Chapter 15 Selecting, Appraising, and Disciplining Employees Adrian Grubb: Getting the Most from Employees When hiring someone for a job, it is important to achieve good person-job fit, which is when the individual’s knowledge, skills, abilities, and experiences fit with the requirements of the job. Adrian Grubb, currently the Training Manager with the Alabama Port Authority, has over 18 years management experience in the hospitality industry, manufacturing sector, and now port management. Earlier in his career, he specialized in new restaurant openings for a Fortune 500 “casual sque restaurant chain.” Their protocol was to hire only people who had the experience for each job. When they opened a store in a smaller college town, Adrian ignored the protocol and started hiring applicants, if they had the right attitude and aptitude for the job even, even if they didn’t have the experience. He rotated them around throughout the course of training until they found the best spot for that employee. According to Adrian an employee will excel at his or her job if care about the organization, the job, and the opportunity that they are given. He said, “You are not going to experience immediate dividends off an employee, but if you believe in them, take your time to nurture them and help them grow, they will.” I. Responsibility for Selecting, Training, and Disciplining Employees • An organization can be successful only if it has the right number and types of people to do the required work. • A primary duty of all supervisors is the proper selection, placement, training and development, compensation, and utilization of competent employees. • How well—or poorly—supervisors perform these functions is a major factor in their success or failure. A. A Shared Responsibility • Like almost all aspects of supervision, selecting, appraising, and disciplining employees are shared tasks, though the primary responsibility should be left to supervisors. • In general, the responsibilities are divided as follows: ○ Top managers set human resources objectives, establish policies, and do long range planning and organizing. ○ Middle managers control the operating procedures needed to achieve these objectives and carry out personnel policies. ○ Supervisors interpret policies for employees and carry out the organization’s wishes as to selecting and training employees. • Teams are often used at all three of these levels. B. The Supervisor’s Role • Employees interpret their supervisor’s actions, attitudes, and methods as representing those of all managers, supervisors are probably the most important people in achieving an organization’s human resources objectives. • Supervisors usually have the final word in selecting, appraising, and disciplining employees. • They supervise and control the employees’ daily activities. II. Selecting Employees for Specific Jobs • A suggested procedure for selecting employees is shown in Exhibit 15-1. Individual employers may find it desirable to modify this procedure—or depart from it—under certain conditions. A. Requisition • Selection begins with a requisition from the supervisor to the human resource department. • This requisition is the authorization the department needs to recruit applicants for the position(s) available. • All aspects of the procedures must conform to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) and should also comply with your Affirmative Action Program (AAP) for hiring people from various groups. B. Preliminary Screening • Whether formal or informal, some form of preliminary screening helps weed out those persons who do not seem to meet the employer’s needs—thus saving their time and yours. • This step deals with such obvious factors such as educational background, training, experience, physical appearance, grooming, and speech—if these are relevant to job performance. • Also, the applicant should know something about the organization and the job being sought. C. Application Form or Résumé • The applicant usually lists such information as former employers, titles of jobs held, and length of employment with each one. Background, education, military status, and other useful data are listed. • The form should be carefully designed to provide the information needed about the applicant’s potential performance; it should not be a hodgepodge of irrelevant data. • The EEOC and many states have restrictions concerning the kind of questions that may be included on an application form. D. Preemployment Testing • Preemployment testing, especially “personality” or psychological testing, is growing in use by industry. • These tests can reduce turnover. 1. Types of Tests • IQ tests are designed to measure the applicant’s capacity to learn, to solve problems, and to understand relationships. • Aptitude tests are used to predict how a person might perform on a given job. • Vocational interest tests are designed to determine the applicant’s areas of major work interest. • Personality tests are supposed to measure the applicant’s emotional adjustment and attitudes. • Probably the most effective tests the supervisor can use in selecting operative employees are achievement, proficiency, or skill tests, which measure the applicant’s knowledge of and ability to do a given job. • One type of proficiency test is a work sampling or work preview, in which the prospective employee is asked to do a task that is representative of the work usually done on the job. • Some organizations now test for drug use, a controversial, but legal in most states, practice. 