Commissioner Kelly’s vow to increase minority representation in the top
command affect the rank-and-file officers?

Given the statement that Commissioner Kelly is widely regarded as fair-minded, in the
absence of blatant discrimination, rank-and-file officers are likely to perceive his efforts to
increase minority representation in top levels simply as an effort to make his organization
better reflect the community. If discrimination becomes apparent, rank-and-file officers will
probably become frustrated and motivation will decline within the organization.

2. Should service organization managers consider their “market” when promoting employees to
higher levels? Why or why not?

Service organization managers should consider their market when they promote employees
to higher levels; EEOC guidelines require that organizations’ workforces reflect the
populations in which they are located as much as possible with regard to diversity. However,
managers must also avoid not only blatant discrimination but also the perception of
discriminatory practices. Managers have a very fine line to walk in accomplishing the kinds
of things Commissioner Kelly wants to accomplish—not violating EEOC guidelines while
easing tensions among the local populace.

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
15
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercises

6.1 Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Instructor’s Notes:

The purpose of this exercise is to illustrate the effects of positive and negative reinforcement on
behavior change. This exercise is useful when a class seems unruly and needs a change of pace. It
is similar to the childhood game most students have played. Students will become very vocal and
typically animated. Instructors may want to take care in selecting the volunteers. A description of
the steps of the exercise are provided on student handouts at the end of this chapter guide.

Discussion Questions:

1. What were the differences in behavior of the volunteers when different kinds of
reinforcement (positive, negative, or both) were used? Most of the time the individual
receiving positive reinforcement will have a number of gestures and nonverbal indicators of
success.

2. What were the emotional reactions of the volunteers to the different kinds of reinforcement?

3. One of the ways to give volunteers time to reflect and to get out of the spotlight for a
moment is to have them go to a board or flip chart and list a series of words that described
how they felt. Typical for volunteer #1 will be embarrassment, frustration, quit, etc.
Volunteer #3 may have feelings like confusion, frustration, and ambiguity.

4. Which type of reinforcement—positive or negative—is most common in organizations?


What effect do you think this has on motivation and productivity? Students’ responses will
depend on their exposure to specific instances.

6.2 Correcting Poor Performance

Purpose: This exercise provides an opportunity for students to engage in a performance diagnosis
role-play as either the assistant director of the Academic Computing Service Center or as a
member of a university committee appointed by the president of the university at the request of
the center director.

Group Size: Form the class into groups of five or six students, and either ask the group to select
who is to be the assistant director or assign one group member to be the assistant director.

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

A description of the steps and the roles are provided on student handouts at the end of this
chapter guide.

Performance diagnosis, especially where some poor performance exists, requires making
attributions and determining causal factors as well as formulating a plan of action to correct any
poor performance.

Role Descriptions:

Assistant Director, Academic Computing Service Center

You are the assistant director of the university’s Academic Computing Service Center. You are a
skilled information systems software engineer with twenty years of experience at two different
universities. You assumed your current job about three years ago. Within the first year you
became very familiar with the entire information systems infrastructure at the university and
developed a highly successful relationship with all of the technicians and support staff under your
supervision.

With a notable downturn in enrollment since you came, it has been a struggle to obtain the
financial resources necessary to complete all of the upgrades you think are required for a first rate
center and to procure all the latest hardware sought by the faculty, research, and teaching staff
across campus. The center services a wide variety of university customers, such as the hard
science requirements in engineering, physics, and chemistry for massive data analysis and
networking with other universities; the social science requirements in psychology, business, and
social work for specific types of statistical analysis packages; the administrative requirements of
the registrar and financial services offices; and finally the unique needs of the medical school.
Because of the differing needs of these customers, the center experiences conflicting pressures
and demands. These customers are not information systems experts, and you take a lead role in
attempting to educate them about the competing demands and limitations the center faces.

You report directly to the new director of the ACS Center who has been on the job for about
seven months. Although the director appears friendly, she also does not seem to be a real
information systems expert with the technical expertise you would like a director to have. You
are scheduled to meet with a university committee of faculty and staff, although you are not
exactly sure why, you have heard rumors there is some discontent among the center’s customers.

University Committee Members

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

You are members of a university committee of faculty and staff that the new director of the
Academic Computing Service Center has asked the president to form. You understand that the
new director is a rather new graduate of an eastern university with an M.S. degree in information
systems and some prior computing and information systems experience, going back to graduate
school. She has been the director for about seven months, and the declines in enrollment which
preceded her arrival by several years have taken a toll on the financial and human resources of
the university. At the same time, advances in information systems technology have increased
demand for system upgrades and advances across campus.

The assistant director of the ACS Center has been in the vice of these forces for several years.
The assistant director is a talented, highly proficient information systems expert who grew up
through the technical ranks after getting an undergraduate business degree in information systems
and management science. His technically superior attitude is apparently evident to the diverse
disciplines across campus that see him as increasing the tensions and conflicts flowing from
declining resources and increasing demand. The new director seems a little puzzled as to how to
sort out all the issues and make appropriate attributions to the behavior and actions of the various
parties involved. A key responsibility for her is getting a clear picture of the performance of her
assistant director, who does seem to have some poor performance problems.

6.3 The Death of Management

Instructor’s Notes:

Since this is an editorial page, this is a logical assignment for students to read as homework. A
technique that works to aid in getting to the issues quickly in class is to have the students
highlight the most important issues for their position. A student handout is provided at the end of
this chapter guide.

Divide the class into five groups that will discuss this topic with the speaker when he visits the
campus. Each group will submit, within 20 minutes, what their issue and discussion question will
be and who their designated debater is. The instructor takes the position of the editorial writer,
Robert Samuelson*. (You may want to let 5 students take his position and debate for him).
During the debate, students may request assistance from their group, and they will need to refer
the book for their support.

• Decide who in your group will be the five students to debate this topic.
• Decide which particular point you wish to refute.
• Back up you argument with specific references to this chapter.
• Prepare your group by defining what you believe Samuelson means by the following

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

words:
o Pseudo skills
o All-purpose executives
o General managers
o Skills

• What would Mr. Samuelson say about the concepts in this chapter?

* SOURCE: Robert J. Samuelson, Newsweek, May 10, 1993, 55.

Additional Examples

Aggressive Goal Setting…And More

The history of the Korean automotive industry has been a “rags to riches” story beginning with
the establishment of Hyundai Motor Company in 1967 to assemble American designed cars for
local consumption. By 2005, it had become the sixth largest automobile producer in the world
and a major competitor to GM, Ford, and Toyota. The company used a practice of internally
generated crises as a catalyst for organizational resilience, rebounding from failures and using
aggressive goal setting. HMC also set demanding production targets as goals for its
manufacturing workforce and set stringent quality benchmarks as goals for its vehicles. Learning
from experience became a key enabling mechanism for the aggressive goal setting and the
ultimate success of the company.

The Effects of Accuracy in Performance Evaluations

Studies involving both laboratory and field research on performance evaluations that included
self-evaluations and, in some cases, evaluations from an external authority, produced an
interesting pattern of results that showed the effects of accuracy in performance evaluation on
subsequent task performance. The main finding was that when individuals more accurately
evaluated their performance on a task, the better was their performance on a subsequent task. In
addition, the first study found that for those individuals who overestimated their performance on
a task, the lower their performance on the next task. Interestingly, underestimating performance
on a task had no apparent effect on performance of the subsequent task. The second study found
that these effects were dampened by the presence of an external authority. Specifically, when
individuals received feedback from an external authority, the effects of the inaccuracy of their
own self-performance evaluations had a reduced effect on subsequent performance. Therefore,
accuracy in self-performance evaluation has a positive effect on the next task performance, and
overestimation in self-performance evaluation has a negative effect on the task performance that

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

follows. However, both of these effects are reduced, though not eliminated, when there is an
external authority engaged in the role of performance evaluation.

SOURCE: S. Ellis, R. Mendel, and M. Aloni-Zohar, “The Effect of Accuracy of Performance Evaluation on
Learning from Experience: The Moderating role of After-Event Reviews,” Journal of Applied Social Psychology
39(3) (2009): 541–563.

Tri-Mentoring: New Spin, Old Practice

Tri-mentoring is a formalized peer-mentoring system that recognizes implicit learning in


organizations. Employees can and do learn from each other in the normal performance of
daily tasks. Tri-mentoring formalizes this experience with a process in which three
employees get together and share their tacit and implicit knowledge to build organizational
capability. The trio offers flexibility, healthy discussion, and covers overlaps. Managers
provide direction and experts assess outcomes.

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Case Study and Suggested Responses

Sir James Dyson: Learning to Achieve Success

Linkage of Case to Chapter Material

This case describes James Dyson’s unusual and challenging path to entrepreneurial success with
the design and marketing of the vacuum cleaner bearing his name. Dyson’s life journey is one
based on a desire to solve problems and learn from mistakes and to persevere and excel. In the
late 1970s, Dyson began developing a vacuum cleaner based on the belief that “people actually
wanted to see the dirt that they were collecting.” [I]nspired by an industrial cyclone at a timber
mill,…[Dyson] created a vacuum that used centrifugal force to separate the dust and dirt. No bag,
no clogging, no loss of suction. It didn’t look great, but it worked. After five years of testing,
tweaking, fist banging, cursing, and more than 5,000 mistakesor prototypes, as engineers call
themit was there.” Dyson says, “[e]ach iteration of the vacuum came about because of a
mistake I needed to fix. What’s important is that I didn’t stop at the first failure, the 50th, or the
5,000th…I love mistakes.” Dyson’s life experiences in being willing to experiment and run the
risk of making mistakes, to learn from those mistakes, to persevere in light of daunting
circumstances, and to achieve excellence relates very directly to the learning and performance
management concepts discussed in Chapter 6.

