Scenario 3A: Dysfunctional Manager and Subordinate Relationship

1. Organise participants into groups of 3 and allocate roles (employee Ellen, head of marketing Charlie and HR manager Jesse (mediator)
2. Each role has a separate role-play brief. Ensure participants only read their role brief
3. The mediator (Jesse) can use the mediation script to navigate the mediation between Ellen and Charlie
4. Suggested role-play time is 50 minutes
   • Preparation time: 10 minutes
   • Role-play time: 20 minutes
   • Debrief time : 10 minute
   • Group debrief time: 10 minutes

You are a team member of the marketing department at ALN Electronics company. You have been working at ALN for seven years now. You have been one of the well-performing team members in the department, and you always had a good working relationship with the head of the department, Charlie. As a result of your stellar performance and experience working at ALN, you have been entrusted with extra duties, such as training and mentoring all the new employees of the department. Although these extra duties take significant time and effort, you always did these tasks without criticising your workload. Last year, there were two rounds of promotions for the role of team leader in your department. With your extensive experience working at ALN, you applied for this promotion, hoping that it would allow you to progress in your career. However, crumbling all your expectations, Charlie promoted two newly joined employees to team leaders. You asked Charlie for the reasons why you were not promoted, and he bluntly mentioned that new employees bring fresh perspectives to the company.

Five months ago, you noticed that most of the other team members of the department have relatively lower performance targets than you. When you raised concerns regarding your performance targets, Charlie claimed that performance targets are decided based on experience, and he can’t change anything about these high-performance targets. After this conversation with Charlie, you felt unmotivated to work and didn’t want to put extra effort into achieving your monthly targets. Charlie arranged a meeting to discuss reasons for lower performance. In the meeting, you didn’t mention why you disengaged from work responsibilities. However, Charlie was adamant about getting to the bottom of this issue and arranged a second meeting. In the second meeting, you decided to ask for two weeks of paid leave. After returning from two weeks of paid leave, your team members and Charlie asked you to mentor a new employee who had just joined the company. Since it is not part of your job description, you refused to mentor the new employee. After this incident, you thought it would be better to take another month to think about your future and your career.

Last week was your first day after returning from one month’s leave. While you are working on your computer, you received the email below from Jesse Malcom, the HR manager of ALN. After reading the email, you walked into Jesse’s office.

From     : Jesse Malcolm <Jesse.M@ALN.com >

Subject : HR Meeting

To          : Ellen Clark <Ellen.c@ALN.com>

Dear Ellen,

The head of the marketing department has raised some concerns regarding your recent performance. I would like to arrange a meeting for us to discuss this issue. Please visit my office when possible.

Best Regards

Jesse

Here is your conversation with Jesse.  “I don’t know why we are having this meeting.” Jesse replies: “Charlie has raised some concerns regarding your performance in the last couple of months.”. Of Ellen proclaims “I am not sure what Charlie said, but I am a hard worker. I have been with this company for almost 3 years and have always achieved my monthly performance target. I have always helped everyone in my team. And I have always been an over-performer. Yes, it is true that I took some personal time off, but now I am back. However, I think some of the performance targets that Charlie has set for me are unrealistic. I talked to some of the other team members in my department, and it seems that I am the only one with such high-performance targets.” Jesse replies: “did you try to speak to Charlie about your performance targets”. “Yes, I tried to discuss this with Charlie, but he shut me down and said, you have the most experience in this department, so your targets should be higher than anyone else. Well…. I don’t think that is fair. I have applied for several promotions in the last couple of years, but Charlie never allowed me to get those promotions. So, I feel that my efforts are not appreciated by my direct supervisor. Now I try not to do anything extra. Also, I don’t think I can work with Charlie anymore.”

Later that week, Jesse contacted you to arrange a mediation meeting with Charlie. Although you don’t want another meeting with Charlie, you decided to give it a go.

You are the head of the marketing department at ALN Electronics company. You have been working at ALN for almost 5 years now, and throughout the years, the marketing department has been considered the department with the best performance. The marketing department consists of five teams, with five members in each team.

Ellen Clark is one of your most trusted subordinates working in the department. She has been with the department for 7 years and has always been one of the best-performing team members in the department. You have always raved about her stellar performance records in the performance evaluation reports. As she is one of the most experienced members in the department, you have assigned her as a mentor and trainer to all new employees of the department. Last year, there were two rounds of promotions to select team leaders. Ellen applied for both team leader positions. Although Ellen is one of the most experienced team members in the department, you always wanted to give the team leader position to someone who can bring fresh perspectives to the company. Therefore, you selected two people who recently joined the company with diverse work experiences. Soon after the end of the promotion rounds, Ellen inquired about her performance targets and argued that it was higher than anyone else in the department. You immediately rejected her claim and explained that the performance targets are determined based on experience and justified the reason for her higher performance targets.

