Case study hrm 5 cases

MADURAI SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

NH - 7 Madurai- Dindigul Four Lane Road, T.Vadipatti, Madurai – 625 218

Subject: Human Resource Management Faculty in charge: Mr. N. Ganesha Pandian

Story of Malden Mills –Case Study 1

Article after article, television programs, and commentary have continued for years about

managerial greed, corruption, and unethical behaviour. One manager’s story, however, serves as a shining model for caring for people and really meaning it when you state that human

assets are the most important factor in an organization. This is the story of Aaron Feuerstein,

a real manager of human resources.

On the evening of December 11, 1995, an explosion occurred at the Malden mills plant in

Lawrence, Massachusetts. Approximately 300 employees were working when the fire broke

out around 7.50 PM. As is turned out, 22 workers were rushed to several local hospitals.

Malden mills was founded in 1906 by Aaron Feuerstein’s grandfather .The $300 million-a-

year manufacturing company is best known for its quality surface-finished fabrics,

Polarfleece® and Polartec®.

The story of Malden Mills had focused on Aaron Feuerstein and how he eschewed the option

of taking insurance money from the fire and closing his plant. Instead, the third generation

owner opted to pay 1,400 displaced employees for three months, extend their health benefits

for nine months and rebuilt the plant- all at a personal cost of $15 million. He has since

received worldwide praise for his do-right deeds.

What many don’t hear about, however, are the incredible efforts of Malden HRM team: how

it galvanized Malden’s corporate and community resources at critical junctures since

Massachusetts largest fir. For its achievements, Malden mills received the workforce

magazine Optimas award for managing change. Says Feuerstein: “The tremendous amount of

change in the past few years makes me once again recognise HRM’s strength and courage. At Malden mills, we have self confidence to change without fear”.

Feuerstein vow to rebuild Malden sounded the trumpet. On the day of fire, Feuerstein made

his unexpected announcement to pay his employees’ salaries and benefits. Workers wept as he declared his commitment. Meanwhile, HRM shifted into high gear with a crisis team – the

foundation of which was actually laid before fire. It was composed of Feuerstein, three other

executives, and representatives from each department. The team met daily to discuss the

status of those injured, to assess the immediate needs of Malden employees, to setup a

communications and workers’ training centre, to call upon community resources- even to

collect Christmas presents for the children of Malden’s corporate family.

As workers waited for the new state-of-art mill to be completed, they learned the computer

skills that would be required to run the new machines. In less than a year, more than 600

employees completed courses at the internal communications centre or at outside training

facilities. Malden’s centre has received praise from former secretary of Labour Robert Reich

as a national role model for employee training and development.

Clearly what began as a traumatic event rallied the company and community- if not others

worldwide. HRM received calls from out-of-state employers offering jobs to Malden’s displaced workers. Their reputation as skilled and committed employees brought forth

myriad offers. Of the 1,400 displaced employees, more than 90 percent of them returned to

work.

Since the fire Malden mill has fallen on some hard financial times. The company continues to

struggle financially, but the story of what Aaron Feuerstein did for his employees after the

fire is still a bright light in the firms’ history. His legacy is an example of how one person

wanted to create jobs, help the economy of community, and be ethical and moral in making

difficult choices. He succeeded in creating an inspiring legacy for mangers in any country or

industry.

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References: John M Ivancewich, Human resource management, Tata Mc Graw Hill (P.No.6)

Source: “Malden mills Senior Management Team”(January 27,2005), Corporate news; “The Mensch of Malden Mill” (July 6, 2003),CBS News; Kathy Skala (March 1999), “ Balancing the Human equation”, Workforce, pp.54-59




Job Analysis: Assistant store Managers at Today’s Fashion – Case study 2

Mary Watson was recently promoted to position regional sales manager for today’s fashion, the

national chain of speciality clothing stores with 200 outlets across the country. Mary is the

regional manager for the pacific coast, which is one of the today’s fashion largest markets. She

manages 35 outlets in California and Oregon each of these outlets has a store manager who

reports directly to Mary. Each outlet has between three and five assistant store managers,

depending on the number of specialty departments. Each assistant manager is responsible for one

particular speciality department. These departments vary considerably in size and in the number

of sales clerks reporting to the assistant manager. Because the chains success lies in being

receptive to the local customers’ tastes and buying habits, each store has a different collection of

merchandise and several different combinations of departments can be found in Mary’s region.

The departments include casual wear, formal wear, shoes cosmetics and jewellery.

Exhibit:

Today’s fashion job description/ job specification

Job title: Assistant store manager

Report to: Store manager

General description of the job

Manages the daily functions to a speciality department in the retail operations. The

assistant store manager has responsibility for customer service, supervision of sales clerk,

training of new employee merchandising and maintenance of inventory.

