The Institutional Affiliation
Besides professional skills and personal characteristics, there is one thing that makes a difference between a good and a bad manager. It is the ability to act thoroughly and deliberately in delicate and complicated situations. They happen in every workplace, however, not every supervisor knows how do deal with similar difficulties.
An example of such situation could be finding out that a branch manager has been wholesale purchasing health products and selling the products out of their personal clinic at a reduced price. If another manager reported such a problem to me, I would consider all the details and plan my actions:
1. It is important not to take hasty actions, call the person and threaten to fire them, etc. I will try to be objective and make sure not to miss a single circumstance. If I faced a situation where one employee reports about another, I would check both profiles. One cannot deny the fact that both managers have personal conflicts and one of them decided to get even at work.
2. I will visit the personal clinic the branch manager has been selling the products at and find out as much information as possible. It might turn that he only sells specific medicines to a particular group of children, people with disabilities.
3. If the fact of the resale is true and nothing I see in the personal clinic justifies it I will have a meeting with the branch manager who conducts their business behind the company's back. The talk is necessary in any case, however, silence for profit will determine the tone of the conversation.
4. I will try to find out the reason why the branch manager decided to wholesale purchase the health products and sell them out of their personal clinic, for how long they have been doing it, and where did the profit go.
5. If I find out that the action was provoked by a hardship or despair, I will offer my help and support.
6. If I find out that the manager has been simply trying to deceive the company and make a profit I will warn them and reevaluate their performance.
7. I will also have a meeting with other managers and talk to them about problems that exist in the workplace to make sure they do not repeat in the future.
Besides taking measure against the person who broke the policy, in this case, against the manager who has been selling products at the lower price in their own clinic, it is important to remember that a chief of the company is responsible for it too. It might be a sign of the lack of communication, trust, and respect within the workplace. If I face a similar situation, I will also take measures to improve the working environment and establish strong communication lines between the managers and their employees.
