GEC Scenario #5: Rating for Training

You are a newly appointed program manager in a global agricultural equipment company. To prepare for an upcoming training initiative, you have been asked to identify the top engineering talent at each international site. For your firm’s operation in China, you engage your close colleague Wei Wang, who as plant manager supervises eight manufacturing engineers. When you explained the task to Wei during a recent teleconference, he said he understood it. You then asked him to e-mail you his numerical ratings for each of his engineer’s technical abilities, timeliness in project work, and effectiveness on global teams. Yet when you receive his e-mail, you find that he has rated everyone essentially the same. What would you do?

1. Ask Wei whether he knows what he is doing, and have him explain the reasoning behind his actions.
2. Create a new evaluation form that requires Wei to rank-order the engineers.
3. Ask Wei to also send you written, descriptive evaluations of each engineer.
4. Have a one-on-one conversation with Wei so you can go through the ratings together and hear what he has to say about each engineer.
5. Randomly select one of the engineers for the training.