3. INTRODUCTION
Fran Gilson is a regional manager who has spent 15 years with
a national retail grocery chain starting as a part-time cashier,
while attending the University.
Five weeks ago, she contacted recruiter enquiring about her
position of Vice President for a national drugstore chain.
She was ready to take all responsibility an handling 100-stores
in 5 states.
Ken Hamilton, the Director of Finance for the grocer chain was
the only good friend and colleague of Fran in her present
company.
Fran recommended Kens name for the reference of her past
job.
4. Jennifer Chung was a financial analyst in
Ken’s department since 5 month and Fran met
Jennifer threw Ken.
Ken was a person who knew that she was
considering another job.
Jennifer came to Fran’s office and said that
Ken began making off-color comments to her.
5. Fran must take action. She and the
company are now legally exposed, plus
this is a very serious accusation. Since
Jennifer is not her employee nor does she
have reporting authority over Ken, she
needs to take this to H.R. She should not
investigate the claim on her own, nor
should she contact Ken and give him a
warning that HR is investigating, as this
could compromise her later.
6. Ken holds tremendous power over Fran since he has
information that she does not want her bosses to know about. If
she acts against Ken, passes this on the HR, or doesn’t warn
Ken informally, he could see it as a betrayal and reveal her job
possibility with the other company.
7. By giving the issue to HR, Fran has fulfilled her obligation
both legal and ethical to the organization and to Jennifer. She
can ask HR and Jennifer to leave her out of the process, which
is proper since she is not in the chain of command dealing with
the incidents, and, because she is Ken’s friend, HR would not
want her involved.
8. If I were Fran:
I recommend that taking Jennifer to H.R., ask H.R.
and Jennifer to not involve me and explain the
personal relationship with Ken.
I can’t even offer solace to Jennifer as that would
constitute improper involvement.
I would call the recruiter, ask if he had talked with
Ken yet and how long it would be until a decision.
9. Depending on the recruiter’s response, I would
say there was a probability that the job offer was
likely to become public information due to
unforeseen circumstances.
Finally, I would prepare to tell my current bosses
that I had been approached about another job.
I might wait a short time before revealing this to
my bosses, but to do this would defuse and take
power from Ken if he decided to retaliate, this
should build my equity.