2. Validity of Tests • If tests are used in making the selection decision, employers must be prepared to demonstrate their validity. • Validity is demonstrated by a high positive correlation between the applicant’s test scores and some objective measure of performance on the job. • Tests must also have reliability. • That is, the results will be the same if the test is given to the same person by different testers or by the same tester at different times • All selection techniques are subject to scrutiny by the EEOC. E. Preemployment Interviewing • In preparing for the employment interview, which is the only two-way part of the selection procedure, the supervisor should use the information on the application form and the test results to learn about the applicant. • A list of questions should be prepared before the interview can help you avoid missing information that might be significant in judging the applicant. • The interview can provide impressions about the candidate’s abilities, appearance, and attitudes toward work. • This is also an opportunity to provide the candidate with information about the company and the job. • The interview maybe carried out individually by the supervisor or in cooperation with someone else— a team member, the human resource manager, or some other senior manager. • It may be structured or unstructured. ○ Structured interviews are standardized and controlled with regard to questions asked, sequence of questions, interpretation of replies, and weight given to factors considered in making the value judgment as to whether or not to hire the person. ○ In unstructured interviews the pattern of questions asked, the conditions under which they are asked, and the bases for evaluating results are determined by the interviewer. F. Checking References and Records • Reference checks provide answers to questions concerning a candidate’s performance on previous jobs. • Many potential employers find that former employers, fearing lawsuits, tend to say nothing—or only nice things—about past employees. In fact, most former employers will only give dates of employment and position(s) held. • Reference checks made in person or by telephone are preferable to written ones. • The type of information you are allowed to seek is restricted by laws, but you can check on dates and terms of employment, salary, and whether termination was voluntary and whether this employer would rehire the candidate. • Many organizations also use credit checks to obtain information about prospective employees, but the candidate has the right to see the report. G. Preliminary Selection by the Supervisor • By this point in the selection process, the supervisor has narrowed the number of candidates to one or a very few. • If more than one candidate is qualified, a review of the information collected should reveal the best choice. H. Final Selection • Human resource officers are usually brought in to make sure that all laws and regulations, as well as company policies are followed. I. Physical Examination • The final step in the selection procedure may be a physical examination to see if the applicant can do the job. • The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act have limited the use of the physical exam. • Employers now may not require an exam before a preliminary job offer is made or ask an applicant if they have a disability (or the nature of an obvious disability). J. Job Offer • The job offer to applicants for nonmanagerial and nonprofessional positions is usually made by the human resource office. • Those not hired should be notified and kept in mind for future openings. It is common courtesy to notify them that someone else has been selected, and a diplomatic rejection will maintain their goodwill. K. Orientation • The first day on a new job is confusing for anyone. Therefore, a new employee should be given a proper orientation. • Orientation involves the procedures of familiarizing a new employee with the company surroundings, policies, and job responsibilities. • A job description should be given to him or her and explained in detail. Proper instructions, training, and observation will start the employee off on the right foot. • A tour of the facilities and a look at the firm’s product or service will help the new employee understand where he or she fits into the scheme of things. • The new employee needs to know the firm’s objectives, policies, rules, and performance expectations. • Frequent discussions should be held with the new employee to answer questions and evaluate his or her progress. • A formal interview with the new employee may be appropriate during the first week. • Other interviews can be held during the probationary period, which is usually from three to six months. • After orientation is