Kaplan University
Effective Listening
1. I don't think Alan is actively listening during his interviews. He is giving the two employees his full attention but he is not investing any effort with either employee to reach a mutual understanding. When Gretchen tells Alan her barrier, he does not work with her or try to understand her at all. He does not tell her to try her best to improve her paice while keeping up the good quality. He just tells her to speed up or they would have to let her go. When the male employee explained his situation Alan had nothing to say at all besides its not the time to talk about personal problems. The male employee tried to reach out Alan and hoped he would understand and explained he makes up for the time he missed and Alan did not comment on it at all.
2. Alan said that he does not enjoy doing performance interviews. He feels that he is inadequate for the task and that the employees don't appreciate hearing his honesty like they should. He also feels its awkward when people bring up personal issues and that it is not his place to deal with them. I believe alan’s thoughts about his job affect his performance because if he feels awkward dealing with personal issues then he will not be able to understand or relate when people are explaining them. Its hard to take other peoples feelings into consideration when you feel you “shouldn't have to deal with them”. Since Alan feels inadequate for the job and that people do not like his feedback, he is going into the interviews with a bad attitude. This factors a negative atmosphere for his employees. When each of them were explaining what their issues were it caused Alan to seem unappreciative of them.
3. After Gretchen explained to Alan she was working slowly so that her work had good quality, instead of reaching an understanding with her her said “look, i don't want to lose you but you need to pick up the paise”. This statement shows he is not listening effectively. He basically threatened her job instead of coming to an agreement. I don't see effective listening taking place with the male employee either because after explaining the situation with