MGMT511 Managerial Communication Role-play: Appraisal interview - Chris

Participants: Chris (Manager) and Sandy

Chris

Situation: You are Chris. You are the Chief Consultant in B&M, an Environmental Management Consultancy firm. You manage four Senior Consultants who each heads a section (Air, Water, Electrical & Mechanical, and Administration). You are a returnee from Canada and have been in this new job about three months. You are 38 and have over 15 years experience in Teaching and Training. You have an MA in Training and an MBA from a prestigious American university. Sandy, one of your Senior Consultants, is 42 and has always lived and worked in Hong Kong. S/he joined B&M 18 years ago after a brief first job as Executive Officer with the Civil Service. Sandy worked her/his way up through the ranks to Senior Training Consultant on the basis of time served with the company (experience) rather than merit. Her/His previous boss didn't really believe in performance appraisal and performance management even though this was company policy. Sandy obtained a degree through part-time study and has recently obtained an MBA from Henley College (a prestigious British MBA program which has a distance learning support centre in Hong Kong) after 4 years of hard work. Turnover of staff in this kind of consultancy firm has always been high because of the relatively low salary compared to competitor firms and also the nature of work which is both marketing and technical. You are aware of the situation as most people at Sandy's level in this and similar organizations have migrated. Sandy is one of the few who have chosen to stay, presumably to grasp the opportunity to make more money. There are three main agreed performance standards for the Senior Training Consultant's job: Standard 1: 40% maintenance of existing clients/income Standard 2: 30% additional new clients/income Standard 3: 30% an overall increase of revenue Chris's role: You're a bit uncomfortable having to evaluate Sandy's performance after only being on your job for three months. Your predecessor, however, left a fairly comprehensive file. Sandy obviously enjoys the marketing aspect of the job, i.e. getting new business. Thus s/he has not met Standard 1 but has exceeded Standard 2. The net result is that s/he is marginally below Standard 3 the income target for the year. While you find that this is not so problematic right now, you do feel that the long-term implications are very serious, i.e. if Sandy continues to ignore Standard 1, the company's customer base will be eroded. Word will spread that you don't look after your customers and you will fall behind targets at an ever-increasing rate. Sandy's communication/selling skills with new clients are obviously excellent but s/he forgets about the importance of communication with existing customers and internal customers, i.e. her/his subordinates, peers and superiors.

MGMT511 Managerial Communication

Chris

Since your arrival Sandy has become very uncommunicative both with you and her/his own staff. When s/he does speak to her/his colleagues s/he often appears quite short tempered. You have received informal complaints from her/his staff about this and have observed the short-temperedness first-hand on one occasion. You think that Sandy probably resents you because s/he feels s/he automatically expected to get your job. You also believe that s/he feels bitter about returnees coming back to Hong Kong and walking into the top jobs that "rightly" belong to Hong Kong people who stayed and committed themselves to Hong Kong and the company. The following notes were made by your predecessor about Sandy since his/her last review and are in Sandy's personal file: January 17: Randomly reviewed half a dozen of Sandy's client reports. Very well documented. February 9: Sandy brings in too many new clients. What Sandy sees as not being problematic, I see as a problem. Told Sandy so. February Sarah Choi complains to me that her co-worker, Sandy Wong, 15: "bitches" too much. Told her that that's just Sandy. Said nothing to Sandy. April 22: Sandy told a job applicant during an interview that our company is a very difficult place to work in. I told Sandy that such talk was inappropriate. June 4: Sandy received distance MBA from Henley College. Culmination of 4 years of distance learning. August 8: Half-year reviews show Sandy has only met Standard 2 but has not met Standards 1 and 3. However, Sandy's results with new clients are excellent. August 9: Reviewed this with Sandy. The following comments have been added by you during the past seven weeks. September 14: September 22: September 23: October 9: Asked Sandy for list of existing clients likely to continue next year. No response to September 14 request. Asked Sandy again for a list. This is stupid since it takes Sandy only 20 minutes to make the list. Received list originally requested on 14th. Told Sandy s/he has a bad attitude, as s/he is continually negative about everything in the company, and this is hurting team morale. Heard through the grapevine from several people that Sandy is bad-mouthing me behind my back. Have chosen to ignore it now. May want to bring this up at annual review. Received phone call from the Director, who complimented Sandy Wong for several new large clients brought on board.

October 12:

October 19:

MGMT511 Managerial Communication

Chris