Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work 14th Edition by John Newstrom

Exercise 6

Liberty Construction Company
Liberty Construction Company is a small company in Colorado. More than half its revenue is derived from the installation of underground water and power lines, so much of its work is seasonal and turnover among its employees is high.
Michael Federico, a college student, had been employed by Liberty as a backhoe operator for the last three summers. On his return to work for the fourth summer, Federico was assigned the second newest of the company's five backhoes. The owner reasoned that Federico had nine months of work seniority, so according to strict seniority, he should have the second backhoe. This action required the present operator of the backhoe, Pedro Alvarez, a regular employee who had been with the company seven months, to be reassigned to an older machine. Alvarez was strongly dissatisfied with this; he felt that as a regular employee he should have retained the newer machine instead of having to give it to a temporary employee. The other employees soon fell into two camps, one supporting Alvarez and one supporting Federico. Job conflicts arose, and each group seemed to delight in causing work problems for the other group. In less than a month Alvarez left the company.
Discuss this case in terms of the social system, equilibrium, the psychological contract, role, status, and status symbols.