Role Play - II

Brief for Amit Nath, Auditor

You are Amit Nath, an Auditor in the Management Assurance Services Team. You report to R. Srinivas, an Audit Manager in your team. You have been in this team for about a year now. You come with a good experience in the areas you handle here. Last month has been very challenging for you. Nitesh Mehta, VP-Finance of one of the key departments, whose audit you have undertaken, has not provided you information even after repeated follow-ups. It is more than three weeks now. If he delays any more, you are sure of missing the set timeline. You informed Srinivas of it over phone last week. He wrote an email to Nitesh, but that did not help. Yesterday when you spoke to Srinivas he was extremely upset with you. You wonder what else you could have done. In the last three weeks you followed up 3-4 times, made calls, wrote e-mails. If Nitesh is not responding, how you are responsible for missing the timeline. Srinivas was of the opinion that you did not push hard. You just made some routine follow-ups and calls. He went to the extent of telling you that you did not know how to seek information in time in the kind of role you are handling. You think you did what best you could have without damaging the relationship. It was Srinivas only who would always emphasized on building rapport and relationships as key to get information in your function. Pushing any hard would have been being impolite and aggressive. This would have reflected badly on your interpersonal relationship. You fail to understand why on earth others do not understand their responsibilities in this company. Nitesh is responsible for this delay and Srinivas should escalate the matter and take Nitesh to task rather than him. You are frustrated. You called Srinivas in the morning for a meeting. You are waiting in the conference room for Srinivas.

Brief for R. Srinivas, Audit Manager

You are R. Srinivas, an Audit Manager in the Management Assurance Services Team. You have been in the company for the last three years. Amit Nath is an Auditor who reports to you. Amit has been a part of your team for about a year now. One of the audits Amit is responsible for has been a matter of concern for you. Its almost three weeks and Amit has not been able to get information from Nitesh Mehta, VP-Finance of one of the key departments, whose audit he was given. You are afraid that you are likely to miss the timelines if there is any more delay. You fail to understand why Amit has not been able to get the details till now. He had informed you last week and you wrote a courtesy mail to Nitesh on this, but it is for Amit to ensure to get the information in time. Amit informed you on e-mail that he had sent multiple reminders to Nitesh, yet he was not sending the details. You wonder whether reminders are enough to get information in your function. Success in these roles depends largely on building rapport, creating trust, a level of comfort, continuously strengthening relationship and a collaborative approach. You are strongly of the opinion that Amit doesnt understand what it takes to be successful in this kind of a role. You spoke to him earlier also on this, but it doesnt seem to work. You have never understood the rule-book approach of Amit in handling such situations. Amit doesnt assert. He doesnt push others hard to get information maintaining the relationship. He doesnt invest in building rapport and relationships. You are afraid that this would not only impact your performance but also the growth and development of Amit. When Amit called you in the morning today for a meeting to this discuss this, you readily agreed. Amit is waiting for you in the conference room.