Analyze the case

Traver~ Hospital: The Personnel Department Secretary

Background

Travers Oh!o is considered primarily an agricultural community with severaJ medium-sized

?1anu~actun_ng plants. The only hospital facility immediately accessible to the town ' s thirty thousand
inhabitants 1s Tra~ers Community Hospital , which has 190 beds. At the time of this case this hospital
employed approx1mately 530 full-time employees, a large percentage of whom were born and raised in
the Travers area.
. Kenneth Warner, administrator came to Travers Hospital three years ago from a much larger
hospital located in a major city in northern Ohio where he had been the administrator for about eight
years . A man in bis early forties, Mr. Warner felt that at a community hospital in a smaller town he would
have the opportunity to manage and control the operations of the hospital more personally. Mr. Warner
S-Ought to please as many of the employees as possible and therefore he was very sensitive to comments
made by the hospital employees related to the adm inistration ·s style of management.
Herbert Lyon, personnel manager was also relatively new to Travers Hospital having arrived only
a year and a half earlier from a personnel job at an industrial plant in a nearby town. Mr. Lyon made it a
daily practice to walk through the hospital , once in the morning and once in the afternoon, stopping
briefly to talk with various employees. Mr. Lyon believed this to be a good way of ''getting a feel" for
what the employees were thinking and that this would enable them to get to know him better. He came to
understand very well the unusual closeness that existed among many of the hospital ' s employees. who
were long-Lenn residents of Travers.
~ancy Columbus was very much a part of the hospital ' s "family atmosphere." She had been
raised on a farm j u.st outside of Travers, and she and her husband finance their own rodeo show that they
took on weekend tours.
Nancy had received secretarial training in high school and was a proficient typist. However,
Nancy' s first job at the hospital was as a receptionist and 5'Vitchboard operator. She was a very talkative
person and she enjoyed her work especially because she was able to keep in touch with the "grapev ine
new•·_After working in this position for about two years, Nancy decided to apply for one of the clerical
positions in the personnel department. She was very happy when she received the position, because it paid
more than her previous position. She was very good at her work, which consisted primarily of general
clerical duties re lated to employee records and compensation. After two years in this job, Nancy was
promoted to the position of secretary to Mr. Lyon . Nancy was thrilled with her promotion not only
because of the increase in her salary but also because she was now permitted to sit in the biweekly
executive management meetings at which she took minutes for the management group consisting of Mr.
Warner, Mr. Lyon and six department heads. Nancy had always wondered what these meetings were like
and now she was able to be part of them .
The Problem

Nancy Columbus ' s position in the personnel department enabled her to stay in close commun icat ion with
many of her employee friends . Nancy \\as known throughout the hospital as being ··softhea1ted" and
always "sticking up for the underdog". Because of her reputation, from time to time her fr iends would
drop by her office with their various complaints about low wages, short vacations, denied loan
applications and an;,thing ele not to their liking. Usually they would ask Nancy if there was someth ing
she could do to help them . Nancy enjoyed the fact that many of the employees came directly to her in th is
manner and at times she felt very much like a "mother hen" to these people. For the most part. she \\Ould
bring any employee complaints that she received to Mr. Lyon on behalf of that employee. Mr. Lyon \\as
very patient v.ith Nancy when she acted in this manner but after a while he told Nancy that instead of her
becoming involved in employees complaiJts, she should arrange an appointment for an) one who wishes
rn di)Cuss their concerns with him privately. Nancy decided not to follow Mr. Lyon ' s suggestion , for she
feared that doing so "'·ould cause man y of the employee s to no longe r con1id~ in her. As time went on.
~ancy referred only thos.e employees who specifically asked to sec Mr. Lyon and to all others she offered
her ov.n suggestions and advice .

J
 During this part' , I .
employees Tl • · ,cu ar summer, a local union reprcscnrMivc; rn;idc crmtac.:t wirh the hr,.,pit-11
· Hs was a · fi . ·
activities qu · kl ' new experience or practically all the cmplc,yccs. Ncwr; ()f the unirm ' •1 r1 rwmiz1n~
issued ' IC ~ reached Mr. Warner's office and subseq uently report-. () f union cc,ntact·, becam e a tr, p J
we. I iscussed
. in ti le b'iwee kl Y executive
. • management
, . g<i. ,rhe mcmher'i r,f the admin1
mccf111 . .r; tn:i t1vc
. team
"h 'e 10ping the e I Id . . .
mp oyees wou not Join a union and they disused variowi -,tratcgie'I by which th ey
h op~d to keep the union out." Nancy Columbus became very puzzled over thi., attitude on the part r,f the
Ospital administration . bid they not want to help their employees? The more the topic wa '! di 'iCU<i<;(;-0 , the
more Nancy came to believe that the hospital managers had no intention of helping the ho<,pital \
employees achieve some of the benefits they desired and that management wou ld rather ignore the
employees. Maybe a union was needed to force the management to listen . thought Nancy. She kept hc."T'
thoughts to herself however during the Management meetings she attended.
A week later as Mr. Warner the adm inistrator came to work one morn ing he was greded in the
halls with repeated glares from many of the employees. When he arrived at his office, hie; ~ retary
announced to him that the management was out to get the employees who wanted a union, and that the
management would close the hospital if necessary to prevent the employees from unionizing." Mr.
Warner became worried and he wondered what he or any other member of the management had done t[J
create such an idea on employee 's minds. With in a few minutes Mr. Lyon walked Mr. Wa rden r, office
with the answer. Earlier that morning Lyon had overheard his secretary Nancy discu ss ing the union
situation with the fellow employee on telephone. Lyon said, "Many of the things Nancy was telling thi;;
woman were distorted excepts from what we were discussing in yesterdays management meeting. I don·r
think she was distorting what she said on purpose. She just doesn't understand the way in which
management must operate."
Lyon undertook an investigation to learn more about Nancy 's possible involvement in the
situation. He asked her to come into his office, where the followin g conversation took place.

LYON : Nancy I'm troubled by the hostile employee attitude that I and other management people
encountered in the hospital today. Can you tell me anyth ing about it?
NANCY : Well Mr. Lyon they have a right to be hostile after what you and Mr. Warner and other :xiid
about their attempts to organize a union and the requests they are mak ing. After all, those people need
some sort of protection against the outrageous and arbitrary demands made on them by some of the
doctors, nurses and supervisors around here!
Besides, their request for IO percent wage increase, increased medical benefits, better rest rooms,
laboratories and improved pensions are only fair. Even with 10 percent increase they will be makin g onl y
about 75 percent of what people working in the other two companies in town are making.
You and Mr. Warner said terrible things about two of the employees who are trying to organ ize
the union . You should be ashamed of yourselves for saying what you did about the two women involved .
It sounded to me yesterday as though you actually resented their taking some initiate in improving wages
and working conditions around here.
LYON : Nancy, did you speak to the employees about the conversation in our management meeting?
NANCY : Well, of course I did . After all, they are part of the hospital too.
LYON: Nancy, those meetings are confidential. You violated a very important trust we had placed in you
as a management representative
NANCY : What harm can that do? We should be open and honest wi th people around here. After all th is is
an institution where we can help and heal people, not keep them under our thumb.
Lyon terminated the interview at that point, telling Nancy not to discuss yesterday 's management
meeting or any other matter concerning the union organization campaign with anyone else in the
hospital. He pondered what he should do next.