Worldwide Manufacturing Inc. has just weathered intense scrutiny after it was investigated and fined for violations of improper chemical storage and waste disposal. Worldwide is a special-order manufacturer that makes plastic products in whatever shapes and sizes a customer specifies. In order to do so, it makes special molds for each project for pouring and shaping the plastic into the forms requested by customers. Each order takes retooling and reorganizing of the manufacturing floor. To help prevent further issues in the future, the company has decided to add a compliance department that will ensure that not only are EPA regulations followed but also other legal regulations, from proper accounting to ensuring everything is in compliance with OSHA. You have been promoted to be the firm’s compliance officer and are now looking to hire several new members of the compliance department, including a compliance manager, compliance analyst, as well as an auditor and inspector.
You decide to begin with filling the compliance manager position. A compliance manager is a professional that keeps the legal and ethical integrity of a company intact through policy enforcement and program planning. He or she makes sure all departments of a business are complying with the rules and regulations the company is required to uphold and should regularly meet with managers in the areas of finance and accounting, cybersecurity, human resources, and operations. Compliance managers are responsible for keeping up to date with changing laws that affect the corporate world and are responsible for preparing reports to present to their upper management detailing these laws and how the policies of the company are ensuring that employees are following them. After advertising for 2 weeks on indeed.com and Monster.com, you’ve begun to look through resumes. You have two promising candidates who have made it through initial phone interviews, and you have flown them out to meet with you and see the headquarters and manufacturing operations. Now you have to review what you have learned about each candidate and make your decision.
Aarya Song
Aarya Song grew up on military bases and joined the military after completing high school. Over a 15-year career, Aarya worked with base operations managers on a team that handled everything needed for running a base. Aarya worked in supply chain management, both in procurement and disposal, in facilities planning, inventory management, and even in operations planning for setting up new bases. All of these positions required great organization and time-management skills. In addition, part of Aarya’s job was to ensure everything was to regulation and followed local regulations as well. While serving in the military, Aarya earned a bachelor’s degree in logistics and later an MBA.
After leaving the military with highest honors, Aarya worked as the transportation manager for an international manufacturer of wind turbines. However, after talking on the phone during the first round of interviews, you have learned that Aarya is now looking for a new job that will provide new challenges.
During the onsite interview, Aarya excitedly chatted with you about how Worldwide could ensure compliance and start building interorganizational teams to ensure companywide compliance. Aarya shared the logic behind these ideas, which you found impressive and well thought out. Your only concern is that Aarya seems to be very direct and no-nonsense, and while a zero tolerance stance on policy violations is likely needed after the investigation, it may be too rigid for the organization’s existing culture.
Francis Simmonne
Francis grew up in an industrial city and began working in manufacturing while in high school at a plant that made various rubber-based components for automobile assembly. After attending a regional university to learn about engineering for product design, Francis began working as a designer for a firm that designed and manufactured toys. However, Francis was better at helping the men and women on the manufacturing floor fix the problems that arose with making the first batches of new toys. After a few moderately successful products, Francis was promoted to production manager because of the skills he demonstrated on the shop floor. Three years later, Francis started working on an MBA and ended up taking a materials manager position with a construction firm. It was very important in this position that all materials were to code, and Francis took that responsibility very seriously. Five years later, Francis took a position as a work site inspector for the construction company, examining work sites and ensuring all health and safety policies as well as building codes were being followed. While these later positions had increasing responsibility, he did not have any direct reports.
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Francis is getting married and is looking to move to the city Worldwide calls home, and so has applied for the compliance manager position. When you spoke on the phone, Francis seemed practical yet reserved, a perception you had reinforced during the site interview. Francis relies on instinct more than evidence to make decisions, which helps to quickly provide a course of action. However, you have concerns that Francis might not be a firm-enough manager as he likes to work with the production teams and crews and has had very little direct management of teams or departments.
So now you have a choice: Simmonne or Song? Both candidates have strong points and weak points, and both could do the job.
Discussion Questions
1. Identify each candidate’s personality characteristics using the Big Five and the Myers-Briggs typology.
2. Based on personality, is there a candidate that you think would fit the position better?
3. Why is it important to consider personality in hiring? What other individual differences should you consider in hiring?
