員工關系個案研究 Case studies in employee relations

 

2000年，ABC被評為制造電腦的頂級制造公司。這家科技巨頭擁有超過15000的員工給公司一個新的高度.當其他公司員工提供兩年或三年的國際機會的潛力深剖面，ABC給國際分配到數千員工的三到五年。公司提供良好的薪酬對員工以及照顧員工的需求的充分程度，公司的營收在年復一年穩步上升。員工覺得幸福與組織不想離開組織，即使提供更好的pay.all進行得很順利，突然在2007年ABC的銷售和利潤都在以驚人的速度下降，公司開始了創紀錄的凈6.5美元億美元的損失。許多分析師認為ABC需要改變劑，用正確的領導風格能夠拯救公司的衰落。公司擁有聰明、有才華的員工，有著充足的獲勝策略，但這仍然是一個停滯不前的局面。

 

Employee don’t leave the organization but the leader.

In 2000 , ABC was ranked as top manufacturing company that deals in manufacturing of computers. This technology giant has deep profile of more than 15000 employees who have the potential to give the company a new height.when other companies offer employees an international opportunity for two or three years, ABC gives international assignment to thousand of employees for three to five years.the company offers excellent pay to employees as well as take care of the needs of employees to the full extent, the companie’s revenue was rising at a steady pace with every passing year. Employee feel happy with the organization and do not want to leave the organization even if offered better pay.all was going well suddenly in year 2007 ABC’s sales and profit were declining at an alarming rate and the company started a record net loss of US 6.5 $ billion. Many business analysts opined that ABC needed a change agent and that to with the right leadership style who can save the company from its decline. The company had smart , talented employee with ample winning strategies but it was still a stand still.

 

There were no technical problems either. All the company needed was someone to lead it and bring it back to action. The company has changed its technology and recruit the best person to lead the team but nothing happens positively .During the same period, that is from 2005- 2007 , the share price of ABC decline by almost 300%. In 2008 company has recruit Lois Boynton as a new head of ABC. Lois played a major role in receiving the fortunes of ABC. He start monitoring the employees regularly. He has even made certain changes in training employees. Employees at the higher level also used to get training.. Lois made significant changes in company’s mission and strategically positioned itself in such a way to suit the need f its clients.From being product centric it changes to customer centric and started providing customized services to the customers. From being the sole manufacturer of computers it started offering complete solution to its clients.ABC image changes from being a company which offered computers to the ones who offered complete solution in hardware, software and other technology.Lois was working well with the company. In 2008 company receive new project the hope of positivity start rising and employees start working. Lois monitors every employee and give instructions to them. Employee used to work on night shift as well to meet the targets. Employees seems to be very much committed in their work as they used to get good salary from their work. They used to utilize their complete potential in achiving the targets. Finally the target was achieved and company earn a good revenue employee become happy as they get good dividend. As the ray of positivity was there some of the talented employees start leaving the company and therefore turnover increases. Although employee used to get good salary and benefits but still they leave the organization. Company was ready to increase their pay and was ready to send them on international assignment but still turnover start increasing at a pace. Company got worried as no solution was seen..#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Q1. Discuss the challenges faced by ABC in 2006.

 

Q2. What was the main reason that employee turnover was increasing?

 

Q3. Suggest the solution that can be taken by the ABC to increase its revenue.

 

Case study 2

 

Things were going well in the Sunrise company until things were in the hand of organization. Every year the CEO of sunrise was in front cover of Time magazine for his remarkable achievements that led the company to achieve the high peak. Each year the Times magazine dedicate his front cover to the “Person of the year” so Alan saks(CEO of sunrise) become successful in holding his position on front cover for the best CEO. Sunrise was giant in cosmetic production. The company manufacture all types of cosmetics for today’s youth. The company has positioned itself as the herbal products manufacturing company for all types of skin problems. The annual turnover of company was 5 million. The sunrise turnover was increasing every year at the commendable rate. The company even import its products to many countries outside the India. It was the time when company was enjoying its success. It was the time when Times magazine was about to release its new edition of the year 2007 with the change in its front cover. The front cover which was earlier meant for person of the year has shifted from persons of the year and yes it was not the CEO of the sunrise who used to hold its position on front cover now the Time has identified two women who was working in same company but different department of Sunrise. These two women have one thing common and that is both are whistle blowers.

 

The term whistle-blower is defined by the third edition of The American Heritage College Dictionary as “One who brings wrong doing within an organization to light.” The etymology of the term whistle-blower is quite interesting and can be attributed to several sources: the police used whistles in early times as a communication signal and trains used their whistles to communicate warning signals. Today, the term whistleblower

 

has a mixed meaning: it can have a negative connation in certain sectors with whistle-blowers being called, among other words, “traitor,” “turncoat,” and “rat.” Or, it can have a positive connation with whistle-blowers being called heroes.

