Scenario: The Writing on the Wall

Group Size: 4-15

Scenario

“Hey, Morgan, I heard the major is moving you into the empty captain’s billet,” says Lieutenant (Lt) Yvan Duford. “Now, there’s a position that is not going to get you promoted.”

“Yeah, I know,” replies Captain (Capt) Morgan Shadwick. “It’s probably not going to let me keep my high standing on the merit list either. I just missed getting promoted last year so I’m not happy about this at all. Who would be? It’s a lateral move and I have to train my replacement. How unfair is that?”

“Uh, maybe you already know this, but the word is that the major is not a fan of yours,” Lt Duford continues. “I was at the director’s retirement lunch a few weeks back and I overheard her talking about you to another major. She called you ‘useless’ and said she was going to make sure you didn’t keep ‘fooling’ the chain of command with your ‘supposed’ abilities.”

Major (Maj) Wentworth and Capt Shadwick served together as captains on an early rotation of an overseas deployment. Although they didn’t get along too well, they managed to make the best of it and did their jobs as professional soldiers. Maj Wentworth was just promoted and posted in and Capt Shadwick now works for her.

“Well, that’s unfair, but really, what are my options here, Yvan?” asks Capt Shadwick. “She’s the major; it’s her section. If she wants to move me into a position where the work is less challenging and more routine, there isn’t anything I can do about it. I can already tell that my PAR this year won’t be like last year’s, from before Wentworth.”

“Yeah, but then also being told you have to train your own replacement – that’s pretty low,” says Lt Duford. “And it won’t be the standard two-day handover because your projects are so complicated.”

Capt Shadwick sighs and walks away, feeling like they’ve been dealt a bad hand.

Categories

• Principles: Respect the Dignity of all Persons
• Values: Integrity, Loyalty
• Cultural themes: Leadership, Teamwork
• Misconduct types: Employment Inequity
• GBA Plus themes: Not Specific
• Audience: Canadian Armed Forces

Facilitator’s Guide

Learning Objectives

• Discuss how malicious gossip and categorical contempt for a person’s performance constitutes abuse and puts that person in a no-win position in the workplace.
• Discuss appropriate and inappropriate communications within the ranks about a person’s performance.

Facilitation Questions

1. What are the ethical dilemmas in this scenario?
   • Open group discussion.
2. What are the facts? What are the assumptions?
   • Open group discussion.
3. What are the obvious courses of action (COAs)? Are there other possible COAs?
   • Open group discussion.
4. Which principles, values and results are at play for each option, including the option to do nothing?
   • Open group discussion.
   • Discuss “Respect the Dignity of all Persons” in relation to this scenario.
   • Discuss integrity, loyalty, leadership, and teamwork in relation to this scenario.
5. Did Major Wentworth act in an abusive manner in this scenario? What do you think Capt Shadwick should do? Why?
   • Open group discussion.
   • Discuss with reference to Defence Ethics, the military ethos, and relevant policies.
   • Malicious gossip and categorical contempt for a person’s performance constitutes abuse.
   • Define appropriate and inappropriate communications about employees’ performance.
   • Discuss ways in which members can deal with abuse in the workplace.
6. There are many types of bias that could have impacted the way Major Wentworth viewed Captain Shadwick. Do you think bias could have played a role?
   • Confirmation bias, cultural bias, in-group bias, decline bias, attribution bias are all examples that could be at play in this scenario.