Biblical Integration

Biblical Integration Case Study
Ralph Emerson was an employee of Boston Bank. He started as a teller in the Roxbury Branch, and was quickly promoted to the Customer Service Team Leader position due to his care and concern for bank customers. At about the six year mark of employment, he transferred to a second, larger location in Concord, in the same position.
Four years after the transfer, the Assistant Branch Manager position at the Concord Branch came open. Ralph expressed interest in the position to the Branch Manager, Ellen. The manager shared her concerns that Ralph was not fully ready for this new role, but promised to keep Ralph in mind. A search to fill the position did not turn up any candidates more qualified than Ralph, so he was selected for the position.
During the conversation about the promotion to Assistant Branch Manager, his supervisor relayed clear expectations about areas where Ralph needed to raise his level of effort and results to be successful in the new role. These included attention to detail, coaching and mentoring employees under his leadership, and treating employees as favorably as he treated customers.
Ralph progressed well for a while. About six months after his promotion, Ellen began to hear complaints from Ralph’s team. The issues were minor at first – a missed deadline or two, transposed numbers on a report – but not long after came concerns from employees about Ralph’s treatment of them. One example noted Ralph speaking harshly to an employee in front of a bank customer.
Ellen discussed these concerns with Ralph. He denied some of the complaints. Others he accepted as having happened but downplayed their significance. His supervisor insisted that Ralph focus effort on overcoming the implied weaknesses and work to restore trust with his subordinates.
Having taken his supervisor’s admonition seriously, Ralph’s attitude and actions improved over the next half-year. However, complaints along the lines of the previous concerns resurfaced and Ellen was forced to discuss these issues with Ralph. This conversation included a verbal warning, the first step in the formal disciplinary process.
As it had in the previous year, the cycle of improvement and decline happened again over the next year. Ellen told Ralph during their next conversation this was formal notice of a written warning in compliance with the bank’s human resource policy manual and that improvements must occur or termination may result. After approximately one more year, Ralph was terminated due to recurring issues with his behavior and performance.
As you consider this case from the perspective of God’s character, was this situation handled properly? Was this situation handled correctly without considering God’s character? Is there anything you would have done differently as Ralph’s supervisor? Where is the evidence, both from the Bible and contemporary literature, for your responses?
Biblical Integration Exercise Grading Rubric
Criteria Levels of Achievement
Advanced Proficient Developing Not Present
Length of Paper 5 points
Word count is up to +/- 10% of requirement 4 points
Word count is between +/- 10-15% of requirement 1 to 3 points
Word count is more than +/- 15 % of requirement 0 points
Did not submit
Content of Paper – 28 to 30 points
Paper contains all of the required content and analyses 24 to 27 points
Paper mostly contains all of the required content and analyses 1 to 23 points
Paper contains little of the required content and analyses 0 points
Did not submit
Annotated Bibliography 19 to 20 points
Each entry contains all of the required elements 16 to 18 points
Each entry contains most of the required elements 1 to 15 points
Each entry contains less than most of the required elements or some entries are complete while others are not 0 points
Did not submit
Quality of Writing; APA Format 14 to 15 points
No notable spelling and/or grammar errors; format is easy to follow; proper APA format 12 to 13 points
Minimal spelling and/or grammar errors; format is generally easy to follow; generally proper APA format 1 to 11 points
Significant spelling and/or grammar errors; format is not easy to follow; proper APA format not used 0 points
Did not submit