 

The two women who were positioned on the Time’s magazine persons of the year were

 

Amrita Sharma and Eris Joseph. Amrita Sharma was a 45 year old widow working in HR department of Sunrise and was a single earning person in her family of four daughters and Eris joseph was a 52 year lady working in sunrise for 15 years and was about to retire in the coming year. The two ladies were being silent for the last years and were doing their job well and were satisfied with the salary they were getting but this years things do not went as it happens every years. The two ladies have decided to open their mouth about improper accounting method used by the company to earn the huge profit as well as to tell about the use of unethical ways to manufacture the so called herbal cosmetics produced by the company. They have already warned the Ceo’s of the sunrise for not using harmful chemical in the cosmetics but no action was taken in the last years. Finally they have disclose the matter of improper use of accounting method and use of harmful chemical to Times magazine.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Like all whistle blowers, these two women placed themselves in very precarious positions with regard to physical and emotional health, privacy, and especially employment, since these women were the main financial supporters of their households—one being widow and other having stay at home husband.

 

As a result of this breaking news the sunrise has lost its customers and the share of sunrise has also decline and also shareholder has lost some $2 million. Whistle-blowing has resulted in terrible and even fatal endings in the life of these two ladies. The CEO of sunrise do not fire them in the fear of company’s pressure but indeed start exploiting them with the passage of time as a result Amrita Sharma has left the job because of excessive exploitation and committed the suicide leaving the four daughters alone and Eris Joseph has lost its retirement benefits her job but the company keep working with the same way as it used to be…now the case has left with few questions First, the whistle-blower should ask the question: “Is this the only way?” Second, “do I have the goods?” Third, “why am I doing this?” And finally, “am I ready (for the consequences)?”

 

Just recently the federal government has gone to some lengths to protect whistle-blowers with the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002. This act provides whistle-blowers with legal protection: An executive who retaliates against a whistle-blower can be criminally liable and imprisoned for up to 10 years. The Labor Department can order a company to rehire an employee without going to court. And fired workers who feel their cases are moving too slowly can request a federal jury trial after six months. In addition, under a federal whistle-blowing statute, whistle-blowers are entitled to 14 percent of corporate-government settlements.

 

Q1. What can be the other solution infront of Amrita Sharma and Eris Joseph?

 

Q2. Should whistle blowers be compensated for telling about wrong doing of the company or the boss?

 

Q3. Does the single law is the solution to curb the problem?

 

Case study 3

 

BT (Bharat telecom) has traversed a long path from being a typically old-fashioned telecom company in the 1970s and 1980s, to a modern, aggressive corporate entity. By 2004, BT has become the second largest company in the world with operations in more than 50 countries.The company deals with providing telecom services to the customers through out the country. The company has annual turnover of 55 crores with every passing year the value of company’s share rises. People start investing in BT shares and employees also start earning dividend. The company has a trend of grooming the internal employees to occupy the top positions. Company has training programs that select the candidate on the basis of their potential and then provide them training on their skill development. Training programs involve technical training, delivering lectures that employees used to listen for 2-4 hours regarding leadership capabilities,training also include showing motivational videos of biggest and successful entrepreneur of the world about their achievements, struggles etc.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Things goes on the training period ends and the moment of hiring comes that all of sudden after the interview session the company has realized that internal candidates were not capable to fill the job even after receiving training and having an experience of working in organization for so long. With this problem the company has decided to look for outside candidates to manage the business enterprise. The job was posted for outside candidate and after time taking and tough process of selection and recruitment one of the outsider candidate was selected to fill the most important position of CEO for the company…..but things do not happen as the way it seems

 

Company employees went on strike but what is the reason??????/

 

Q1. What went wrong with the training programs? Suggest what else can be included in the training programs ?

 

Q2. What was the reason behind the strike?

 

Case study 4

 

Neeta Bhatla one of the most committed female employee committed suicide by throwing herself out of seventh floor window of the company. It was the company’s 3 rd suicide case in the last 12 months. KIANA is one of the most successful IT company in the India with annual turnover of 10 million. The company was established in 1999 by Kumar Prashant, one of the most talented and vibrant business tycoon. The company which was intially established with 50 employees has now more than 1500 employees working in various interrelated but different departments. KIANA offers wide range of IT products including laptops, computers. Initially the company used to deal in hardware only but with the increasing revenue and customer demand the company has started offering one stop solution to its customers by started dealing in software as well. In 2004 company has started offering customized software to customers that were designed on the basis of customers needs and requirements.By 2006 KIANA become the worldwide leader in software, hardware and other IT solutions. Kumar prashant the founder of the company is very much conscious about its working and success. Only talented and most intellectual candidates used to occupy the jobs in KIANA. Recruitment and selection process take place strictly in KIANA. Employees of KIANA are recognized as the intellectual fuel who are provided with lots of training and benefits plan and in return all that company want is commitment and 24 7 dedicated work. Employees used to work with full commitment to achieve the cut throat targets set by the customers and after the achievement of targets performance appraisal used to take place and the employees were selected on the basis of their work. Neeta bhatla and many other female employees used to perform various duties also they used to be overloaded with different works even that which is not mentioned in their job.Most of the female employees even after working for so many years and with full commitment do not get promotions. They were appreciated by being upgrading them and assigning them different duties. Lary Joseph the leader of the team encompassing 5 employees including one female employees used to direct employee and command them always. Lary joseph is very commanding leader with attitude of completing getting the work done by others. Neeta was the one who follows all the instructions of his leader and even did all the task of his fellow employees . The team has achived the target and major credits goes to neeta but destiny has something else for her, she has committed suicide by throwing herself from the seventh floor window as she came from the meeting that has to decide her promotion. The company has not given and pay rise or higher position to neeta for other work as the reason was she is a female employee and could not be able to handle the responsibilities of higher position but other employees has been given pay rise as well as being promoted. The earlier two suicides were also done by female employees of KIANA for less pay and no promotion.Does the process #p#分頁標題#e#

 

Q1. What action do you thing the CEO of KIANA will take on this incident?

