“You are a department manager in a mid-sized company that provides technology support services. You have ten employees who are required to maintain a high level of technical expertise and deliver excellent customer service. One of your employees, who has been with the company for two years, is performing at a substandard level and you have received numerous complaints from customers and coworkers. In addition, this employee has displayed confrontational behavior which has created a hostile environment. You must now meet with this employee and deliver an ultimatum regarding the need for immediate improvement or dismissal.”

Having confrontation and tension at the workplace is counterproductive in most cases. Some professions strive on confrontation (i.e. lawyers and the courtroom) but even these professions have strict guidelines to keep conduct orderly. Delivering an ultimatum is not an easy task, when things get too heated to continue they sometimes are ineffective. Giving the employee a chance to discuss the issues and a chance to improve is fair, unless of course there is criminal behavior involved. In this case, this is not listed.

There are many factors that are not given in the example above that leave me to question if the ultimatum should be given. For one, is the employee a “marginalized” one? Is there hostility due to “rejection or lack of conditional acceptance of the reference group” or is there a case of whistle blowing from the peer group (Schockley-Zalabak, 2009, p. 319)? Has there been any interaction or conversation about this with the employee previously or witness to the confrontational behavior to ensure that an ultimatum is in order? Is there any other ethical conduct in question by any party or is this employee disgruntled about something related to work, home, etc.? What is the worker’s history and previous productivity? Is this a sudden onset of behavior after a major crisis that maybe relieved by the employee taking personal time or seeking professional help outside the office? Has this employee been a very high asset to the company?

I would definitely gather as much information as I could from those who were complaining and from the employee. I would approach this with sensitivity and understanding and listen to the employee’s side of the story. I would definitely take everything into consideration before considering giving the ultimatum. On one extreme, if there was any criminal behavior or misconduct on the employee’s end, the option to improve would probably be denied. If the employee was acting out because of harassment in the office or some other factor, then more people would need to be confronted as well. If there was a personal issue that was affecting work, I would most definitely be supportive in helping the employee work through it in order to improve, especially if the behavior was not normal and the employee’s work was always good. However, if I have witnessed the confrontations and hostility, the dismissal would probably have more weight than improvement.

Overall, there are a lot of factors to take into consideration before making an ultimatum and ultimately a decision when dealing with a situation like this.

Reference:

Shockley-Zalabak, P. (2009). Fundamentals of Organizational Communication: Knowledge, Sensitivity, Skills, Values, 7th Edition. Pearson Learning Solutions p. 320).