Suggested Answers for Discussion Questions

1. Why is the opportunity or freedom to make mistakes crucial to learning?

Although success is positively reinforcing and therefore helps people in learning, failure can
play a valuable role as well. Success demonstrates what a person does well; failure identifies
what an individual does not do well and therefore needs to learn. Failure helps to define
one’s current limits and identifies the areas where further competency development is
needed. People who do not experience failure are not fully aware of their developmental
needs.

James Dyson was well aware of the value of making mistakes and learning from them. This
was made clear to him in his first job. Dyson recalls that his first boss, Jeremy Fry, taught
him that if people are allowed to make mistakes, they will learn very quickly. Fry also taught
Dyson to mistrust experience, especially the experience of entrenched individuals and
organizations because they tend to loathe innovation. Often innovation comes about as a
consequence of failuresometimes repeated failures.

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

2. How can the opportunity or freedom to make mistakes contribute to performance


improvement?

Making mistakes enables a person to discover firsthand what works and what does not work.
Direct experience with making mistakes is a more powerful learning force than observing
others make mistakes. It can also provide for more powerful learning than perpetual success.

Making mistakes also serves to identify one’s developmental needs. If people are fearful of
making mistakes, they will not take risks, they will not innovate, and they will not
experiment. By avoiding risk-taking, innovation and experimentation may make a person
feel safe, but he or she is unlikely to improve performance substantially. However, risk
taking, innovation, and experimentation are more likely to create the potential for sustained
performance improvements.

James Dyson, reflecting on his arduous, mistake-laden development of the Dyson vacuum’s
dirt collection system, states, “[e]veryone said that the clear bin would repulse people. By
that point I’d stopped listening to everyone and went with my instinct. I’m particularly adept
at making mistakesit’s a necessity as an engineer. Each iteration of the vacuum came
about because of a mistake I needed to fix. What’s important is that I didn’t stop at the first
failure, the 50th, or the 5,000th…I love mistakes.”

3. What advice do you think James Dyson would give to a recent college graduate who is just
starting his/her career?

James Dyson probably would emphasize two things:


• Be willing to make mistakes and learn from them
• Persevere, even when the conditions or odds are unfavorable

With regard to learning from mistakes, the students could cite case information that has
already been brought up in the suggested responses to Questions 1 and 2. First, Dyson recalls
that his first boss taught him that if people are allowed to make mistakes, they will learn very
quickly. Second, in recalling the arduous development process of his vacuum cleaner,
Dyson, states, “By that point I’d stopped listening to everyone and went with my instinct.
I’m particularly adept at making mistakesit’s a necessity as an engineer. Each iteration of
the vacuum came about because of a mistake I needed to fix. What’s important is that I
didn’t stop at the first failure, the 50th, or the 5,000th…I love mistakes.”

The advice regarding perseverance can also be drawn from his experience with making
mistakes. Clearly, persisting despite making over 5,000 mistakes is a powerful lesson in

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

perseverance and so is the insight that Dyson shares regarding his childhood passion for
running. Quoted on the company’s website, Dyson recalls, “I wanted to give up almost every
day. But one of the things I did when I was young was long distance running, from a mile up
to ten miles. They wouldn’t let me run more than ten miles at schoolin those days they
thought you’d drop down dead or something. And I was quite good at it, not because I was
physically good but because I had more determination. I learned determination from it.”
Dyson also says, “A lot of people give up when the world seems to be against them, but
that’s the point when you should push a little harder. I use the analogy of running a race. It
seems as though you can’t carry on, but if you just get through the pain barrier, you’ll see the
end and be okay. Often, just around the corner is where the solution will happen.”

4. What advice do you think James Dyson would give to someone who is in charge of training
people and evaluating their performance?

The response to this question should build on the suggested response to the preceding
question. Most importantly, James Dyson would likely advise trainers and evaluators to give
people the freedom to make mistakes and to learn from them. He would also advise trainers
and evaluators to encourage people to work hard and to persist in developing their
competencies and achieving their goals.

SOURCE: This case solution was written by Michael K. McCuddy, The Louis S. and Mary L. Morgal Chair of
Christian Business Ethics and Professor of Management, College of Business, Valparaiso University.

Video

Profile on Barcelona Restaurant Group

At Barcelona Restaurant Group it’s about more than food: it’s about an experience. Cuisine is
only 50 percent of the total Barcelona experience; the other half is made up of intangibles such as
lighting, clientele, atmospherics, background music, and conversation with managers and wait
staff. For Barcelona to be successful, each employee must deliver the European tapas ambience
night after night. To achieve consistent quality, Barcelona gauges its performance with the help
of multiple feedback loops. First, the establishment participates in a Secret Shoppers program.
Next, the restaurant solicits comments from regular patrons, and every comment card and e-mail
goes straight to the owner. Finally, managers monitor activities through restaurant surveillance
cameras and by walking the floors to interact with customers.

Discussion Questions and Solutions

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

1. According to Barcelona owner Andy Pforzheimer, why do so many restaurants go out of


business?

Andy Pforzheimer says that restaurants go out of business because they fail to effectively
and accurately measure their own performance. They fail to define success, and they fail to
appraise themselves in a thorough, ongoing manner. Quantifying service is especially
important in the restaurant industry where customer satisfaction depends on intangibles such
as pleasant servers, food preparation, and short wait times.

2. What tactics do leaders at Barcelona use to help measure and control the restaurant’s
financial performance?

In the video, Barcelona uses multiple methods of controlling financial performance. First,
managers hold weekly meetings in which chefs and general managers review key financial
data. Group members review P&L numbers for the restaurants, and owner Andy Pforzheimer
confronts managers if they let food costs rise above 25 percent. Second, each of Barcelona’s
seven restaurants generates monthly financial statements, and managers track their financial
progress against the financials of the other Barcelona restaurants. Competition between
Barcelona restaurants motivates managers to improve food and service while maintaining
low overhead costs.

3. How does Barcelona reward managers and chefs?

In the video, Chief Operating Officer Scott Lawton says that Barcelona managers receive a
financial bonus for achieving profitability. In fact, Barcelona offers a 12 percent bonus on
annual restaurant sales earned above the company’s base operating profit. The bonus money
is significant and can be adjusted upward or downward slightly to reflect the scores from
Secret Shopper reports. Lawton says the company does not provide financial bonuses to
chefs because chefs would inadvertently compromise quality by having to pinch pennies.
During group meetings, Barcelona’s owners offer praise to employees that stand out for
good performance as measured by customer feedback and meeting financial targets.

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Student Handouts

Ethical Dilemma

Margaret Dawson supervises a team of six salespeople within Smith & Yardley, Inc., and she’s
been with the company for five years. As her team was assembled, Margaret worked assertively
to make sure everyone was clear on how to complete the sometimes complicated expense report
forms. Since her sales force was on the road for approximately 60 percent of the time, filling out
expense reports completely was essential. The sales people were dependent on getting
reimbursements quickly for living expenses and the extensive mileage accrued; the accounting
team needed to process the forms quickly in order to avoid a critical back-log of debt. Margaret’s
team consistently submits their reports on time, a fact that pleases both Margaret and her boss.
The team receives their reimbursements promptly, which meets their needs.

For her entire time with Smith & Yardley, Inc., Margaret has used a rounding system to make the
numbers reconcile more easily when inputted into the excel spreadsheet expense report. She has
consistently shared this procedure with her salespeople as a method of reconciliation that also
quickens the process. Margaret is also aware that when her subordinates complete their reports
this way, they often get a little extra money in their reimbursement check. Since that’s the
procedure Margaret was taught when she was new to the company, she feels comfortable passing
that information on.

At the last managers’ meeting, Margaret’s supervisor, Henry, reviewed the correct procedures for
completing expense reports. She learned that the rounding system that she was taught and has
consequently taught to her sales force isn’t exactly the way the company would like outstanding
expenses reconciled. The way in which Margaret and her team complete their reports isn’t
specifically wrong, but it does err in favor of awarding the employees extra money. Margaret has
to decide if she should gather her team and inform them that expense reports have to be
completed in a new, more time-consuming manner, or if she should simply allow the team to
keep submitting the forms in the way in which they’ve all become accustomed.

Questions

1. Using consequential, rule-based, and character theories, evaluate Margaret’s options.


2. What should Margaret do? Why?

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

What about You?

Task Goal Attribute Questionnaire

Listed below is a set of statements that may or may not describe the job or school objectives
toward which you are presently working. Please read each statement carefully and rate each on a
scale from 1 (agree completely) to 7 (disagree completely) to describe your level of agreement or
disagreement with the statement. Please answer all questions.

