Setting

City Hospital is a public, 500-bed hospital located in a major northern U.S. city.

The hospital caters to many indigent clients, but it is known for its strong medical

residency program and research conducted in conjunction with the medical school.

Characters

Maria Rawls, employee

Juan Gonzalez, immediate supervisor

Connie Grant, manager

Gary Tibbitts, human resource manager

Situation Background

Maria Rawls has been working in the accounting department of City Hospital

for 18 months. Before that, she worked as an accountant in her uncle’s small

accounting firm.While at City Hospital, Maria’s performance evaluations have been low to average.So far, she has received three periodic performance evaluations and a 2 percent raise that was given to all employees. Maria, however,  did not receive a merit raise that was awarded to some of the higher-performing  employees in her department.Maria has not been able to keep up with the procedures involved with the new accounting software the hospital recently purchased. She has fallen behind with her work despite working late. Maria must frequently consult the operating manual for the accounting software, although none of her co-workers seem to be having the same problems learning the new software.

Maria’s previous supervisor at City Hospital seemed more willing to work

with Maria and overlook some of her performance deficiencies. Maria’s new

supervisor, Juan Gonzalez, appears to have more stringent standards and has

come to the HR department requesting assistance with respect to resolving

Maria’s performance issues.

Maria’s Background

Maria has been working at City Hospital for 18 months. This is her first job after

completing your Master of Accountancy degree at State University. She are taking the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) examination in stages and has already completed two sections. Thus far, she has passed one section and failed

one section. Accounting has never been her passion, but Maria wanted a stable profession. While working on her degree, she were employed part-time as an accountant in her uncle’s small accounting firm. Maria got along really well with her previous boss at City Hospital. She gave Maria work she knew that Maria could handle, even though the official job description could have required Maria to perform additional (and unfamiliar) tasks. However, Maria’s new boss, Juan, is not as easy going. Maria doesn’t like Juan, and Maria thinks that he is out to get her. Also, Maria’s having a hard time learning the new accounting software that was recently installed by the hospital. Earlier this week, Maria had a meeting with Juan to go over her recent performance appraisal. During this meeting, Juan highlighted that she were late with 5 percent of her weekly reports and that she had an error rate that was 2.5 percent higher than the rest of the department. He also noted that she has not fully learned the new accounting software. Moreover, he commented that it seems as though Maria is taking a long time to obtain your CPA designation. A few days later, Juan told Maria that he wants to meet with her, his immediate supervisor (Connie Grant, the manager of the accounting department) and the HR manager (Gary Tibbitts) to discuss putting her on a PIP. Needless to say, Maria is quite upset about being put on a PIP, but realizes she has no choice but to go along with it until she can find another job.

Questions

1. What seem to be the key performance criteria that Juan is using? Are they appropriate? Are these objective or subjective? 

2. Is Juan doing anything illegal? Explain why you think he is or is not.

3. Determine what the PIP plan for Maria needs to contain. Then determine what resources, if any, which the organization needs to expend to help Maria. 

4. If you were the HR manager, what else should you do to resolve the situation? Come up with at least two different alternatives that could be used if Maria’s performance is not better after the PIP. These alternatives should not involve firing Maria. Also create a plan that addresses Juan’s behavior & attitude.