Situation–Reaction Test — Critical Project vs. Employee’s Family Medical Emergency:\nA key subordinate requests two weeks’ leave for a parent’s bypass surgery during a critical project. As the manager, what should you do?

Introduction / Context:
This tests compassionate leadership under delivery pressure. Ethical management protects people in emergencies while safeguarding commitments through planning, redundancy, and knowledge transfer.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Parent requires bypass surgery; leave request is two weeks.
• The employee is important to a live project.
• You have some bench/parallel capacity or can rebalance workload.

Concept / Approach:
Demonstrate empathy and resilience: approve leave, activate contingency plans, redistribute tasks, and capture handover notes. A healthy culture improves loyalty and long-term performance.

Step-by-Step Solution:
1) Approve leave promptly; offer HR/insurance assistance.2) Secure a structured handover (status, risks, assets, contacts).3) Reassign tasks to a capable teammate; adjust scope if required.4) Communicate updated plan and risk mitigations to stakeholders.

Verification / Alternative check:
Teams with humane policies retain talent and meet goals via redundancy and clear playbooks.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:
Abdicating planning (a) risks delivery; lack of empathy (b) harms trust; declaring only one person can deliver (c) is a single-point-of-failure anti-pattern; punitive action (e) is unethical.

Common Pitfalls:
Skipping handover; failing to notify stakeholders; overloading the replacement without support.

Final Answer:
Approve leave and reassign work with a solid handover and stakeholder alignment.