5 months ago, you noticed that Ellen Clark was not meeting the monthly performance targets and had been disengaged from her work. Some of the team members raised concerns regarding her behaviour with you. Therefore, you decided to meet with Ellen to discuss why she is failing to achieve performance targets. Ellen was quite reserved in the meeting with you and didn’t mention a specific reason why she is not performing according to the company’s expectations. Although this was an unproductive meeting, you wanted to help Ellen achieve the monthly performance targets. With that in mind, you arranged a second meeting with Ellen. In the second meeting, Ellen mentioned that she was dealing with some personal issues and needed two weeks of paid leave. You approved her paid leave, hoping she would be back to her routine work schedule once she returned from leave.

Contrary to your expectations, Ellen’s performance did not improve after returning from two weeks of paid leave, and her lack of contribution has adversely affected the other members. After a while, Ellen requested a month of paid leave, citing her personal issues. You approved her request and told her to take time to resolve her personal issues and return when she was ready. After a month, Ellen returned, but there was no sign of performance improvement afterward. Frustrated by Ellen’s performance issue, you sent the email below to the new HR manager Jesse Malcom who joined ALN three months ago.

From     : Charlie Jackson < Charlie.J@ALN.com>

Subject : CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE!!!!! NEED A MEETING!!

To          : Jesse Malcolm <Jesse.M@ALN.com >

Dear Jesse,

As the HR manager could you please arrange a meeting for us to discuss the performance of Ellen Clark. I tried to resolve this issue internally, but it is not working. It is time for HR to do something about this. This needs to be solved immediately as it is taking all my time and energy.

Best Regards,

Charlie

Jesse replied to your email and asked you to meet her at 2.00 pm. At 2.00 pm you walked into Jesse’s office and wasted no time explaining what happened. Here is your conversation with Jesse. ‘Ellen is one the most experienced employees in the company, and she has been working as my subordinate since I joined this company 5 years ago. She used to be one of my best team members. She used to be the first person to come in the morning and do all her tasks on time. She used to mentor all new employees in the department. But everything changed in the last five months. She is always late and then leaves early. And she has been falling behind in achieving her performance targets.’ Jesse then asked Charlie “Did you try to speak with Ellen about her behaviours?’ and Charlie responded with ‘Yes, I talked with Ellen a couple of times. In fact, I had two meetings with her to discuss her behaviour change and how it affects the department. She told me she needed a week to work on some personal issues. So, I allowed her to take time for herself and return to work when she was ready. And that was 4 months ago. After two weeks of paid leave, she returned, and I thought she would do well after taking time off. Surprisingly, she wasn’t contributing to any team discussions and failed to meet her monthly performance targets. Since she is one of our most experienced employees, I really wanted her to return to her usual work routine.’ Jesse then asked: ‘so, what did you do after that?’ and Charlie explained ‘Well… then she needed more paid leave, and it is a month this time. Anyway… I approved her leave, thinking that she would be ok once she come back after a month. Well… now she is back, but she is not doing any work. She is always on her phone, and she hasn’t met any of the monthly performance targets for the last 5 months. In the marketing department, we work as a team and the entire team is affected by her lack of contribution. I don’t want others in my department to suffer because of Ellen. I did my best to help her, but her performance is not improving. So, I want HR to do something about this issue.’

Later that week, Jesse contacted you to arrange a mediation meeting with Ellen. Although you don’t want another meeting with Ellen, you decided to give it a go.

Jesse Malcolm is the newly recruited HR manager of ALN Electronics company. Although it has been only three months since Jesse joined ALN Electronics, she has been working hard to redesign several HR-related aspects of the company, such as the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), performance evaluation systems, and new series of Training and Development programs. Jesse was working on a presentation for the CEO regarding the newly designed programs when an urgent email notification popped up on her computer screen. Jesse clicked on the notification quickly and noticed it was sent by the head of the marketing department – Charlie Jackson.

From     : Charlie Jackson < Charlie.J@ALN.com>

Subject : CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE!!!!! NEED A MEETING!!

To          : Jesse Malcolm <Jesse.M@ALN.com >

Dear Jesse,

As the HR manager could you please arrange a meeting for us to discuss the performance of Ellen Clark. I tried to resolve this issue internally, but it is not working. It is time for HR do something about this. This needs to be solved immediately as it is taking all my time and energy.