_____ 1. I am allowed a high degree of influence in the determination of my work/school


objectives.
_____ 2. I should not have too much difficulty in reaching my work/school objectives; they
appear to be fairly easy.
_____ 3. I receive a considerable amount of feedback concerning my quantity of output on the
job/in school.
_____ 4. Most of my coworkers and peers try to outperform one another on their assigned
work/school goals.
_____ 5. My work/school objectives are very clear and specific; I know exactly what my
job/assignment is.
_____ 6. My work/school objectives will require a great deal of effort from me to complete them.
_____ 7. I really have little voice in the formulation of my work/school objectives.
_____ 8. I am provided with a great deal of feedback and guidance on the quality of my work.
_____ 9. I think my work/school objectives are ambiguous and unclear.
_____ 10. It will take a high degree of skill and know-how on my part to attain fully my
work/school objectives.
_____ 11. The setting of my work/school goals is pretty much under my own control.
_____ 12. My boss/instructors seldom let(s) me know how well I am doing on my work toward
my work/school objectives.
_____ 13. A very competitive atmosphere exists among my peers and me with regard to attaining
our respective work/school goals; we all want to do better than anyone else in attaining our goals.
_____ 14. I understand fully which of my work/school objectives are more important than others;
I have a clear sense of priorities on these goals.
_____ 15. My work/school objectives are quite difficult to attain.
_____ 16. My supervisor/instructors usually ask(s) for my opinions and thoughts when
determining my work/school objectives.

Scoring:

Place your response (1 through 7) in the space provided. For questions 7, 12, 9, and 2, subtract

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

your response from 8 to determine your adjusted score. For each scale (e.g., participation in goal
setting), add the responses and divide by the number of questions in the scale.

Participation in Goal Setting:


Question 1 _____
Question 7 (8 – _____) = _____
Question 11 _____
Question 16 _____
Total divided by 4 =

Feedback on Goal Effort:


Question 3 _____
Question 8 _____
Question 12 (8 – _____) = _____
Total divided by 3 =

Peer Competition:
Question 4 _____
Question 13 _____
Total divided by 2 =

Goal Specificity:
Question 5 _____
Question 9 (8 – _____) = _____
Question 14 _____
Total divided by 3 =

Goal Difficulty:
Question 2 (8 – _____) = _____
Question 6 _____
Question 10 _____
Question 15 _____
Total divided by 4 =

Interpreting your average scale scores: 6 or 7 is very high on this task–goal attribute. 4 is a
moderate level on this task–goal attribute. 1 or 2 is very low on this task–goal attribute.

SOURCE: Adapted from R. M. Steers, “Factors Affecting Job Attitudes in a Goal-Setting Environment,” Academy of
Management Journal 19 (1976): 9. Permission conveyed through Copyright Clearance Center, Inc.

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

What about You?

How do you Correct Poor Performance?

At one time or another, each of us has had a poor performance of some kind. It may have been a
poor test result in school, a poor presentation at work, or a poor performance in an athletic event.
Think of a poor performance event that you have experienced and work through the following
three steps.

Step 1. Briefly describe the specific event in some detail. Include why you label it a poor
performance (bad score? someone else’s evaluation?).

Step 2. Analyze the poor performance.

a. List all the possible contributing causes to the poor performance. Be specific, such as the room
was too hot, you did not get enough sleep, you were not told how to perform the task, etc. You
might ask other people for possible ideas, too.

1. _________________________
2. _________________________
3. _________________________
4. _________________________
5. _________________________
6. _________________________
7. _________________________

b. Is there a primary cause for the poor performance? What is it?

Step 3. Plan to correct the poor performance.

Develop a step-by-step plan of action that specifies what you can change or do differently to
improve your performance the next time you have an opportunity. Include seeking help if it is
needed. Once your plan is developed, look for an opportunity to execute it.

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Issues in Diversity

Race and Rewards at the Harlem Police Department

Off-duty police officer Omar J. Edwards was accidentally shot and killed by a fellow officer on
May 28, 2009. Edwards was chasing a suspected car thief in East Harlem, New York and had
drawn his gun when the incident occurred. While accidents such as this are unfortunate, they are
not unusual, especially in the line of police work. This particular accident, however, would affect
rank-and-file minority police officers in a very significant way. After the accident, Police
Commissioner Raymond Kelly vowed to increase the number of minority officers in top-level
Harlem police department positions. By all accounts, Commissioner Kelly is “a fair-minded
leader of a hierarchical organization,” so why the emphasis on promoting minority officers, and
why now?

For one thing, the off-duty police officer was black; the shooter is white. This fact “resurrected
the volatile cross section of race, politics, and the use of deadly force by police officers.”
Conventional wisdom suggests that public servants should represent the community in which
they serve so that they might have a better understanding of the residents and vice versa. While
the number of blacks and Hispanics at the rank of captain or higher has risen significantly since
2001, whites make up the majority of the Harlem Police department’s executive corps.

Harlem Police department’s reward system operates almost the same way as it does in all police
departments. Promotion of rank-and-file officers to captain depends on their performance in the
civil service exams. Promotions above the captain rank are discretionary. While Commissioner
Kelly admits that minority officers have enjoyed a quicker promotion than white officers of the
same rank; Roy Richter, the president of the Captain’s Endowment Association, points out that
“[T]his police commissioner rewards performance regardless of race or gender.”

Questions

1. How will Commissioner Kelly’s vow to increase minority representation in the top
command affect the rank-and-file officers?
2. Should service organization managers consider their “market” when promoting employees to
higher levels? Why or why not?

SOURCE: A. Baker, “Police Commissioner Plans to Put More Minority Officers in Top Posts,” The New York Times
(June 26, 2009); A. Gendar, E. Pearson, B. Paddock, and L. Standora, “Black Cop Killed by White Officer: Horror
in East Harlem as Off-Duty Rookie Is Shot Pursuing Suspect,” New York Daily News (May 29, 2009).

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise

Positive and Negative Reinforcement

Purpose: To examine the effects of positive and negative reinforcement on behavior change.
1. Select two or three volunteers to receive reinforcement from the class while performing a
particular task. Ask the volunteers to leave the room.
2. Identify an object for the student volunteers to locate when they return to the room. (The
object should be unobtrusive but clearly visible to the class. Some that have worked well
are a small triangular piece of paper that was left behind when a notice was torn off a
classroom bulletin board, a smudge on the chalkboard, and a chip in the plaster of a
classroom wall.)
3. Specify the reinforcement contingencies that will be in effect when the volunteers return to
the room. For negative reinforcement, students should hiss, boo, and throw things
(although they should not throw anything harmful) when the first volunteer is moving away
from the object; students should cheer and applaud when the second volunteer is getting
closer to the object; and if a third volunteer is used, use both negative and positive
reinforcement.
4. Assign a student to keep a record of the time it takes each of the volunteers to locate the
object.
5. Ask Volunteer #1 to come back to the room, and instruct him or her as follows: “Your task
is to locate and touch a particular object in the room, and the class has agreed to help you.
You may begin.”
6. Volunteer #1 continues to look for the object until it is found while the class assists by
giving negative reinforcement.
7. Ask Volunteer #2 to come back to the room, and instruct him or her as follows: “Your task
is to locate and touch a particular object in the room, and the class has agreed to help you.
You may begin.”
8. Volunteer #2 continues to look for the object until it is found while the class assists by
giving positive reinforcement.
9. Ask Volunteer #3 to come back to the room, and instruct him or her as follows: “Your task
is to locate and touch a particular object in the room, and the class has agreed to help you.
You may begin.”
10. Volunteer #3 continues to look for the object until it is found while the class assists by
giving both positive and negative reinforcement.
11. In a class discussion, have students answer the following questions:
a. How did the behavior of the volunteers differ when different kinds of reinforcement
(positive, negative, or both) were used? Most of the time the individual receiving
positive reinforcement will have a number of gestures and nonverbal indicators of

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

success.
b. What were the emotional reactions of the volunteers to the different kinds of
reinforcement? One of the ways to give volunteers time to reflect and to get out of the
spotlight for a moment is to have them go to a board of a flip chart and list a series
of words that describe how they felt. Typical for Volunteer #1 would be
embarrassment, frustration, quit, etc. Volunteer #3 may have feelings like confusion,
frustration, and ambiguity.
c. Which type of reinforcement—positive or negative—is most common in
organizations? What effect do you think this has on motivation and productivity?
Students’ responses will depend on their exposure to specific instances.

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Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise

Correcting Poor Performance

This exercise provides an opportunity for you to engage in a performance diagnosis role-play as
either the assistant director of the Academic Computing Service Center or as a member of a
university committee appointed by the president of the university at the request of the center
director. Instructors will divide the class into groups of five or six students and either ask the
group to select a person who will be the assistant director or assign one group member to be the
assistant director.

Performance diagnosis, especially where some poor performance exists, requires making
attributions and determining causal factors as well as formulating a plan of action to correct any
poor performance.

Step 1. (5 minutes) Once the class is formed into groups, instructors should provide the assistant
director with a copy of the role description and each university committee member with a copy of
the role context information. Group members are to read through the materials provided.

Step 2. (15 minutes) The university committee has to call in the assistant director of the
Academic Computing Service Center for a performance diagnostic interview. This is an
information-gathering interview, not an appraisal session. The purpose is to gather information
for the center director.

Step 3. (15 minutes) The university committee has to agree on a statement that reflects their
understanding of the assistant director’s poor performance and to include a specification of the
causes. Based on this problem statement, the committee is to formulate a plan of action to correct
the poor performance. The assistant director is to do the same, again ending with a plan of action.

Step 4. (10–15 minutes, optional) Instructors may ask the groups to share the results of their
work in Step 3 of the role-play exercise.

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32
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise

Correcting Poor Performance

Assistant Director, Academic Computing Service Center

You are the assistant director of the university’s Academic Computing Service Center. You are a
skilled information systems software engineer with twenty years of experience at two different
universities. You assumed your current job about three years ago. Within the first year you
became very familiar with the entire information systems infrastructure at the university and
developed a highly successful relationship with all of the technicians and support staff under your
supervision.

