Reality therapy as a management strategy for dealing with the problem employee

Traditional management and public administration literature have failed to recognize the existence of the problem employee in the workforce. The purpose of this study has been to remedy this failure, and, then, to determine if Reality Therapy is an effective strategy for dealing with the problem employee. To this end, an Interactive-Holistic theory which brings together the conceptual streams of psychology and administration has been developed in the form of fifteen propositions. Then an evaluation of Reality Therapy and other methods of dealing with the problem employee has been conducted. Theory development and evaluation of strategies for dealing with the problem employee were a response to the challenge of Chester Barnard that an administrator perform the “function of the executive“ by keeping both the needs and goals of the organization in balance with those of the employee. To explore heuristically the probability that theory propositions are true and to determine the likelihood that Reality Therapy will be an effective strategy for dealing with a problem employee, The Computer Consultant was utilized For the manager, the desired situation in the workplace is that employee behavior contributes effectively to the accomplishment of organizational goals. In determining the probability of this occurring, likely affect of Reality Therapy as a management technique, and the likelihood of other methods being effective, over one hundred conditions were identified as relevant to, and possible detractors from, the accomplishment of organizational objectives. From this input into TCC, the following results were calculated. When all possible conditions are taken into consideration, the likelihood of an employee becoming a problem was calculated to be .62. If a manager has been using Reality Therapy as a management technique, this likelihood is reduced to .40. If an employee becomes a problem and a manager does nothing, the likelihood of the problem being eliminated and the employee contributing to organizational effectiveness is only .01. If an Employee Assistance Program is utilized, the likelihood of the employee's behavior contributing to the accomplishment of organizational goals was calculated to be .48. If Reality Therapy is utilized, this likelihood rises to .71. The use of both the EAP and Reality Therapy increases the likelihood of the employee's behavior changing positively to .84. Thus, it was concluded that Reality Therapy is a viable strategy for managing a problem employee.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Public Administration and Public Affairs

Department dc:contributor.department

Public Administration and Public Affairs

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Year dc:date.issued

1985

Author dc:creator

• Bruce, Willa M.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Wamsley, Gary L.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Dickey, John W.
• Goodsell, Charles T.
• White, Orion F. Jr.
• Wolfe, James F.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10919/54471

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/54471