Kate Cooper

1. This case is told by Kate Cooper and in her point of view. How do you think Alan Jones perceives Kate?

Alan Jones perceives Kate Cooper as a threat. Kate’s level of education is equal to that of Alan Jones, but her amount of experience in the nursing supervisory field is six times greater than Alan’s. Kate is also continuing her education and working toward her master’s degree in nursing education. Since he perceives her as a threat, Alan Jones is treating Kate Cooper as a lesser employee than himself – an employee who commands absolutely no respect. He ignores her repeated requests for support, belittles her, and does not communicate her concerns “up the ladder” to hospital administrator Doug Anderson.

2. How do you think Doug Anderson perceives Kate?

Doug Anderson found Kate’s problems and Kate herself not important enough to warrant his personal attention. Doug repeatedly referred Kate back to Alan to discuss her issues and problems - even when it was blatantly obvious that the issues and problems were unsolvable between Kate and Alan. Therefore, Doug perceives Kate as an employee whose concerns are not worth his time.

3. How does Kate see herself?

Kate sees herself as a nursing professional who is ready to take the next step in her career. Kate believes that she is wholly qualified to take on the new challenge of becoming manager of an entire psychiatric wing at Green Meadows Hospital.

4. Kate is overwhelmed and frustrated. What factors contribute to this? (There are at least six factors.)

The following factors are contributing to Kate’s frustration:

• Lack of clear organizational structure for Green Meadows

• Requests for information from management being ignored/ridiculed

• Peter Smith orientation program taking precedent over her own

• Alan Jones undercutting her hiring effort by hiring her employees himself

• Alan Jones’ sexist remarks and behaviors going...