School of Journalism
UNIVERSITY OF=
MISSOURI-COLUMBIA
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THE WRONG PERSON - SALES *
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A Bad Hiring Decision Ends In a Lawsu=
it
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nbsp; Mike Morgan, general sales manager of KWZW-T=
V, was under pressure to hire a salesperson. KWZW-TV's general manager had told Mike, "Hire someone=
soon or corporate might make me eliminate the job. Also, you have to hire a minority. We're under our count, so hire a female if at =
all possible."
=
Mike Morgan was 53 years old, white, had an undergradua=
te degree in marketing from the University of Kansas, had been general sale=
s manager of KWZW-TV for ten years, and was somewhat embittered because he =
had been passed over twice for the job of general manager of KWZW-TV, a job=
he felt he deserved because he had been at the station for fifteen years.<=
/pre> =
KWZW-TV was a CBS station, the third-ranked affiliated station in the marke=
t, and had been number-three in local news for the last five years. The station was in a top-25 Sunbelt market, so Mike had a file full of resumes =
from people who wanted to sell for the station. Friday afternoon Mike called a help-wanted ad into Br=
oadcasting & Cable magazine and took the file of resumes home to re=
ad over the weekend.
=
; After dinner Friday night, Mike Morgan began to organi=
ze the process of looking over the resumes, as he had done so many times be=
fore. First, he went through =
them and separated out all the females and put them in a "possible&quo=
t; file. Then he went through=
the pile and separated out all the people with over four years of televisi=
on sales experience. He long =
ago had set the rule of four years television experience as the major crite=
rion for hiring salespeople. =
When he had weeded out all those with less experience, he went through the =
remaining resumes to see if he could find any indication that the women wer=
e minorities. If he found one=
that had a picture, or an indication that they belonged to minority organi=
zations, or went to black-only colleges, or even had a name that sounded li=
ke they were black, he put those six resumes into a "possible" pi=
le. Then he ranked those in t=
he piles one through six, based on years of sales experience.
On Sunday, Mi=
ke opened a beer and got on the phone and began to call all of the candidat=
es in the "possible" pile to see if they might still be intereste=
d. After four beers and six c=
alls, Mike had reached three candidates that were interested. Unfortunately, they were candidates four, =
five, and six, but at least he had found some candidates. He threw out number four because she didn't so=
und black over the phone. He =
asked the two remaining candidates to send him resumes and he told them he =
would get back to them in several weeks.
He waited three weeks until he had received replies to his Broadcasting=
& Cable ad, and then began the sorting process all over again. He found two people who responde=
d to the ad that were qualified: black, female, and four or more years of e=
xperience. He now had four ca=
ndidates, two from his resume file and two from the ad. He ranked them based on experience and called the number-=
one candidate. She was intere=
sted, so Mike called one of the references on her resume, a professor at th=
e highly-thought-of university from which she graduated. When asked about the candidate, the teacher sai=
d that she "was popular among her peers and that, as he remembered, he=
could think of nothing that would indicated her work was not adequate.&quo=
t; Mike made arrangements to =
fly the candidate in to interview her.
When Mike Morgan met Linda Smith at the airport, he a little dismayed--she=
was overweight. Mike had alw=
ays felt that being overweight was the single biggest no-no for a salespers=
on. However, he decided to pr=
ess on, so he invited Linda into the airport cafeteria for an interview. Mike began the conversation by explaining to Linda the station's compensat=
ion and benefit package, and discussed the list she would be given, includi=
ng some specific accounts. He=
explained that if she did
"OK," that she might be giv=
en more agencies and accounts in a few months. He asked her if she would be available immediately. Linda said "yes," and Mi=
ke hired her and made arrangements for her to start a week from that day. On the drive home from the airport, Mike felt relieved and said to himself=
, "I've filled the slot in a hurry, I've kept the job line in the budg=
et, I've made the general manager happy by hiring a minority female, and I =
don't think I've hurt myself too much since she's from a good college and a=
s long as I keep her on a small list."
Mike's sense of relief did not last long.=
Within a month, Linda had managed to upset all of the other s=
alespeople, traffic, and accounting. =
They all thought her attitude was terrible. She said things such as, "I hate my list, the b=
illing is piddling," and "when am I going to get my list improved=
?" She invariably compla=
ined loudly and to anyone who would listen about the accounts she was assig=
ned to, and her paperwork was awful—sloppy and inaccurate. When the local sales manager talked to =
Linda about her paperwork, she always had excuses, such as "I'm unfami=
liar with your traffic system and computer forms, and no one has given me t=
raining on them." The lo=
cal sales manager had told her to “learn the system,” but gave =
her no training. He subsequen=
tly gave Linda three verbal warnings about her paperwork.
