A Year Ago Niantha Was Promoted to Project Manager at FeedTheWorld.com

Multiple Choice

A year ago Niantha was promoted to project manager at FeedTheWorld.com, an online charity organization that facilitates the distribution of out-of-date food from supermarkets and restaurants to homeless shelters and food pantries. In an effort to boost productivity and keep the team engaged and relaxed, Niantha implemented a number of light-hearted strategies such as casual Fridays, Random Theme Mondays, and Pajama Wednesdays. Since there is little client contact at the office, she saw no reason for her team to dress formally, and she wanted them to feel as comfortable as possible in the workplace. In order to keep things her team energized and goal-oriented, she created weekly challenge goals and friendly competition among team members by posting the total amount of food each person managed to reclaim that week. As a result of Niantha's efforts, the team's productivity skyrocketed in the first three months, with multiple members vying to win the week's "Biggest Community Helper" award. The team got along well, fraternized after hours, and Niantha's vice president applauded her department's improved output. In the past six months, however, productivity has been slipping, and Niantha is puzzled. Looking over her records, she sees that her two best employees, Reggie and Shay, have not missed a single day of work in six months. Niantha did catch Reggie sleeping at his desk once or twice, and Shay recently had a persistent cough. But both of them engage in a friendly rivalry each week as they vie for the top prize, and each seems to respond positively to her demands on their time. Yet, somehow, their overall productivity has ebbed, as has that of the team as a whole. Given what you know about the nature of challenge stressors, how should Niantha address the issue of lost productivity?

A) by giving Shay and Reggie extra projects each week that require them to stay late or work weekends
B) by assigning projects to different pairs of employees each week, making sure Reggie and Shay are never on the same team
C) by allowing Reggie and Shay to choose their own projects each week before handing out assignments to the rest of the team
D) by making the rest of the team responsible for Shay and Reggie's work output and taking away casual dress privileges if the team fails to meet its goals
E) by requiring that Reggie and Shay use at least one day of paid time off per month and sending them home if they show up to work visibly sick, tired, or distressed