completed, a checklist is usually reviewed with the new employee. Then, the employee and a representative of the employer sign it, and it is placed in the employee’s file as proof of knowledge of rules. L. Training and Development • Employee training and development is important for both the organization and the employee. • Training is the process by which employees are taught knowledge, skills, and competencies to improve their capabilities, competencies, productivity, and/or performance. • Supervisors tend to perform a significant amount of on-the-job training, especially for newer employees, but employees are also provided with many off-the-job training opportunities. • For training to be effective and learning to take place, the employees need to be motivated to learn. Keller's ARCS Model offers a motivationally centered approach to instruction and training • Gaining your employees’ attention so they are “plugged in” is critical. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways including presenting a problem to be solved, a troubling statistic, an unexpected action or image, or simply varying your approach to training. • Making the training relevant to your employees can also be challenging. ○ The ARCS model contains four motivational categories: attention (A), relevance (R), confidence (C), and satisfaction (S).” ○ These four categories represent sets of conditions that are necessary for a person to be fully motivated, and each of these four categories has component parts, or subcategories. • The third aspect of motivating trainees is building their confidence levels. The key is to set training objectives that are appropriate for the employee given the subject or skill to be learned. ○ Human beings are goal-oriented, and as such, we tend to learn better if we set SMART training goals (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Rewarding, and Time defined). ○ SMART goals motivate us to learn new knowledge, skills, and competencies because we have something to shoot for. ○ The level and types of goals will vary depending on the type of skill or subject as well as the employee’s current level of knowledge, skills, abilities, competencies, and experiences. • Satisfaction, the fourth category, is necessary to sustain your employee’s motivation to perform the new task. ○ Employees need to be recognized for their success. Recognition might take the form of verbal praise, a certificate of completion, a grade, a monetary incentive, a promotion, or additional responsibility to demonstrate their acquired skill. III. The Role of Performance Appraisal in Supervisory Management • Most employers have already developed some kind of formal program for improving employee performance, growth, and development. • Reviews can be positive and motivational if conducted they are conducted with an attitude designed to improve performance and help each employee move toward maximizing his or her potential. • The performance appraisal should be constructive and future oriented. A. What Is Performance Appraisal? • A performance appraisal is the process used to determine to what extent an employee is performing a job in the way it was intended to be done. • Some other frequently used terms for this process are merit rating, efficiency rating, service rating, and employee evaluation. B. How a Performance Appraisal Operates • If employees’ output can be physically measured, then their rewards can be based on their actual output and there is little need to formally appraise them. • For jobs that cannot be physically measured, the supervisor determines what personal characteristics an employee has that lead him or her to have satisfactory performance. • The process works as follows: ○ an employee’s personal qualities, ○ lead to job behaviors, ○ that result in work performance ○ which the manager appraises, and ○ and that appraisal results in some kind of personnel action. • An employee’s qualities are his or her abilities, attitudes, interests, skills, knowledge, and values. ○ These qualities lead the employee to take certain actions that result in output or productivity. • The manager appraises the employee’s performance and then may reward the employee. • Most human resource departments use management staffing and development programs, computerized files that should include appraisal criteria and ratings, along with consistent definitions of skills, level of experience, and development activity C. Purposes of the Performance Appraisal • Some specific reasons for appraising employee performance are: ○ To recognize “good” performance ○ To point out areas that need improvement ○ To validate selection techniques to meet eeoc/aap requirements ○ To provide a basis for administrative actions • A well-developed appraisal system can help detect “problem managers” in time to take appropriate action. • Performance appraisals can also be used for communications and motivational purposes. D. The Role of the Appraisal Interview • Most organizations cannot afford poor performance, and workers cannot afford poor reviews. • One way to satisfy both these requirements is for the supervisor to conduct an appraisal interview