With a notable downturn in enrollment since you came, it has been a struggle to obtain the
financial resources necessary to complete all of the upgrades you think are required for a first rate
center and to procure all the latest hardware sought by the faculty, research, and teaching staff
across campus. The center services a wide variety of university customers, such as the hard
science requirements in engineering, physics, and chemistry for massive data analysis and
networking with other universities; the social science requirements in psychology, business, and
social work for specific types of statistical analysis packages; the administrative requirements of
the registrar and financial services offices; and finally the unique needs of the medical school.
Because of the differing needs of these customers, the center experiences conflicting pressures
and demands. These customers are not information systems experts, and you take a lead role in
attempting to educate them about the competing demands and limitations the center faces.

You report directly to the new director of the ACS Center who has been on the job for about
seven months. Although the director appears friendly, she does not seem to be a real information
systems expert with the technical expertise you would like a director to have. You are scheduled
to meet with a university committee of faculty and staff; although you are not exactly sure why,
you have heard rumors there is some discontent among the center’s customers.

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33
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise

Correcting Poor Performance

University Committee Members

You are member of a university committee of faculty and staff that the new director of the
Academic Computing Service Center has asked the president to form. You understand that the
new director is a rather new graduate of an eastern university with an M.S. degree in information
systems and some prior computing and information systems experience. She has been the
director for about seven months. The declines in enrollment which preceded her arrival by
several years have taken a toll on the financial and human resources of the university. At the
same time, advances in information systems technology have increased demand for system
upgrades and advances across campus.

The assistant director of the ACS Center has been in the vice of these forces for several years.
The assistant director is a talented, highly proficient information systems expert who grew up
through the technical ranks after getting an undergraduate business degree in information systems
and management science. His technically superior attitude is apparently evident to the diverse
disciplines across campus that see him as increasing the tensions and conflicts flowing from
declining resources and increasing demand. The new director seems a little puzzled as to how to
sort out all the issues and make appropriate attributions as to the behavior and actions of the
various parties involved. A key responsibility for her is getting a clear picture of the performance
of her assistant director, who does seem to have some poor performance problems.

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34
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Experiential Exercise

The Death of Management

We are now witnessing the death of management. By management, I mean the peculiarly
American idea (still taught at many business schools) that a “good manager” should be able to
manage any enterprise, anywhere, any time. Through incisive analysis and decisive action, our
supermanagers supposedly could make any company productive and profitable. The idea has
collapsed with failures at companies that once symbolized U.S. management prowess—Sears,
Westinghouse, and IBM.

With hindsight, we can see the absurdity. We don’t imagine a winning football coach switching
to basketball, nor a concert pianist becoming a symphony violinist. We don’t think an orthopedic
surgeon would automatically make a good psychiatrist. We recognize that differences in talent,
temperament, knowledge, and experience make some people good at some things and not at
others. Somehow, managers were supposed to be immune to this logic.

They aren’t, of course. Indeed, the people who have created great businesses in recent decades
typically confirm the logic. They have not been all-purpose executives, casually changing jobs
and succeeding on the strength of dazzling analysis. Instead, they have been semi-fanatics who
doggedly pursued a few good ideas. People like Sam Walton (Wal-Mart), Ray Kroc
(McDonald’s), William McGowan (MCI), and Bill Gates (Microsoft).

What seems astonishing is how such a bad idea survived so long. Our infatuation with it partly
reflected American’s optimism that all problems are amenable to reason. In 1914, Frederick
Winslow Taylor’s “The Principles of Scientific Management” appeared and set a tone. Taylor
pioneered time-and-motion studies, which analyzed how specific jobs might be done more
efficiently. But his larger purpose was to “prove that the best management is a true science,
resting upon clearly defined laws...”

Up to a point, who can quarrel with the resort to reason? The trouble is that it was taken too far
and became self-destructive. The problem was not that freelance managers constantly jumped
between companies, although that happened. The problem was that the style of running big
companies changed for the worse. The belief that all problems could be solved by analysis
favored the rise of executives who were adept with numbers and making slick presentations.
Huge staffs of analysts served these executives, who created conglomerates on the theory that a
good manager could manage anything.

With bigger bureaucracies, companies couldn’t respond quickly to market changes—new

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35
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

technologies, competitors, or customer needs. The more powerful top executives became, the less
they knew. Their information was filtered through staff reports and statistical tables. Some
executives developed what consultant Mel Stuckey calls a phobia of manufacturing—they didn’t
know what happened in factories and feared exposing their ignorance.

Roger Smith, GM’s chairman between 1981 and 1990, exemplified this sort of know-nothing
executive. When asked by Fortune to explain what went wrong, he answered, “I don’t know. It’s
a mysterious thing.” To fathom what went wrong, Smith truly had to understand how
automobiles are designed and made; he apparently never did, despite a career at GM. As a
society, we have spent the past decade paying for mistakes like Smith’s. Inept management,
though not the only cause of corporate, turmoil, has been a major contributor. “Downsizing” and
“restructuring” are but the catch phrases for the harsh process by which companies seek to regain
their edge.

Truly dead?

Consider General Electric. A decade ago, it was “choking on its nit-picking systems of formal
reviews...which delayed decisions...and often made GE a laggard at bringing new products to
market,” write Noel Tichy and Stratford Sherman in a new book. The “mastery of arduous
procedures had become an art form” necessary for executive advancement. GE chairman John
Welch Jr. fired thousands and sold 19 major businesses. Profits rose from $1.7 billion in 1981 to
$4.7 billion in 1992, but GE's payroll shrank from 404,000 to 268,000.

Such have been the ultimate social consequences of a bad idea. But is the muddled notion of
“management” truly dead? You can object on two grounds. First, some generalists still ascend to
the top of big companies, the naming of Louis Gerstner—who knows little of computers—to
head IBM is a case in point. Well, maybe. But these executives are often specialists of a different
sort; they specialize in dismantling conglomerates or top-heavy bureaucracies. Welch played
precisely this role at GE; and Christopher Steffen intended to do the same at Kodak.

The second objective is more serious—it is that business schools still aim to produce general
managers. The present notion of the M.B.A. (Master of Business Administration) is foolish. It is
impossible to take people in their mid-20s—without much business experience—and educate
them as “managers.” Yet business schools cling to the notion, because to do otherwise would
jeopardize their tuition revenues. What’s lost is the opportunity for these bright young people to
learn something of value—a specific business, a foreign language, an engineering skill—instead
of the pseudo skills taught in business school.

Until this changes, we shall miseducate a large part of the talent pool for America’s business

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36
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

leadership. The one hopeful sign is that the subject now seems open for discussion. Indeed, the
Harvard Business Review recently conducted a debate about the M.B.A. degree. Most
contributors agreed it is not very useful. M.B.A. graduates are “glib and quick-witted”, wrote
Henry Mintzberg of McGill University, but are not committed to “particular industries...but to
management as a means of personal advancement.”

A recent M.B.A. graduate said it better, “My main reason for obtaining an M.B.A.,” she
admitted, “was not necessarily to improve my business skills but because the degree is required
to ‘get in the door’.” When the Harvard Business School can acknowledge that—and act upon
it—American management will have taken a huge stride forward.

Mr. Samuelson has been asked to your campus to debate the Phi Beta Kappa honorary business
fraternity about the accusations presented in this editorial. Your responsibility as a member of the
business school is to practice the question and answer portion of the upcoming event with the
individuals selected to talk with him at the open forum. In order to assist your friends, you must:
• Decide who in your group will be the 5 students to debate this topic
• Decide which particular point you wish to refute
• Back up your argument with specific references to this chapter
• Prepare your group by defining what you believe he means by the following words:
o Pseudo skills
o All-purpose executives
o General managers
o Skills

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37
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

Case Study

Sir James Dyson: Learning to Achieve Success

James Dyson, knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth in 2006, rose to success and fame via an
unusual and challenging path. Dyson’s life journey is one based on a desire to solve problems
and learn from mistakes, to persevere and excel.

His father’s death in 1956 when he was nine years old had a profound impact on Dyson’s future.
Dyson says, “[n]ot having a father, particularly at that time, was very unusual. I felt different. I
was on my own. I can’t quite explain it, but I think subconsciously I felt a need to prove myself.”i
When Dyson entered the work world, his first boss, Jeremy Fry, also had a profound influence on
his development. Dyson recalls, “[w]hen I went to work for him, I’d never designed a product.
I’d never sold anything. And he put me in charge of a company manufacturing a high-speed
landing craft. So he taught me that someone doesn’t have to grow into a job. If you allow them to
make mistakes, they’ll learn extremely quickly. He also taught me to mistrust experience. He was
far happier to have people working around him who had freshness and an unsullied approach.”ii

In the late 1970s, Dyson began developing a vacuum cleaner based on the belief that “people
actually wanted to see the dirt that they were collecting.”iii In recalling the beginning of this
venture, Dyson observes, “I started with an idea: a vacuum with no bag. The bag was a problem.
The bag clogs with dust, the machine wheezes, losing its puff. So, inspired by an industrial
cyclone at a timber mill, I created a vacuum that used centrifugal force to separate the dust and
dirt. No bag, no clogging, no loss of suction. It didn’t look great, but it worked. After five years
of testing, tweaking, fist banging, cursing, and more than 5,000 mistakesor prototypes, as
engineers call themit was there.”iv

Over the ensuing 15-year period, Dyson produced 5,127 prototypes of his Dual Cyclone bagless
vacuum cleaner before developing the model that would ultimately make him a billionaire.v
Dyson persevered in spite of the mistakes, disappointments, and frustrations, conditions that
might have caused many other people to give up.

