Writing Assignment

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UV0327 Rev. Sept. 6, 2017

This exercise was prepared by Martin N. Davidson, Professor of Business Administration. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  2002 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to [email protected]. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. Our goal is to publish materials of the highest quality, so please submit any errata to [email protected].

Saying What Needs to Be Said: Role-Plays

One of the greatest challenges we face in cultivating interpersonal competence is being centered and skillful in the midst of difficult and upsetting professional encounters. Each of the role-plays in this exercise offers an opportunity to practice saying what needs to be said even in challenging situations.

Please read the instructions before turning the page.

Instructions

1. This exercise is designed for use in three- or four-person teams. There are two scenarios included in this exercise, and the team should only work with one scenario at a time. For each scenario, one person will play the role of the Manager, one person will be the Employee, and one person will be an Observer. Upon beginning, team members should remove any binding or staples from the exercise and separate the scenarios. Put aside all but the one on which your team is working at a given point in time.

2. For each scenario, there are role instructions for the Manager and the Employee, and a checklist on which the Observer can take notes on the interaction she or he is watching. For example, in Scenario 1, one team member reads the Manager role, a second member reads the Employee role, and the third member takes notes and prepares to lead a short debriefing session. Take five to seven minutes to engage in the role-play and five to seven minutes to debrief, using discussion points from class.

3. Once you have completed the first role-play, rotate roles for Scenario 2. That is, the person who was Manager should become Observer, the Employee should become Manager, and the Observer should become Employee. Follow the same procedure outlined in step two.

This document is authorized for use only by donnell williams ([email protected]). Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. Please contact [email protected] or 800-988-0886 for additional copies.

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SCENARIO 1

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SCENARIO 1 MANAGER ROLE:

You are a senior vice president of strategy at a large U.S. power-systems company, and you have been seeking a new director of strategy and business management. You hired a 35-year-old first-generation Indian executive from Americo, Inc., a small northeastern strategic business-development company. You have determined that this person would be a great addition to your leadership team because you have been very impressed by this person’s knowledge of the competitive landscape, acute business-development skills from both strategic and practical perspectives, and consistent results. This person’s ability to identify innovative approaches to your business and to challenge the way you’ve been doing business has exceeded your expectations. You see that this person has great determination and an admirable work ethic as evidenced by the willingness to put in long hours to get work done. It is no surprise that this person received an “Exceeds All” year-end performance rating.

As a developmental opportunity, you’ve asked this person to pull together and lead a cross-functional task force to propose an efficient re-org that would eliminate redundancies, identify role-redefinition opportunities, and increase employee engagement. This person took to the assignment with gusto. The task force would comprise five members of the current leadership team—essentially this person’s peers. Those individuals were three of the regional sales managers, the director of marketing, and the director of the internal sales support desk.

While the task force was progressing, you found yourself monitoring your leadership team more than usual. You wanted to make sure your newest team member was getting along well, especially given the added responsibility of leading the task force. Your leadership team has a history together; they have survived numerous downsizing and organizational changes and have mastered the ability to operate in fire-drill mode, succeeding very well at short-term dynamic opportunities and responding enthusiastically at a moment’s notice. As a result, they have developed camaraderie over the last few years.

So you didn’t think it all that unusual early on when your newest team member was not always included in informal team activities—lunches in the cafeteria, intrateam happy hour e-mail invitations, and even some premeeting small talk at the weekly staff meetings. You figured that in time, this person would blend into the team more seamlessly. Indeed, you had hoped that the task force opportunity would help this person gain acceptance and respect through what you were certain would be excellent performance on the task force.

Late one afternoon, this person returned alone to the office after a lengthy task force meeting and seemed disturbed. The person sat down and immediately began returning calls and e-mails. This person’s legendary work ethic of late hours was admirable, but this effort also seemed to be creating stress. You decided to stop by and see if everything was okay.

You begin…

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SCENARIO 1 EMPLOYEE ROLE:

You are a 35-year-old first-generation Indian executive recently recruited from Americo, Inc. a small northeastern strategic business-development company, to assume the position of director of strategy and business management at a large U.S. power-systems company. You hold an MA in strategic foresight from Regent University, (a preeminent online learning institution) and in 2004, you received an executive MBA from Rutgers University.

Your first days on your new job were exciting and energizing. You were confident in your knowledge of the competitive landscape, you felt you had great business-development skills from both strategic and practical perspectives, and you knew how to produce results. Add to this your strong work ethic—hammered into you by your parents and early career mentors—and you came to expect the “Exceeds All” year-end performance rating you received at your first performance evaluation.

