Research Paper Organizational Behavior

Name: Mehmet. Beyaztas
Subject: Organizational Behavior
Assignment: Summarize the Article
Competent Jerks and Lovable fools

The article that I choose for my paper deals with networking in the workplace. The article
discusses the sources of tension between coworkers in the place. The problem that management
has to solve is encouraging people to work together as a team. In order to do this, study was
conducted to find out what factors people use to choose the coworkers they like to work with.
Result of this study used to make the organization more efficient. Since the cooperation in the
workplace is the common problem. I like the approach of interviewing people from, a variety of
corporations, including large, small, public, private companies, to find out why people like to
work with certain people. Some parts of the study was useful if the company that I manage tell
in the one of the category that was used in study. I would consider using some of their
recommendation. Some situations that weren’t covered in survey were requiring different
solution.
People choose their work partners according to two criteria. One is competence at the job, the
other is likability. These two criteria-competence and likability combine to produce four
archetypes; the competent jerk who knows a lot but unpleasant to work with, the lovable fool,
who doesn’t know much but it’s delight to have around, the lovable star who’s both smart and
likable, and incompetent jerk; who has unlikable personality and has nothing to put on the table.
If someone strongly disliked, it’s almost irrelevant whether or not his competent, people won’t
want to work with him anyway. If someone is liked, his colleagues will seek out every little bit
of competence he has to offer. Generally speaking, a little extra likability goes a longer way than
little extra competence in making someone desirable to work with. Competence is more
important than likability in some people’s... [continues]

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