TIM KAY ONLY

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Human Resource Management

Case 6 – Being too friendly

Marilyn Hinton joined the KelpKleener Company 3 years ago as a marketing representative. She graduated from college with a degree in business and a GPA of 3.4. Since beginning, she has demonstrated good work and solid performance. In fact, last year, Marilyn received a promotion to senior marketing representative and was transferred to the company’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Marilyn accepted the transfer since she is single and could easily make the move. Marilyn is 26 years old and enjoys sushi and classic movies of the 1940’s.

Upon her transfer to the Atlanta offices, she was introduced to her immediate supervisor, Harry Palms. Harry has worked for KelpKleener for almost 12 years and oversees the main marketing unit, which includes 7 other administrative staff and one receptionist. Harry was pleased to have Marilyn join his unit and treated her in a very friendly way.

Now after about 5 months on the job, Marilyn has contacted the Human Resources office. She comes in and offers the following story to you:

Well, it was about 2-3 weeks after I started here in Atlanta, that my current supervisor, Harry Palms, began to come in to my office and close the door. He would then tease me about different things, like how I walked, or how I liked wearing certain long necklaces. I thought that was a little weird but never gave it too much attention. I suppose I told him that he was being silly and all, but that was about it.

Then, last month, he started walking out to the parking garage with me after work. At first, I assumed he was being protective, although I never asked him to do this. But he would start telling me how he enjoyed watching me walk. He said that it excited him to see a pretty woman walking. At that point, I wasn’t sure what to say. I mean, he is my boss so I did not want to offend him but I thought I made it clear that I was a little uncomfortable with him doing all that.

Now, in the past week or so, he asked me to come to his office, and when I did, he closed the door and then grabbed me around my waist and kissed me on the neck. I was so shocked, I just pulled away from him and kind of stared at him. Mr. Palms then told me that if I would just go out to dinner with him, he would make sure I got a pay bonus at the end of the year. I told him I didn’t think that would be right and left his office. But then he called me later on and apologized, saying he wanted to make it up to me.

Yesterday, I got this huge flower arrangement sent right to my office. Here is the card. You can see it says Harry Palms. I just don’t know what to do about all this. I have been upset and can’t even get any sleep because of this. Can you guys help me out here?

So, with this story in mind, you decide to call Harry Palms and talk with him about this situation. When you relate the story told by Marilyn Hinton to him, he becomes quite angry, yelling about being accused of something unfairly and how the woman was just getting back at him for giving her an “average” on her latest performance evaluation.

Harry demands that you clear his name and make everyone know that this Marilyn woman is lying. Harry goes so far as to claim the company is allowing defamation of character and might just sue the company if something isn’t done right now.

You pull Ms. Hinton’s latest performance review and, indeed, it is marked as “average” and signed by Harry Palms, her supervisor. There are no comments on the evaluation document that offer more explanation to the rating. You look at past evaluations on the woman that are in her record before transferring to Atlanta and sure enough, the past two performance reviewers gave Marilyn Hinton “outstanding” ratings.

Now you face the tough decision about how to go about dealing with the situation in hand. What actions will your team take here? What documentation, if any, will you get and keep on file? What rights are we talking about here? Are there any legal ramifications involved in this situation? Any sensitive issues to consider?

Your team must prepare a final recommendation for the Vice President, Business and Finance, Herb Grower. In this, you must address the problem and explain your basis for whatever actions you are proposing. This must be shown on a powerpoint slide presentation.

BA 314 Human Resources Management

Case Studies

Your team has been assigned a case that is reflective of typical human resource issues. Your team is to review the situation, and then prepare a presentation that includes the following:

a. a general overview of the case [explain what’s going on here]

· what happened

· who is involved

· what are the key issues

· what are the constraints, if any

· were any laws violated, company policies, etc.

All case analyses are to be well prepared and include a powerpoint slide presentation showing all features of your particular case, your report or recommendations, and any other pertinent items that address the issues within the case. These presentations should take about 15 minutes or so.

These cases will be presented during the class at different points in the summer term. A case is worth 20 percent of your final grade and is a common grade assigned to ALL members of your team.

Scoring Criteria:

Case Presented Clearly and Effectively
=
10 points

Analysis covers all key/major issues
=
20 points

Final Actions/Recommendations acceptable
=
20 points