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I will collect the work of each team. You can give me a copy or alternatively send it electronically until Tuesday, May 13th, 12:00 to: guiding. fakundiny@lehrbeauftragte. Fish. De You are expected to have this assignment finished by Tuesday, May 13 at 12:00 Enjoy your learning ! Guiding Fecundity Case 1 (Strategic HARM ) Can Knights Apparel Satisfy All of Its Stakeholders and Survive? Imagine how changed your life would be if you woke up one day and could no longer see the vibrant blue sky or your child’s face; your once colorful world had been taken from you and turned to darkness.
That is exactly what happened to Joe Biopic, CEO of Knights Apparel, when he denuded lost his vision due to the unexpected onset of multiple sclerosis. Certainly, the founder of the leading supplier of college-logo apparel was disturbed by his situation. In response to his experience, Biopic reflected, “While we had the resources for medical help, I thought of all the families that didn’t. Started thinking that I wanted to do something more important with my business than worry just about winning market share. That seemed kind of empty after what I’ve been through. Anted to find a way to use my business to impact people that it touched on a daily basis. ” Fortunately, Phobic’s vision made a full recovery. And the experience left him with an urge to evaluate what was really important and what he believed to be right. Knights Apparel is a privately held company based in Supernatant, South Carolina, and contracts with 30 factories worldwide. Its apparel deals with scores of universities that have allowed it to surpass Nikkei as the number- one college supplier of college-logo apparel.
When Joe Biopic met with Scott Nova, the Executive Director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a group of 186 universities that press factories making college logo apparel to treat workers fairly, his goal was to address stamping out worker abuses and fair treatment n apparel factories. He even decided to open a model factory. At Nova’s urging, Biopic chose the depressed Dominican Republic community of Alt Garcia to set his example. Gathering Information Alt Garcia had been home to a Korean-owned factory that made baseball caps for Nikkei and Rebook.
When that factory closed in 2007, 1 ,200 employees were displaced. Cooperating closely with the Workers Rights Consortium, Biopic reopened the Alt Garcia factory with the explicit goal of paying workers a premium wage. Although risky in many ways, this was also experimental in that it acted as a response to appeals from myriad university officials and student activists that the garment industry stop using poverty- wage sweatshops. The Alt Garcia factory has 120 employees. Most apparel factories worldwide still pay the minimum wage or only a fraction above, which is barely enough to lift families out of poverty.
For example, the minimum Wage is 15 cents an hour in Bangladesh and around 85 cents in many cities in China. The minimum wage is around $147 a month (85 cents an hour) in the Dominican Republic’s free trade zone, where most of its apparel factories are located. The Alt Garcia factory pays $2. 83 an hour. 2 Developing Agendas Biopic invested $500,000 in renovations to overhaul the factory with pricey new equipment and furniture. He brought in bright lighting, five sewing lines, and pricey ergonomic chairs, which many seamstresses thought were for the managers.
The Alt Garcia factory has gone further than its competitors by embracing higher wages and unionization. In a community where the minimum wage is not sufficient to support a family, Knights Apparel is a pioneer because it pays a “living wage. ” In this case, the Alt Garcia factory has pledged to pay employees nearly three and half times the average wage of the country’s apparel workers. Implementing Agendas Knights Apparel faces many hurdles as a result of reopening the Alt Garcia factory.
There is a question of whether students, alumni, and sports fans will be willing to pay $18 for the factory’s T-shirts, the same price as premium brands like Nikkei and Ideas, to sustain the plant and its generous wages. Knights Apparel’s biggest problem, however, is-self imposed: How will it compete with other apparel makers such as Nikkei and Ideas when its wages are so much higher? While there are consumers who really care and will buy apparel at a premium price, there are also those who say they care but then just want value. According to Dozier, the factory’s cost will be $4. 0 a T- shirt-?80 cents (or 20 percent) more than if it paid minimum wage. Knights Apparel will absorb a lower-than-usual profit margin, he said, without asking retailers to pay more at wholesale, and plans to sell the T-shirts for $8 wholesale, with most retailers marking them up to $18. Marketing and branding will be the key elements for success of the Alt Garcia factory. Therefore, it helps that Knights Apparel has many universities backing the project. Duke placed a large order, ran full-page ads in the amp’s newspaper, put postcards in student mailboxes, and placed promotional signs on light poles.
Giant college bookstore operators Barnes & Noble and Foulest sold Alt Grace’s T-shirts and sweats at bookstores on campuses. Also, to promote its gear, Knights Apparel prepared a video to be shown at bookstores and a Web documentary, both highlighting the improvements in workers’ lives. The T-shirts have hanging tags with pictures of Alt Garcia employees and the message “Your purchase will change our lives. ” The tags also contain an endorsement from the Workers Rights Consortium, which has never before backed a brand.