to communicate the results of a given performance appraisal to an employee. • Conducting the appraisal interview is the job aspect that supervisors like least. • The interview is often handled poorly, damaging relationships between supervisors and employees. • Interviewers are expected to aim at cooperation, constructiveness, and greater understanding, rather than simply tell the person the results of the appraisal. • The conventional approach to the appraisal interview is emotionally upsetting for both the supervisor and the employee. • Supervisors and employees both tend to feel anxiety over performance appraisal. • Most employers require managers to discuss their appraisals with employees. • Supervisors who suffer the double-barreled discomforts of performance appraisal. These supervisors dislike being appraised by their own bosses, and they dislike appraising their employees—or at least telling them the results. All this may lead to appraisal inflation. • Performance appraisals should contain aspects of career planning for the employee. • The appraisal interview presents both an opportunity and a potential danger for the supervisor. • The supervisor should emphasize the positive aspects of performance, while discussing ways to make improvements. • The way the supervisor conducts the interview influences whether or not the employee takes corrective action. IV. The Need for Discipline • Effective job performance requires that both managerial and nonmanagerial employees maintain discipline. • Most employees would rather work with a group that is well organized, well trained, and well disciplined. A. What Is Discipline? • Good discipline is based on good leadership. • The term discipline will be used in this chapter to refer to any of three concepts: ○ self-control, ○ conditions leading to orderly behavior in a work environment, or ○ punishment for improper behavior. • Discipline is training that corrects and molds or perfects knowledge, attitudes, behavior, or conduct. B. Discipline as Due Process • The 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees every citizen due process under the law. • Essentially, the following conditions ensure that an individual receives justice in the form of due process: ○ Rules or laws exist. ○ There are specific, fixed penalties for violating those rules. ○ Penalties are imposed only after a hearing has been conducted for the accused, at which time the extent of guilt is determined after considering the circumstances of the situation. Unions insist that this process be used within organizations when employees are disciplined. • Most arbitrators will uphold a disciplinary action if it can be shown that: ○ The rules were reasonable ○ The penalty is related to the severity of the offense ○ The worker was given a fair hearing • Due process also assumes that the employer has the right to administer discipline when rules are violated. • Employers can avoid employee grievance proceedings by developing equitable and objective discipline procedures. C. How Disciplinary Due Process Operates • As indicated earlier, disciplinary due process involves three steps. ○ Rules are established. ○ Fixed penalties are set for each rule that is violated. ○ The penalty is imposed only after the employee has been given a fair hearing. 1. Establishing Rules of Conduct • If employees are to maintain self-discipline, they must know what they can and cannot do, and they must know it in advance. • Most progressive organizations publish rules, usually in their employees’ handbook. 2. Determining Penalties • The types of penalties, as well as the ways they are used, generally are determined in consultation with the union. • What usually results is termed progressive discipline, because it involves a graduated scale of penalties. If there is no union, the penalties stem from management’s philosophy of how to treat employees, as well as from its fear of the entry of a union or government action. • The normal steps in a progressive discipline policy are: ○ Oral warning that does not go into the employee’s record. ○ Oral warning that goes into the employee’s record. ○ Written reprimand. ○ Suspension, which usually consists of a layoff lasting from a day to a number of months. ○ Discharge, the ultimate penalty which constitutes a break in service and wipes out the employee’s seniority. • Unions, personnel managers, and most supervisors favor using a graduated scale of penalties, under which punishment for a given violation becomes progressively more severe each time the violation is repeated. • However, when the disciplinary problems are of such a drastic, dangerous, or illegal nature that they severely strain or endanger employment relationships, they are called intolerable offenses, and the first time one is committed, the employee is discharged. 