Case : When Steve Becomes Stephanie

This case involves;

Steve Ambler: A rising star at LaSalle, a husband with two children, is going to become Stephanie through a process known as gender transition

Henrietta Mercer: The senior vice president for human resources at LaSalle Chemical

Karl Diener: The CEO of LaSalle, asked Henrietta for regular updates on the problems LaSalle might face as result of Steve's gender transition

Alex Grant: CatalCon's top salesman who is the main connection to CatalCon customer base

The situation;

LaSalle, a Fortune 1000 company headquartered in Aurora, Illinois, that provided products and services to oil-drilling, refinery, and pollution-control businesses, had acquired CatalCon, a company in Detroit that sold fluid catalytic cracking technology to petrochemical businesses. Karl had handpicked Steve to lead the change initiative and appointed him group sales director.

Steve had begun to embark the steps in the transition process: electrolysis, voice lessons, hormone therapy, facial feminization surgery, genital surgery. What were the legal implications of changing gender? What about gender reassignment surgeries? And what would Steve's colleagues and customers think? Alex believes this issue is not a question of adjusting. It's a moral issue, not a medical one.

Henrietta knew that about 25% of the leading U.S. companies had policies in place to protect employees against discrimination based on gender identity. However, Alex might rather leave the company than be engaged in this issue. LaSalle needs both these guys. How can Henrietta help Steve transition in a company where not everybody is on board?

Commentators:

Linda E. Taylor: Should never create the impression that a person is somehow getting shortchanged because he or she made a gender identity choice. No need to worry too much about clients because they will less concern about who makes than about how the products work. When someone transitions, need to force the organization to do some training so that employees can work through their misperceptions, questions, and fears.

Put yourself in Henrietta's shoes as the manager of this department:

I) Analyze the situation - summarize the scenario, notate the situational facts, and describe the accommodations requested.

II) What are your personal thoughts and feelings towards Steve's decision to transition? How do you feel about the other coworkers' opinions and clients' opinions regarding the transition?

III) "Put your manager hat on". Evaluate the situation as the manager - from an unbiased, factual, legislative perspective, what does your department staff need at this time? How can you offer assistance to the situation from a social point-of-view and from a police point-of-view?

IV) Now, create three actions that will determine how the company will address the transition, i.e. in-house colleagues, Human Resources policy, and with clients.