And United Students Against Sweatshops, a nationwide college group that often lambastes apparel factories, plans to distribute fliers at college bookstores urging freshmen to buy the Alt Garcia shirts . Case 1 Questions 1 . Who are the primary stakeholders of Knights Apparel? For each stakeholder group, what are their major concerns? 2. Describe the key roles and responsibilities of HER professionals at Knight Apparel. 3. Do you think this factory will succeed and become a model for competitors, such as Nikkei and Ideas? Why, or why not? Source: CB. Werner, Schuler, Jackson (2011) p. 1 7 -This case was prepared by he authors, based on information reported in: S. Greenhouse, “Factory Defies Sweatshop Label, but Can It Thrive? ” New York Times (July 16, 201 0), www. Anytime. Com/2010/07/18/business/global/shirt. HTML? R=l . 3 Case 2 (Strategic HARM) Xerox Focuses on HER Xerox is a widely known firm worldwide, but it has been through numerous crises in the past decade. In fact, at one point several years ago, there were questions about Xerox surviving as a firm. But no longer. Under the leadership of Anne Mullahs as CEO, Xerox has rebounded.
Numerous strategic business and financial decisions had to be made, including reducing he workforce by 30,000. But Mullahs also stressed that HER had to become a more strategic contributor. One of the actions taken was to consolidate a number Of HER functions from different business units into a corporate HER Service Center. This center performs many administrative transactions, and has added Internet-based systems to make HER services more accessible to managers and employees. To track employees’ views on the company and HER, employee surveys on the company intranet have been used for several years.
Areas at which lower scores were recorded have been addressed by HER staff and other managers. The survey results have led to another primary focus at Xerox: employee retention. With all of the reductions and organizational restructurings, keeping the remaining employees, especially high-potential ones, has been a continuing emphasis. Xerox has invested significant time and resources into training and development of its employees, an important retention factor. Greater use of e-learning technology, and leadership development have paid off in reducing turnover and convincing employees that career opportunities exist at Xerox.
Continuing competitive pressures are presenting new challenges for Xerox and its HER staff. The strategic importance of HER has been demonstrated in the past, and looks to be a part of the firm’s future. Case 2 Questions Discuss the challenges faced by HER management when significant staff cutbacks occur and how they should be addressed. 2. How do economical challenging time impact the ability to attract and retain talent ? 3. Use of technology, employee retention, and HER development have been at the core of HER becoming more strategic at Xerox. Why have those areas been so key? CB. Mathis, R. L. , Jackson, J. H. , Valentine, S. R. 2014): Human Resource Management 14th edition, South Western, Coinage 4 Case 3 (Strategic HARM) Phillips Furniture Ten years ago Albert Phillips opened his own retail store and sold unpainted furniture. His store was located in Lakeside, a small city in the southeastern part Of the United States. Although his business was somewhat slow first, it grew steadily. Many more sales, stock, and clerical personnel were hired. However, it soon became evident that Mr.. Phillips was not able to effectively service all potential customers. Warehouse space was also badly needed. Phillips Furniture Store was situated in a central location, and Mr..
Phillips was hesitant about relocating. As an alternative to relocating, Mr.. Phillips opened a satellite store in an outlying district to attract a new source of customers, as well as to provide better service to his current customers. Mr.. Phillip eventually expanded his business into several neighboring towns until he had a total of six stores. When Martin Furniture, a small manufacturing firm that supplied some of the furniture for Phillips, became financially unstable, Mr.. Phillips was able to gain control of the manufacturing plant. At the end of last week, you were called into Mr.. Phillips’ office, and Mr..
Phillips said, to you, “l have been pleased with your progress with us as a management trainee since you graduated six months ago. ” He explained that he felt that the company had gotten large enough to need a personnel manager. Previously, all managers handled most of their own personnel activities, usually on a “casual” basis. Mr.. Phillips told you that with the acquisition of the manufacturing firm, “It’s time for us to get our personnel activities organized, and you’re the person to do it. ” When asked why, he said, “I reviewed your personal file and noticed you had some courses in human resource management listed on your transcript. Also you have good people skills. Faced with both the challenge and the rendition, you accepted. Now you are trying to decide, “What am to do now that I’m the HER manager. Case 3 Questions 1 . On what activities would you tell Mr.. Phillips you intended to focus? Why? 2. What would be your first action, and why? 3. What actions would you take specifically as a result of the acquisition of Martin Furniture ? 5 Case 4 (Staffing) The Reluctant Receptionist Superior Products Company has recently hired a new HER assistant, Virginia Fisher, who just received a college degree.
