Approximately 6 months ago, you were promoted to be a supervisor of your department. Two of you former peers - Lisa and Jim, are now your subordinates. While Lisa has taken this change well and she was happy for you, Jim has become difficult to work with.

Since you became a supervisor, Jim does nothing more than it is necessary and thus the department performance levels have dropped. Another employee - has told you that Jim criticises you and your decisions at every opportunity he has, and this has caused a number of other employees to doubt your abilities, or even turn against you. The employee said that Jim is trying to convince other employees to lodge complaints about you to the top management.

You have tentatively approached Jim to discuss the situation, but he has been non-committal, stating that there is no issue, he has no problem with you and that you have an over-active imagination.

On receiving written statement from two of your staff regarding Jim's criticism and an occasion where Jim countermanded a direction you had given, you see that now it is the time to act. You must take care not to disclose the identity of the staff providing the information while addressing the problem directly. Your own supervisor has noticed that there is a problem in your department as Jim quite often disregards you and goes to your supervisor directly asking for a confirmation of your decision each time Jim disagrees with it. Therefore, your supervisor is asking  you to fix it. You make a performance management appointment with Jim, and plan a subsequent coaching session to address the issue.

QUESTION Describe the relationship difficulties you encounter as part of the problem.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

In this scenario the relationship difficulties encountered as part of the problem include 1 Strained SupervisorSubordinate Relationship Nature of Difficulty The relationship between the supervisor you ... View the full answer