Principal duties and responsibilities

1. Assists customer in merchandise selection, returns, and layaway as needed.

2. Clarifies any questions or problems that salesclerk encounters.

3. Trains, co ordinates direct and supervise department salesclerks daily.

4. Maintain inventory records.

5. Prepares the department for opening at the beginning of the each day.

6. Ensures that the department remains professionally organised and orderly.

General qualification requirements

Education:

1. Minimum: four-year college degree in marketing or related discipline for an

accredited program.

Experience:

1. Minimum: six month to one year in retail environment.

2. Preferred: one to three years as a sales clerk to today’s fashion.

Knowledge, skills, abilities:

1. Basic math

2. Effective interpersonal skills

3. Good judgement and independent thought

4. Self started / high motivated

5. High integrity

6. Good typing and computer skills.

Physical requirement:

1. Standing and walking required for more than 90percent of work time.

2. Ability to lift and carry boxes and waiting approximately 15 pound or

less.

Prior to being appointed to the regional sales manager position, Mary had been both a

store manager and an assistant manager in a casual-wear department. While she was an assistant

manager, Mary had often thought that she was responsible for many aspects of store

management that other assistant managers were not held responsible for. In addition, she never

really felt comfortable that her store manager had clearly defined her areas of responsibility.

Thus, despite the chain’s success, Mary felt there was considerable room for improvement in

how today’s fashion was managed. As a result, one of the first thing Mary did after being

appointed to the regional sales position was to initiate a job analysis for the job of assistant store

manager.

Mary had earned a BBA degree with a marketing emphasis from the University of Wyoming.

Although she had no formal training in job analysis, she was confident that she could construct

an accurate and useful job description and specification for the assistant manager job, primarily

because of her personal experience with that position. However, rather than simply writing from

her own experience, Mary interviewed three current assistant store manager from the outlet

closest to her regional office in Sacramento. On the basis of these interviews and her own

experience, Mary constructed the job description and job specification exhibit above. She hopes

that these documents will form the basis of new selection program that she wants to implement

for her region. She believes that the best way to improve store management is to hire assistant

store managers who are the qualified successfully.

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References: John M Ivancewich, Human resource management, Tata Mc Graw Hill (P.No:182)

Questions:

1. Critically evaluate the job analysis that Mary conducted for the position of assistant store

manager. Has she used appropriate method? What are the strengths and weakness of an

effort?

2. What kind of factor about today’s fashion and its operating should Mary have examined more sincerely in order to improve her job analysis?

3. Carefully read the job description and the job specification what Mary prepared. Do they

appear to be through? Do you think that they are accurate to serve as a basis for new

selection system? How well do you think these documents will work if Mary is sued for

discrimination in her hiring practice? Why?




Job analysis and Maternity leave: Calming the Boss’s and Co-workers’ nerves –

Case study 3

Maternity leave occurs when a female employee, upon giving birth to a child, takes time off

to care for the child. This leave can be either paid or unpaid and is usually limited to six

weeks. However, the new mother may decide to take up to six months away from work,

though this is almost always without pay. Are there any negative repercussions associated

with taking time off to care for an infant? Apparently, the answer is “yes”. Female employees who participate in maternity leave sometimes feel overwhelmed with having to deal with the

work that has to be absorbed from the individual who is taking maternity leave. In extreme

cases, these individuals may feel “put upon” or “betrayed” by the once committed individual who is now taking “time off”. Of course, anyone who has dedicated themselves to caring for

an infant themselves to caring for an infant understands very well that such responsibility is a

24 hour a day, 7 days a week endeavour.

So, what can an individual who is planning to take maternity leave do to ease the tension and

misperceptions among her colleagues and supervisors? It is suggested that the pregnant

individual create a detailed job analysis that includes which tasks or projects need to be

accomplished before she leaves on maternity leave, which tasks/projects can wait until she

returns from maternity leave. Though there are many other steps can be taken to ease the

transition between work and maternity leave, the job analysis will help break down and

possibly prevent the “maternal wall” from being a barrier to the long term retention and utilization of a valued employee.

Discussion questions:

1. Assume that you (male or female) were going to take a 6-week leave of absence from

your job 5 months from now, How do you think your supervisor and co-workers

would react to the news? Explain.

2. Do a brief job analysis of your current(or past job), including a job description and job

specification/ qualifications, which tasks, duties, or responsibilities could you finish

before you leave of absence? Which could you delegate to your co-workers? Which

would have to wait until you return from the leave of absence?

3. Assume that you received a lot of negative comments from your supervisor and co-

workers when you “announced” that you’d be taking a 6-week of absence. How could

that make you feel? Would it have any impact on your commitment to the

organization?

