RA Working Ahead

Case Scenario:

You work for a large corporate business. One of the managers at the company receives an anonymous e-mail message claiming that a certain employee, Bob, has been acting strangely and muttering threats to get even with others. The manager calls the police, who, after obtaining Bob’s permission, search his car and workstation but find no evidence of any weapons. Bob denies ever making any sort of threat and says he was just having a bad day.

The manager asks you to conduct a threat assessment on Bob. The manager says that the company has the right to conduct a threat assessment, but Bob is liable to sue if he is fired as a consequence of your findings, so the threat assessment has to stand up to scrutiny in court. In aIDition, Bob must be determined by you to have “fully cooperated” with the assessment in order to avoid termination. Therefore, you can expect him to participate in any form of assessment you choose even though he may lie or misrepresent his answers. If you state Bob lied during the assessment, he will be fired. This, too, must stand up to scrutiny in court.

You review Bob’s personnel record. He has been late to work several times and has even come to work drunk. He missed one week of work three years ago while jailed on a drunk and disorderly charge. He took personal leave to cover the missed time, and the arrest was discovered only by a report in the newspaper.

At the time of his arrest, he had a gun in his possession, for which he had a permit and which he could carry as a concealed weapon. Bob has been divorced twice and has no children. He currently lives alone. He has completed the eleventh grade but not his General Educational Development (GED). School records reveal he was often truant and was suspended three times for fighting. He served two years in the military and was honorably discharged after being found to have a “severe personality disorder that made him unsuitable for duty.”

Part 1: Planning

Tasks:

On the basis of the case scenario, create a 3- to 5-page plan in a Microsoft Word document aIDressing the following questions:

• What is the purpose of the specialized interview?
• How will you plan the assessment?
• Whom will you interview and why?
• What will you tell Bob about the nature and purpose of the evaluation and its potential consequences? Why?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of a telephone interview?

In aIDition, answer the following:

• What assessment instruments will you administer to Bob? Why?
• How will you evaluate the truthfulness of his responses?
• What methods will you use to deal with Bob’s defensive posture in interviews?

Part 2: Client Statement

In Part 1, you created a broad plan of action to investigate the threat Bob poses to the company. To conduct the risk assessment for Bob, in this part of the assignment, you will explore the existing risk assessment questionnaires you can administer to him.

Tasks:

Create a 1- to 2-page reference paper (below the plan you created in Part 1) aIDressing the following:

• Identify a single risk assessment questionnaire or instrument used by psychologists. Find four references—web-based references or published scientific reports—on the instrument or on the process of risk assessment.
• Your list of references should include at least two articles for and two articles against the risk assessment questionnaire or instrument in general (write a 1-paragraph summary of each reference you provide).