50 Case Studies for Management and Supervisory Training

Case 41: Who’s telling the truth?

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Case 41 (continued)

Case Discussion:

Who’s telling the truth?

Summary

Joan Lloyd managed the Information Systems Division of the Four States Medical Supply Corpo-

ration. There were 36 people in her department, and they were organized into three groups: plan-

ning, data entry, and operations. The operations group worked round-the-clock shifts, while the

typical working day for everyone else was 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The nonmanagement personnel

were members of a union, and their shop steward was Brenda Upton. Brenda aggressively repre-

sented employees before management and was disliked by many in management and elsewhere.

Brenda worked in the data entry group.

One day, Brenda asked to talk with Joan privately. In the meeting, Brenda accused Mtombe

Akilo of sexually harassing her. Mtombe, a recent immigrant from Africa and a newly naturalized

U.S. citizen, supervised the midnight to 8:00 a.m. shift in the Operations group. Brenda told Joan

that when he would see her at her workstation next to the Operations center, he would get her

attention and make sexual gestures. Brenda indicated this began about six months ago. She ini-

tially told Mtombe to stop, then went to his supervisor to complain. Mtombe’s supervisor, Matt

McWilliams, dismissed her complaint. When Mtombe did it again two weeks ago, Brenda

decided to tell Joan.

The next morning, Joan called a meeting with Brenda, Mtombe, and both of their supervisors.

She told them that the harassment had to stop. For the next six weeks, she heard nothing further

and assumed the matter was closed.

At that time, Joan attended an internal management meeting, where she learned that she had not

followed company policy on dealing with harassment matters. When she returned to her office, she

filed a report on what had happened and submitted it to Personnel. Shortly thereafter, Personnel

notified all parties—Joan, Brenda, and Mtombe—that they would be investigating the matter.

Brenda met with Joan again, angry that Joan brought the matter to the attention of Personnel.

She accused Joan of not following procedure and of trying to pressure her because of her union

position. Later, Joan received a letter from a lawyer whom Brenda had hired to represent her.

The next day, Mtombe Akilo met with Joan. He was upset about the situation and asked Joan

to remove the harassment accusation from his file. When Joan explained she could not do that,

Mtombe claimed to be innocent and presented his version of events. According to Mtombe,

Brenda came in early to work every day because she commuted with her mother, who worked in

the cafeteria and began her job at 6:00 a.m. Brenda would go to the employee lounge and sleep

until starting time. Near the end of his shift, Mtombe would go into the lounge and inadvertently

wake her. An argument would ensue. Not long before the big meeting with Joan, Brenda threat-

ened to get even with Mtombe.

Joan thinks back over Brenda’s story and has questions about it. Why did she wait so long to

say something? Why did she go to Mtombe’s boss rather than to her own? Why did she want the

matter kept within the Department? Joan now believes that there are too many loose ends, and

that Mtombe is innocent.