Frederick Mills, the HER Director, was extremely pleased to find someone who had some familiarity with basic management concepts because he was the entire HER department except for a clerk-typist. During the interview Frederick emphasized that he planned to have Virginia function as his assistant and that she would be doing some interviewing and be responsible for maintaining employee records. Because Superior has over 300 employees, Frederick had been too busy to prepare anything resembling a job description except for some scrawled notes on the back of an envelope.
Everything went fine for the first week for Virginia. On Monday of the second week, Frederick called Virginia into his office and explained that there was another minor duty that he had not mentioned to her. Frederick said, “In order to get approval to hire you from the president. I had to agree that whoever was hired would be the relief receptionist from 1 1 to 1 2:30 every day. The switchboard is usually quite busy and we wanted to be sure someone who is capable would be the backup. ” Virginia was not very happy about this assignment being sprung on her, but she agreed to try it for a while.
Within two weeks she was beginning to dread having to work the switchboard an hour everyday. Also, she discovered that he was expected to be the relief if the receptionist was sick or unable to work. On Wednesday and Thursday of the third week the regular receptionist was sick and Virginia filled in for her. On Friday, Virginia told Frederick she was quitting in two weeks. When asked why, Virginia replied, misrepresented the job to me. You never said anything about my receptionist duties. If you had, I probably would not have taken the job. ” Case 4 Questions 1 . Why did the absence of accurate job information create a problem? . To prevent future problems, what content should be in a job description for the HER assistant ? 3. What are possible consequence from an employer brand point of view ? 6 Case 5 (Staffing) Enterprise Recruiting Many customers use Enterprise Rent-A-Car each year, and it is bigger than its competitors Hertz, Avis, and National. In 10 years Enterprise has doubled the number of cars in its fleet and increased its workforce over 30%, to 54,000 employees. What may not be widely known is that Enterprise recruits large numbers of college graduates each year for its management training program and other jobs.
About 6,000 college graduates are hired annually so that Enterprise can staff its expanding number of offices. Several Innovative recruiting methods have been used in the past few years by Enterprise. On the company’s Website the on-line game called “Give Me the Business” has gotten many hits. The game is not directly related to renting cars, but it lets people experience the challenges Of a customer service business. The hidden message is its ‘Virtual marketing’ of Enterprise and Its fun culture.
Another creative approach used was sponsorship of Personal Enterprise show on MET, in which candidates for a job at Enterprise were viewed during two rounds of behavioral Interviews. The candidates were asked questions, and hey were “judged” on their answers. But unlike other TV reality shows where only one person wins, three of the four candidates were offered jobs. The on-line games and the TV show were attention-getters, but the greatest source of Enterprise recruits comes from employee referrals. Enterprise employees who refer candidates who are hired and remain with the firm can receive incentives of $500 to $1 ,500 each.
Often, referrals check out Enterprise or its Website and mention the firm to others, which expands the pool of potential recruits. Enterprise is somewhat unusual as an employer because it uses both rotational and creative recruiting means. The wide range of activities has helped Enterprise recruit more effectively, which aids its strategic goal of establishing its “employment brand. ” At the heart of its branding efforts has been a program called My Personal Enterprise. This program combines all of Enterprise’s recruiting materials and advertisements, its Website, and its other recruiting efforts.
The main focus of My Personal Enterprise has been to convince college graduates that there are career opportunities in the rental car firm and that jobs in the company can be fun and fulfilling. Case 5 Questions How does having multiple recruiting means help Enterprise establish its brand? At what economic conditions is it important to have multiple channels ? Go to the Enterprise Website (www. Eras. Com/). Click on the various links to check out career opportunities, information about Enterprise’s commitment to the environment and to their employees, and other components. Click on “Apply NOW’ to see what positions are available and where.
Then evaluate how effective you feel the Web site is as an employment branding and recruiting resource. 7 Case 6 (Training and Performance) Seeing the Forest Products Company and he Trees When the leaders of the Forest Products Company (FPC) and its parent corporation, Weyerhaeuser, surveyed an industry on its knees in the early 19805, the domestic and global competition they saw was far different from what Weyerhaeuser and its subsidiaries had successfully competed against for so long. These leaders knew how to compete-?and win-? against a large- firm, commodity lumber business.
But that business was in its death throes, and what was emerging from the ashes presented an entirely new set of challenges that would require a radical change in Weyerhaeuser strategy. The new competitors weren’t the old, monolithic organizations; instead, they were small mills-?lean, mean, and configured so that their products could be tailored to customer demand and their product lines could change rapidly according to need. These new competitors were nonunion, owner-operated, and entrepreneurial, and in this configuration, they were running the lowest- cost, most market-oriented operations around.
