At first I thought I had run into a bug but after a bunch of trial and error and BHOD I'm sure the “problem” is caused by design. Hopefully by explaining the issue I hope to save someone else a bunch of frustration...

Requirement:
Set up a workflow to perform two operations after a new user was manually created using 'admin/user/user/create'. Depending on the role of the new user, (1) redirect to a node explaining what to do next, (2) display a configurable message on the redirected page.

Settings:

Invoked on event: User has registered
Conditions: User has role(s)
Actions:
-page redirected
-show a configurable message on website

Roles used: Authenticated user, Manager, Editor

Problem: worked correctly for new 'Authenticated user', but not when used for new users with Manager or editor roles. When workflows for new non-Authenticated user roles displayed messages for both Authenticated users and the their specific role. The redirect would go to the node for the Authenticated user role not the node specific to the role of the user just created. It seems the Authenticated user role is always included with any other role and throws everything out of sync.

Solution: Created a new role and not use the default Authenticated user role. This way the specific role can be targeted with include the authenticated user role.