ODD GIRL OUT: THE HIDDEN TRUTH OF CORPORATE CULTURE

ORBR PROJECT

December 2016

FAS Group: Y2
1. Gyanasagar AS2.
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Ira Gupta is a young working professional who graduated in MBA from Alliance Business
School in 2012. She lived in Bangalore with her parents. She worked for 2 years in Brisbane
Consultancy as an IT Analyst where she received many accolades for her work. In July, 2014 she
got an offer from Atlantis Systems Corporation (ASC), Bangalore to work as a Senior IT
Analyst, she gladly accepted. It was a great opportunity for her to advance in her career. Atlantis
Systems Corporation was a subsidiary of Worldwide Technologies, a $30 billion conglomerate
headquartered in the Silicon Valley. Atlantiss IT Department was one of the eight departments
at ASC. The department currently has 5 project teams, each devoted to separate clients. Team
sizes ranged from 6 to 12.
Her team comprised of 7 people, each of them reporting to Adani, who was the Project Manager.
The responsibility of the manager was to ensure the project ran smoothly as per the needs of the
clients. The team was responsible for the defining, developing, configuring and supporting
computer applications. The team was given weekly deadlines, which were never missed as their
team was very effective in performing the tasks. As time passed by, the team formed close
bonding and went out for various team outings. They could meet very short deadlines and work
comfortably under pressure. Adani was content with the performance as there were hardly any
complaints regarding the project from the clients side. Ira generally enjoyed her professional life
at ASC. Random encounters with other team members in the department showed that there was a
friendly environment at ATC. The project came to an end in June, 2015.The team received many
accolades and awards from the client for reaching the deadline and surpassing their
expectations.The clients also sponsored the entire team for a fully paid vacation. When they
returned from the trip Mr. Adani broke the bad news that the company decided to reallocate the
employees into different projects depending upon the requirements. Coincidently, a concurrent
project at the Delhi branch of ASC needed an extra member in their team owing to excess
workload. Mr. Adani decided to transfer Ira to Delhi as the skillset required for the project

seemed to compatible with Iras skillset. The rest of her team members were transferred to
another project at ASC Bangalore. Ira was unhappy with her managers decision. She had a
feeling of indignation where she thought to herself, Why me?. She approached the HR
manager, Jona and requested for help in this dilemma. When Jona called Adani to address the
situation, Adani convinced Jona that it is a great opportunity for Ira as there exist chances of
promotion in Delhi. When Jona conveyed this to Ira, Ira was perplexed thinking why Adani did
not communicate this to her directly. She did not confront Adani about this issue. The thought of
leaving her hometown saddened her. She considered the decision of switching her job but the
perks offered to her in ASC, like a yearly vacation of 20 days, paid leaves, free health check-ups
etc. and the possibility of a promotion at Delhi influenced her to wait and see how the project at
Delhi works out. She decided to agree to the transfer with a heavy heart.
Delhi, ASC
The project team at Delhi already consisted of 5 members, each one of which reported to Rashi,
the Project Manager. Ira, being the new addition to the team, had a hard time understanding her
team members. She did not feel welcomed in the new environment. The team members did not
include her in their day to day conversations as well as the work-related conversations. This
feeling of exclusion frustrated her, but she chose not to address it. She quietly completed her
assigned work and did not interact much socially. This gradually started affecting the quality of
her work. Two months later, Rashi called Ira to her cabin. Rashi expressed her concern of
declining quality of Iras previous assignments. But I did what I was asked to do, Ira explained.
She asked her to transfer her back to Bangalore. Rashi refused and told her that if this continues,
she must work overtime. Ira later realized that her team mates were taking the credit of her
assignments and passing it over to Rashi as their own work. She felt betrayed. She remembered
Jona saying that there exists an opportunity for promotion in Delhi and thought to herself, It
was all a lie. The next day, she submitted her resignation letter to Rashi and left without saying
goodbye to her team-mates.
Himanshu Jha, a management student pursuing Human Resources as major in TAPMI,Manipal
was hired as the management trainee at ASC for MIP during his summer internship. He was
supposed to report to Jona and was very excited to join the company. Jona who was still not sure
why Ira left the job was restless and found this as a great opportunity to assign the task of finding
out why she left to Himanshu. He decided to go into the deep details and submit a report.
CASE ANALYSIS:
We see that after Ira joined ASC, the five stages of Group Development which are forming,
storming, norming, performing and adjourning are observed. The group went through the
forming stage where there was much uncertainty about the work as they were new to the project.
The group may not have gone through the storming stage, where there is intragroup. The
norming stage was clearly visible within the group as they formed close relationships and were
very cohesive among themselves. The group actively participated in team outings which not only

