ETHICS DILEMMA

Abdication of Responsibility You are the new vice president for HR of a company that has not been performing well, and everyone, including yourself, has a mandate to deliver results. The pressure has never been greater. Shareholders are angry after 3 years of a tough market that has left their company stock losing value every day. Many shareholders desperately need stock performance to pay for their retirement. Working for you is a 52-year-old manager with two kids in college. In previous evaluations, executives told him he was doing fine, when he clearly was not, and his performance is still far below par. If you are to show others in the company that you are willing to make tough decisions, you feel you must fire this individual. The question is whos going to suffer: the firm and ultimately shareholders whose retirements are in jeopardy, or a nice guy whos been lied to for 20 years?

What would you do?-Approach this from the standpoint of the HR department and they will handle the issue at hand in the dilemma and its effects company wide. Be sure to include the terms and concepts from the chapter especially when it comes to company wide issues relating to:

• performance management,
• performance appraisals and
• training.