Ron Davis, the relatively new general manager of the machinetooling group at Parker Manufacturing, was visiting one of theplants. He scheduled a meeting with Mike Leonard, a plant managerwho reported to him.
RON: Mike, I’ve scheduled this meeting with you because I’vebeen reviewing performance data, and I wanted to give you somefeedback. I know we haven’t talked face-to-face before, but I thinkit’s time we review how you’re doing. I’m afraid that some of thethings I have to say are not very favorable.
MIKE: Well, since you’re the new boss, I guess I’ll have tolisten. I’ve had meetings like this before with new people who comein my plant and think they know what’s going on.
RON: Look, Mike, I want this to be a two-way interchange. I’mnot here to read a verdict to you, and I’m not here to tell you howto do your job. There are just some areas for improvement I want toreview.
MIKE: OK, sure, I’ve heard that before. But you called themeeting. Go ahead and lower the boom.
RON: Well, Mike, I don’t think this is lowering the boom. Butthere are several things you need to hear. One is what I noticedduring the plant tour. I think you’re too chummy with some of yourfemale personnel. You know, one of them might take offense andlevel a sexual harassment suit against you.
MIKE: Oh, come on. You haven’t been around this plant before,and you don’t know the informal, friendly relationships we have.The office staff and the women on the floor are flattered by alittle attention now and then.
RON: That may be so, but you need to be more careful. You maynot be sensitive to what’s really going on with them. But thatraises another thing I noticed—the appearance of your shop. Youknow how important it is in Parker to have a neat and clean shop.As I walked through this morning, I noticed that it wasn’t asorderly and neat as I would like to see it. Having things indisarray reflects poorly on you, Mike.
MIKE: I’ll stack my plant up against any in Parker for neatness.You may have seen a few tools out of place because someone was justusing them, but we take a lot of pride in our neatness. I don’t seehow you can say that things are in disarray. You’ve got noexperience around here, so who are you to judge?
RON: Well, I’m glad you’re sensitive to the neatness issue. Ijust think you need to pay attention to it, that’s all. Butregarding neatness, I notice that you don’t dress like a plantmanager. I think you’re creating a substandard impression by notwearing a tie, for example. Casualness in dress can be used as anexcuse for workers to come to work in really grubby attire. Thatmay not be safe.
MIKE: Look, I don’t agree with making a big separation betweenthe managers and the employees. By dressing like people out on theshop floor, I think we eliminate a lot of barriers. Besides, Idon’t have the money to buy clothes that might get oil on themevery day. That seems pretty picky to me.
RON: I don’t want to seem picky, Mike. But I do feel stronglyabout the issues I’ve mentioned. There are some other things,though, that need to get corrected. One is the appearance of thereports you send into division headquarters. There are oftenmistakes, misspellings, and, I suspect, some wrong numbers. Iwonder if you are paying attention to these reports. You seem to bereviewing them superficially.
MIKE: If there is one thing we have too much of, it’s reports. Icould spend three- quarters of my time filling out report forms andgenerating data for some bean counter in headquarters. We havereports coming out our ears. Why don’t you give us a chance to getour work done and eliminate all this paperwork?
RON: You know as well as I do, Mike, that we need to carefullymonitor our productivity, quality, and costs. You just need to getmore serious about taking care of that part of yourresponsibility.
MIKE: OK. I’m not going to fight about that. It’s a losingbattle for me. No one at headquarters will ever decrease theirdemand for reports. But, listen, Ron, I also have one question foryou.
RON: OK. What’s that?
MIKE: Why don’t you go find somebody else to pick on? I need toget back to work.
Discussion Questions
- What principles of supportive communication and supportivelistening are violated in this case?
- If you were to change this interaction to make it moreproductive, what would you change?
- Categorize each of the statements by naming the rule ofsupportive communication that is either illustrated orviolated.
4. Conduct a role play. Handle the key issues that exist betweenRon and Mike.
5. Identify the principles that you used to make this aproductive conversation. If you were Ron, what would you do in yourfollow-up meeting with Mike?
i want answer all these 5 question with references that you takethe information and principle’s from it
