which employee should be terminated provide detailed description
The case used in this week’s Discussion will provide an awareness of the difficulties and possible criteria that a manager may use in making termination decisions.
For this week’s Discussion:
· Read “Exercise: Which Employee Should Be Terminated?” on pages 91–92 of Nkomo, Fottler, and McAfee.(directly below)
· Locate at least one external resource from the Walden Library or the Internet to aid you in making a decision in the case.
· Select one employee from the case to be terminated.
With these thoughts in mind:
Post by Day 3 the name of the employee you have chosen to dismiss and a substantive explanation (at least 250 words) why you have chosen to dismiss the employee. Within your explanation, identify the equal opportunity laws involved in the case, and address how they impacted your decision. Explain the legal issues involved in the case and how they impacted your decision. Justify your choice with specific citations from the Learning Resources and any additional sources.
CASE
28 Exercise: Which Employee Should Be Terminated?
I. Objectives
A. To make you aware of the difficulties involved in making termination decisions.
B. To familiarize you with possible criteria a manager can use in making termination decisions.
C. To give you practice in conducting termination interviews.
II. Out-of-Class Preparation Time: 10 minutes to read exercise and decide which employee should be terminated
III. In-Class Time Suggested: 40–50 minutes
IV. Procedures
Either at the beginning of or before class, you should read the exercise and determine which title examiner should be terminated. This exercise requires that groups determine which company employee should be terminated. To start the exercise, the instructor will ask five students to play the role of title examiners. One will play the role of
Rick Feinberg
, another the role of Jeff Simon, and so on. These individuals will be asked to leave the classroom and prepare to play their roles. They should study carefully the material contained in this exercise and determine how to respond if, in fact, they are the one chosen to be terminated.
The instructor will divide the remaining students into groups of four to six. Each group should develop a list of criteria for layoffs/termination, and rank the title examiners from first to go to last to go. After the group has reached a consensus, it should select one spokesperson to communicate the decision to the title examiner who is to be terminated.
After all groups have finished performing the preceding tasks, the role play begins. One at a time, each group’s spokesperson announces to the class which title examiner his or her group believes should be terminated. The instructor then brings that person into the room and asks him or her to sit down at the front of the class. The spokesperson sits down opposite the title examiner, tells that person that he or she is terminated, and gives the rationale behind the decision. The title examiner then responds in any realistic way that he or she deems appropriate. This process continues until all groups’ spokespersons have had an opportunity to present their decision. A critique of the role plays and a discussion of the difficulties involved in terminating an employee should then follow.
Situation
The Stanton Title Insurance Company was founded in 1964 by Harvey Stanton to sell title insurance policies to buyers of real estate. The company works closely with a group of about 35 lawyers who, although they do not actually buy the title insurance policies, encourage their clients (the property purchasers) to do so. When the company was originally established, Stanton was its only employee. As company sales increased, new employees were hired, and now 23 individuals are working in various capacities for the firm. Stanton has always followed the policy of making all major decisions himself. This includes all personnel decisions such as determining who should be hired and how much they should be paid.
Five of the employees work primarily on examining titles at local government offices. In recent weeks, Stanton has noticed that the workload of these five employees has declined considerably. In part, this is due to the recent election of three “no-growth” candidates to the city council. In addition, a competing firm has recently opened an office in town and is successfully taking away business. Stanton has reluctantly decided that he must terminate the employment of one of the title examiners. He simply cannot transfer one of them to a new position. His only question is, which one?
A summary of Harvey’s evaluation of each title examiner is in Exhibit 2.4; a profile of each of the five title examiners appears below.
EXHIBIT 2.4: Harvey’s Evaluation of Individual Job Performance for Title Examiners for Last Year
|
Title Examiner |
Current Salary |
Work Quality |
Work Quantity |
Knowledge of Job |
Dependability |
Cooperativeness |
|||||||||||||
| Rick Feinberg |
$56,500 |
Excellent |
Good |
Poor |
|||||||||||||||
|
José Sanchez |
$32,000 |
Good |
Fair |
||||||||||||||||
|
Kathy Wallace |
$36,500 |
||||||||||||||||||
|
Doris Matthews |
$45,000 |
Poor |
|||||||||||||||||
|
Anthony Pope |
$50,200 |
Rick Feinberg: 45 years old; white; married with three children; 20 years with the company; graduated from a community college; knows how to resolve difficult title policies due to his extensive experience; is difficult to get along with; antagonizes other employees at main office; hates to fill out company reports not related to title examination and refuses to do so on occasion; will not work overtime under any condition, which puts a burden on others.
José Sanchez: 23 years old; Latino; married; attending college; one year with the company; wife works at main office as a computer programmer; works very hard and is eager to learn; well-liked by all employees and is highly dependable; is never absent and will gladly work overtime to meet emergencies; with more experience, he should be an outstanding title examiner; is highly loyal and dedicated; moved recently to a new apartment across the street from the government office where he works.
Kathy Wallace: 24 years old; single; college degree; African-American; working on MBA at night; three years with company; well-liked by employees; very active in community affairs; capable of moving up to a top management position with the company; often misses work due to school and community activities.
Doris Matthews: 36 years old; married; white; attended community college but did not graduate; ten years with company; niece of Harvey Stanton; has had eye problems and headaches, which affected work quality this year and may continue to do so; has been very helpful in getting new business for the company; is well-known and highly respected by law firms.
Anthony Pope: 63 years old; white; 15 years with company; no college; hard working and well-liked by employees; three children in college; a solid, stable employee who is able to remain calm and solve problems in crisis situations; excellent at resolving conflicts between employees; well-known to local government officials; very slow but highly accurate worker.
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