Dyson attributes his perseverance against the odds to an important childhood realization. Quoted
on the company’s Web Site, Dyson recalls: “I wanted to give up almost every day. But one of the
things I did when I was young was long distance running, from a mile up to ten miles. They
wouldn’t let me run more than ten miles at schoolin those days they thought you’d drop down
dead or something. And I was quite good at it, not because I was physically good but because I
had more determination. I learned determination from it.” Dyson continues: “A lot of people give
up when the world seems to be against them, but that’s the point when you should push a little

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38
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

harder. I use the analogy of running a race. It seems as though you can’t carry on, but if you just
get through the pain barrier, you’ll see the end and be okay. Often, just around the corner is
where the solution will happen.”vi

Regarding the Dyson vacuum’s dirt collection system, Dyson recalls, “[e]veryone said that the
clear bin would repulse people. By that point I’d stopped listening to everyone and went with my
instinct. I’m particularly adept at making mistakes: it’s a necessity as an engineer. Each iteration
of the vacuum came about because of a mistake I needed to fix. What’s important is that I didn’t
stop at the first failure, the 50th, or the 5,000th. I never will. Believing that big companies would
choose good technology, progress, over short-term profit was a big mistake. I love mistakes.”vii

Dyson tried to interest existing manufacturers of vacuum cleaners in his invention, but with no
success. So he pursued manufacturing the Dyson vacuum cleaner on his own. Although the
venture nearly bankrupted him,viii here too he persevered. Within 18 months, the Dual Cyclone
bagless model became the number one selling vacuum cleaner in the United Kingdom,ix and now
sells more than four times as many vacuums in the U.K. than does its closest competitor.x

Jennifer Harris, writing in Management Today, ponders why the so-called experts, like the
established vacuum cleaner manufacturers that refused to produce Dyson’s machine, are
sometimes loathe to innovation. Her answer is that these “experts” have become so successful
that “they start to see success as their right, rather than a privilege earned continuously through
hard work and fresh thinking.”xi Sir James Dyson, quite the contrarian, became an expert and
successful through hard work and fresh thinking.

Discussion Questions

1. Why is the opportunity or freedom to make mistakes crucial to learning?


2. How can the opportunity or freedom to make mistakes contribute to performance
improvement?
3. What advice do you think James Dyson would give to a recent college graduate who is just
starting his/her career?
4. What advice do you think James Dyson would give to someone who is in charge of training
people and evaluating their performance?

SOURCE: This case was written by Michael K. McCuddy, The Louis S. and Mary L. Morgal Chair of Christian
Business Ethics and Professor of Management, College of Business Administration, Valparaiso University.

i
A. Beard, “Life’s Work,” Harvard Business Review 88(7/8) (July/August 2010): 172.
ii
A. Beard, “Life’s Work,” Harvard Business Review 88(7/8) (July/August 2010): 172.

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
39
Chapter 6: Learning and Performance Management

iii
M. Barrett and M Simmonds, “Dyson: Creativity on Tap,” Training Journal (January 2009): 34 (5 pages).
iv
Anonymous, “My Favorite Mistake: James Dyson; James Dyson on his 5,000 missteps while inventing his famous
vacuum cleaner,” Newsweek 157(23): 64.
v
A. Beard, “Life’s Work,” Harvard Business Review 88(7/8) (July/August 2010): 172. Anonymous, “Dyson,”
Marketing (April 13, 2011): 13.
vi
RealiseMyProduct.co.uk, “James Dyson: How to successfully develop and launch a new product invention,”
http://www.realisemyproduct.co.uk/james-dyson-successfully-develop-launch-new-product-invention/ accessed Feb
16, 2014).
vii
Anonymous, “My Favorite Mistake: James Dyson; James Dyson on his 5,000 missteps while inventing his famous
vacuum cleaner,” Newsweek 157(23): 64.
viii
Anonymous, “Britain’s Top 100 Entrepreneurs 2009,” Management Today (January 2009): 37 (8 pages).
ix
Anonymous, “My Favorite Mistake: James Dyson; James Dyson on his 5,000 missteps while inventing his famous
vacuum cleaner,” Newsweek 157(23): 64.
x
J. Harris, “Why Business is Like … Doubting Doctors,” Management Today (October 2009): 20 (2 pages).
xi
J. Harris, “Why Business is Like … Doubting Doctors,” Management Today (October 2009): 20 (2 pages). J.
Harris, “Why Business is Like … Doubting Doctors,” Management Today (October 2009): 20 (2 pages).

© 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
“I mean that as soon as I heard of your arrest, old man, I took the liberty
of wiring to Paxton, advising him of the situation,” Carroll explained.
“And you took that step without waiting to consult with me?” It seemed
to Carroll that there was a trace of resentment in the Camera Chap’s tone.
“Yes; I remembered how you used to hate to appeal to the paper when
you were in difficulties in the days when I was on the Sentinel staff. I was
afraid that you wouldn’t hear of letting Paxton know of your plight, so I
decided to go ahead on my own hook. Hope you’re not mad with me for
doing so, old man?”
“Mad with you? I should say not, indeed,” Hawley replied, with a joyous
laugh. “I am mighty glad that you sent that telegram, Fred. Generally, as you
say, I don’t like to bother the paper when I’m in trouble; but this is one of the
times when I can’t get along without the Sentinel’s help.”
CHAPTER XXXV.

A C. Q. D. CALL.

Only a few days previous, Tom Paxton, managing editor of the New York
Sentinel, had received a letter from the Camera Chap. It ran as follows:
“My Dear Tom: I am having a great time out here in the beautiful
Catskills. The peace and quiet of this picturesque mountain retreat are just
the things for my jaded nerves. I have not forgotten my physician’s
instructions to avoid all forms of excitement, nor your kind advice to try to
forget that there is such a thing in the world as a camera. I like this calm,
inactive life so much that if you can possibly spare me, I should like to stay
out here a few weeks longer than I had contemplated. Hope this will be
satisfactory, as I should really hate to leave here just now.”
Now, Paxton knew the Camera Chap too well to be entirely deceived by
this ingeniously worded missive. He knew that peace, inactivity, and
picturesque scenery were not sufficiently alluring to Hawley to cause him to
wish to prolong his absence from Park Row. He had strong doubts, too,
whether it was within the bounds of possibility for Hawley to go for so long
a time without using a camera.
He read the letter over again, and chuckled. “He says that he has not
forgotten his physician’s instructions to avoid all forms of excitement, or my
advice to try to forget that there is such a thing in the world as a camera,” he
mused. “He says he has not forgotten that advice, but he does not say that he
has followed it.
“I wonder what mischief the young dare-devil is up to?” he went on.
“There must be something pretty good going on up there to make him ask
for a longer vacation. He wasn’t at all keen on going away.”
Then Paxton took his pen, and answered Hawley’s letter:
“My Dear Frank: By all means, take as long as you like. Things are
pretty slow in town, and your presence here is not needed. But even if we
did need you, I should hesitate to take you away from the ‘peace and quiet of
the picturesque Catskills,’ since you appear to be deriving so much
enjoyment and benefit from them.”
It happened that the letter was never mailed. Paxton had inclosed it in an
envelope, and was about to address it, when some important business matter
claimed his attention. The missive was thrust into a pigeonhole of the
managing editor’s desk, and it was not until several days later that Paxton
came across it, and reproached himself for his carelessness.
He was just putting a stamp on it, with the intention of sending it out to
the mail chute, when an office boy entered the private office, and handed
him a telegram:
“Paxton, Managing Editor, New York Sentinel.
“Frank Hawley, Sentinel staff photographer, arrested here to-day. He is in
a bad fix, and will surely go to jail for six months unless you can save him.
Send help at once.
Oldham Daily Bulletin.”
Paxton was a man of quick action. Without wasting any time trying to
read between the lines of this laconic message, he grabbed the receiver from
the telephone on his desk, and gave an order to the switchboard operator.
“Get the Oldham Bulletin on the long-distance wire immediately,” he
commanded, “and let me talk to the managing editor.”
Fred Carroll had been arrested and taken to police headquarters before
this telephonic connection was made, but one of the Bulletin’s staff spoke to
Paxton over the wire, and gave him the details of the Camera Chap’s
predicament.
Then the managing editor of the Sentinel did some more telephoning.
“Call up Powers & Hands’ law office, and ask Mr. Hands to be kind
enough to step over here and see me as soon as possible,” he said to the
switchboard operator. “Tell him to be prepared to take a little trip out of
town right away.”
Powers & Hands was the firm which attended to all the Sentinel’s legal
business. They were one of the most prominent law firms in New York, and
saved the Sentinel thousands of dollars annually by squelching incipient libel
suits brought against that newspaper, or successfully fighting in the courts
those which could not be squelched.
Mr. Horatio Hands, the younger of the partners, was not much to look at.
He was an insignificant little chap, with a red beard and a thin voice that was
almost falsetto. He was not much of a success at addressing a jury—his
partner, big Alexander Powers, attended to that part of the work—but when
it came to getting a client off on a legal technicality, or winning a case by
picking flaws in a law, there wasn’t another lawyer in New York who was
his equal. That was why Tom Paxton had chosen him to go to the rescue of
the Camera Chap, instead of calling for the services of his more oratorical
but less keen-witted partner.
Mr. Hands came over to the Sentinel office right away. “Well, Mr.
Paxton?” he squeaked, as he entered the managing editor’s sanctum. “What
unfortunate citizen has the Sentinel been traducing this time?”
“It isn’t a libel suit, Mr. Hands,” Paxton explained, with a smile. “It’s one
of the young men of our staff. He’s got into a little trouble in Oldham—a
small town in the vicinity of the Catskills. I have just received word of his
plight, and would appreciate it very much if you would go out there right
away and help him out of this scrape.”
The lawyer frowned. “Only a reporter in a scrape, eh? Couldn’t one of
our clerks attend to that just as well? Surely it isn’t necessary for me to go
out there personally.”
“Yes, it is,” Paxton declared. “I understand that he’s in a pretty bad fix,
and it’s require the best of legal talent to get him out. That is why I have sent
for you, Mr. Hands.”
The lawyer bowed in acknowledgment of this compliment, but his frown
deepened.
“Well, I’m very busy just now,” he said, “and I shall have to charge you a
good fee if it is necessary to give my own time to this case.”
“I don’t care what it costs!” Paxton rejoined vehemently. “When the
Camera Chap is in danger of going to jail, the Sentinel doesn’t consider the
question of expense. You’ve got to get him out, Mr. Hands, even if you have
to take his case all the way up to the United States supreme court.”
CHAPTER XXXVI.

