• Techtalent’s Job-Hopping Storm:Alarm or Opportunity?

Abstract

This case discusses the decision by a product manager, Lin, in the high-tech industry, of staying or leaving his current job while having to keep up the morale of his subordinates. Issues to be considered include work relationships, family-friendly culture, and the reputation of the current organization, as well as an invitation to join a competitor company from Lin’s former supervisor, who was once a star senior vice president at the company; the job sounds attractive for its challenges and the vision described by the former supervisor.

Lin’s current company, established 42 years earlier, is reaching maturity from the organizational life cycle perspective and ready for another product paradigm shift. It urgently needs more innovative actions and talents. This paper’s learning objectives include understanding how to retain talents through organizational inducements, how organizational culture develops, and how different human resource strategies can be employed at various stages of an organization’s life cycle. Motivation theories, such as the job characteristics model and fit theory, are also introduced. Teaching notes are provided at the end.

Keywords: Organizational Inducements, Fit Theory, Organizational Culture, Organizational Life Cycle, Human Resource Strategies