Question

Question text

Susan hires a small construction organization to repair and renovate her hourse. The company assured her that they will deploy 4 workers and complete the work within 5 days.
The construction company assigns a team of 3 workers and 1 supervisor for the repair and renovation work. The supervisor informs the manager that he has heard rumors about substance abuse issues of one of the assigned workers. Supervisor is concerned that he may not be able to complete the work on time due to substance abuse issues.
What should the manager do? Select all that apply.

Select one or more:

a. The manager should investigate and confirm if the rumored worker is a substance abuser.

b. Manger should terminate the worker if the investigation confirms substance abuse by the worker.

c. Investigation is unnecessary. The manager should immediately terminate the rumored worker because he can become a safety concern for everybody including himself.

d. Manager should start looking for a new reliable worker to add to the team.

e. If the investigation reveals that the worker was a substance abuser but has gone through a rehab cycle and is now clean, the worker can be retained in the team.

f. Manager should discuss the organization policy regarding substance abuse with the worker.

g. A worker with a history of substance abuse is likely to go back to substance abuse even if they are clean now. Manager should terminate the worker's employment and assign a new team member.

You are working as a content writer in a publishing company. You need to submit a document that was scheduled for delivery to client today and you have an appointment with a doctor for your Mother's health condition. You manage to complete the assigned tasks and leave for the scheduled appointment. While you are waiting at the doctor's chamber for your turn, you recive a call from your supervisor. Your supervisor tells you about the mistakes found in your document and asks you to send the revised document as soon as possible. You can not work on the revisions until you reach home and you have a planned leave for the next two days.
What would you do? Selct all that apply.

Select one or more:

a. Inform the supervisor that you are out for a medical appointment and will be able to work on the revisions only after you reach home.

b. Request the supervisor to send her review comments and inform her that you are out for a medical appointment and will be able to work on the revisions only after you reach home.

c. After you reach home, evaluate your supervisor's comments, research for content if required, revise the document and send back the revised document to your supervisor.

d. Create a checklist for the repertitive mistakes. Send the checklist to your supervisor for validation and share the checklist with other writers in the team. Make a note for yourself to not repeat the same mistakes in any other document.

e. After you reach home, evaluate your supervisor's comments, identify the source of the error. Send an email to your supervisor citing the reasons and source of the errors.

f. Send a note to the supervisor that you will be able to revise the document only after the content sources are corrected and that you have written to the sources for correction.

Question text

You are working as a project manager and you have been asked to take over a project from another project manager. The project had received multiple escalation emails from client stakeholders. After you take over the project, among other issues, you are primarily concerned about high Absenteeism in the project team and absenteeism without any intimation.
How would you address the issue of absenteeism? Select all that apply.

Select one or more:

a. Speak to the team about the impact of absenteeism on the project.

b. Make the team members responsible and accountable for deliverables on a specific date irrespective of their absenteeism

c. Set rules for absenteeism and communicate the rules to all team members,

d. Ensure the rules are followed by team members. If any team member flouts the rules, ensure that the disciplinary action stated in the rule book is applied.

e. Distribute the tasks assigned to the absentee to other team members. Ask them to speak to the absentee about the additional tasks they had to take because of the absentee.

f. Speak to the absentees when they come back to office. Remind them about the rules for absenteeism without intimation.

Answer 1

Q-1: What should the manager do? Select all that apply.

A: The options that the manager should apply here are:

a. The manager should investigate and confirm if the rumored worker is a substance abuser.

e. If the investigation reveals that the worker was a substance abuser but has gone through a rehab cycle and is now clean, the worker can be retained in the team.

f. Manager should discuss the organization policy regarding substance abuse with the worker.

Reasons: A good manager does not take decisions or action solely based on rumours even if coming from a supervisor who is a senior member of the team. However, since the manager has been warned/alerted by the supervisor against a member of the team, the manager should not ignore it and he should investigate into the matter and arrive at the facts before taking any decision/action against the team member. Rumours and gossip cannot be considered proof and are arbitrary and can also have vested interests involved against someone and so must be confirmed based on a fair investigation and proof. If the concerned team member is confirmed to be a substance abuser in the past but has undergone a rehabilitation programme and is presently clean, there is no satisfactory ground for his termination. Everyone must be given a chance to prove themselves and everyone makes mistakes in the past. There is nothing on record that the concerned team member has committed any misconduct while at his present job and can't be terminated without any ground/s. A good manager can have leadership qualities and show empathy and fairness by considering humanitarian and compassionate grounds. However, a formal recorded interview with the concerned employee preferably with the HR present would serve to create awareness and emphasize and/or reinforce the company policy against certain misconduct issues like substance abuse and also serve as a warning of future disciplinary action in the event of any non-compliance by the concerned team member. If the supervisor finds during the course of the project that the concerned team member is creating issues pertaining to his performance or conduct, then it can be taken up for investigation as and when on a situational basis with the manager for further action accordingly. But, as of now, this course of action would be fair and in accordance with the principles of natural justice.

Q-2: What would you do? Select all that apply.

A: The content writer should:

b. Request the supervisor to send her review comments and inform her that you are out for a medical appointment and will be able to work on the revisions only after you reach home.

c. After you reach home, evaluate your supervisor's comments, research for content if required, revise the document and send back the revised document to your supervisor.

Reasons: The requirement was to address an urgent need to correct a document and send it back to the supervisor as soon as possible. But, since the content writer is currently indisposed by being at the doctor for his/her mother's appointment, he/she should politely inform the supervisor on the same and seek little time. This is a constructive way of dealing with feedback from a senior by not getting defensive by blaming others like sources. Since the content writer will be on leave for the next two days, it is not required for the content writer to prepare any checklists at this point of time and also first check with the supervisor if they would like to receive such a checklist before sending it since it would be appropriate to obtain prior permission given that a supervisor should be concerned with its preparation rather than a team member. One can make a checklist or note to oneself as that would be okay as no one else would know or be concerned with it.

Q-3: How would you address the issue of absenteeism? Select all that apply.

A: The issue of absenteeism can be addressed by applying the following:

a. Speak to the team about the impact of absenteeism on the project.

c. Set rules for absenteeism and communicate the rules to all team members,

d. Ensure the rules are followed by team members. If any team member flouts the rules, ensure that the disciplinary action stated in the rule book is applied.

e. Distribute the tasks assigned to the absentee to other team members. Ask them to speak to the absentee about the additional tasks they had to take because of the absentee.

f. Speak to the absentees when they come back to office. Remind them about the rules for absenteeism without intimation.

Reasons: Absenteeism is major cause for project delays and given the number of client stakeholder emails, this issue of misconduct must be urgently addressed to regain clients trust and confidence in the project team. Since the project manager has newly taken over the project, it would be a good opportunity for the project manager to lay down a few ground rules and have team meetings to discuss and address it with a clean slate. The project manager starting afresh can then implement the rules in order to ensure compliance and reinforce discipline and project deadlines. A project should not suffer so assigning extra work on an interim basis will be unfair to the team member present but will overall help the project results in terms of not losing time. Also, by getting that project team member to talk to the absentee will act as peer pressure to follow the rules and not be absent, when everyone has to do extra work when others are absent they will feel the pinch and pressure their peers/colleagues to comply with rules and be present. This is way of empowering groups and making them more self directed and controlled to monitor and control each others performance as group disciplinary pressure. In the long run, the group will become more self managed and cohesive once the issues have settled down. Speaking to absentees is very important to reinforce rules and warn on any misconduct so it does not go unaddressed.