A TYPOGRAPHICAL ERROR.

When Chief of Police Hodgins learned that a prominent lawyer had come
from New York to take the case of the Camera Chap, he was somewhat
worried; but when he got a glimpse of Mr. Horatio Hands, his anxiety
vanished, and he expressed his opinion of that legal luminary by a guffaw of
derision.
“You just oughter to see him, Mr. Mayor,” he said to the Honorable
Martin Henkle. “He’s a little bit of a pink-whiskered runt that don’t look as
if he’s got nerve enough to swat a fly. I guess we ain’t got nothin’ to fear
from him.”
“Well, you can’t always go by appearances,” Mayor Henkle replied. “He
must be a pretty good lawyer, or that newspaper wouldn’t have sent him
here. However, we have no cause to worry that I can see. We’ve got a clear
cut-and-dried case against that fellow Hawley, and all the lawyers in the
world couldn’t keep him out of jail.”
Hodgins nodded. “Sure! He might as well plead guilty, and save the
court’s time. What defense can he offer? None that I can think of. By the
way, Mr. Mayor, I met my friend Timmins, the warden of the county jail, on
Main Street this morning. I spoke to him about that Camera Chap, and
Timmins has promised to make things hot for him when he arrives there.
Timmins has his own little ways of rubbing it into an inmate of his
institution when he don’t like him. I guess by the time that young loafer gets
through servin’ his time he’ll have had all the chestiness taken out of him.”
Although Hawley, according to his legal rights, should have been brought
before a magistrate on the same day that he was arrested, he was not taken to
court until the following morning.
The delay was due to the explosion in the Chronicle Building. Hodgins
had been so busy working on that case that he had not had time to go to
court, eager though he was to see the Camera Chap’s case disposed of as
soon as possible.
The latter, with Carroll to keep him company, spent the night in the cell at
police headquarters. The next morning both of them were taken to the police
court, but while Hawley, his offense being only a misdemeanor, was to have
his fate settled right away in that court, Carroll, being charged with a more
serious crime, was to have merely a preliminary examination.
The explosion in the Chronicle Building had created a lot of excitement
in Oldham, and the courtroom was crowded when the two newspaper men
were arraigned. The Honorable Martin Henkle was among those present. He
sat on the bench beside the magistrate, a smile of grim satisfaction upon his
face.
Carroll was the first to be given a hearing. As he was arraigned at the
bench, a little man with a reddish beard stepped briskly to his side.
“Who are you, sir?” the judge inquired.
“Counsel for the defense, your honor,” the little man answered, in a shrill,
piping voice that caused many in the courtroom to smile.
Chief Hodgins scowled. “But I thought you was the lawyer for the other
one—the camera feller,” he protested.
“I am not responsible for your thoughts, my friend,” the lawyer retorted.
“If I were, my responsibilities would be light. However, in order to satisfy
your curiosity, I don’t mind informing you that I have been retained as
counsel in both cases. Mr. Carroll has honored me by asking me to look after
his interests, too.”
The lawyer turned to the magistrate. “Your honor, in this case, although I
am convinced that my client’s arrest is an outrage, as we shall easily prove
later on, we will waive examination.”
“Very good, sir,” said the judge. “I will remand the prisoner to the county
jail, to await the action of the grand jury. Call the next case.”
“Frank Hawley to the bar!” yelled the court officer.
As the Camera Chap stepped forward, his eyes met those of the
Honorable Martin Henkle. The latter’s face wore an expression resembling
that of a cat which is about to swallow a canary. It was an exact duplicate of
the expression which at that moment adorned the countenance of Chief of
Police Hodgins.
It did not take the latter long to present his evidence against the prisoner.
Three recent victims of Hawley’s camera came forward, and identified him
as the man who had snapshotted them on the streets of Oldham. Hodgins
swore that these pictures had been taken without a license.
Copies of the Bulletin containing reproductions of these snapshots were
offered in evidence. Counsel for the defense asked to be permitted to
examine these exhibits. After he had glanced at them, the lawyer addressed
the court.
“Your honor,” he cried shrilly, “admitting that my client took those
snapshots without a license, I move that the case be dismissed on the
grounds that he has violated no law.”
The magistrate stared at him in astonishment. Mayor Henkle, rendered
vaguely uneasy by the lawyer’s confident tone, fidgeted nervously in his
seat. Chief Hodgins uttered a loud snort of contempt; never in all his
experience had he heard such bosh.
“On the grounds that he has violated no law?” the magistrate repeated
witheringly. “I don’t understand you, sir. It appears to the court that the
prisoner has violated the law prohibiting the taking of photographs on the
streets of Oldham without a license.”
“There is no such law, your honor,” squeaked the little attorney.
“What!” cried the magistrate fiercely. “You had better be careful, sir. If
you attempt to trifle with the dignity of this court you will quickly find
yourself committed for contempt. I don’t care if you come from New York
or——”
“There is no such law,” the counsel for the defense repeated, his voice
even more shrill than before. “If your honor will inspect the original copy of
the ordinance requiring the licensing of cameras, you will realize the truth of
my assertion.”
The judge frowned. “I think you had better explain, sir,” he said sharply.
“Your statements are most extraordinary. They almost warrant a suspicion
either that you are mentally unbalanced or that you have been imbibing too
freely. With one breath you say there is no camera law, and with the next you
ask me to inspect the original copy of the camera law. How can I inspect it if
there isn’t any?”
“I beg your pardon,” said the lawyer, with a smile. “I did not say that
there was no camera law. My contention is merely that there is no law which
forbids the taking of photographs on the street of Oldham without a license.”
“Oh, indeed?” the magistrate sneered. “Then what does the law forbid—
as you understand it?”
“It forbids the taking of photographs of the streets of Oldham,” the
lawyer replied. “It’s wording is very clear.”
“Nonsense!” cried his honor peevishly. “It says on the streets, not of the
streets. Somebody has been misleading you.”
“Not at all, your honor. I have seen the original copy of the ordinance
myself. I had occasion to examine it less than an hour ago, and I was very
particular to notice its exact wording. If your honor will take the trouble to
inspect the original draft of the ordinance—the one which was signed by the
mayor—you will find that I am right.”
“If such is the case,” Mayor Henkle broke in, with a scowl, “it is merely a
typographical error. Everybody knows that it was the intention of the framers
of the ordinance to regulate the taking of photographs on the streets of
Oldham.”
“I am willing to concede that, sir,” counsel for the defense replied
smilingly. “But, fortunately for my client, intentions don’t count. The use of
the word of, instead of on, may be a typographical error, but the law must be
interpreted precisely as it reads. It isn’t by any means the first time that a
typographical error has saved a man from jail. I have known cases where
even a misplaced comma has had that result.”
Then he turned once more to the magistrate. “I repeat my motion, your
honor, that this case be dismissed. Since none of these snapshots which my
client is accused of taking—and which he admits having taken—is a
photograph of the streets of Oldham, he is guilty of no violation of the law.”
The magistrate frowned. “We will adjourn court while we go and inspect
the original draft of the ordinance,” he announced. Then, turning to the
Honorable Martin Henkle, he whispered to that discomfited official’s ear: “If
this typographical error really does exist, Mr. Mayor, I am afraid that we will
have to throw the case out of court. As this lawyer has said, the accused is
entitled to a strict interpretation of the law. If I decided otherwise, they
would go to a higher court.”
Once more the Camera Chap’s phenomenal luck, which never seemed to
desert him when he was in tight places, had come to his rescue. The
carelessness of a typist in striking the letter “f” instead of the letter “n,” and
the fact that the mayor had put his signature and seal to the document
without noticing the error, enabled him to leave court, half an hour later, a
free man.
But Hawley did not give all the credit to his lucky star. When the
magistrate, returning from the vaults in which the original drafts of
Oldham’s ordinances were preserved, very ungraciously granted Lawyer
Hands’ motion that the case be dismissed, the Camera Chap turned to his
counsel with a grateful smile.
“I owe my liberty to you, sir,” he exclaimed. “I shan’t forget it in a hurry.
How on earth did you happen to guess that you would find that mistake in
the wording of the law?”
“Oh, I always make it a rule in cases of this sort to examine carefully the
original draft of the law, in the hope of finding some point on which to base
a legal technicality,” the lawyer replied. “I had no idea, though, that I should
find such a glaring typographical error as that. You certainly are a very
fortunate young man.”
“I surely am,” the Camera Chap agreed heartily. “I only hope that my
friend Carroll will be equally as fortunate.”
CHAPTER XXXVII.

