Robin Ash has just been promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Printzhof Press and Vice President of its parent company, Education and Entertainment Holdings, Inc. Her first objective is to create an action plan that will achieve two seemingly contradictory corporate objectives: transform Printzhof into an aggressively competitive 21st century educational publisher while maintaining its close-knit and collaborative culture. Because of new technologies changing how information is delivered and used in higher education, the need for the company to evolve along with the publishing industry is obvious to Ash and other company leaders. However, Printzhof's history of success has resulted in resistance to organizational change among many longtime employees and senior managers. Still, Ash must revitalize Printzhof without destroying employee morale and loyalty. How far and how fast should she move on the critical priorities she has identified?

A new Dallas-based health and beauty spa aims to use a highly distinctive human resource system as the foundation of its competitive strategy. By encouraging employees to act as "personal wellness coaches" (PWCs) with high commitment and broad responsibilities, the leadership intended to provide a level of client service that would justify premium rates. However, the system is not working. Issues include: tips are lower than expected, reducing expected compensation; scheduling issues create bottlenecks; and the level of commitment varies among PWCs. The result is a high employee turnover rate, and departing employees take an average of 35% of their client base with them when they go. Now, with financials for the spa's second year completed, the VP of spa operations, the VP of business operations, and the CEO must evaluate what is and what isn't working.

What would you do if you witnessed an act of vandalism by one employee toward the property of another? This is the situation that Pat, an employee at The Heritage Business Group, faces when she witnesses a co-worker, Mark, keying a car belonging to another co-worker, Fran. Initially, Mark does not know that Pat saw him vandalize Fran's car. Pat is aware that Fran and Mark had been arguing over the past few months. Part A of the case ends with Pat wondering what she should do. Following Part A are three more parts to the story (found in the teaching note) that can be handed out or projected for the students to read. Each part sequentially adds information about the decision the individual actually made, and presents another decision required by one of the key players (Harry, the owner, in parts B and D) and Mark, the antagonist, in part C). There are three teaching objectives for this case: 1) demonstrate that limitations of a rational decision-making approach when confronted with a complex, emotionally-charged conflict situation 2) analyze a conflict situation in terms of the types of conflict observed, including antisocial work behaviour, and the conflict handling styles used by different individuals in the situation 3) evaluate the short- and long-term implications of making decisions related to antisocial workplace behaviour using different ethical frameworks.