Michael is a Black college graduate, and the divorced father of a teenage son, Aaron,
who attends a private school in the well-to-do suburb where they live. Michael works
as a senior manager for a small consulting firm. The job requires quite a bit of travel
and a great deal of networking. Michael’s performance evaluations have been excel-lent. He enjoys the long hours his job requires. One of Michael’s subordinates, Sarah, is actively involved with her church, and she spends much of her time after work and on weekends doing volunteer work. As a Christian, she feels deeply committed to serving others whenever she can, particularly those in her community. When she can, she also participates in company-sponsored volunteer projects.
After hearing about Sarah’s volunteer work, the head of the firm asked Michael
to talk to Sarah. Specifically, he asked Michael to express to Sarah that she needs to
channel more of her time and energy into her work.
Soon thereafter, Michael called Sarah into his office to discuss her performance
since her last annual evaluation. He gave Sarah a great deal of positive feedback but
needed to address the quantity of her volunteer work. He said, “You know I see you
do all this volunteer stuff and that’s all well and good. But if you have this much time on your hands, you really should be spending more of your time with client work and developing business proposals.” Michael feels very conflicted about this issue. He almost feels as if the underlying message from his supervisor is to stop helping people who need it, and spend more time at work.
Questions:
1. Could Michael have handled this matter more effectively? Explain.
2. Under what conditions is it appropriate for a supervisor to comment
about an employee’s volunteer work?
3. Which of Michael’s leadership skills is being tested? Explain