3. Imposing the Penalty Only after a Fair Hearing • Discipline must be properly administered in accordance with established and announced rules and procedures. • The charges and their underlying reasons should be definite and provable. • There should be provisions for a prompt hearing, witnesses, protests, and appeals. • Adequate remedies should be available to employees whose punishment has failed to meet the requirement of “fair play.” • The main requirements for a proper disciplinary procedure are: ○ To make definite charges ○ To notify the employee, in writing, of the offense ○ To have some provision for the employee to answer the charges either by protest or by appeal V. The Supervisor and Discipline • Regardless of whether supervisors work in unionized firms, they must exercise discretion when recommending or imposing penalties on employees. • In dealing with mistakes, supervisors must consider what the mistakes were and under what circumstances they were made. • Honest mistakes should be corrected by counseling and positive discipline, not by punishment. • Supervisors need to be proactive in establishing boundaries, identifying problems, counseling employees, and taking corrective actions. • Violent behaviors are usually caused by a series of events that occur over time and that come to a head. • First-line supervisors are the key to preventing workplace violence. A. The Supervisor’s Disciplinary Role • One of the primary duties of supervisors is to maintain discipline. • A supervisor must instill a desire for self-discipline in employees. • When applying discipline, the supervisor must consider these points: ○ Every job should carry with it a certain margin for error. ○ Being overly concerned with avoiding errors stifles initiative and encourages subordinates to postpone decisions or avoid making them altogether. ○ A different way of doing something should not be mistaken for the wrong way of doing it. • Supervisors are more likely than higher-level managers to avoid giving severe disciplinary action because of the likelihood of generating undesirable effects. • Supervisory managers are more inclined to consider individual circumstances and behavior than are top managers. B. Principles of Effective Discipline: The Hot Stove Rule • Four important principles of effective discipline are discussed in this section. • These principles are often referred to as the hot-stove rule, because they draw a comparison between touching a hot stove and experiencing discipline. 1. Discipline Carries a Clear Advance Warning • There must be a clear warning that a given offense will lead to discipline. • There must be a clear warning of the amount of discipline that will be imposed for an offense. 2 Discipline Is Immediate • The supervisor should begin the disciplinary process as soon as possible after notices a violation. • This is important for several reasons: ○ An employee may feel that he or she is “putting one over” on the supervisor and may try to violate other rules. ○ An employee may assume that the supervisor is too weak to enforce the rules. ○ An employee may believe that the supervisor doesn’t consider the rule important enough to be enforced. Thus, all the other employees may be encouraged to break or stretch the rule as well. 3. Discipline Is Consistent • For similar circumstances, similar discipline should be administered. 4. Discipline Is Impersonal • A supervisor should be as objective as possible when administering discipline. • After administering discipline to an employee, try to retain a normal relationship with that person. • The focus should be on getting the employee’s work behavior to be consistent with the rules. C. Applying Discipline • Two of the more unpleasant aspects of the supervisor’s job are: ○ Laying off a worker for disciplinary reasons ○ Discharging an unsatisfactory employee 1. Disciplinary Layoff • If an employee has repeatedly committed major offenses and previous warnings have been ineffective, a disciplinary layoff, or suspension, is probably inevitable. • Such a layoff involves a loss of time—and pay—for several days. • Because this form of discipline is so serious, most organizations limit its use to at least the second level of management. • Not all managers believe the layoff is effective. 2. Discharge • In 1884, a Tennessee court established the termination-at-will rule whereby an employer could dismiss an employee for any reason, unless there was explicit contractual provision preventing such action. • Subsequent legislative enactments and court decisions, as well as union rules and public policy, have limited the termination-at-will rule. • Most union agreements have a clause requiring “just cause” for disciplinary discharge and detailing the order in which employees can be laid off. • Since discharge is so severe, supervisors can only recommend it; the discharge must be carried out by top management—usually with the advice and consent of the human resources manager. D. Supervisors’ Personal Liability for Disciplining Employees • Recent court decisions holding supervisors personally liable for discharging disabled employees are making some supervisors reluctant to exercise their judgment in hiring, promoting, and firing employees. • Supervisors have been held individually liable in some blatant and serious sex and race harassment cases. VI. Chapter Review The PowerPoint slides correlated with the Lecture Outline above are available on the Instructors CD-ROM and on the product support