Case 3

Khan Engineering, engineering manager, was beside himself. The problem he faced was complex and highly personal in nature. Yama had been an employee of Khan Engineering for 15 years and had a record of reliable, consistent work. Yama had reported to Khan for two years. However, his performance recently had become so poor that Khan felt Yama must be fired. For one thing, Yama was frequently absent on Mondays despite the company's policy against excessive absences. Once or twice Khan had smelled alcohol on Yama's breath while at work, and he suspended that alcohol was the problem. A couple of other employees had commented on Yama's drinking, but Khan had never personally witnessed Yama drinking excessively.

Khan had talked with Yama about his absences and declining performances. He had asked Yama about his family life, personal life, and working conditions to learn whether any of these were causing the problem. Yama had simply said everything was all right. After the second conversation, Khan wrote a short memorandum specifying his concerns and the memo went into

Yama's personnel file. Yama improved his performance for a couple of weeks, but nothing seemed to have changed permanently.

If alcoholism was Yama's problem, Khan was thinking about alternative solutions. Once would be to fire Yama, because Khan had read that alcoholics lose their jobs and their families before they become motivated to change their behavior. Another would be to confront Yama and accuse of alcoholism to let him know the company was aware of his drinking problem. A third would be to refer Yama to a private counselor or physician for possible rehabilitation. A fourth would be to give Yama one more warning, making it clear that the next absence or lapse in performance would cost him his job. Complicating the problem was Khan's feeling that Yama was a friend as well as a senior employee. However, Khan felt he had to proceed with whatever was best for the company. The company had no clearly defined policy on alcoholism, which made choosing a solution somewhat more difficult. Khan wondered whether he should talk to other senior managers about the problem and seek their guidance and agreement. He also wondered if there were some way he could gather information about the true nature of the problem before deciding on a solution. Frankly, Khan realized he needed to take action, but he just was not sure what to do.

Questions:

1. Is the decision facing Khan Engineering considered routine decision or non-routine decision? In any case, justify your answer.

2. How should Khan proceed to make the decision? Should he investigate the nature of the problem? Should he make a decision among the available alternatives?

3. What would you do in this situation? Why? 2

4. The khan confusion in this case is what type of intrapersonal conflict? Is it

Approach-approach, approach -avoidance or avoidance avoidance ? Justify your answer

Note: The question belongs to Conflict & Negotiation management