Mr. Afriyie is the Head of a team consisting of six officers with varied job responsibilities. He is a very agreeable fellow, warm, and a devotee of Civil Service rules and regulations. He operates an open-door policy and has frequent one-onone sessions with his team. He tries to run his office in a manner that makes each staff feel part of a productive team. By and large, Mr. Afriyie does much of what Page 2 of 6 is expected of supervisors. However, he does not believe in cracking the whip even when an officer misbehaves arguing that being sociable with them keeps morale high. Over time, Mr. Afriyie developed a strong affinity for two of his officers, namely, Kwaku Afriyie who bears his name and Kwabena Acquah who comes from his hometown. He found that he enjoyed being with them, beyond talking about official matters. This led to a strong bond among the three resulting in having lunch, going out after a day's work for some bottles of beer, watching football matches together, and, of course, chatting up a storm. The remaining four officers became aware of this relationship. They felt excluded and naturally, reasoned that Mr. Afriyie preferred Kwaku and Kwabena to the rest of the team members. They firmly believed that Mr. Afriyie was no longer fair and impartial in managing the whole team. One of the excluded team members, Kofi, finally went to Mr. Afriyie and expressed his opinion that Kwaku and Kwabena were being held to different standards from the remaining four team members. Somewhat startled by this perception of things, Mr. Afriyie said there was no special treatment being accorded to either Kwaku or Kwabena. Regardless of what Mr. Afriyie thought of his relationship with Kwaku and Kwabena, it did not matter nearly as much as what the rest of the team thought. Mr. Afriyie reacted by abruptly cutting off his lunches and after-hours get togethers with Kwaku and Kwabena. They could not understand what the sudden change in their supervisor’s behaviour was all about because they both considered Mr. Afriyie as a friend. As human beings, they were deeply hurt and felt that the trust in their friendship had been violated. Predictably, these events made the working relationship between Mr. Afriyie and the two strained. Page 3 of 6 Questions

Based on your understanding of the broader Civil Service regulatory frameworks answer the following: 

(i) Identify five issues inherent in this scenario. 

(ii) Explain three of the issues with their implications on the performance of the office as well as possible remedies. 

(iii) If you were Mr. Afriyie, how differently would you have reacted to the allegation of bias?