Question

Ron Davis, the relatively new general manager of the machine tooling group at Parker Manufacturing, was visiting one of the plants. He scheduled a meeting with Mike Leonard, a plant manager who reported to him.

RON: Mike, I’ve scheduled this meeting with you because I’ve been reviewing performance data, and I wanted to give you some feedback. I know we haven’t talked face-to-face before, but I think it’s time we review how you’re doing. I’m afraid that some of the things I have to say are not very favorable.

MIKE: Well, since you’re the new boss, I guess I’ll have to listen. I’ve had meetings like this before with new people who come in my plant and think they know what’s going on.

RON: Look, Mike, I want this to be a two-way interchange. I’m not here to read a verdict to you, and I’m not here to tell you how to do your job. There are just some areas for improvement I want to review.

MIKE: OK, sure, I’ve heard that before. But you called the meeting. Go ahead and lower the boom.

RON: Well, Mike, I don’t think this is lowering the boom. But there are several things you need to hear. One is what I noticed during the plant tour. I think you’re too chummy with some of your female personnel. You know, one of them might take offense and level a sexual harassment suit against you.

MIKE: Oh, come on. You haven’t been around this plant before, and you don’t know the informal, friendly relationships we have. The office staff and the women on the floor are flattered by a little attention now and then.

RON: That may be so, but you need to be more careful. You may not be sensitive to what’s really going on with them. But that raises another thing I noticed—the appearance of your shop. You know how important it is in Parker to have a neat and clean shop. As I walked through this morning, I noticed that it wasn’t as orderly and neat as I would like to see it. Having things in disarray reflects poorly on you, Mike.

MIKE: I’ll stack my plant up against any in Parker for neatness. You may have seen a few tools out of place because someone was just using them, but we take a lot of pride in our neatness. I don’t see how you can say that things are in disarray. You’ve got no experience around here, so who are you to judge?

RON: Well, I’m glad you’re sensitive to the neatness issue. I just think you need to pay attention to it, that’s all. But regarding neatness, I notice that you don’t dress like a plant manager. I think you’re creating a substandard impression by not wearing a tie, for example. Casualness in dress can be used as an excuse for workers to come to work in really grubby attire. That may not be safe.

MIKE: Look, I don’t agree with making a big separation between the managers and the employees. By dressing like people out on the shop floor, I think we eliminate a lot of barriers. Besides, I don’t have the money to buy clothes that might get oil on them every day. That seems pretty picky to me.

RON: I don’t want to seem picky, Mike. But I do feel strongly about the issues I’ve mentioned. There are some other things, though, that need to get corrected. One is the appearance of the reports you send into division headquarters. There are often mistakes, misspellings, and, I suspect, some wrong numbers. I wonder if you are paying attention to these reports. You seem to be reviewing them superficially.

MIKE: If there is one thing we have too much of, it’s reports. I could spend three- quarters of my time filling out report forms and generating data for some bean counter in headquarters. We have reports coming out our ears. Why don’t you give us a chance to get our work done and eliminate all this paperwork?

RON: You know as well as I do, Mike, that we need to carefully monitor our productivity, quality, and costs. You just need to get more serious about taking care of that part of your responsibility.

MIKE: OK. I’m not going to fight about that. It’s a losing battle for me. No one at headquarters will ever decrease their demand for reports. But, listen, Ron, I also have one question for you.

RON: OK. What’s that?

MIKE: Why don’t you go find somebody else to pick on? I need to get back to work.

Q: What principles of supportive communication and supportive listening are violated in this case??

i want answer this question with refrences and name of someone you based your answer and information on his/her

Answer 1

If we had a keen observation on the way of communication from the starting it has violated several Principles. Mike tends to be defensive from the starting of the communication and continued Until the end in response to the way that Ron Started the communication. Ron may use the principle of evaluative communication rather than descriptive communication. Ron may have explained to Mike how and what he is expecting in particular rather than evaluating the way how Mike running the plant. This may provide an opportunity for Mike to reconsidering his ways of doing the work as per the suggestions according to Mike, and he may not feels blaming by the Ron. The next principle is Ron focused mainly on person-oriented Rather than Problem-Oriented, due to this from starting onwards Mike believes in the perspective of Ron he is a problem. If Ron Concentrates on Problems then both will discuss that and they could get it resolved. Further throughout the conversation Ron was discussed what Mike was doing wrong, never told what he is doing right, so validates vs. invalidates.

Moreover, Ron and Mike both are having issues with listening, throughout the conversation, no one listens to what the other is trying to say. Mike was completely deflecting and not responding, Ron had neither did any probing nor deflecting to what mike was Said.

Reference:

Drewery, W. (2004). Conferencing in schools: Punishment, restorative justice, and the productive importance of the process of conversation. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 14(5), 332-344.