Read Case, answer 4 questions

QUESTION:

1. If you were Charles, show how you would you prepare for the meeting with Mae.

2.Which factor—job mandates or employee potential—seems to be the most influential in this case? Is autonomy a factor at all? Which idea or concept in the chapter most influences your opinion and why?

3. Assign one student to play Charles’s role, another to play Mae’s. Have the two conduct their meeting. Afterward, (a) analyze the discussion to determine which psychological theory—equity, expectancy, or goal-setting— plays a major role in each person’s approach to the conversation; and (b) determine Charles’s next most logical course of action.

4. In relation to No. 3, how big a factor do the race and gender of each participant play in the meeting? Conduct some research in your library (especially on media and minority retention) to show whether Charles should consider Mae’s race or gender in how he approaches the meeting and in how he devises a solution. Be prepared to defend your answer.

CASE

After covering everything from the courthouse to city hall to local schools, Mae Tyler, the 28-year-old, 6-year veteran of the news- room took the 5 p.m. (solo anchor) and 6 p.m. (co-anchor) slots a month ago. Her promotion came after the station laid off several people, including Bob Herbert, beloved across the city and notorious in the newsroom for dragging his feet in joining The Digital Age (he refused to blog or Tweet). Mae says she is happy, but Charles Gaines, the news director and her immediate boss, thinks he sees symptoms of the opposite. She used to smile a lot, but lately she’s been all business. She’s been avoiding her former buddies/correspondents and doesn’t even look her fellow anchors in the eye.

She even tried to convince Charles that her salary (about $75,000) was too high—arguing that making the same salary as co-anchor Mark Vigar, older and more experienced, wasn’t fair to Mark. Charles practically had to beg her to take the pay raise, argu- ing it would worry the other anchors that their pay might be cut. The 5 p.m. ratings were down 15% from the last ratings period when she was promoted, but Charles believes the show’s market share (second only by a half share) will increase because Mae will pull a younger demographic and more men overall.

He wants to understand. Mae has been a rising star since she joined the staff. She was the first female to win major reporting awards at the station; when she finally got promoted to anchor, sta- tion General Manager Anthony Llorens touted it as “a long time in coming” and said she was a role model for the other females at the station and across the city.

Mae prides herself on being a good wife and mother as well as a professional, although she has secretly struggled to find balance The promotion, for some strange reason, has made her feel simultaneously guilty (for Herbert losing his job) and pressured because he always made a point of saying that “Anyone who’s also doing digitally is likely doing diddly overall.” She used to enjoy blogging, but now she wonders if she should cut back.

Lately Mae’s attitude, like a yawn, has been contagious. Three younger colleagues, fresh from college and cheap replacements for the three laid-off correspondents, seem to be imitating her. All three have concentrated on their broadcast work at the expense of apply- ing their online expertise, partly for which they were hired. Mae has focused particularly on coverage issues such as story angles and source selection as it pertains to gender and race. Mae thinks Charles is sexist and, perhaps, unintentionally racist

Mae is the only Asian American on the staff. There have been other Asian American staffers in Charles’s 10-year tenure as news director, but all left for more money elsewhere. Mae feels as if she is being singled out for her race. Charles has made a point of tell- ing everyone how great she’s performed, particularly in the last 6 months, as if to say, “Hey! How about our model minority, huh guys? Wish they all were like her!” Yet Mae feels Charles also is sexist, primarily because, when she started to change her hair- style, Charles told her he did not like it. She has seen how he treats Mark (they joke around a lot) and how differently he criticizes the anchors: He is direct and blunt with her and almost apologetic with Mark. He also usually comments about her looks. He tells her, “That’s a nice dress,” every few days. Last week during the budget meeting, he rambled for 5 minutes about anchor makeup with her as the focus. Still, he usually ignores her ideas for news features about schools and health, usually asking “for some hard numbers” before he’ll consider them.

Mae asked Charles for a meeting. She wants to challenge her evaluation and find out whether Charles has a problem with women and Asian Americans and stories about them. She thinks the problem extends to his handling of the layoffs, too. In preparation for the following questions, review the chapter guidelines.