You are the manager of internal audit for the Department of Transport, which is a major government department within your state. You have an internal audit staff of five professionals. Two are senior auditors, and three are junior auditors. Two of the juniors were hired less than 12 months ago in the last round of college recruitment. The other was hired two years ago.

You are preparing to undertake your yearly round of staff appraisal interviews. In this light, one of your seniors has come to discuss the performance of one of the juniors who was hired less than 12 months ago. The junior has been working under his supervision.

Your senior indicates that the junior has outstanding information systems audit skills. She has a bachelor's degree in computer science and a masters of business administration degree (with specialization in accounting and auditing). Technically, her work has been of the highest quality. Moreover, she is highly motivated, she works hards, and she is keen to learn new audit skills. Her downfall, however, is her interpersonal skills. She is aggressive and abrupt, and she does not "suffer fools gladly." As a result, your senior has frequently been contacted by managers within the department who have been unhappy about their interactions with the junior. Recently, one manager called to indicate she would not allow the junior to undertake audit work in her section again. During a meeting with the junior, she felt the junior had virtually accused her of incompetence because of some control weaknesses that the junior had discovered. The tone of the meeting had quickly degenerated, and no productive outcomes had been achieved.

Your senior also indicates that the problems extend to the junior's relationships with the other two juniors and the other senior. The other two juniors feel they are constantly being "put down" in relation to the audit work they have undertaken and, in particular, their lack of computer knowledge. The other senior feels he is given little respect. (He has had long experience as a financial auditor, and he is nearing retirement.)

At various times over the past six months, your senior indicates he has attempted to counsel the junior on the problems that have emerged. He had told her directly about the complaints made by audit clients and the attitudes of her colleagues within the audit group toward her. The junior had dismissed his counsel summarily, however. She had retorted that she was dismayed by the level of incompetence shown by some managers with the department and some of her audit colleagues. At one point she shouted angrily: "If they can't stand the heat in the kitchen, they should get out." She made it clear that nobody would stand in her way of getting the "right" job done.

Your senior indicates that he believes the situation now cannot be retrieved. He recommends that you fire the junior immediately. He is no longer prepared to work with her nor, he argues, will the other auditors work with her. In addition, he cannot assign her to certain audit work because of her poor relationships with several clients. He expresses his regret, however, about the resulting loss of her very high level of information systems audit technical skills. He believes it is most unlikely that someone with her level of technical skills can be hired again.

Required: Although you have been aware that problems were being encountered with the junior auditor, you are somewhat taken aback by the severity of these problems (as now described to you by the senior). Your meeting with the junior is scheduled for 10:30 AM tomorrow. How do you plan to approach the conduct of the meeting? What outcomes do you wish to achieve?