Great 4 Video Case Studies
Video Case Studies
Book Reference
Dessler, G. (2015). Human resource management [VitalSource Bookshelf version] (14th ed.).
Unit II Case Study
Video Case: Strategic Management: Joie de Vivre Hospitality
Instructions: Read the video case in your textbook titled “Strategic Management: Joie de Vivre Hospitality,” then watch the corresponding video in the Unit Study Guide. Answer two of the Discussion Questions on page 81. Be sure to restate each question in your own words before answering in essay format. Your total assignment response must be at least 400 words in length. You must use at least your text book to complete this assignment. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. All references and citations used must be in APA style.
PearsonMyLab Video: Joie de Vivre Hospitality: Strategic Management
Pearson Link: http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/bp/bp_video_links/2013/mgmt/hrm/JDVH-VID2-WEB640.html
Unit III Case Study
Video Case: Interviewing Candidates (Zipcar)
Instructions: Read the video case in your textbook, titled “Interviewing Candidates (Zipcar),”then watch the corresponding video in the Unit Study Guide. Answer two of the Discussion Questions on page 209. Be sure to restate the question in your own words before answering in essay format. Your total assignment response must be at least 400 words in length. You must use at least your textbook to complete this assignment. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. All references and citations used must be in APA style.
PearsonMyLab Video: ZipCar: Interviewing Candidates
Pearson Link:
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/bp/bp_video_links/2013/mgmt/hrm/ZIPC-VID3-WEB640.html
Unit IV Case Study
Video: Training (Wilson Learning)
Instructions: Read the video case in your textbook, titled “Training (Wilson Learning),” then watch the corresponding video in the Unit Study Guide. Answer four of the Discussion Questions on page 251. Be sure to restate each question in your own words before answering in essay format. Your total assignment response must be at least 400 words in length. You must use at least your textbook to complete this assignment. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. All references and citations used must be in APA style.
PearsonMyLab: Wilson Learning: Training
Pearson Link:
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/bp/bp_video_links/2013/mgmt/hrm/hrm_0701_512.html
Unit VII Case Study
Video Case: Union-Management Relations (UPS)
Instructions: Read the video case in your textbook, titled “Union-Management Relations (UPS),” then watch the corresponding video in the Unit Study Guide. Answer Discussion Questions 15-13 and 15-16 on page 483. Be sure to restate each question in your own words before answering in essay format. Your total assignment response must be at least 400 words in length. You must use at least your textbook to complete this assignment. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. All references and citations used must be in APA style.
UPS: Union-Management Relations
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/bp/bp_video_links/2013/mgmt/hrm/hrm_0802_512.html
PRINTED BY: 9676f539bb559f5@placeholder.9722.edu. Printing is for personal, private use only. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without publisher’s prior permission. Violators will be prosecuted. Individual and Group Activities
8-10. You’re the supervisor of a group of employees whose task is to assemble disk drives that go into computers. You find that quality is not what it should be and that many of your group’s devices have to be brought back and reworked. Your boss says, “You’d better start doing a better job of training your workers.”
What are some of the staffing factors that could be contributing to this problem?a. Explain how you would go about assessing whether it is in fact a training problem.
b.
8-11. Choose a task with which you are familiar—mowing the lawn, making a salad, or studying for a test—and develop a job instruction sheet for it. 8-12. Working individually or in groups, develop a short, programmed learning program on the subject “Guidelines for Giving a More Effective Lecture.” 8-13. Find three or four actual examples of employers using social media for training purposes. At what levels of managers are the offerings aimed? What seem to be the most popular types of programs? Why do you think that’s the case? 8-14. Working individually or in groups, develop several specific examples to illustrate how a professor teaching human resource management could use at least four of the techniques described in this chapter in teaching his or her HR course. 8-15. Working individually or in groups, develop an orientation program for high school graduates entering your university as freshmen. 8-16. Appendix A , PHR and SPHR Knowledge Base, at the end of this book (pages 580–588) lists the knowledge someone studying for the HRCI certification exam needs to have in each area of human resource management (such as in Strategic Management, Workforce Planning, and Human Resource Development). In groups of four to five students, do four things: (1) review Appendix A ; (2) identify the material in this chapter that relates to the required knowledge Appendix A lists; (3) write four multiple-choice exam questions on this material that you believe would be suitable for inclusion in the HRCI exam; and (4) if time permits, have someone from your team post your team’s questions in front of the class, so that students in all teams can answer the exam questions created by the other teams. 8-17. Perhaps no training task in Afghanistan was more pressing than that involved in creating the country’s new army, which is an ongoing task. These were the people who were to help the coalition bring security to Afghanistan. However, many new soldiers
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and even officers had no experience. There were language barriers between trainers and trainees. And some trainees found themselves quickly under fire from insurgents when they went as trainees out into the field. Based on what you learned about training from this chapter, list the five most important things you would tell the U.S. officer in charge of training to keep in mind as he designs the training program.
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The purpose of this exercise is to give you practice in developing a training program for the job of airline reservation clerk for a major airline.
You should be fully acquainted with the material in this chapter and should read the following description of an airline reservation clerk’s duties:
Customers contact our airline reservation clerks to obtain flight schedules, prices, and itineraries. The reservation clerks look up the requested information on our airline’s online flight schedule systems, which are updated continuously. The reservation clerk must deal courteously and expeditiously with the customer, and be able to find quickly alternative flight arrangements in order to provide the customer with the itinerary that fits his or her needs. Alternative flights and prices must be found quickly, so that the customer is not kept waiting, and so that our reservations operations group maintains its efficiency standards. It is often necessary to look under various routings, since there may be a dozen or more alternative routes between the customer’s starting point and destination.
