Uncoloured View

Leaders and managers need to keep bias at bay while using interview as the method of selection.

Rajat Jain, CEO of Ethico Pharma Limited, was attending the farewell of Vivek Shrivastava, General Manager-Sales. He had put in his papers to take care of his ailing wife. Jain had offered a number of options to Shrivastava, like flexi-timings, long leave and supportive care at the company’s cost. But these were declined by Shrivastava, since he felt he would not be able to do full justice to the job while taking care of his wife. Jain had no option but to accept his resignation.

A star performer, Shrivastava had joined the company as a medical representative and risen to the post of General Manager-Sales within a span of eighteen years. Instead of selecting someone from outside as a replacement, Jain decided to promote one of the three zonal managers—Deepak Sharma, Ramesh Gupta, and Sumit Modi. After Shrivastava’s farewell speech, Jain took him aside and said, “As you are aware, tomorrow, I will be interviewing the three zonal managers. You have been working with them for a long time. Hence, I would like to know your opinion about them.” “According to me, all the three candidates are worthy of the post but there are certain aspects to be kept in mind before making the final decision,” said Shrivastava. He continued, “Deepak Sharma, for instance, always achieves the budget but is very aggressive. For him, results matter the most and to achieve those, he overlooks everything else. He is concerned only about the end results, and is not particular about the methods—ethical and unethical—used to achieve them. Contrary to this, Ramesh Gupta is very rigid with regard to rules and regulations and abides by them. Even when there is scope for deviations, he will not exercise it and will follow the the norms laid down by the company. As a result, at times, the morale of his team is dampened on account of his rigid behaviour.”