 

Q2. What are your views on glass ceiling that lead most of the female employees to suffer?suggest ways to reduce it.

 

5. Oasis hotels

 

Oasis Hotels Group is a leading hotel group in India. It has about 32 hotels in various cities including Delhi, Lucknow, Banglore,Chandigarh across India and 18 in overseas locations. The group emphasizes employee training and development, and customer service . The hotel’s philosophy is to provide best quality of food and accommodation facility to the customers. Oasis considerd his guest as the God and keep the satisfaction, comfort and safety as the most important priority. The hotel gave emphasis to strict training and development programs for employees. There were strict rules regarding the procedure to be followed by the employees . The hotel was earning annual revenue of things were going well for the last few years. But suddenly there was dramatic decrease in customer growth rate. Even after providing the best facility to the customers , they don’t turn again. The CEO of the group, Atul kumar (Thakur), observed that the customer growth rate of the group's hotels had not been quite good for the last three years. He approached a change consultancy and asked it to conduct a customer survey to find out their opinion about the hotel's customer service.The change agent has conducted the customer survey that include questions on parameters like

 

Quality of food

Timely order completion

Attitude of staff

Food variety offered by hotel

Hygienity maintained in cooking

After analyzing the problem from every point the change agent has find out that quality of food was decreasing as well as order time was not upto the mark so oasis has started giving training to chef’s for making delicious food on time. There were limited no. of chefs who has to works non stop to satisfy the customers. Things started working well staff used to work properly and customers growth rate has increased for few months but after few months the growth rate has again took a negative curve and the performance of employees working in Oasis decrease they used to work but not properly although Oasis give so much emphasis to customer but they forgot to take care of employees. Later on they realize that not only customer satisfaction is important but employees are equally important and they need to draft strategies to engage employees.

 

Q1. Suggest various practices Oasis can take to engage the employees.

 

Q2. Was change program needed? what else can be done by the change agent ?

 

Case study 6.

 

Expatriate management

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Ammi was a Sales Manager for Industrial Products Company in City branch. She was very intellectual and committed employee who has been promoted many times for his excellence in work and capability to achive tough targets in a simple way. She has received employee of the year award for more than 6 times in his years of working. She has worked for more than 10 years for the company. Recognizing her potential the company CEO Satish Desai has decided to promote him and shift him to one of the offices located in overseas. Initially ammi has refused as she don’t want to leave his home country but later on she has agreed. A week ago, he was promoted and shifted to one of the office located in Germany . On her first day she didn’t feel hapy as the organization culture was different and she faced the language problem as well she was not very well familiar with german. Ammi has start working there but she cant work there with happiness as she was unable to adapt herself according to new culture moreover she feel like going back to same place from where she has came. After one week the company CEO has called for meeting of every department’s manager for dicussing the new project for the company. Satish desai was a very tough man with discipline life style and very particular about his work. But on the day of meeting ammie head has faced some problem and was unable to attend the meeting and he asked ammie to go in the meeting on his behalf ammie completely unware about the meeting agenda felt nervous but still went for the meeting. The meeting started with usual introductiory session which soon got into a series of questions from him to every department manager. Satish of course, was pretty thorough with every single point and detail of the new project of the company and he was known to be pushy and a blunt veteran in the field. Most of the Managers were very clear of George's ways of working and had thoroughly prepared for the meeting and were giving to the point answers. Satish then started with ammie , ammie being new to the project , was quite confused and fared miserably and was unable to answer for the satish question. One of the employee alan has recognized the situation of ammie and was about to interrupt the satish in between his questioning to tell him that ammie was new to the office but he failed to do so. But by that time, satish who was pretty upset with the lack of preparation by ammie made a public statement "Gentlemen, you are witnessing here an example of careless work and this can't be excused". After this Satish quickly closed the meeting saying that he found in general, lack of planning in the department and asked his secretary sonal to stay with him for discussion. As all the employees left the room sonal told satish that ammie was new to the office and she was unaware of the meeting as she has to attend it without prior information. Later on satish felt guilt about insulting annie .

 

Q1. Discuss should satish being the CEO of the company should apologize to annie for his mistake.#p#分頁標題#e#

 

Q2. Was it a fault of ammie or the company for not preparing ammie for the international assignments?

 

Q3. Discuss the things which should be included in expatriate training.

 

Q4. Suggest the way to implement the open communication policy in the company.