By Dr. Martin M. Lwanga
This is how the great fight between two senior managers started. Whenever the Country Director would get annoyed with his Finance Manager for not delivering on an important item, such as submitting a budget on time, he would quickly order his Secretary to write a “strict Memo” to the Finance Manager expressing his concern. “Have it copied to the rest of staff and filed in his personnel file.”
The Country Director’s office happened to be next door. Upon receiving the Memo the Finance Manager would wonder why the Country Director had not called him to explain why the budget had not been delivered on time. And, before he could have time to go down and talk to him, yet another Memo had been delivered.
Alarmed at the number of Memos he was receiving, the Finance Manager resorted to responding to each one of the Memos in writing too. He knew it was within his right to explain himself. Besides, he did not want to be taken unawares since these Memos were being filed in his personnel file
He would also copy them to the rest of staff just as the Country Director had done, some who were his juniors. He was not happy explaining himself to his juniors but then his boss had done so and what was he supposed to do
The relation between the Country Director and Finance Manager increasingly became strained. In fact, the two ceased talking to each other except through Memos. Each time the Country Director was upset about something he would tell the Secretary to jot his concerns and fire a Memo to the Finance Manager. The Finance Manager would also fire back, copying the Memo to just about everybody.
Meanwhile, the rest of staff watched this drama with both fascination and embarrassment. Rumors started flying around the organization that the two senior Managers only talked through Memos. Matters came to head in one Board meeting where the Country Director and Finance Manager started blaming each other in very direct and quiet un-professional language
Easily, it became obvious to one elderly Board member that the two were hardly communicating. And so, quietly, in a calm voice, the elderly Board member asked, “If you two senior members of management are not talking to each other in a decent way, then what about the rest of junior staff!”
Questions.
- What do you think has led to such difficult interpersonal relations between these two managers?
- How would you manage this situation?
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