website. PowerPoint Slide 15-1 Chapter 15 Title PowerPoint Slide 15-2 Learning Objectives PowerPoint Slide 15-3 Learning Objectives (continued) PowerPoint Slide 15-4 Responsibility for Selecting, Appraising, and Disciplining Employees PowerPoint Slide 15-5 Flowchart of a Suggested Selection Procedure PowerPoint Slide 15-6 Requisition, Preliminary Screening, and Application Form PowerPoint Slide 15-7 Topics to Avoid when Interviewing Applicants PowerPoint Slide 15-8 Types of Preemployment Tests PowerPoint Slide 15-9 Validity and Reliability of Tests PowerPoint Slide 15-10 Preemployment Interviewing PowerPoint Slide 15-11 Checking References and Records PowerPoint Slide 15-12 Preliminary Selection by the Supervisor and Final Selection PowerPoint Slide 15-13 Physical Examination and Job Offer PowerPoint Slide 15-14 Orientation and Training and Development PowerPoint Slide 15-15 Performance Appraisal PowerPoint Slide 15-16 How Performance Appraisals Operate (Text Exhibit 15-3) PowerPoint Slide 15-17 Appraisal Interview PowerPoint Slide 15-18 Hints for the Appraisal Interview (Text Exhibit 15-4) PowerPoint Slide 15-19 Discipline PowerPoint Slide 15-20 Steps Involved in the Disciplinary Due Process PowerPoint Slide 15-21 Supervisor’s Disciplinary Role PowerPoint Slide 15-22 Applying Discipline PowerPoint Slide 15-23 Supervisors’ Personal Liability for Disciplining Employees PowerPoint Slide 15-24 Important Terms 1. What is performance appraisal, and what are some of the other names for it? Performance appraisal is the process used to determine to what extent an employee is performing the job in the way it was intended to be done. Other names for this process are merit rating, efficiency rating, service rating, and employee evaluation. 2. Explain why performance appraisal is such an important part of the management process. An important part of any supervisor’s job is evaluating and appraising workers. This should be an on-going process and not an annual event. Whenever a worker is praised or reprimanded, given a wage increase or passed over for one, promoted or not promoted, or transferred, laid off, or discharged, his or her job performance has been appraised, and a value judgment made about it. 3. What are some of the purposes of performance appraisal? Explain. The purposes of the performance appraisal are: (1) to recognize “good” performance, (2) to point out areas that need improvement, (3) to validate selection techniques to meet EEOC/AAP requirements, and (4) to provide a basis for administrative actions. Performance appraisals can also be used to provide a basis for giving advice, coaching, or counseling, or as a basis for career planning and development. 4. Name and explain the steps in the suggested procedure for selecting workers for specific jobs. The steps in selecting workers for specific jobs are as follows: i. A requisition from the supervisor to the human resources department gives the job description and the personal requirements needed to do the job. ii. A preliminary screening weeds out the obviously unsuitable applicants. iii. An application form, listing education, personal background, employment history, military status, and other data, is completed by applicants. iv. Pre-employment tests to determine such factors as IQ, aptitudes, vocational interest, personality, and proficiency may be given, if valid and reliable. v. An employment interview is conducted to obtain impressions about the candidate’s abilities, personality, and attitudes toward work. There may be a preliminary interview followed later by an in-depth interview to determine the applicant’s willingness and desire to work. vi. References and records of the applicant should then be checked and verified, to the extent possible. vii. A preliminary selection is made by the supervisor. viii. Human resource officers are usually brought in for the final selection. ix. A physical examination may be done only to determine whether the worker can do the job sought, and no medical history may be taken. x. A job offer is made, which the applicant accepts or rejects. xi. The new employee is oriented to the organization and to the new job. 5. What is discipline? Discipline can be defined as “training that corrects, molds, or perfects knowledge, attitudes, or behavior. It can refer to (1) self-control, (2) conditions leading to orderly behavior, or (3) punishment for improper behavior. 6. Why is discipline so very important in organizations? Effective job performance requires both managerial and nonmanagerial employees to maintain discipline, as most employees prefer to work with a well-organized, well-trained, and well-disciplined group rather than with one that is not. The reason employees want to work in a disciplined environment is that they benefit from discipline and suffer from disorder. 