Lucia is a senior executive with responsibility for a large department. Jane is a senior director working in Lucia's department. While Jane generally produces work of an acceptable quality, she is a difficult employee and is not well liked by many of Lucia's executive colleagues.

Recently, Jane was the subject of a serious allegation of misuse of the company's trade secrets that, if proved true, would constitute misconduct and a basis on which to dismiss Jane. An independent investigator is appointed to inquire into the allegation. The investigator reports his findings to Lucia, who is asked to make a decision on what should happen as a result of the findings.

The investigator's report concludes that the misconduct allegations against Jane are probably true. However, while Lucia notes there is some solid evidence against Jane, she is not comfortable with some of the methods the investigator used to reach his conclusionthe investigator did not contact Jane to give her an opportunity to respond to the allegations and he relied heavily on evidence given in interview by an executive who has a fractious history with Jane because Jane previously accused her of fraud (although the investigation of that accusation resulted in no evidence of fraud). As part of the investigation process, the investigator has also collected a range of information about Jane's personal life that suggests Jane may be a heavy gambler outside of work hours.

What should Lucia do? In your response, explain why you chose the particular answer you chose and why you did not choose each of the other answers.

1. Lucia should terminate Jane. While the investigation process was not perfect, you must demonstrate support for your managers against potential troublemaking staff. In addition, another investigation would almost certainly reach the same conclusion, be a waste of company time and money, and yield no change in the end result.
2. Lucia should terminate Jane because, on balance, this represents the least risk for the company. The longer Jane stays employed by the company, the greater the risk she will continue to commit misconduct and endanger the reputation of the company. There is evidence available at hand to justify dismissing Jane, and Lucia should make use of it.
3. Lucia should arrange for a new investigation or for further inquiries to be carried out. Even though this may not change the end result, the priority should be to ensure that procedural fairness is respected, even if this extends the investigation process, costs money, and causes continued discomfort for her managers.
4. Lucia should not dismiss Jane. The investigation was probably flawed. Lucia believes the underlying problem is the management skills of her managers. Lucia should instead organize some advanced performance management training for all her managers.