Instructions
Read Chapter 31 – Case: Why Are They Noisy Alone and Quiet Together? Answer the 4 questions for the case. APA format.
As a new supervisor hired from outside the hospital, it took you very little time to learn the morale in the department had been low for some time. As you started getting acquainted with your employees by meeting with them individually, you quickly became inundated with complaints and various other evidence of discontent. Most of the gripes concerned perceived problems with administration and building services, but there were also a significant number of complaints by your staff about other employees in the department and some thinly veiled charges suggesting that a couple of staff members have consistently been complaining about the department to your boss. [Your boss has said nothing to you about this.]
It sounded to you as though a number of common themes ran through the group’s complaints, and it seemed to you that a number of differences could be cleared up by airing these issues with the entire group. You planned a meeting for that purpose, instructing all employees to be prepared to air their complaints (except for those directly involving other staff members.) Your employees seemed to believe this was a reasonable idea, and several led you to believe they would be happy to speak up.
However, your meeting turned out to be brief. Hard as you tried to get people to air their gripes, nobody spoke. /You tried again 2 weeks later, with the same results: No one uttered a word of complaint. Yet all the while the negative undercurrents continued to circulate through the department.
Questions:
Why do you suppose you get only silence from these employees when you attempt to deal with them as a group? Why might the complaints that several of your employees raised involving administration and building services be a reasonable place to start working on this group’s communication problems? How long do you believe it will take to bring this group around to where you need them to be? Why? Is this the best way to deal with problems? What other alternatives can be used instead of a group meeting?