The Great Northern American Case Study

The Great Northern American Case Study

Rosalyn Cash

Professor: Dr. Debra Sherry

Business 520 Leadership and Organizational Behavior

November 25, 2012

Discuss why Joe’s employees need to understand the importance of how people form perceptions and make attributions

Great Northern American is a 35-year old company operated by President, Mr. Joe Salatino. The company is responsible for selling more than $20 million in office/promotional supplies to more than 60,000 businesses nationwide. The company is a sales, telemarketer based operation and focuses on a fun environment, large commissions and bonuses in order to keep the sales team focused, while being in a competitive market (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011). The company prides itself on the bonuses and commission that they are allowed to provide as motivation to the top sellers in the company and uses different gimmicks within the company to keep employees motivated. Mr. Salatino believes that when employees establish relationships with their customers, they earn more income than those who do not create and/or maintain those types of relationships with customers. Along with top-performing incentives, Mr. Salatino attempts to be efficient in noting key factors for success (excellent communication skills, self-motivation, and self-starters) when hiring an individual for the telemarketing positions to continue the company’s success. Description and insight will be provided on how employees are responsible for knowing how important the perception that customers have of them can/will impact their performance and the company as a whole and the learning theory that most fits the company’s management and how it can be applied to their business model to motivate employees.

Perception is defined as “the process by which the individual selects, organizes, interprets, and responds to information” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, p. 104).   Attribution “refers to the way in which individuals come to understand the...