Question

Question text

Scenario: Company X recently hired two employees to fill the newly designed role of quality assurance. The new employees implemented a quality monitoring process. Mr. G has been managing the department for four years without issues. Recently, several quality issues have occurred. Mr. G. is certain that the new quality assurance employees are causing the issues because the other three employees had been working at X for four or more years.
The assistant manager tells Mr. G. that he is not sure it is the two new employees causing the issues because they had experience in quality and seem to find all the errors. The tenured employees maintain that they know their jobs and do not have a history of making mistakes.
The director of the department is tired of the excuses and told Mr. G. that he wants the problem solved and wants to see data to support the solution in two weeks.
Is Mr. G. displaying bias? Why or why not?

Select one:

a. Yes. Mr. G. is certain that the new quality assurance employees are causing the issues because the other three employees had been working at X for four or more years.

b. Yes. Mr. G has been managing the department for four years without issues.

c. No. Mr. G. is certain that the new quality assurance employees are causing the issues because the other three employees had been working at X for four or more years.

d. No. Mr. G has been managing the department for four years without issues.

Question text

Use the six steps of critical thinking process to help Andy with the following situation.
Scenario: Marie and Mark both work in marketing. Mark was hired a few months ago and Marie has been with the company for 12 years.
Mark, while he is talented, waits until the last minute to finish assignments. Marie is more consistent and keeps on top of her assignments. Marie complains that she feels anxious and that she has to worry about Mark's deadlines and her own. Mark and Marie rely on each other for many tasks, and Marie is tired of waiting until the final hour to get assignments completed when they have a project together.
The tension between Marie and Mark has escalated, and Mark is missing more work. Andy, the director of marketing, must use his critical thinking skills to resolve the dispute.
Using your critical thinking skills, which solution would you consider the best option?

Select one:

a. Andy reprimanded Mark for unexcused absences and he explained to Marie that she needed to relax, Mark is getting the work to her before deadline.

b. Marie and Mark agree to plan for working on projects together. The plan has cushion around deadlines so that Mark is not getting tasks completed at the last minute, and Marie has some breathing room.

c. Andy suggested that Marie fib to Mark about deadlines so that he will get his assignments to her in a timeframe that she is comfortable with.

d. Andy arranged for Marie to transfer to another department so that she would not have to work with Mark any longer.

Answer 1

1. Answer:  a. Yes. Mr. G. is certain that the new quality assurance employees are causing the issues because the other three employees had been working at X for four or more years

Rationale: Mr. G is being partial to his 3 employees since they have been in the company longer. If he wasn't showing any bias, he'd only come to a conclusion after analyzing the performance and finding evidence to support his claim. In this situation, even though the employees are new they have had the experience, so when Mr.G thinks it's their fault, he is not being fair.

Option b is not right as that is not the primary basis of his bias in the case.

Options c and d are not right because they state there is no bias but there is clearly a bias in the case.

2. Answer: Marie and Mark agree to plan for working on projects together. The plan has cushion around deadlines so that Mark is not getting tasks completed at the last minute, and Marie has some breathing room.

Rationale: Only when Marie and Mark agree to work with a cushion around the deadlines, their conflict is going to be resolved as Mark won't be completing tasks at the last minute anymore and Marie can still have some breathing room.

In option a when Andy reprimands Mark for Marie missing most of her work, the conflict is not going to be resolved as  Mark might still hold a grudge against Marie. The project might not be handled well because of the unresolved conflicts since Mark would blame Marie for worrying about his deadlines and not completing her work. Hence it is not the right solution.

Option c is a temporary solution as Marie cannot keep lying to Mark every day. Mark is smart and might figure it out and this would pave way for more conflicts. Hence this is not the right solution.

Option d would solve the problem only for Marie. Whoever replaces Marie to work with Mark is eventually going to face the same problems and create another conflict. Therefore, this is not the right solution to resolve the conflict.