Roche Eileen
Harv Bus Rev. 2003 Jul;81(7):23-31, 116.
Lynne Tabor, an IT manager at manufacturing giant MMI, has a great team. Everyone works hard and gets along. Everyone, that is, except Max Dyer. Max is a talented programmer, but he's terrible in the interpersonal skills department. So terrible, in fact, that three years ago Lynne reworked his job after employees complained that he was unengaged and even belligerent. Since then, he's been a solid worker, putting in extra hours and meriting good performance evaluations. But recently, Max's coworkers have noticed a change for the worse in him. True, everyone at MMI is on edge after a round of layoffs, but Max's behavior seems like more than a case of the jitters. To make matters worse, reports of a workplace shooting in Seattle are all over the news. Paige overhears Max shouting at someone on the phone. George finds Max pinning up a certificate from a shooting range in his cubicle, and Nicole, who worries they will all end up as statistics of office violence, wants to know how Lynne plans to ensure their safety. When Lynne tries to talk to Max, it's clear he thinks his coworkers are out to get him. And the truth is, they believe he fits the profile of a man on the edge. But what can Lynne do about an employee who has never made so much as a veiled threat to anyone? Commentators James Alan Fox, a professor of criminal justice at Northeastern University; Steve Kaufer, a cofounder of the Workplace Violence Research Institute; Christine Pearson, a management professor at Thunderbird; Christine Porath, a professor of management and organizational behavior at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business; and Ronald Schouten, the director of the Law and Psychiatry Service at Massachusetts General Hospital, offer advice in this fictional case study.
林恩·泰伯是制造业巨头MMI的一名信息技术经理，她拥有一支很棒的团队。每个人都努力工作且相处融洽。也就是说，除了马克斯·戴尔。马克斯是一名有才华的程序员，但他在人际交往方面糟糕透顶。事实上，糟糕到三年前，在员工抱怨他消极怠工甚至好斗之后，林恩重新调整了他的工作。从那以后，他一直是个可靠的员工，加班加点工作，绩效评估结果也不错。但最近，马克斯的同事们注意到他的情况变得更糟了。诚然，在一轮裁员之后，MMI的每个人都紧张不安，但马克斯的行为似乎不止是有点紧张而已。更糟糕的是，西雅图发生 workplace shooting（职场枪击案）的报道充斥着新闻。佩姬无意中听到马克斯在电话里冲某人大喊大叫。乔治发现马克斯在他的办公隔间里钉了一张射击场的证书，而担心他们最终都会成为职场暴力统计数字的妮可，想知道林恩打算如何确保他们的安全。当林恩试图和马克斯谈话时，很明显他觉得他的同事们在算计他。而事实是，他们认为他符合一个处于边缘状态的人的特征。但是对于一个从未对任何人哪怕是隐晦地威胁过的员工，林恩能做些什么呢？东北大学刑事司法教授詹姆斯·艾伦·福克斯、职场暴力研究所联合创始人史蒂夫·考弗、雷鸟商学院管理教授克里斯汀·皮尔森、南加州大学马歇尔商学院管理与组织行为教授克里斯汀·波拉斯以及麻省总医院法律与精神病学服务主任罗纳德·舒滕，在这个虚构的案例研究中提供了建议。
