Task:
Write a 200 to 250 word dialogue between yourself and the employee from Skill Building Module, Sandy (below). This dialogue will depict how, if you were Sandy’s manager, you would use each of the eight disciplining behaviors to discipline Sandy for her poor performance.
Disciplining behaviors: 1. Respond immediately, 2. Provide a warning, 3. State the problem specifically, 4. Allow the employee to explain his or her position, 5. Keep the discussion impersonal, 6. Be consistent, 7. Take progressive action, and 8. Obtain agreement on change.
Skill Building Module:
You’re a team leader in the customer services department at Mountain View Microbrewery. Sandy is the newest member of your 10-person team, having been there only six weeks. Sandy came to Mountain View with good recommendations from his or her previous job as a customer support representative at a car dealership. However, not long after joining your team, Sandy was late in issuing an important purchasing order. When you talked to Sandy about it, you were told it was “lost.” But you discovered it in Sandy’s in-box, where it had been properly placed. Then, just last week, Sandy failed to make an immediate return call to an unhappy customer who could easily have been satisfied at that point. Instead, the customer worked himself into a rage and vented his unhappiness in a letter to the company’s CEO. The latest incident with Sandy came up just yesterday. As part of your company’s quality improvement program, your team members prepare periodic reports on the service they provide to each customer and turn these reports over to an upper-management team who evaluates them. Sandy didn’t meet the deadline for getting his or her report into this evaluation group and you received a call from one of the team members wanting to know where this report was. Because Sandy is still on probation for another six weeks, it appears that the time has come for the two of you to talk about his or her failure to meet expected work-performance goals.