THE MAIN RESOURCE.

Although the Camera Chap had so provokingly slipped through their


hands, Mayor Henkle, Chief Hodgins, and young Gale were confident that
no legal technicality could save his friend Carroll.
True, he was no longer in danger of going to the electric chair. The
surgeons at the hospital, who at first believed that old Delancey Gale was
fatally injured, had a little later revised that opinion, and announced that,
barring unforeseen complications, he would pull through all right. But
Carroll’s enemies were not greatly disappointed at the thought of his
escaping capital punishment. A sentence of life imprisonment for the
proprietor of the Bulletin would be quite satisfactory to them.
That they had enough evidence to convict him of “assault with intent to
kill” they felt sure. Chief Hodgins, with the assistance of his young friend
Gale, had built up a strong case against Carroll.
In the first place, there was the box in which the infernal machine had
been inclosed. The explosion had smashed this box, but the pieces were all
there, and they had managed to put them together again.
It was a small, oblong wooden box, and undoubtedly it had come from
the Bulletin office. This could be proved by the marks stenciled on the lid.
Carroll had been in the habit of receiving each day from a New York
syndicate two half-tone cuts of woman’s fashions for publication in the
Bulletin. These cuts were shipped in small, oblong wooden boxes. It was one
of these boxes which had been used for the infernal machine.
But the strongest proof of all that Carroll had sent the explosive package
to the Chronicle office was the fact that the package was addressed in his
own handwriting.
Chief Hodgins had on file at police headquarters a personal letter which
the proprietor of the Bulletin had once sent to him. He had taken this letter
from the file, and compared it with the handwriting on the wrapper of the
infernal machine. Although he was not a handwriting expert, he was willing
to wager every dollar he had in the world that both had been penned by the
same hand.
So confident was he that Carroll could not succeed in breaking down the
case against him that when young Gale asked to be allowed to photograph
the wrapper of the infernal machine and reproduce it on the front page of the
Chronicle, the chief consented.
“Generally speaking, it’s a bad thing to let the other side get a glimpse at
your evidence the day of the trial,” he said; “but I can’t see that it’s going to
do any harm in this case. Even that pink-whiskered lawyer fellow from New
York won’t be able to make a jury believe that the address wasn’t written by
Carroll. So go ahead, my boy, and publish it, if you want to.”
When the Camera Chap and Lawyer Hands saw this exhibit on the front
page of the Chronicle, they were greatly interested.
“It certainly does look like Fred’s handwriting,” Hawley declared. “But it
must be a clever forgery.”
The lawyer shook his head. “I’m not so sure that it is a forgery at all,” he
said quietly. “I shouldn’t be surprised if it were really Carroll’s own
handwriting.”
Hawley stared at him in astonishment. “But I don’t understand. How
could it have been written by him if he didn’t send the bomb—and I am
quite sure that he didn’t.”
“So am I,” the lawyer answered, with a smile. “But let me read you a
paragraph from to-day’s Chronicle. Then I think a solution of the mystery
will suggest itself to you.”
Hawley listened intently while Mr. Hands read aloud this extract from the
article which young Gale had written for the front page of his father’s
newspaper:
“ ‘The cut published on this page is a photographic reproduction of the
wrapper in which the deadly infernal machine was inclosed. The mechanism
was packed in a small wooden box. This box was wrapped in stout blue
paper, on which was pasted a small label of white paper. On this label the
words, “Delancey Gale, Esquire, Chronicle Building, Personal,” was written
in ink. That this address is the handwriting of Frederick Carroll, proprietor of
the Oldham’s Bulletin, there cannot be the shadow of a doubt.’ ”
The Camera Chap’s face lighted up. “A label of white paper, eh?” he
exclaimed, with a grin. “About the size of an ordinary correspondence
envelope, I suppose?”
The lawyer nodded. “I see that you get the idea. At some time or other
Carroll must have had occasion to send a personal letter to Gale. They
happened to save the envelope of that letter, and they used the front part of it
as the label for the infernal machine.”
“That’s a very likely theory,” the Camera Chap agreed. “Quite an
ingenious idea on their part, wasn’t it? But do you really think that old Gale
fixed up that bomb himself?”
“Certainly. Don’t you? The whole thing is perfectly clear to me. They
wanted to discredit Carroll in the eyes of the public, to make it impossible
for him to win at the coming election, so they planned this bomb outrage. I
think ‘planted’ is the word you newspaper men use, is it not?”
“But is it logical to suppose that old Gale would go to the length of
deliberately blowing himself up?” the Camera Chap exclaimed.
“It is not,” the lawyer answered, with a smile. “And I don’t suppose
anything of the kind. I feel perfectly sure that Gale had no intention of
having that bomb explode in his hands.”
“Then how do you suppose it happened?”
“It was an accident, of course. My theory is that the Gales didn’t intend to
have the bomb explode at all. They planned merely to have it ‘discovered’ in
the Chronicle Building, timed to go off at a certain hour. They were going to
send for Chief Hodgins, and have him remove the package to police
headquarters. If the plan had gone through all right, Hodgins would have
taken the package to headquarters, soaked it in a pail of water, and then
examined its contents. He would have announced that it was a genuine, sure-
enough infernal machine of the most deadly type. Within a few hours
everybody in Oldham would have heard of the dastardly attempt to blow up
the Chronicle Building.”
“And that Fred Carroll was responsible for it,” the Camera Chap added,
with a grim smile.
“Well, I don’t know about that,” the lawyer answered. “I don’t think that
they would have sprung that sensation right away. If they had a proper sense
of the dramatic, they would have allowed the identity of the sender of the
infernal machine to remain a mystery for several days. Then, when the
people of Oldham were keyed up to a proper pitch of excitement, Hodgins
would suddenly have announced that the infernal machine had been sent by
Carroll, and would have produced his evidence to prove his startling
charge.”
“You certainly possess a vivid imagination, Mr. Hands,” the Camera
Chap declared. “I have no doubt, though, that that is just about what they
intended to do, if the bomb hadn’t gone off accidentally while old Gale was
handling it in his private office, and made the thing much more serious than
they contemplated.”
“I am confident that my theory is correct,” said the lawyer; “but the
trouble is, we are going to have a hard job proving it. In order to do so, we
shall have to show that Gale made the infernal machine himself. I am afraid
that is going to be a poser.”
“I’ve got an idea, Mr. Hands,” said Hawley. “I think if I were to go out
and take a snapshot of young Gale it might help us a lot.”
“How?” the lawyer queried, with a bewildered frown. “A snapshot of
young Gale? I must confess that I can’t perceive what good that’ll do.”
But when Hawley had explained what he intended to do with the picture
when he got it, Mr. Hands smiled upon him approvingly.
“An excellent plan!” he cried enthusiastically. “Go ahead and carry it out.
I congratulate you upon your bright idea. If it succeeds, it will surely get
your friend Carroll out of his predicament; and I have strong hopes that it
will succeed.”
CHAPTER XXXVIII.

A CLEVER SCHEME.

