Maria Vasquez has called a department meeting to address a critical issue affecting Universal Product Shipping as a whole. Marias department seems unable to meet their deadline, and as a result, orders and fulfillment are constantly getting backlogged. Marias supervisor has instructed her to divine the source of the problem through team brainstorming and exercises.

Maria asks everyone to share their role in the process so that the department can start determining where the bottlenecking problems are occurring. Jim, a longtime member of the team, explains that he thinks that when he passes his work onto Vincent, the files dont move forward in a timely manner. Vincent pushes back against this assessment, saying that he has to go through Jims work a second time before he can add his component and pass it forward to Cassie.

Jim begins to get defensive, accusing Vincent of making a claim that Jims age is negatively affecting his performance. Shelly, who works closely with Jim, mentions that she thinks theres a significant portion of information that is omitted when the files get to their step in the process, and thinks that the department needs to see why those data are absent.

Unfortunately, just as people start brainstorming about where that missing information is, Jim and Vincent begin to raise their voices. Maria tries to keep everyone on topic, but she realizes that Jim and Vincent seem to be at the heart of the problem. Jims missing information is stymieing the process, and Vincents tardiness with moving the files forward is further compounding the problem. Maria knows that they cant resolve the problem without keeping these two people staying engaged in the process.

However, Jim and Vincents interaction is becoming louder and more personal. Maria has been trained to intervene when interpersonal conflict becomes problematic, and she thinks that Jim and Vincent have crossed the line. On the other hand, she has a mandate to solve this crisis immediately, and believes that she needs Jim and Vincent to stay in the brainstorming session in order to accomplish this.

Case Study Questions: Answer the following questions

Using consequential, rule-based and character theories, evaluate Marias options.

What should Maria do? Why?