It’s springtime, and with employees getting their annual reviews and contracts running out, the scent of firing is in the air.

It’s not just sick-leave abusers, slackers and incompetents who get the axe this time of year. So do diligent, talented and forthright people. I know of four let go in the last two years who fit this description.

I asked a Kansas University professor of management, Jim Guthrie, whether bosses are using economic hard times to dump people.

“It’s certainly easier to justify these days,” he said

Guthrie said that though lots of American managers think it’s difficult to fire an employee, it’s actually much easier here than in Europe.

“In Italy,” he said, “it’s harder to fire an employee than to get a divorce.”

But Guthrie said U.S. bosses today were more restrained about firing than they once were. Equal opportunity legislation, for example, blocks dismissal for religious, age or race reasons. In addition, progressive disciplinary procedures are designed to let an employee who’s not doing the job know it. The employee receives a verbal warning, a written warning and perhaps suspension before termination.

“If someone’s told they’re not meeting expectations and are fired the same day, how can they change?” he asked. “If they’re not given feedback, how can they be rehabilitated?”

In some of today’s work settings, employees are expected to do more than perform tasks specific to their job. According to Ron Ash, KU professor of management, some places have common expectations of all employees. Disney World employees, for example, have to do their jobs, whatever they are, in an extroverted and outgoing way.

At the opposite end is the university, where the corporate culture tends to be shapeless and common expectations few, Ash says.

Making workplace communication still harder is a widening gap between bosses and employees. Sometimes the differences are as basic as expectations about manners.

“I don’t think employees always realize that they have to fit in,” Ash said.

And employees often possess skills that bosses lack. This means bosses can no longer be czars or kings, Ash says. And it means hiring the right employee is among their most important duties.

The bottom line is that business, industry and the university need to train bosses, as well as employees, how to work together. Given all the complexity, what are the alternatives to firing?

Employers need to do more rigorous screening before they hire, Guthrie said. They need to commit themselves to employees with the gusto of Southwest Airlines, which, after 9-11, promised not to lay off employees — and didn’t. Commitment breeds loyalty.

Finally, Guthrie said, “A good manager communicates his expectations all year long. If an employee is surprised at what she’s told at the evaluation, or shocked at being fired, the manager’s not doing the job.”

In fact, such managers might wisely ask themselves whether they’re part of the problem.

— Roger Martin is a research writer and editor for the Kansas University Center for Research and editor of Explore, KU’s research magazine Web site, which can be found at www.research.ku.edu. Martin’s e-mail address is martin@kucr.ku.edu.