Best Regards,

Charlie

At the conclusion of the role-play, it is imperative that the participants are given the opportunity to debrief with each other and other role-playing groups. The debrief should be prefaced by first outlining the importance of feedback in the spirit of learning through action and reflection and not seen as the opportunity to highlight weaknesses or communicate criticism. The following questions can be utilised to guide the debrief process, with the ability to include further content-specific questions on the mediation process and/or skills in accordance with your curriculum.

1. How did you find the role-play exercise?
2. What went well in the role-play?
3. What did you find difficult about the role-play?
4. What would have helped improve your experience in the role-play?
5. Were all parties satisfied with the outcome of the mediation?
6. What would you do differently next time you engage in a similar conversation?
7. What skills were evident in the role-play?

Jesse was puzzled by this email as this was the first time Jesse heard anything about a performance issue in the marketing department. Jesse replied to Charlie’s email mentioning she is available for a meeting with Charlie at 2.00 pm. In preparing for the meeting with Charlie, Jesse browsed through the HR records to check whether there were any previous performance issues with Ellen Clark. Ellen has been with ALN Electronics for 7 years, and all performance evaluation records for Ellen Clark turned out to be solid and described as a person with a stellar performance.

At 2.00 pm, Charlie walked into Jesse’s office and wasted no time getting to the point. ‘Ellen needs to step up her game or leave.’ Jesse asked Charlie to calm down and start explaining from the beginning. In the meeting with Jesse, Charlie mentioned the following: “Ellen is one the most experienced employees in the company, and she has been working as my subordinate since I joined this company 5 years ago. She used to be one of my best team members. She used to be the first person to come in the morning and do all her tasks on time. She used to mentor all new employees in the department. But everything changed in the last five months. She is always late and then leaves early. And she has been falling behind in achieving her performance targets.’ Jesse then asked Charlie ‘did you try to speak with Ellen about her behaviours?’ and Charlie responded ‘yes, I talked with Ellen a couple of times. In fact, I had two meetings with her to discuss her behaviour change and how it affects the department. She told me she needed a week to work on some personal issues. So, I allowed her to take time for herself and return to work when she was ready. And that was 4 months ago. After two weeks of paid leave, she returned, and I thought she would do well after taking time off. Surprisingly, she wasn’t contributing to any team discussions and failed to meet her monthly performance targets. Since she is one of our most experienced employees, I really wanted her to return to her usual work routine.’ Jesse then asked: ‘So, what did you do after that?” and Charlie explained ‘Well… then she needed more paid leave, and it is a month this time. Anyway… I approved her leave, thinking that she would be ok once she come back after a month. Well… now she is back, but she is not doing any work. She is always on her phone, and she hasn’t met any of the monthly performance targets for the last 5 months. In the marketing department, we work as a team and the entire team is affected by her lack of contribution. I don’t want others in my department to suffer because of Ellen. I did my best to help her, but her performance is not improving. So, I want HR to do something about this issue.’

After the meeting with Charlie, Jesse decided to arrange a meeting with Ellen to hear her side of the story. In the meeting with Jesse, Ellen mentioned the following: ‘I don’t know why we are having this meeting’ and Jesse replied, ‘Charlie has raised some concerns regarding your performance in the last couple of months.’ ‘I am not sure what Charlie said, but I am a hard worker. I have been with this company for almost 3 years and have always achieved my monthly performance target. I have always helped everyone on my team. And I have always been an over-performer. Yes, it is true that I took some personal time off, but now I am back. However, I think some of the performance targets that Charlie has set for me are unrealistic. I talked to some of the other team members in my department, and it seems that I am the only one with such high-performance targets.’ ‘Did you try to speak to Charlie about your performance targets’ Jesse asked Ellen. ‘Yes, I tried to discuss this with Charlie, but he shut me down and said, “you have the most experience in this department, so your targets should be higher than anyone else.’ Well…. I don’t think that is fair. I have applied for several promotions in the last couple of years, but Charlie never allowed me to get those promotions. So, I feel that my efforts are not appreciated by my direct supervisor. Now I try not to do anything extra. Also, I don’t think I can work with Charlie anymore.”

Reflecting on the meetings with Ellen and Charlie, Jesse was struck by their conflicting accounts of who was at fault. Both people seemed to be describing totally different points of view. As the HR Manager, you proposed a mediation meeting between the two parties. At first, Charlie and Ellen were slightly reluctant about the idea of a mediation meeting, but eventually, they both agreed. Though Jesse feels a bit anxious about the meeting, she hopes that the situation is fixable.

Statement to Assist with Running the Mediation

Thank you, Ellen and Charlie, for agreeing to chat with me today. I will be acting as a mediator to help address the problems that you have both communicated.

We will take it in turn so that each of you is able to convey your side of the story. When each person is talking, please do not interrupt.

Any questions?

Ok, let’s hear from Ellen first.