CASE: INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE

Internal Revenue Service

1. Introduction
History of the Internal Revenue Service
Purpose of the project

2. Requirements
Stress: – Define, explain, and analyze.
Answer the appropriate questions in the
Case.

Motivation: – Define, explain, and analyze.
Answer the appropriate questions in
the Case.

Job Satisfaction: – Define, explain, and analyze.
Answer the appropriate questions
in the Case.

Learning and Decision Making: Define, explain, and
Analyze.
Answer the
Appropriate questions
the Case.
3. General Discussions
Discuss your position as a follower in an
Organization (as an employee or as a student in
The organization).
Discuss your position as a Leader in an Organization.

4. Conclusion

5. Reference

Morgan State University
The Earl G. Graves School of Business and Management
Organizational Behavior MGMT 324.003 & 004
Semester Group Project
Spring, 2020
CASE: INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
Each year the IRS processes approximately 240 million tax returns and collects about $3 trillion. This is a huge amount of money, constituting more than 90 percent of all receipts to the United State. This fact is not lost to IRS employees, who find great satisfaction in knowing that their efforts help keep the country running. At the same time, however, being an IRS employee is difficult, in part, because the public doesn’t appreciate the agency’s mission. To most people, the IRS is responsible for the cost and hassle of filing and paying taxes, time-consuming audits, and seizures of homes and businesses. In fact, although IRS employees feel their jobs are personally meaningful, they are often unwilling to tell acquaintances who they work for.
There are several reasons why working at the IRS has been made even more difficult over the last several years. First, in an attempt to make the IRS more efficient, the agency was reorganized from a decentralized structure with 33 regions responsible for different functions (collections, customer service, audits, and criminal investigations) to a centralized structure with four national units that serve different customers (individuals, small businesses, large corporations, and nonprofits). This change reduced interaction among team members, and along with it, camaraderie and social support. Second, there have been significant budget cuts, and as consequence, there are fewer employees and resources available to accomplish the work. Employees not only have to perform the responsibilities of multiple jobs, but they also have to spend their own money on basic supplies like pens, paper, and staples. Finally, a number of well-publicized scandals have worsened the public’s perception of the agency. You may remember the well-publicized video of IRS executives dressed as Star Trek characters, the new clip of the IRS employees staying in lavish presidential suites at a conference, and the new story of employees being rehired by the agency after they were fired for not paying their taxes. Although these incidents were a function of a few bad apples, they reflected poorly on the agency and were demoralizing to employees.
To make matters worse, there are signs that the agency’s effectiveness is declining. For example, only 40 percent of all people who call the IRS for help get through to someone, and in many cases, those who get through are simply told to refer to the IRS website or hire an accountant. The number of criminal investigations and audits is down sharply as well. Although this might sound like a good thing from a taxpayer’s perspective, the system depends on voluntary compliance, and if enough people think it’s worth the risk not to pay their taxes, a real crisis may unfold. All this is leading to pressure on the government to make significant changes to the IRS. Although the potential for change may provide a ray of hope for stressed-out employees, it also creates an air of uncertainty, which may be adding to their stress.

REQUIREMENTS: (Critical Issues to address)
Stress:
Imagine you are an employee of the Internal Revenue Service and Tom Morgan is your immediate Supervisor. Both of you have been working for the Agent for about 15 years.
1. Based on your personal views and what you learnt in the Organizational Behavior class, please describe how the different stressors are likely to influence employee well-being, commitment, and job performance. How might these consequences be linked to the decline in the agency’s effectiveness?
2. In your own view, how did the reorganization of the internal Revenue Service influence employee stress? What recommendations do you have for the Agency to address the unintended consequence of the reorganization?
3. As a leader in this organization (Tom Morgan), how can leaders help employees deal with uncertainty in the organization moving forward? What recommendations could you provide the Internal Revenue Service to manage the stress of its employees?
Motivation:
IRS Nationwide Tax Forum is a conference held every year by the Internal Revenue Service for the benefit of Tax Practitioners. Currently, you and Mary Clark are working on a group project. Tom Morgan, your departmental supervisor has appointed your group to participate in the 2018 IRS Nationwide Tax Forum to be held at National Harbor, Maryland. Your job is to come up with a package and give presentations on the package. Budget is tight. Your boss told you to use the limited resources in the department to achieve your goal. Mary Clark is nervous about speaking in front of a large audience during presentation.
1. How could you motivate Mary to feel more confident?
2. Consider the five strategies for fostering goal commitment (reward, publicity, support, participation, and resources). Which of these strategies do you think is most effective? Any drawbacks? Discuss.
3. What is tacit knowledge and how can it help Mary? Discuss.
4. You have suggested the work of an expert to Mary. What does the term “expert” mean to you and what exactly do experts do that novices don’t?
5. What kind of knowledge does Tom Morgan possess and how can Tom use this knowledge to help Mary Clark achieve her goals in the Organization. Please discuss.
6. How can you use the principles of Equity Theory to motivate Mary since there is a budget crunch in the Agency?
Job Satisfaction:
Mary Clark constantly think about values in the organization. What steps can the Agency take to improve promotion satisfaction, supervision satisfaction, and co-worker satisfaction?
Learning and Decision Making:
Learning has a moderate positive relationship with job performance and a weak positive relationship with organizational commitment. Please discuss this assertion in detail using the facts given in this case.
How can Internal Revenue Service (IRS) give its employees more knowledge and wider array of experiences that they can use to make decisions in solving most of their problems?
Companies rely on employees with substantial amounts of tacit knowledge. Why do companies struggle when these employees leave the organization unexpectedly? What can companies do to help ensure that they retain tacit knowledge? Please answer these questions in detail using the Internal Revenue Service as the Organization, Tom Morgan as the Leader, and Mary Clark as the follower. In your own view, what type of tacit knowledge did experienced workers possess? What did this knowledge allow them to do? In this case, who is an Expert? Please discuss.
General Discussion:
As an employee of the Internal Revenue Service, how will you use the knowledge acquired in the Organizational Behavior class to help your leader and co-employees to constantly achieve the organizational goals?
As a leader in the Internal Revenue Service Organization, how will you use the knowledge acquired in the Organizational Behavior class to help your subordinates and your peers to constantly achieve the Organizational goals locally and internationally?
Consider the four dimensions of transformational leadership: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. Which of those dimensions would you respond to most favorably with regards to Tom Morgan and Mary Clark and why? Please discuss in detail.
Can you think of any potential “dark sides” to transformational leadership? If you can, what would they be?