"What Am I Going to - About Stella McCarthy?" Jim Murray had worked as a cost accountant at Todd Brothers Chevrolet for nearly three years. When his boss retired in the spring of 1994, Ross Todd the company's president, asked Jim to take over the accounting department. As the company controller, Jim supervises four people: SeHa McCarthy, Judy Lawless, Tina Rothschild, and Mike Sohal. Six months have passed since Jim took over his new job. As he expected, Judy, Tina and Mike have been easy to 'work with. All have been in their jobs for at least four years. They know their obs backward and forward. And they require very little of Jim's time. Stella McCarthy, unfortunately, is a completely different story. Steila was hired about three months before Jim got his promotion. Her age and education aren't significantly different from his other three employeesshe's in her early 30s with an undergraduite degree in accounting. But in recent weeks she has become his number one headache. Stella's ob is to handle general accounting records. She also acts as the accounting department's Jink to the service department. Sella provides advice and support to service on anything having to d- with credit, cost control, the computer system, and the like. The first sign of a problem began three weeks ago. Stella called in sicl on both Monday and Tuesday. When she showed up for work on Wednesday morning, she looked like she hadn't slept in days. Jim ca1ed her into his office and, in an informal manner, began trying to find out what was going on. Stella was open. She admitted she hadn't been ill. She called in sick because she didn't have the emotional strength to come to work. She volunteered that her marriage was in trouble. Her husband had a serious drinking problem but wouldn't seek help. He had lost his third job in as many months on that last Friday. She was concerned about her children and her finances. Stella has a 7- year-old son from a previous marriage and twin daughters who are 3. Jim tried to conso'e Stella. He encouraged her to keep her spirits up and reminded her that the compans health plan provides six free sessions of counseling. He suggested she consider using them, Since that initial encounter, little seems to have changed with Stella. She's used up three more days of sick leave. When she comes to the office, it's clear her mind is somewhere else. She is spending an inordinate amount of time on the telephone, and Jim suspects it's almost all related to personal matters. Twice in the past week, Jim has noticed Stella crying at her desk. Yesterday was the third working day of the new month. Stella should have completed the closing of !ast month's books yesterday, an important part of her job. This morning, soon after Steib urhved, Jim a5ked her where the closing numbers were. Stella got up and, with teats welling in her eyes, went to the. Jim saw last month's books on Steila's desk. He opened them up. They were incomplete. Stella had missed her deadline, and Jim wasn't sure when he would have the final figures to give to Ross Todd."

ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

1. Do any motivation techniques appear relevant to helping Jim deal with Stella? If so, what are they?

2. From an ethical perspective, how far do you think Jim should go in dealing with Stella's personal problems?

3. If you were Jim, what would you do?