Case Ethical Dilemma: Abdication Of Responsibility

Based on the ethical dilemma question posed by Abdication of Responsibility case, I think it is very clear on what needs to be done. For nearly 20 years, the 52-year old manager has been performing below par in relation to the actual company’s expectations. But to blame him entirely on the matter would not be fair as his performance to him is �fine’ based on the distorted evaluation done on him from his previous incapable evaluators.

With the company in trouble and not performing well to the expectations of the shareholders, it is time to break the bad news to the manager. In a professional manner, the real situation should be addressed to him personally as to avoid embarrassment for him. The manager should be told on his actual performance, and to be given a fixed amount of time, say 6 months to 10 months to show some improvements and results or ultimately faced the possibility of being asked to resign or worse such as being axed. This is done in order to show that the company is being fair to its employees and everybody will be given a chance to show its contributions to the company’s goals and profits.

While being fair is expected in any responsible companies, being tough is also a must. The dateline is to provide a red mark for the evaluators to evaluate on employee contributions. If the evaluations revealed that the end result did not match the company’s expectation on a certain employee, than the next step to go is to ask him/her to resign or risked being fired. This combination of second chance and final action is the best avenue for a human resource director to choose in a situation like this.