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References: John M Ivancewich, Human resource management, Tata Mc Graw Hill

(P.no:183)

Sources: Joan. C. Williams (October 2004), “The maternal wall” Harvard business review, vol. 82 iss. 10, p. 26; Meina Liu and Patrice M. Buzzanell (2004), “Negotiating maternity Leave Expectations: Perceived tensions between Ethics of justice and caring,” The journal of business communicatin, vol. 41, iss 4 pp. 33-50; sue shellenbager (May 20, 2004), “ Baby Blues: The dangers of the Trend toward shorter Maternity Leaves,” The wall street journal, p. D1




Bechtel Power Corporation’s use of Objective welding tests- Case Study 4

Charles Ligons, an African American, was a welder at the Iowa Electric light and Power

Duane Arnold Energy centre instruction site at Pola, Iowa. He worked at the site for Bechtel

Power Corporation. Bechtel required that its welders be qualified in accordance with

standards of the American society of Mechanical Engineers code. That code prescribes

objective criteria for testing welders on various types of welding work and for placing them

into two categories: 1. A-LH, under which a welder qualifies to perform general welding

jobs, and 2. AT-LH, involving more difficult welding procedures.

Prior to his arrival at the Palo site, Ligons passed a test that qualified him under AT-LH to

perform heliarc welding. During his first week of employment, however, Ligons was required

to report to the test shop for training and testing as a result of observations made by a welding

engineer of a weld that Ligons had improperly prepared. Following a one-week training

period, Ligons passed a simple plate welding test but failed the same heliarc welding test he

had passed before coming to Palo. Ligons spent several weeks on at three separate occasions

training to improve his competence in heliarc welding.

On February 9, approximately 18 months after coming to the Palo site, Ligons was laid off

with 58 other welders, all of whom were white. Ligons was informed that he is eligible for

rehire when more welders were needed. The Layoff was a result of a general reduction of the

Palo workforce.

Ligons was rehired in September. He required further training and testing for recertification.

After about one month of training, he passed only the test qualifying him for the least

difficult type of welding. About four months after being rehired, he was again laid off with

five other welders.

Ligons believed that race was a motivating factor in decision to lay him off. Bechtel claimed,

however, that its testing procedures for upgrading a welder’s qualifications have a relationship to the jobs for which they were used. It stated that the welding tests were based

on objective welding standards set by American society of Mechanical Engineers. Bechtel

was contractually bound to ensure its welders were qualified and that all welding performed

on the job complied with the American society of Mechanical Engineers Code.

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(P.no:244)

Discussion questions:

1. Do you believe those welding tests are necessary for the type of job Charles Ligons

worked on?

2. Was the first layoff of Ligons Legitimate?

3. Did the company attempt to help Ligons maintain and upgrade his welding

competence?




Quota rating System at Ford Motor Co. Case study – 5

After years of use, Ford motor Co. Eliminated it’s grading on a curve performance evaluation

system. A number of current and former Ford executives filed lawsuits claiming the system is

discriminating. Ford used a procedure in which executives were graded as A,B, and C. Ten

percent of the managers being evaluated had to receive a “C” or unsatisfactory performance grade. Managers who received a C were required to receive coaching and counselling.

One of the “C” rated managers had always received “A” ratings until he clashed with senior

managers about a safety device. Since he made the complaints, his ratings have gone from

“A”s to “C”s. The employee believes he is being retaliated against.

The feeling among many managers at ford is that a quota system that forces evaluators to rate

at least 10 percent of those being rated as unsatisfactory in causing morale problems. The

Ford appraisal system was copied from General Electric (GE), which had to deal with its own

morale problems. GE revised its system, which has a 1 (unsatisfactory) to 5 (excellent) rating

scales. At GE almost except the top 10 percent felt demoralised. GE streamlined its system to

three grades, assigning 70 percent, or the vast majority, the middle grade and rewarding some

of them with stock options. At ford, when a manager receives a “C”, there is no bonus. Quota system, the pressure to change it became so great that the quota requirement was eventually

dropped. Managers are still evaluated as A, B or C but there is no requirement that 10 percent

must be rated unsatisfactory.

Soon after President Nasser changed the rating system, he left Ford. A number of lawsuits

were filed, and in some cases Ford settled with Plaintiffs.

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(P.no:268)

Source: Norishko Shirouzu and Joseph B. White (July 9, 2001), “Ford May change white-

collar job Rating system,” The Wall street Journal , PP.A3 and A4; and Norishko Shirouzu

(July 19, 2001), “Ford stops using Letter Rankings to Rate workers,” The Wall street journal PP. B1 and B4

Case study hrm 5 cases

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