Policy Decisions

You’re the sales manager for a large chemical company, and you have reason to suspect that one of your top salespeople isn’t always playing by the rules. You know that occasionally Jared has taken friends out to lunch and charged it to the company. At other times, you’ve caught him conducting personal business on company time with company resources (long-distance telephone calls and charging car mileage to the company for personal business and pleasure). At the end of last year, you discovered that Jared had persuaded one of his best customers to order extra product quantities so he could make his sales quota for the year. In mid-January, that customer returned the excess products for a full refund. You’ve overlooked these things in the past because of the large sales volume Jared usually generates in his sales territory. One evening, though, on your way out of the office, you overhear a conversation between Jared and another of your salespeople. Jared comments: “I personally think its okay to withhold negative information about a product in order to make a big sale, as long as no one can get injured by using the product. Things are getting really tough in our industry—if you’re going to survive; you’ve got to do whatever it takes to get a sale!”

Question:

As Jared’s sales manager, what would you do? Should you reprimand him, retrain him, or fire him? Why? Support your answer. Would this scenario cause you to change or implement any corporate policies? If so, what and why?