Scott Rosen believed that he was making progress as an assistant manager of a financial-services company-until he noticed that his colleague, another assistant manager, was attempting to push him aside. On repeated occasions, Mr. Rosen would observe his colleague speaking with their manager behind closed doors. During these conversations, Mr. Rosen's colleague would attempt to persuade the supervisor that Mr, Rosen was incompetent and mismanaging his job, a practice that Mr. Rosen found out after the fact. Mr. Rosen recounts one specific instance of his colleague's backstabbing efforts: When asked a question by his subordinates to which Mr. Rosen did not know the answer, his colleague would state to their supervisor, "I can't believe he didn't know something like that," On other occasions, after instructing a subordinate to complete a specific task, Mr, Rosen's colleague would say, "I wouldn't make you do something like that." What was the end result of such illegitimate political tactics? Mr. Rosen was demoted, an action that led him to resign shortly after, while his colleague was promoted. "Whatever I did, I lost," recounts Mr, Rosen. What leads individuals to behave this way? According to Judith Briles, a management consultant who has extensively studied the practice of backstabbing, a tight job market is often a contributing factor. Fred Nader, another management consultant, believes that backstabbing is the result of "some kind of character disorder." Incidents such as this may not be uncommon in the workplace. Given today's competitive work environment, employees may be using political games to move ahead. Adapted froht "Orgattizationtal Behaviour" by Steplent Robbits REQUIRED: A. What factors, in addition to those cited, do you believe lead to illegitimate political behaviours such as backstabbing? (4 marks) B. If you were to justify engaging in illegitimate political behaviours such as backstabbing, under what conditions might such behaviour be justified? ( 8 marks) C. In addition to the obvious negative effects of illegitimate political behaviour on victims, such as those described in the above case, what might be some negative effects on the perpetrators? On the organization as a whole? (13 marks)