Impact of line manager on subordinate job satisfaction an rganizational behavior case study from a sri lankan organization

Abstract

This paper discusses an incident took place in an organization in the insurance industry of Sri Lanka. The company name is withheld and is referred as the XYZ organization. The said incident has happened in the Marketing Communications sub division of the Marketing Department. The unit of analysis here is individual as this is an incident happened to an employee – Mr. Suranga Rathnayake employed as the Assistant Manager – Brand Activation. After a brief description of the organization and the department, the incident faced by Suranga is elaborated.The incident is a clash between Suranga and his immediate supervisor, Mr. Chaminda Premarathna, which has occurred due to the fear within Chaminda that Suranga- a very talented individual will be a threat to him. The article also shows a comparison of how these kind of weak leaders can create huge losses to the organizations by creating a forceful situation for talented employees to be depressed and underperform while showing how certain bosses who are transformational leaders like Mr. Pradeep Rajapaksha can develop themselves and their followers, so that they can be leaders in the future. Under the response of the organization it is highlighted how certain managers like Mr. Sudarshan Rajakaruna ignore these serious issues for their comfort and the repercussions that the organizations and the employees have to face as a result. Finally an elaborated analysis of the issue is presented using suitable references to theory and thereby provides insight for the practitioners on better Organizational Behavior (OB) practices.