1. Using consequential, rule-based, and character theories, evaluate Sarahs options.
   1. What should Sarah do? Why?

SCENARIO:

Sarah Kovacs supervises a team of ten employees in the human resources department of Paddington, Inc. She strives to match each member of her teams strengths with appropriate tasks, and for the last five years, Sarah has created a pleasant working environment for everyone.

The newest member of her team, Kim Evans, excels at meeting deadlines and works at a level above her peers. However, since she was hired a year ago, Kim has managed to find problems or downsides to everything, and never fails to share her moody nit-picking with others. Often, Kim points out legitimate issues that need to be dealt with, but she does it with an air of negativity and misery that stymies the teams enthusiasm and puts Sarah in a challenging position from which to motivate her team. Sarahs frustration has become difficult to contain, and meetings with Kim have not produced any change in her attitude.

Last week in her supervisors meeting, Sarah became aware of a position opening up in the marketing department that requires the skills at which Kim excels. The position hasnt been advertised yet, but Sarah thinks that she could fast-track Kim into an interview.

However, Sarah knows that Kims negative effect will possibly be an even greater problem for the marketing department, because of that teams interaction with Paddingtons clientele. Not only could Kim sour her new teams relationships, but she could also pass that negativity onto current and potential clients. Of course, Sarahs never seen Kim dealing with clientsKim may have the ability to set aside her negative outlook when necessary. But shes certainly seen Kim openly criticize Paddingtons policies to her peers and in front of Sarah and other managers. Shes heard Kim complain about workloads, vacation time, cafeteria food, the weather .

But if Kim gets the position on the marketing team, the HR team could begin to function again as a cohesive group with focus and vision. Sarah is not sure what would be best for Paddington and her department or what she should do.