builds the team strength but also team morale. Performance was never a problem for the team as
they were very comfortable meeting even the shortest deadlines with ease and achieved many
accolades for the same. Their project manager was very happy with their work.
The adjourning stage was the most important among the team forming. Since the roles were
clearly defined, there was no role conflict. Coming to the adjourning stage, Ira was happy and
sad at the same time. The fact that she and her team were successful in completing the project
and received awards for the same from their clients made her happy. On the other side of the coin
she was sad because she was not sure if the same team would continue if a new project was
assigned to them.
When Adani broke the bad news she was at least expecting that she would be with few of her
team mates if not all of them but when she got to know that she was the only one being
transferred to Delhi, she was dejected. The thought of quitting the company crept into her mind.
According to Maslows Hierarchy of needs ,Iras physiological and safety need were met as the
company offered her various perks like health insurance .Also her social need were met as she
formed close friends and had a sense of belongingness. The fact that she got to know that she
might be promoted if she took up the job at Delhi lured her into accepting the role halfheartedly.
Adani should have realized that a team can be successful only if all the team members would go
through all the stages in group development. As the project in Delhi already kick started a few
months ago, all the team members had a chance of going through forming and norming stages
created a sense of team and they bonded very closely with each other.
After a brief interviews with Iras teammates Himanshu realized that she entered into a team who
have already been through forming and possibly norming stages. Since there was no proper
induction she might have felt that she had been left out. It has been mentioned in the case that her
team members sometimes were not including her in even in the team meetings.
Ira was found to be very conservative and did not interact much socially.She quietly completed
the work allocated and left. It was when Rashi called her to inform about her declining
performance, she realized that she was being used as a scape goat and all the work assigned to
others was being delegated to her and her team mates were taking the credit for the same. She
accepted the project at Delhi only because the scope of personal growth was offered to her. Few
of the factors of motivation are growth, advancement and recognition. Growth and advancement
in her role prompted her to accept the project but recognition was missing.
ASC had a policy of conducting psychometric and behavioral tests quarterly to keep a track of its
employees. Himanshu then decided to analyze her results to get a clear picture of her and
requested Jona for the same. Jona obliged for the request and provided him with the necessary
documents.
Himanshu obtained her recently conducted psychometry tests and analyzed them. First, he took
up her MBTI (Myers-Brigg Type Indicator) to learn more about her character. Her result showed

that her personality type was INFJ (Introvert, Intuitive, Feeling, Judging) . These kinds of people
are individualistic, private and perhaps mysterious to others, resulting in an unrealistic vision that
is difficult to communicate. Clearly, we see that when Adani decided to transfer her to Delhi, she
thought to herself Why me?, but did not directly ask her manager. Also, when Jona indicated
the chances of promotion in Delhi, she did not confront her boss regarding this information gap.
Her Intuitive nature persuaded her to think about the big picture rather than concentrating on
the detail in Delhi, when she was being scapegoated by her friends. Her Feeling nature comes
into picture in situations where Ira has taken decisions emotionally.
Himanshu notices that Iras MBTI scores are in line with her behavior. He further delves deeper
into her FIRO-B Scores. FIRO-B scores help to analyze interpersonal relations of a person. It
categorizes the interpersonal needs into three categories: Inclusion, Control and Affection. He
observes that Iras Expressed needs score was lower than Wanted needs score, which shows that
she is more comfortable in relying on others rather than making her own decisions. She may be
dissatisfied and feel that she doesnt get what she wants. This behavior is evident in Iras
behavior in Delhi. Further, it is noticed that her dominant need is affection. Inclusion score
signifies the extent to which a person attempts to include others in ones activities and wants to
be included in others activities. Ira had low expressed inclusion and high wanted inclusion
which conveys that she preferred being included in others activities.

Through the Interactionist view of conflict, Himanshu observes that Ira faces relationship
conflict at her workplace. Such conflicts hinder completion of organizational tasks. This was
visible as her quality work declined when she experienced a similar situation in Delhi.
This resulted in Ira experiencing emotional dissonance where there existed inconsistency
between the emotions she felt and the emotions projected. Using Affective Events Theory, the
effect of workplace events in the behaviors of the employees can be understood. It is noticed that
Ira undergoes surface acting when she agrees her new assignment in Delhi. In anticipation of a
promotion, she forgoes her inner feelings in response to display rules.
Perceived Organizational Support (POS) is the degree to which employees believe the
organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being. There is a transition in
Iras POS when she is transferred to Delhi. She approaches Jona, her HR manager in Bangalore
expecting that she would help her, but that did not work for her. This can be a reason for the
gradual decrease in POS from the company, which can be a possible cause leading to her
resignation.

Himanshu concluded using Attribution Theory that the reason for the resignation of Ira can be
attributed to external causes. These causes are determined by 3 factors: Distinctiveness,
Consensus and Consistency. It is observed that Iras change of location led her to change her
behavior and it was not an internal cause. Hence, this situation can be attributed to an external
cause.
The managers of ASC can implement Goal Setting Theory. This theory says that specific and
difficult goals, with feedback, lead to higher performance. The project managers can conduct
monthly meetings with their team and see how they are progressing on their goals. This will
provide an opportunity for the team to open to their managers about their needs and aspirations.
The manager can then use the feedback constructively and efficiently assign their employees to
projects where they can perform to the fullest.