Business Communication

Decision Making Scenario activity

1. Problem:

The major problem here is that there is a problematic employee in the team the
supervisor is leading. The supervisor has a good experience of 6 years. But as soon as she joined
the team, it comes to her knowledge that one member with good political connections has temper
issues, average performance and problematic behavior. Even after the supervisor trying to make
peace with the team member, his behavior still persists and he is now spreading false rumors
about the supervisor’s professional competence and the supervisor is at a loss as to how to deal
with this situation.

2. Choices:

The supervisor as of now has 3 choices.

1. Have the subordinate who brought you the information confront the problem employee.

2. Request a transfer for yourself.

3. Call a department meeting with all your subordinates to discuss the situation.
3. Consequences:

1. The consequences to first option would be that the problematic employee gets counselling
and advice from a fellow team mate that he has been working with for years and has a bond with
and he might be able to understand better.

2. The consequences to the second option could be that if the supervisor requests a transfer for
herself, she would be able to avoid an uncomfortable political situation which might have
endangered her career progress so far. One problematic employee is not worth losing six years
worth of hard work. The supervisor would be looked as person avoiding situation instead of
dealing with it that can a negative image for the supervisor.

3. The consequences to the third choice could be that a department meeting collectively counsels
the problematic employee and motivates him to change his behavior.

4. Values:

1. The values associated with the first choice would be respect and responsibility to the team.

2. The values associated with the second choice would be the supervisor’s dignity and self-
esteem. The supervisor would want to save her dignity and honor and would not want to get
tangled up in a messy political situation.

3. The values associated with the third choice would be team work, collaboration and
cooperation that the whole team would come together to address and counsel the problematic
employee’s behavior.

4. Feelings:

1. Providing the subordinate with such responsibility shows the supervisor's logical thinking of
the supervisor with a role of emotional intelligence, showing that she understands how a
colleague can deal the situation better as compared to her.

2. Getting a transfer is a sign of positive emotions and rational thinking, which shows her
capabilities to take the right decision at the right time, as transfer can help her stay out of this
issue and avoid any negative actions against her.

3. Calling a meeting for decision making encourages better emotional intelligence as she wants
to take opinions to others as it would involve output of different people showing logical and
rational thinking.
5. More info:

1. Get more information about the employee who brought you that information regarding its
authenticity, if it's being told just to spite the person for not doing work and getting away with it
due to political connections.

2. Get information if an easy transfer is possible to save your career from attacks from the
employee who has political connections through his older brother.

3. Get information from your supervisor if this option will be feasible and not turn against you as
the employees political connections are very useful and important for the organization and
displeasing that employee can result in harm to organization through use of his connections.

6. Who can help?

1. For the first option, the subordinate can help and talk to the problematic employee and try
to motivate and counsel him since he knows the employee for long and might be able to persuade
him better.

2. For the second option, the supervisor could visit the HR department and ask them for
information about which other department she could join.

3. For the third option, the supervisor could address the whole team and the department before
calling the meeting as to what would be the best way to motivate the employee.

7. Decision:

As management has a special interest in this employee because his brother-in-law

has extensive political connections we cannot deal with this employee as a normal case, and as
the benefits the employee is providing through his connections are way more in weight than the
work of the supervisor that he is spreading rumors about thus we will have to take the best option
for the company benefit and the supervisor should be transferred as we need to use the unfit
employee for his connections and confronting him might cause harm to the organization due to
his older brothers strong political connections which will not be worth defending the supervisor
by the company higher ups.
8. Assess Decision:

The problem was that a problematic employee with good political relations
had bad temper and average performance and was spreading rumors about the supervisor. To
deal with that the supervisor had three options of whether to transfer herself to some other
department, ask the subordinate to address the issue or call a departmental meeting. After
analyzing the feelings , values and information with the decision she decided to transfer herself
to another team.

Transferring yourself seems like a viable option as it would not hurt the organization and career
of the supervisor will not be tarnished as in our situation the higher management can't blatantly
side with the supervisor as they have keen interest in using the political sources of the employees
brother which is perhaps also the reason that management does not fire that employee even with
lower performance and poor attitude.