This blog will address the following
hypothetical situation:
“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.”
This type of situation happens often in
the workplace because each individual is different and not every job fits every
person. With that in mind, it is
important to approach the employee with careful consideration. It is best to be firm and deliver the bad
news at the beginning of the meeting.
According to Margaret Newborg, executive vice president of the Ayers
Group “You want to make sure you get to the news early in the conversation and
deliver the message directly” (cited in Roberta Maynard 1994). This helps to ensure the clarity of the
situation for the employee and employer.
The employee should not be confused as to what the meeting is
about. Research should also be
documented in order to show proof of the complaints and the meeting at
hand. Judith Gaston and Marc Sherman
(1993) state “There should be a company handbook of disciplinary standards and
guidelines which should be enforce constantly…maintain a personnel file for
each terminated employee showing the basis for the termination, including the
exact events leading to the dismissal.” With
this in mind, I would approach this employee with the information about his
poor performance.
In anticipating the response of the
employee to be defensive and hostile, it would be good to be prepared for
it. The best preparation for such a
response would be to continue to stay firm, but offer avenues of recourse for
the employee. For example, suggesting
counseling services available through the work healthcare program, if the
employee is having personal issues leading to his behavior. Perhaps, the employee feels that he just
cannot work in the environment with another co-worker. In this case, I would be prepared to offer
employment services that are available to him.
If it turns out that the employee has no known fixable reason for his
behavior I would firmly state that the behavior cannot continue. I would inform the employee that the results
of the meeting have been documented and unless his behavior changes I will have
to terminate his employment.
The conflict management technique that I
would use in this situation would be the Stop, Think, Listen, and Communicate
(S-TLC) system (Ruth Ann Abigail & Dudley Cahn 2011). The guidelines of this communication
technique can help a person to stay focused during confrontation. This system also helps with determining
issues and answers from the confrontation by using the listening skill. Some of the other communication techniques
that are used in this scenario are direct communication, clear communication,
research, and documentation. Another
communication skill that could be utilized would be the use of the win-win
scenario. In any conflict situation it
is important to attempt to get to an end result that will make both parties feel
that they have won. My overall goal from
the confrontation with the employee would be for me to gain an employee that performed
well. As well, I would want the employee
to be satisfied with his work environment. Conflict management techniques are a necessary
ingredient for any successful manager.
Works Cited
Abigail,
R.A., & Cahn, D. (2011). Managing
Conflict through Communications. 4th ed. Pearson Education. Allyn & Bacon. New York. Gaston, Judith Y, & Sherman, Marc D. (1993, April). You can prepare employees for termination.
Supervisory Management, 38(4), 5.
Maynard, Roberta. (1994, May). Avoiding worker violence over terminations. Nation's Business, 82
(5), 13.
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