1. Ignore the problem. Jacobs’s contributions to new product development are too valuable to risk losing him, and the problems over the past 10 years have always worked themselves out anyway. No sense starting something that could make you look bad.
2. Launch a full-scale investigation of employee complaints about Jacobs, and make Jacobs aware that the documented history over the past 10 years has put him on thin ice.
3. Meet with Jacobs and the employee to try to resolve the current issue. Then start working with Sally Barton and other senior managers to develop stronger policies regarding sexual harassment and treatment of employees, including clear-cut procedures for handling complaints.

Harry Rull had been with Shellington Pharmaceuticals for 30 years. After a tour of duty in the various plants and 7 years overseas, Harry was back at headquarters, looking forward to his new role as vice president of U.S. marketing.
Two weeks into his new job, Harry received some unsettling news about one of the managers under his supervision. Over casual lunch conversation, the director of human resources mentioned that Harry should expect a phone call about Roger Jacobs, manager of new product development. Jacobs had a history of being “pretty horrible” to his subordinates, she said, and one disgruntled employee asked to speak to someone in senior management. After lunch, Harry did some follow-up work. Jacobs’s performance reviews had been stellar, but his personnel file also contained a large number of notes documenting charges of Jacobs’s mistreatment of subordinates. The complaints ranged from “inappropriate and derogatory remarks” to subsequently dropped charges of sexual harassment. What was more disturbing was that the amount as well as the severity of complaints had increased with each of Jacobs’s 10 years with Shellington.