When Karen Lewis was promoted to office manager for Dr. Green’s orthopedic practice, she was thrilled.

She had worked for Dr. Green for almost 6 years and considered the office her home away from home and her coworkers as her extended family. Karen was the office organizer for picnics, Friday night gettogethers, and holiday parties. She always made sure that staff members’ birthdays and anniversaries were recognized and celebrated. She was very concerned about whether everyone was happy, and she was always available to help other coworkers with any problems.

In addition, Karen was competent in all areas of the office operations. Although originally hired as an X-ray technician, she had performed, at one time or another, the duties of all the positions within the practice. She had covered the receptionist, medical records, and billing staff members’ positions when they were on vacation or ill or when there was an unfilled vacancy. Not only was she responsible for running the X-ray area of the practice, but over the years, she had also assumed the responsibilities for ordering supplies and scheduling surgeries.

Karen thought that making the transition to office manager would be easy, and the first few months went well. But in her fourth month, other staff members came to her complaining about Suzie, the new appointment-scheduling clerk. Karen was surprised to hear that Suzie was not doing her job well and that her errors were affecting the entire office operations. Suzie was scheduling patients to come to the office when Dr. Green was at the hospital performing surgery and during staffmembers’ lunch periods.

She was also overscheduling, causing patients to wait for hours. Karen told the other office staff members that she would discuss the matter with Suzie as soon as possible.

However, Karen found it very difficult to schedule a meeting with Suzie to discuss the problems. Every time Karen approached Suzie about the subject, she found that her stomach tightened and she began to sweat. The best she could do was to ask Suzie, “How is everything going?” Suzie replied, “Everything is great. I love working in such a warm and friendly office.”

A week later, some of the staff members approached Karen again and asked whether she had spoken with Suzie because the problems were getting worse. Karen lied and said that last week was so busy that she did not get an opportunity but that she would talk with Suzie this week. Again, Karen found it difficult to discuss the matter with Suzie. She didn’t want to hurt Suzie’s feelings because Suzie thought she was doing a good job. However, if she didn’t speak with Suzie soon, Karen knew Dr. Green would start to question whether she was capable of handling the duties of the office manager position. She couldn’t bear to think that she let Dr. Green down and that he might be displeased with her work. In addition, there were rumors circulating through the office grapevine that if the “appointment-scheduling” problem was not fixed soon, a few staff members were thinking about quitting because the mistakes had caused their workload to increase 20%.

Karen decided that she would discuss the matter with Suzie the following day. Karen asked Suzie to come in 10 minutes before office hours started so that they could have a chat. Karen had a restless night’s sleep. When she awoke, she noticed that she had developed a rash over her entire body. She had no choice; she called the answering service to tell Dr. Green and the staff that she was too ill to come to work.
Using McClelland’s Three-Needs Theory, discuss whether Dr. Green made the right decision in promoting Karen Lewis to office manager. Why or why not?