The younger Gale was greatly astonished when, as he was walking along
Main Street, Hawley suddenly appeared a few yards in front of him with a
camera in his hand, and coolly proceeded to take his picture.
Gale’s first impulse was to summon a policeman and have the Camera
Chap placed under arrest; but he suddenly recollected that, as the city
council had not yet passed an amended anticamera law, Hawley had a
perfect right under the existing ordinance, with its typographical error, to
take snapshots on the streets of Oldham without a license, provided he did
not take pictures of the streets. Therefore, Gale gave up the idea of having
Hawley arrested.
His next impulse was to rush forward, grab the camera out of Hawley’s
hands, and crunch it beneath his foot. But he did not carry out this impulse,
either. The Camera Chap was muscular, and, as Gale well knew, not wanting
in physical courage. Gale thought that an encounter with him might prove
painful.
“Oh, well, what do I care if he takes my picture?” he muttered
philosophically. “Let him go ahead and enjoy himself. I’d give ten dollars,
though, to know what his game is. I suppose he intends to publish my phiz in
the Bulletin, but I’ll be hanged if I can imagine what for.”
The next morning Gale eagerly searched the pages of the Bulletin in the
expectation of finding his picture there; but there was no sign of it.
“Possibly they’re holding it over until to-morrow,” he reflected. But his
portrait did not ornament the Bulletin the next day, or for several days
following.
Gale had just about decided that, after all, he had been mistaken in
supposing that the Camera Chap had taken the snapshot for publication,
when one morning he saw on the front page of Carroll’s newspaper
something which well-nigh paralyzed him.
Stretched across the top of the page was the following “scare head”:
“The Truth About the Chronicle Explosion.—Daring Conspiracy Laid
Bare.—The Innocence of Mr. Frederick Carroll, the People’s Party
Candidate for Mayor. Fully Established.—The Bulletin in Possession of
Positive Proof That He Is the Victim of Bold Frame-up Engineered by His
Desperate Political Enemies.—Real Facts of Case to be Laid Before Grand
Jury.”
There were other headlines beneath these, and several columns of smaller
type were devoted to the details of the conspiracy.
In the center of the page was a half-tone portrait. Beneath it, in heavy-
faced type, was the following:
“This is one of the scoundrels really responsible for the bomb outrage. It
was this man who supplied the materials out of which the infernal machine
was constructed. By means of the photograph, here reproduced, he has been
positively identified by a man from whom he tried to purchase a stick of
dynamite, and the jeweler who sold him the cheap alarm clock from the
works of which the mechanism of the infernal machine was made. Further
details are given elsewhere on this page.”
It was the fact that Gale recognized the picture as a very good portrait of
himself which caused him to turn pale and utter an exclamation of dismay as
he read these startling lines.
With much trepidation he proceeded to read every word on the page. It
was soon made very clear to him why there had been such a long interval
between the taking of the snapshot and its publication on the front page of
the Bulletin.
After taking the picture, Hawley had visited all the towns in the vicinity
of Oldham. In each town he had gone to all the jewelry stores, and, showing
Gale’s picture, had asked the salespeople if they recalled having sold a clock
to the man within the past few days.
This was the plan which the Camera Chap had suggested to Lawyer
Hands, and which had earned the attorney’s enthusiastic approval.
Hawley had reasoned that in all probability the clockwork used in the
construction of the infernal machine had been purchased by the younger
Gale. He had reasoned, also, that Gale would not be so careless as to
purchase the clock in Oldham, but would take the precaution of going out of
town for it. His scheme was to visit every nearby town in the hope of
striking the store at which the purchase had been made.
It was a long and tedious task, and he realized that there was a good
chance that he would have all his trouble for nothing; but Hawley resolutely
stuck to it, and, after several days of discouragement, he met with success.
In a town called Roxbury, thirty-five miles from Oldham, he found a
jeweler who positively identified the snapshot which the Camera Chap
showed him as the photograph of a man who had bought a cheap alarm clock
there a few days before.
The jeweler’s wife and clerk also remembered Gale very well. Both of
them had been present when the sale of the alarm clock was made, and were
positive that the customer was the young man in the picture.
Highly elated with his success, the Camera Chap was about to return to
Oldham to tell the good news to Lawyer Hands, when, quite unexpectedly,
he made another very important discovery.
A block from the jewelry store some workmen were engaged in
excavating for the foundation of a building. As Hawley passed this spot, he
noticed that the men were blasting some rock with dynamite.
An inspiration came to him. Was it not possible, he thought, that Gale,
too, had passed by this place, and, seeing the blasting going on, had tried to
obtain from the workmen the explosive needed for the infernal machine?
There was only the merest chance, of course, that such was the case; but
he was not in the habit of overlooking mere chances. He decided that this
“hunch” was well worth investigating.
Stepping up to the foreman of the gang of workmen, he once more
produced his snapshot, and showed it to the man.
“Ever seen this fellow before?” he inquired.
The man stared hard at the picture. “Why, sure,” he answered; “that’s the
guy who came to me the other day and offered me ten dollars for a stick of
dynamite.”
“And did you sell it to him?” the Camera Chap inquired eagerly.
“I did not,” replied the man. “I thought he might be one of them
anarchists, and I wasn’t going to be responsible for no bomb outrages. I told
him that if he wanted dynamite, he’d have to go somewhere else for it.”
Hawley was disappointed at this answer. It would have been more
satisfactory, of course, if he could have obtained proof that Gale had actually
bought the explosive.
When he got back to Oldham, he told Lawyer Hands that it was his
intention to go over all the ground once more in the hope of finding the place
from which the explosive had been obtained. But the lawyer discouraged this
plan.
“I am quite sure that you wouldn’t succeed,” he declared. “The chances
are a hundred to one that the man who sold him the dynamite, or whatever
explosive was used, would be afraid to admit it for fear of getting into
trouble. Anyway, we have got evidence enough now to save your friend
Carroll. The fact that Gale tried to purchase dynamite from those workmen,
plus the fact that he purchased that alarm clock, would be enough to
convince any jury that the bomb outrage was a frame-up.”
“But suppose he claims that he bought the alarm clock for another
purpose?” suggested the Camera Chap.
“In that event, he will be called upon to tell what he did with it. If he
can’t produce the clock, he will have a hard job getting anybody to believe
his story.
“Besides,” the lawyer added, “you are not the only one who has been
making discoveries. I have found out where they got that wooden box in
which the infernal machine was inclosed. Young Gale got it from in front of
the Bulletin Building the other day. I have found a couple of witnesses who
saw him pick it up.”
“Great work!” Hawley exclaimed joyously. “How long do you think it
will be before poor Carroll is free, Mr. Hands?”
“Not more than a couple of days,” was the encouraging reply. “The grand
jury meets to-morrow. I’m going to make it my business to see that they hear
the real facts about this case. When they learn the truth, there’ll be no
indictment against Carroll.”
Hawley’s face lighted up. “You’ve certainly done us a great service,” he
said feelingly. “If ever I get a chance to show my gratitude——”
“You’ve got a chance now,” the lawyer interrupted, with a smile.
“How?” Hawley demanded, with an eagerness which was ample proof of
his sincerity.
“By agreeing to return with me to New York,” the lawyer explained. “Mr.
Paxton, your managing editor, made me promise that I would bring you back
with me. He says he thinks you’ve had quite enough of the peace and quiet
of the picturesque Catskills.”
Hawley laughed. “I guess he’s right about that,” he said. “I think I can
promise to return to New York with you, Mr. Hands, as soon as Fred is set
free. I don’t suppose he’ll need my services any longer. When the Bulletin
publishes the truth about the Chronicle explosion, there’ll be such a wave of
public sentiment in Fred’s favor that he’s sure to win at the coming election.
I predict, too, a big boom in the Bulletin’s circulation from now on.”
CHAPTER XXXIX.

BACK ON PARK ROW.

As Lawyer Hands had confidently expected, the grand jury, after


considering all the facts pertaining to the Chronicle’s explosion case, refused
to find an indictment against Fred Carroll.
As soon as the proprietor of the Bulletin was set free, the Camera Chap
accompanied the lawyer back to New York, and received a warm welcome
from Managing Editor Paxton and the Sentinel staff.
One of the first persons whom Hawley met after his return was Doctor
Hugo Allyne, the eminent specialist, who had ascribed the Camera Chap’s
headaches to nervous indigestion, and advised him to go to some quiet spot
and take the “rest cure.”
It was on Broadway that Hawley encountered the man of medicine.
Although the latter had a good memory for faces, he had some difficulty in
recognizing in the ruddy-complexioned, clear-eyed young man who greeted
him, the pale, tired patient who had come to his office for advice a few
weeks before.
“Well, you’re certainly looking much better,” Doctor Allyne observed,
when Hawley had finally succeeded in identifying himself. “You must have
carried out my orders with great fidelity. How are the headaches?”
“Haven’t had a single one since I saw you,” the Camera Chap answered.
“I’m feeling as fit as a fiddle.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” said the specialist, much gratified. “There is nothing
like a rest cure for cases such as yours. A few weeks in the clear mountain
air, and a careful avoidance of all forms of excitement, will work wonders.”
“They certainly will,” Hawley agreed, trying hard not to grin.
For the next few months the Camera Chap was so busy that he did not
have time to go back to Oldham to visit his friend Carroll; but he kept track
of what was going on in that town by means of the copies of the Bulletin
which the mail brought him each day.
One day, just as he was stepping out of the Sentinel office, on his way to
take some snapshots of a society wedding, he almost collided with a tall,
broad-shouldered young man who was about to enter.
“Why, hello, Mr. Mayor!” he exclaimed delightedly. “This is indeed a
pleasant surprise. What on earth is your honor doing so far away from
Oldham?”
The Honorable Fred Carroll, mayor of Oldham, smiled expansively as he
gripped the Camera Chap’s hand.
“I’ve come to New York especially to look you up,” he announced. “I
have just discovered, old man, that I am even more in your debt than I
thought I was.”
As Carroll spoke, he drew from his waistcoat pocket a folded slip of pink
paper, and handed it to Hawley.
“Why, what’s this?” exclaimed the latter, feigning great astonishment. “A
check for five thousand dollars made out to my order! What is the meaning
of this, Mr. Mayor?”
“It means,” replied Carroll, a break in his deep voice, “that I have learned
the secret of that five thousand dollars’ worth of advertising which your
friend Mr. Cheston brought to the Bulletin at a time when the money was
sorely needed. I was suspicious of that advertising from the start, Frank, but
it was only yesterday that I learned the truth about it—that it was nothing but
a ruse on your part to get me to accept a loan from you. Old man, I shall
never forget your kindness. You certainly are the best friend a fellow ever
had. You had done so much for me already; then, to cap it all, you went and
drew your savings——
“Oh, quit it!” Hawley interrupted gruffly. “For Heaven’s sake, put out the
stump speech, Fred. The money was idle in the bank. I had no immediate use
for it, and I knew that you had; so it was only logical that I should let you
have it until such a time as the Bulletin was making enough money to enable
you to pay me back. If that time has now arrived, I’ll accept your check, and
we’ll consider the incident closed. But I can’t take half of that amount. Rest
assured, I didn’t give all those people free advertising. I made contracts with
them through an agency, gave them very low rates, and in a little while I had
part of the money back in the bank.”
As Carroll still seemed intent on thanking him, the Camera Chap headed
him off by hurriedly changing the subject.
“How is Mrs. Carroll?” he inquired.
“First-rate, thank you. Melba joins me, Frank, in thank——”

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