Going out of business was not an alternative anyone cared to think about, but if things didn’t change, it would be a definite possibility. Charley Bingham, CEO of the FPC, knew that something had to be done-?and soon. He gathered his top dozen managers, and together, they decided that a massive reorganization was called for, accompanied by a radical change in strategy. According to Bingham, the change in strategy went something like this: “Approximately 80 percent of our sales dollars in 1982 represented products sold as commodities. By 1 995, we resolved that we must reverse the proportions. The massive reorganization at FPC mirrored that occurring at its parent company. Weyerhaeuser decided to drastically decentralized. And the three operating units, of which FPC was one, were given free reign on how to do their business. Given this scenario, Bingham and his team decided they needed to create an organization capable of acting and responding just like their competitors. Thus, they created 200 profit centers, with each center being largely responsible for its own bottom line. This restructuring soon proved to be only a first step in the right direction.
The ability of FPC to implement its new strategy was being undermined by low morale, which was pervasive. In addition, many middle managers-?those needed to actually carry out the change-?were pessimistic about the chances for sustained future success. Silently, they even questioned their own ability o operate the profit centers. With insights from Horace Parker, the director of executive development at FPC, the rest of the top team came to realize the organization would have to be transformed completely: The corporate culture, knowledge base, skill levels, leadership style, and team orientation would all have to change, for all employees.
And with 18,000 employees across the United States, Parker wasn’t sure where to start. The others said they would help, but Horace had to tell them what to do. Horace, of course, is waiting to hear what you have to tell him. 8 Case 6 Questions 1 . Where does Horace start? What programs does he put in place to deal with the needs of corporate culture, knowledge, skills, leadership, and team orientation? 2. How does he go about developing the programs that he needs to put in place? Does he do it by himself? Can he buy off-the-shelf programs? 3. What time frame does Horace need to implement the programs to make the change successful?
If he deals only with executive development programs, does he need to be concerned with programs for middle managers and below? If so, how does he do this? Source: CB. Werner, Schuler, Jackson (2012), p. 428 – Randall S. Schuler, Rutgers University. 9 Case 7 (Training and Performance) Unequal-Equal Supervisors Hubert Johnson is a department head. He has been with the company for 30 years and knows his way around quite well. He has two employees, Harriet Green and Neil White. Harriet has been with the company for 15 years and Neil has been with the company for six years.
Harriet has always been cooperative, loyal, dependable, but not an especially good supervisor. Recently Hubert has noticed that Harriet has begun to “slip” in the performance of some of her duties. Neil, on the other hand is a very ambitious, energetic, and dependable supervisor who grasps problems quickly and easily. Hubert has to complete performance appraisals on both individuals annually. Ten months ago he did his appraising with a great deal of displeasure because he hated to face the unpleasantness of a negative performance appraisal review.
As a result, he rated both the employees about the same. When a discussion about the ratings was conducted, both supervisors appeared to be satisfied with the rating they had received. Six months ago business began to fall off and a reduction in force put into effect. This week, after a number of other people were laid off or demoted, it became accessory to move either Harriet Green or Neil White from the position of a supervisor to that of a worker until sales picked up. Hubert wants to keep Neil on the supervisor job, but on the basis of the appraisals there is no difference between the two.
In the past when two employees had the same ratings, the person with the most seniority receives priority. Hubert must decide today what to do. Case 7 Questions 1 . How have the inaccurate performance ratings created more problems? 2. Comment on the case: do you think it is an exception or does this happen quite often? What could the company, with the support of HER have done to prevent this taxation from happening ? What would you recommend the company to do to prevent this in the future? 10 Case 8 .
Com penetration) Compensation Changes at J Penny Having been in business for over 100 years, J Penny has experienced highs and lows in organizational performance. In the past decade the firm has faced a dramatically changing retail environment from competitors such as Target, Wall-Mart, the Gap, and others. As a result, J Penny was increasingly viewed by customers and analysts of the retail industry as lagging in its merchandising strategies. Even the compensation system at J Penny was viewed as traditional and transatlantic in nature because it emphasized rewarding employees primarily for their length of service.
Also, most promotions were made internally, which created a more static organizational culture. The traditional pay structure at the firm contained many pay grades and was based on job evaluations to establish those grades. Its performance review system emphasized employee tenure and effort to a greater degree than performance results. To respond to the competitive environment, the firm’s executives decided that J Penny had to become more dynamic and able to change more quickly.