“You are a department manager in a mid-sized company that provides technology support services. You have ten employees who are required to maintain a high level of technical expertise and deliver excellent customer service. One of your employees, who has been with the company for two years, is performing at a substandard level and you have received numerous complaints from customers and coworkers. In addition, this employee has displayed confrontational behavior which has created a hostile environment. You must now meet with this employee and deliver an ultimatum regarding the need for immediate improvement or dismissal.”
Delivering Bad News
Delivering bad news effectively and tactfully is one of
the more challenging communications that someone can engage in. Within an
organizational setting it is often the purview of a manager or leader to
deliver bad news to an employee. In the case study used as an example for this
assignment, the manager is tasked with dealing with an employee who has
substandard performance, has received complaints from customers and peers, and
whose behavior has been noted as confrontational, leading to a hostile work
environment. The employee needs to improve immediately or he faces termination.
To deal with the employee the manager must first feel
empowered by his position and understand that he has the authority and
responsibility to deal with this situation. His position as a manager in this
situation is very clear: “management fulfills specifically designed roles
designed to facilitate work to support organizational goals. Managers are given
legitimate power to influence the behavior or employees. They are charged with
obtaining routine compliance with the operating procedures and expectations of
the organization” (Shockley-Zalabak, 2009, Ch. 7, p. 5).
Dealing with this situation I think it would be to the
benefit of the manager to prepare ahead of time by coming up with a framework
of goals and milestones that the employee needs to reach, and the time in which
he must. It might also help to write down the goals and milestones in a
typewritten document that can be presented to the employee during the meeting.
By having the employee sign the document and give them a copy at the end, the
employee has a record of both his understanding of the terms, and something he
can reference throughout the process.
When that preparation is done, the manager needs to tell
the employee that they need to talk. Once the meeting begins, the manager needs
to explain clearly the problems: customers have made complaints, his
performance is substandard, and he is contributing to a work environment. The
manager needs to tell the employee that the behavior and performance are
unacceptable and unless they are immediately fixed then the employee will face
termination. In this situation I don’t believe that the manager should make
room for much negotiation. Instead the manager’s focus should be on making sure
that the employee understands the expectations that he is not meeting, and what
needs to be done in order to meet them.
After the manager has explained the problem to the
employee and what needs to be done, the employee has to be given a chance to
respond. Based upon the employee’s reputation of being confrontational, and the
fact that he is being faced with possible termination, it seems likely that the
employee will respond very defensively or perhaps angrily. The manager will
need to weather this storm and de-escalate the situation if needed by
re-framing the conversation to what actions can be done to fix the situation in
a win-win manner. For this, the manager should go over the steps that he came
up with that will result in the employee reaching a higher level of performance
and avoid any further complaints from customers and co-workers.
This should be a cooperative effort as much as possible,
and if possible the manager should take into consideration the employee’s input
on the milestones that need to be reached, while maintaining the goals and
needs of the company. If necessary the goals can be revised immediately and a
new document produced. It is possible that a full agreement will not be reached
on the goals, but at the very least the manager must make certain the employee
understands what is expected of him, and what actions he can take to save his
job. This should include, if necessary, additional training to help raise work
performance. It will also be of great importance that the employee understands
the time frame in which he has to meet the goals, and what behaviors will result
in termination. The meeting should end with the employee being given a copy of
the terms, a promise that the manager will be available to assist the employee
as needed, and an understanding of what will happen from there: when they will
meet again to measure the progress and how they will proceed if the goals are
met, or not met.
The way that the manager handles the situation basically
follows the process view of conflict in its six stages. Furthermore I think it
would be most effective for the manager to adopt a tone of assertive
communication, “the ability to speak up for one’s interests, concerns, or
rights in a way that does not interfere with the interests or infringes on the
rights of others” (Abigail, 2011, Ch. 3, p. 17). The situation is a bit awkward
because in this situation the company does not have to bend: it has
expectations that are not being met. Instead the manager has an opportunity to
give the employee a chance to alter his behavior in order to remain employed.
In that respect assertive communication is acceptable because it tries to
satisfy the goals of fixing a problem with an employee, and allows the employee
to improve and maintain employment.
References
Abigail, R.A. 2011. Managing conflict through communication.
New York: Allyn & Bacon
Shockley-Zalabak, P.S.
2009. Fundamentals of organizational communication:
knowledge,
Sensitivity, skills, values.
Boston: Pearson
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