Case Study: Foot Blisters

Case Study: Foot Blisters

You've all read Foot Blisters. Gabe, the front desk manager, gets a noise complaint. He goes up to check it out and finds a party going on in a vacant room. He lets himself in and there is Trini in the middle of the party. This situation is the follow-up to Trini asking Jim for a free room for her boyfriend's buddy. Obviously Jim decided to give her the room, and the worst-case scenario has occurred: his thievery was discovered.

Who needs to make a decision here? (Gabe, because he's the manager.) What does he need to do right then and there? (End the party) Then what? (He has to identify the FOI employees at the party and then figure out what to do about all of this, i.e., disciplinary action.) Who should be doing the disciplining? What disciplinary action is appropriate and who should be disciplined?

If Gabe was totally irresponsible he might have decided to join the party, or he could have just ignored the whole thing and told them to keep the noise down and clean up when they were done. Gabe, however, takes his job and responsibility seriously so he took their names and made them all leave the property. He identified Trini as the only FOI employee at the party.

Trini is a housekeeper so it is appropriate to turn the matter of Trini's behavior over to Kathy Lawhorn, the Executive Housekeeper, Trini's supervisor. What else does Gabe have to consider here? How did Trini get into the room? (Someone at the front desk might have allowed this to happen, and that would be Gabe's responsibility.)

It is Gabe's job to manage his department. Front desk staff are not allowed to give out free rooms to fellow workers. Gabe's decision to end the party and turn over the involved FOI employee to her manager is standard operating procedure for an incidence of this nature. It is also part of Gabe's management responsibility to determine whether or not any of his staff were involved in the situation. The employee(s) broke the rules - - reasonable rules, ethical rules. As manager, it is Gabe's job to enforce the rules. If he doesn't, he could rightfully lose his job.

It would certainly by unethical for Gabe to shirk his responsibilities and not enforce the rules. What ethical principles would Gabe be violating if he just ignored the whole incident?(He would be violating Integrity, Trustworthiness, Loyalty, Fairness, Commitment to Excellence, Leadership, Reputation and Morale, and Accountability.) Obviously, doing his job and enforcing the rules was unlikely to pose any big ethical dilemma for Gabe. It is unlikely he felt any need to analyze whether or not he should enforce the rules. There was no question for him; he enforced the rules.

Dry Trini With A Twist

Dry Trini With A Twist is a follow-up to the follow-up of our original situation. This is an example of one unethical decision causing one problem after another. Under threat of termination, Trini told Heidi, Assistant G.M., and Kathy Lawhorn, Executive Housekeeper, that Jim, front desk agent, gave her a card-key to the vacant room.

The above FOI Organizational Chart shows the chains of command. We have two culprits: Trini, who asked for the key and used it, and Jim, who gave her the key. Trini's supervisor is Kathy, and Jim's supervisor is Gabe. What is the decision that needs to be made now? (Who and how to discipline) Who are the stakeholders? (Trini, Kathy, Jim, Gabe, other housekeepers, other front desk agents, other employees, guests, maybe Heidi)

Now, I would like you to consider all the possible decision options. List them. Get creative. Some could be as obvious as Kathy fires Trini, Gabe fires Jim, and variations on that theme. But perhaps you might want to consider an option that would involve Heidi since two departments were involved here. Anyway, think of all options and then select the ones you think are best. Fill out blank Ethics Analysis Forms with your analyses and select the best decision option – the one that has the fewest negative consequences to the fewest stakeholders.

While there are almost always ethical considerations, this may be less an ethical dilemma than a management problem. We can use the same analysis process, though, to determine the most appropriate actions. In situations like this and the last one, it is very useful to have a company policy in place that specifies the appropriate action to take. If a policy is in place, there is no management dilemma either!

Ethics Analysis Form

Decision Option:

Stakeholders / Principles / Consequences

A key for the decision option, "Kathy fires Trini" is included following this discussion. Other options are certainly valid. The option to have Heidi discipline Kathy and Jim is an intriguing idea that might well be explored. There is no absolute right analysis. The keys only serve as examples and guides.

Conclusion

Jim was probably real sorry he gave Trini the room. Had he known what would happen, he probably wouldn't have done it. Had he taken time to think the decision through, he could have determined that it was highly likely he would get caught.

This is the lesson: Think before we act. We have an analysis tool that we can employ to systematically determine all the possible consequences for a decision. We can then choose the decision option that has the least negative consequences.

Any time our decisions violate one or more of the ethical principles, they are likely to result in negative consequences. In management, as in life, it is usually possible and much more pleasant to avoid negative consequences. We just have to think before we act.

KEY - Ethics Analysis Form

Dry Trini With A Twist

Decision Option: Kathy fires Trini

Stakeholders / Principles / Consequences
Trini (Housekeeper) /

• Trini will be out of a job with no reference.
• Could have a negative effect on her relationship with her boyfriend.

Kathy (Exec. Housekeeper)
(Decision Maker) /

• Kathy will be short-handed till she fills the vacant housekeeper position.
• Firing Trini will not be a pleasant management task.
• If Kathy does not fire Trini, she will most likely have to continue to deal with her inappropriate behavior. Other employees could find out what happened and realize that the consequences for doing what Trini did are not too serious, at least if you’re Trini.
• Kathy could lose the respect of her staff if she does not discipline/fire Trini. This could negatively affect her ability to manage.
• Morale could fall, causing an increase in absenteeism and turnover.
• Kathy's credibility with upper management could be diminished if she appears to not have control over her staff. If Kathy doesn't deal appropriately with Trini, she could lose the respect of upper management and even lose her job.

Other employees /

• Other employees would be unlikely to try to use vacant rooms for parties after seeing that Trini was caught and fired for such an activity.
• Other employees could think firing Trini was rather harsh since Jim was the one who actually gave her the key. They could think it was sort of like putting a thief's girlfriend in jail for spending the money he stole. Jim would have to be dealt with appropriately or there could be a fairness issue.
• If Trini was not appropriately disciplined, other employees could get the message that it is okay to do what Trini did. Or,
• They could lose respect for Kathy in that she allowed Trini to get away with something they knew to be wrong.
• If Trini gets away with this, Kathy might be unable to discipline other employees for similar infractions. When staff is allowed to do bad things, morale falls along with service levels and job satisfaction.

Guests /

• If Trini is fired, they might be short-staffed until another housekeeper is hired and trained. This could affect guest service levels.
• If Trini is not disciplined/fired morale could fall and this could negatively affect guest service levels.

FOI /

• If Trini is replaced quickly, there might not be any negative effect to guests or FOI.
• If guests are dissatisfied, word-of-mouth could negatively affect business.