About six weeks after she had been at the station, the local sales manager=
became exasperated because of another make-good confirmation she had foule=
d up and had said to her, "Linda, you always have an excuse. It's about time you took responsibilit=
y for your own behavior and quit acting like a victim all the time." <=
/pre> Linda was furious and shouted, "That's bullshit, and furthermore, tha=
t's a racist remark!" Wo=
rd got around quickly to Mike and the traffic people, who were all white, a=
nd no one said anything again to Linda about her paperwork. In fact, they stopped saying anything to her=
.
After three months, the local sales manager, to whom Linda reported, menti=
oned the "Linda problem" to Mike Morgan. Mike said, "Well, what are we going to do, we ha=
ve to have her around. Keep r=
eminding her, but gently, and maybe she'll get better. We sure can't afford any law suits."
Things did not get better. L=
inda's attitude did not improve. Her paperwork did improve somewhat over the next three months, although=
it was still not at a level the local sales manager considered acceptable,=
and Linda’s sales performance was continually inadequate—she h=
ad developed only two new accounts in six months. Mike agreed with the local sales manager and mentioned=
the situation to the general manager, who didn't seem to care much, so Mik=
e forgot about "the Linda problem."
The last straw came in December when the station was short two salespeople=
because of illness. The loca=
l sales manager asked Linda to help out and respond to a request for avails=
from an agency handled by one of the salespeople who was out ill. Linda refused, saying it was complete=
ly unreasonable to expect anyone to cover someone else's agency without get=
ting paid. She complained pub=
licly. Among the things peopl=
e remember her saying, were: "I'm fed up! I get no training, no feedback, no help, and now you want=
me to do you a favor and make a call in the pouring rain. No way! =
; I was promised a bigger list, and I've still got a bunch of accoun=
ts that spend peanuts. I dese=
rve better than this. I never=
hear you criticizing white salespeople.&n=
bsp; I never hear you asking white salespeople to do other people's =
work. You're all a bunch of r=
acists." After this outb=
urst, the local sales manager went into Mike's office and told him what had=
happened.
&nb=
sp; Mike asked Linda to come into his office, and he said to her, &q=
uot;Linda, it's a busy week and we're short staffed. We need your help."
=
; Linda replied, "No way! You promised me a better list with more agencies =
and now you want me to cover someone else's agency. I don't see you asking white salespeople to cover ot=
her people's agencies."
&nb=
sp; Mike Morgan had had enough, so he said, "=
OK, Linda, have it your way." <=
/span>He told the local sales manager to cover the agency and submit the av=
ails himself.
The next day, Tuesday, Mike Morgan called Linda Smith into his office and =
fired her. She was shocked an=
d asked why she was being fired after only seven months at the station. Mike was equally shocked that Linda seemed to have no idea about what she had done wrong, so he =
decided to set her straight. =
Mike told her all he could remember, which was a lot, about the complaints he had heard about her poor =
attitude, lack of cooperation, poor sales skills, inability to develop new =
business, unacceptable paperwork, and refusal to cover an agency for someon=
e else. Mike was tough, but n=
ot angry; he gave her plenty of reasons why she was being fired.
=
Linda listened in stunned and silent anger, said nothing more, and left th=
e meeting with what seemed to be a pleasant "good-bye." Therefore, Mike was surprised when the=
next day he got a call from a local lawyer informing Mike that he was fili=
ng a $10 million racial discrimination and false firing suit against Mike a=
nd the station on behalf of Linda Smith.
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p; AUTHORS' NOTE
While the incidents in this case =
are not factual, they do represent a composite of actual events and common =
operating practices. This cas=
e was prepared to use as a teaching tool.
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ASSIGNMENT
1. =
What did Mike Morga=
n do right and what did he do wrong?
2. =
What did the genera=
l manager do right and do wrong?
3. =
What are KWZW-TV's =
chances of losing the lawsuit or being advised to make an out-of-court sett=
lement?
4. =
If you had been Mik=
e what would you have done differently?
* This case was prepared by Charles Warner.