50 Case Studies for Management and Supervisory Training

Case 35: A Leadership Challenge

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Case 35 (continued)

Case Discussion:

A Leadership Challenge

Summary

Mary Herzen felt lucky to be hired for the supervisory position in the Patient Services Depart-

ment at Northside Hospital. She had lost a similar job at Central Hospital three months earlier.

Chris Sapiro was Mary’s boss and had conducted the selection process. It took him five months to

fill the position as a result of the internal job-announcement and job-interviewing procedures.

Two employees in the Patient Services Department had applied for the supervisory job: Juanita

Ramirez, 32, who had been in the department for eight years, and Sue Williamson, 26, who had less

experience. Both were rejected because they were not seen as strong enough to be promoted.

Chris told Mary about this when he met with her on Mary’s first day on the job. He suggested

that Juanita might be a problem and told Mary to handle it the way she saw best. He then took her

to the department, introduced her to the staff, and left her to settle in.

Later that day, Mary held meetings with each of her new employees. The meeting with

Juanita turned out as predicted: she was defensive, uncommunicative, and noncommittal. For

example, Mary wanted to learn what Juanita’s job duties were, but could not get adequate replies.

Finally, in exasperation, Juanita began arguing that it was Mary’s job to tell Juanita what to do.

Mary replied that they would have problems if this was as well as they were going to communi-

cate. Juanita then told Mary that she had not been promoted because she was Hispanic, and

accused the hospital of discrimination. She began to cry and said she was not going to answer any

more questions.

Answers to Case Questions

1. Should Chris have informed Mary about the internal applicants before offering Mary

the job?

Yes. It is important to give job applicants all relevant information about the job for which they

are applying. This is especially true for information that might be considered negative. The

b

ulk of research in this area makes it clear that “realistic job previews” are very important fo

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creating the most favorable initial job conditions.

2. Was meeting with each employee as part of Mary’s orientation a good idea?

Although Mary’s idea was backed by good intentions, problems resulted. In general, individ-

ual and group meetings both have advantages and disadvantages, and whether one would wor

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better than another for a new supervisor is a matter of personal judgment.

One obvious advantage of a group meeting is that certain messages from the new superviso

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can be given to everyone at the same time. Another advantage is that the presence of a group

has the potential to pressure employees into opening up and sharing what is on their minds. In

Mary’s situation, a group meeting could have been especially helpful in this regard, creating

an environment in which Juanita felt additional pressure to be more forthcoming.