7. What is the due process of discipline, and why is it so important? Due process guarantees the individual accused of violating an established rule a hearing to determine the extent of guilt. The following conditions assure that an individual receives justice in the form of due process: (1) rules or laws exist; (2) there are specific, fixed penalties for violating these rules; and (3) penalties are imposed only after a hearing to determine extent of guilt. The 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees due process to every citizen under law. Workers expect the same consideration in their place of work. Finally, unions and governmental agencies will not accept arbitrary punishment imposed on a worker without a valid reason. 8. What is the union’s role in the disciplinary process? Unions are usually involved in determining the penalties to be used, as well as the way they are to be used. They insist that due process be used in disciplining employees. Also, unions insist on having a representative present when discipline is being imposed on any employee, to see that the process is being adhered to. 9. Why should disciplinary layoff and discharge decisions be restricted to higher levels of management? Both forms of discipline are very serious and involve an enormous penalty. These are the types of decisions that are best made by managers with greater authority and responsibility. Also, these managers are not involved with the employee on a day-to-day basis, as the supervisor is, and may view the disciplinary procedure with more objectivity. Skill Builder 15.1 What Would You Do? Works with SCANS competencies: Resources When students are considering what to do, have them keep in mind that the best determinant of future performance is past performance. Which applicant’s background indicates a good work ethic? The rush work is a temporary situation. Point out that the person they hire will be with them well after the job is completed. Skill Builder 15.2 What Do You Want From Your Job? Works with SCANS competencies: Information, Resources 1. What does your ranking tell you about your motivation now? Student answers will vary depending on how they ranked the factors. Probably the most highly ranked factor will be good salary. Those just out of school are obviously interested in receiving a good income, almost as a “pay back” for their years in school. Working conditions and promotion possibilities may also be highly ranked. 2. Is there any change in the second and third periods? Again, an individual question, but changes are very probable. 3. What changes are there, and why did you make them? In five to 10 years, employees have matured and want different things from their jobs. Grievance procedures, job security, and effective job supervision probably move up in the ratings. For a more experienced worker, employee benefits become more important, as does job security. The rating on salary may vary in later years, but it will always remain high on the list. You may want to review Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and relate the changes in ranking with changing needs. Skill Builder 15.3 Gloria Rogers Appraises Her Employees Works with SCANS competencies: Information, Resources Instructions: Assume that you are Gloria’s supervisor (manager.) How would you advise her to improve her performance appraisals? One obvious improvement would be to ask Rogers to let the employee do more of the talking. She seems to be monopolizing the appraisal interview, not allowing the employee to respond until the interview is almost over. Review the hints for the appraisal interview given in Text Exhibit 15-4 and in PowerPoint Slide 15-18. Ask students how Rogers can apply the “do”s to her appraisal techniques. Does she use any of the “don’t”s? Case 15.1 When the Transfer Backfires 1. What are the facts Trent must consider now? Trent has to face the results of his misguided earlier efforts. Smith has the inflated earlier evaluations, which will be ammunition in any grievance procedure. Trent also has to realize that the informal organization is strongly behind Smith. 2. What avenues are now open to Trent? What does this case say to you about the need for supervisors to act morally? If Trent had told the truth in the first place, he would be in a better position to withhold pay increases or build evidence to terminate Smith. His choices are limited: stick with his pay recommendation and live with the consequences, give Smith a cost-of-living adjustment and no more, or give her both cost-of-living and the merit pay increases that the inflated evaluations would justify. 3. Do you believe that some supervisors are untruthful where recommendations are concerned? Explain This is, again, an individual opinion question. Probably most students would expect some untruthfulness, however. 4. What three functions are salaries meant to perform? Salaries should attract capable employees, motivate employees to improve performance, and retain capable employees. 5. To what extent should employee appraisal be used in salary adjustments? Explain. Situations such as this one may point to some of the problems with basing salary adjustments on employee appraisals. However, some type of appraisal is necessary if salary is to be tied to achievement. Instructor Manual for Supervisory Management: The Art of Inspiring, Empowering and Developing People Donald C. Mosley, Paul H. Pietri 9781285063003
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