Hip-Hopping to Princess Eggroll

HIP-HOPPING TO PRINCESS EGGROLL

This case describes the effort of a manager to create an entertaining working environment. Martin Klein, senior vice president of commercial lending for a large national bank, created nicknames for each of his employees to create such an environment. His nicknames were inspired by the ethnic background of the employee. He used to call Jewish employees by the name of "Princess" and "Big Nose". African-American Tomika Lashanda Williams got the nick name "Hip-Hop Master" and he referred Asian-American Ling Cho "Eggroll".

Martin Klein here tries to bring about a positive change by creating an entertaining working environment using his emotional intelligence. According to Katz's Essential Management skills, it is extremely important for a manager to have good Human skills along with Technical and Conceptual skills. "People skills" are as important for a leader or a manager as anything else. As the leadership theories suggest that a leader should be extrovert and bring out his quality of Openness. Martin Klein is trying the same by casually interacting with his employees in a friendly manner, which according to him should make them comfortable and more at home. The behavioural studies of Ohio and Michigan universities have also iterated that "Consideration for employees" and "Employee orientation" is as important as concern for production. Moreover the casual environment at workplace shall help in relieving tension and stress among the employees. It brings them closer to their manager and automatically improves the efficiency and productivity of the organization.

Social skill is friendliness with a purpose: moving people in the direction you desire. It may look easy on the outlook but to understand people, their psychology - things that motivate them and those which have a negative impact, a very deep insight of human behaviour is required. It is very important, thus, to understand the emotional makeup of other people. It is a skill to treat people according to their emotional reactions. Martin has definitely shown that he has the skills and temperament for the same and shows his proficiency in managing relationships.

Emotional intelligence can be learned. The process is not easy. It requires time and commitment. The present experiment, to change the working environment to an entertaining one, is the part of the process. It a learning process for Martin and it may backfire. He has to be extremely careful with his nicknames and jokes. He has to take care of the fact the nicknames, based on their racial and ethnic background, do not heart the feelings of his employees. Moreover, getting to informal and casual with your employees can sometimes lead to negative results. The employees might get too casual which can lead to carelessness.

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