Broadcast Management Roles

From the School of Journalism
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-COLUMBIA
July 23, 1991
Prof. Charles Warner

YOU'RE THE BOSS

You're Evaluated By Your Staff

You are the ______________________________ (management position) of ______________________ (company or station). Corporate headquarters has established a new procedure in all of your company's units and stations that once a year all managers must be evaluated by their associates. These evaluations are then sent by everyone to an outside firm that retypes all the open-ended comments and sends them back to the managers in order to maintain the confidentiality of the responses. A copy of each manager's evaluations are sent to the CEO of the company and the person to whom each of the managers report.

Your first evaluation arrives, and you open it nervously, anxiously. It reads:

1. "You aren't coaching me enough so I can advance within the company. You need to help me set goals and make sure I know how to reach them, so I can further my career."
2. "You don't give enough feedback: Pat me on the back when I've done well and be honest in criticisms of me when I haven't--even if it hurts me."
3. "You just pay lip service to my input: My ideas, be they directly connected to work or about your management of me, aren't taken seriously enough and are rarely acted upon."
4. "You don't sing my praises to others in the company; you don't go to bat for me when it comes to salary, promotions, or assignments."
5. "You're like a cop--never around when I need you, too hard to get hold of, and generally unavailable."
6. "You need to trust me more and give me increased responsibility. I'm capable of doing a lot more than you think I can."

ASSIGNMENT

1. Make a list of specific actions you are going to take to correct these problems.

2. What else are you going to do?

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