But despite your talent, you had a nagging concern about your new job. You are the newest member of a leadership team, and you have felt that team members have been cool toward you from the outset. You often feel like you don’t fit in. For example, you’ve been consistently left out of informal team activities—lunches in the cafeteria, intrateam happy hour e-mail invitations, and some of the premeeting small talk at the weekly staff meetings. You realize the team has a history together and that they have developed camaraderie over the last few years, but you can’t help but think that part of the reason you are being left out is because your white colleagues don’t know how to deal with an Indian peer. You’ve had this experience many times in your professional career and it is really tiring and frustrating.

Your spirits have been lifted, though, because your manager has rewarded your superior performance with the assignment to select and lead a cross-functional team whose goal was to propose an efficient re-org that would eliminate redundancies, identify role-redefinition opportunities, and increase employee engagement. The task force comprises five members of the current leadership team—three regional sales managers, the director of marketing, and the director of the internal sales support desk.

One Thursday, you returned to the office after a lengthy task force meeting that ended late in the afternoon. You were disturbed that the task force had reached an impasse over role redefinition for the salesforce. After every plausible suggestion you made, discussion was shut down by the sales managers: “Our guys will never go along with this.” “Maybe this kind of thing works in tiny businesses, but it won’t fly here.” “You really don’t know our culture well enough to be making these suggestions.” At the end of the meeting, the sales managers discreetly headed to Jarrod’s Pub, once again leaving you out. You are really convinced that you are being disrespected as a leader and that this is happening because you are Indian.

You head back to the office, frustrated and dejected, and sit down to cull e-mails and make some phone calls. Halfway through responding to your many e-mails, your manager peeks into your office. You really aren’t in the mood to talk, but you feel compelled to at least be courteous.

You begin…

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SCENARIO 1 OBSERVER CHECKLIST:

 Where do you observe identity abrasions in the conversation?

To what extent did you observe each of the conversationalists…

 Pause to short-circuit unhelpful emotion

 Connect to the other person by identifying goals that affirm the importance of the relationship

 Ask questions of themselves to help understand why they may feel defensive at any point

 Get support to help gain a broader perspective on the issue

 Adopt a mindset of “What can I do differently?”

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SCENARIO 2

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SCENARIO 2 MANAGER ROLE:

You are a product manager at a large manufacturing company. You are preparing to meet with the best employee on your project team for a quarterly appraisal. You will give the employee the highest rating because all peer and customer feedback is highly positive and the employee’s work is usually error free and almost always submitted well in advance of any deadlines. This should be an easy appraisal from a performance standpoint.

But you have another concern. You have worked very hard to establish good one-on-one relationships with all of your team members because you prefer a friendly, relaxed working environment. You make it a point to encourage your employees to share aspects of their personal life with you, and you try to do the same. However, this employee has been reticent about dealing with you on a personal level. You know the person is a hard worker and serious-minded, and that the person has few social ties in the area due to a relatively recent relocation to your site. But despite what must be a sometimes lonely life, the employee has declined your invitations for simple friendly lunches. You certainly feel bad for the person, but you are also concerned that the employee’s inability to bond with you and become part of your team could have negative effects on performance down the road. You are determined to use this opportunity to break the ice. The employee enters your office and sits down.

You begin…

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SCENARIO 2 EMPLOYEE ROLE:

You are scheduled for a quarterly performance review with your manager at a large manufacturing company. Even though you are relatively new to this site, you are quite sure that you will receive a good appraisal because feedback from your customers is excellent. Moreover, you are really enjoying working with your peers, so you are pretty sure that their feedback is also solid. In short, you are really performing well.

However, you have decided to use this meeting to address concerns you have about your manager’s behavior toward you. You consider yourself a very professional employee, and you prefer to keep all aspects of your personal life separate from the office. In the four months you have spent working on this new assignment, your manager has repeatedly tried to elicit information about your personal life and has shared information with you that you prefer not to know. The manager also has a tendency to pat your arm and touch you when conversing with you and this makes you very uncomfortable. Lately, your manager has taken to inviting you to lunch and asking you out for coffee. You have declined the invitations, but you are very uncomfortable being with your manager because you worry that these invitations will persist. Sometimes it even seems like the manager is interested in beginning some kind of personal relationship, and you are definitely not interested! You have decided to discuss your concerns at this meeting.

You enter your manager’s office, sit down, and your manager begins to speak…

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SCENARIO 2 OBSERVER CHECKLIST:

 Where do you observe identity abrasions in the conversation?

To what extent did you observe each of the conversationalists…

 Pause to short-circuit unhelpful emotion

 Connect to the other person by identifying goals that affirm the importance of the relationship

 Ask questions of themselves to help understand why they may feel defensive at any point

 Get support to help gain a broader perspective on the issue

 Adopt a mindset of “What can I do differently?”