Page 91 - Communication in Organizations Basic Skills and Conversation Models

10
Breaking bad news

Practical example

Now that Carl Campbell, the Assistant F&B Manager, has found another job, headwaiter
Ronald Rosenthal sees his chance. He has already been headwaiter for six years and he
has always been able to see from close by how Carl organized his tasks. That is why he is
pretty sure that the choice of a successor for Carl is little more than a formality. He will
of course immediately be taken into consideration. Meanwhile, surely the directors and
F&B Manager are convinced of his capabilities.
In reality it is not quite as he thinks. Director Freddy Fortune and F&B Manager Harry
Haddock have already learned from Carl that Ronald wants to come in soon to talk about
his successor. Ronald himself has even made a couple of remarks to Harry Haddock on
several occasions which show that he thinks he has a good chance of succeeding Carl.
But although Freddy and Harry find that Ronald does an excellent job as head waiter,
they have come to the conclusion that he does not have the capabilities to fulfil the
position of Assistant F&B Manager. It is true that he has enough experience in giving
leadership to a team of temporary waiters, but they are afraid that he has too little insight
to give adequate leadership when undertaking various big commissions. Also, in their
opinion, he has too little experience in negotiating. Large amounts of money are usually
involved and they consider it too big a risk to the organization if an inexperienced person
conducts the negotiations.
Their decision has been made because of these reasons. An external application
process is to be started. However, it is also necessary to tell Ronald the truth as soon as
possible. The longer he lives with the illusion that he will succeed Carl, the greater the
disappointment will be when eventually he sees that this is not to be the case. They
arrange that Harry Haddock should invite Ronald for a conversation and tell him that in
this case there is no chance of promotion to a higher position. Harry realizes that this is
bad news for Ronald.

Introduction

In the practical example above, Harry Haddock is confronted with the tricky situation
where he must deliver bad news. We give a number of other examples:

• The mentor of a trainee in the company must inform the trainee that he is to get a
negative grading.
• A leader must tell a staff member that his temporary job will not be made permanent.