You may assume that we just hired 30 new clerks, and that you must create a 3-day training program.
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Divide the class into teams of five or six students.
Airline reservation clerks obviously need numerous skills to perform their jobs. JetBlue Airlines has asked you to design quickly the outline of a training program for its new reservation clerks.
8-18. You may want to start by listing the job’s main duties and by reviewing any work you may have done for the exercise at the end of Chapter 6 . 8-19. In any case, please produce the requested outline, making sure to be very specific about what you want to teach the new clerks, and what methods and aids you suggest using to train them.
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Maxene Raices is a senior manager at Wilson Learning, a company that specializes in developing training programs. She describes the best practices that make training most effective. She explains how training sessions have to be planned carefully with an outcome in mind, and have to consist of more than just lecturing. Good training programs help employees do their jobs, and ideally produce measurable results. Managers can use technology to make training even more effective, giving opportunities for people spread over various locations to attend training sessions.
8-20. How does Wilson Learning’s “know, show, do” approach fit with the training processes that this chapter described? 8-21. Explain what specific training tools and processes discussed in this chapter you would use to implement a “know, show, do” training approach. 8-22. What do you think of the experimental design Wilson used to assess the call-center training program? How would you suggest the company improve it? 8-23. Discuss four types of technology Wilson could use to deliver training, based on the information in this chapter. 8-24. What are two reasons that Maxene gives for thinking it is important for different learning styles to be recognized? 8-25. How does identifying the intended outcomes of a training shape the training itself?
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[no longer online] Witness.org trains human rights advocacy groups to capture on video the testimonies of survivors and witnesses to human rights abuses all over the world. The company’s goal is to empower the people who are directly involved in the situations, by giving them the tools necessary to use the power of video to communicate their stories. [no longer online] Witness.org trains advocacy partners on how to use the video equipment, how to tell a story in such a way that it effects change in those who hear it, and how to get the video in front of the people who are able to make a positive change.
[no longer online] Witness.org is run by a core of 28 people with experience in a variety of areas, including speaking multiple languages, managing a nonprofit organization, producing videos, and working with human rights issues. These employees train advocacy groups on the technical aspects of creating a video, as well as safety and security issues related to producing videos containing sensitive materials. The main goal of [no longer online] Witness.org is to achieve changes in policies, laws, or behaviors that are currently causing human suffering.
8-26. Explain how training and development play an important role in [no longer online] Witness.org. 8-27. Describe the challenges incurred in the training and development process at [no longer online] Witness.org. 8-28. Describe the group of experts who conduct the training for [no longer online] Witness.org.
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Jim Delaney, president of Apex Door, has a problem. No matter how often he tells his employees how to do their jobs, they invariably “decide to do it their way,” as he puts it, and arguments ensue between Jim, the employee, and the employee’s supervisor. One example is the door-design department, where the designers are expected to work with the architects to design doors that meet the specifications. While it’s not “rocket science,” as Jim puts it, the designers invariably make mistakes—such as designing in too much steel, a problem that can cost Apex tens of thousands of wasted dollars, once you consider the number of doors in, say, a 30-story office tower.
The order processing department is another example. Jim has a very specific and detailed way he wants the order written up, but most of the order clerks don’t understand how to use the multipage order form. They simply improvise when it comes to a detailed question such as whether to classify the customer as “industrial” or “commercial.”
The current training process is as follows. None of the jobs has a training manual per se, although several have somewhat out-of-date job descriptions. The training for new people is all on the job. Usually, the person leaving the company trains the new person during the 1- or 2-week overlap period, but if there’s no overlap, the new person is trained as well as possible by other employees who have filled in occasionally on the job in the past. The training is the same throughout the company—for machinists, secretaries, assemblers, engineers, and accounting clerks, for example.
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8-29. What do you think of Apex’s training process? Could it help to explain why employees “do things their way”? If so, how? 8-30. What role should job descriptions play in training at Apex? 8-31. Explain in detail what you would do to improve the training process at Apex. Make sure to provide specific suggestions, please.
*Source: Copyright Dr. Gary Dessler.
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The Carter Cleaning Centers currently have no formal orientation or training policies or procedures, and Jennifer believes this is one reason why the standards to which she and her father would like employees to adhere are generally not followed.
The Carters would prefer that certain practices and procedures be used in dealing with the customers at the front counters. For example, all customers should be greeted with what Jack refers to as a “big hello.” Garments they drop off should immediately be inspected for any damage or unusual stains so these can be brought to the customer’s attention, lest the customer later return to pick up the garment and erroneously blame the store. The garments are then supposed to be placed together in a nylon sack immediately to separate them from other customers’ garments. The ticket also has to be carefully written, with the customer’s name and telephone number and the date clearly noted on all copies. The counter person is also supposed to take the opportunity to try to sell the customer additional services such as waterproofing, or simply notify the customer that “Now that people are doing their spring cleaning, we’re having a special on drapery cleaning all this month.” Finally, as the customer leaves, the counter person is supposed to make a courteous comment like “Have a nice day.” Each of the other jobs in the stores—pressing, cleaning and spotting, and so forth—similarly contain certain steps, procedures, and, most importantly, standards the Carters would prefer to see upheld.
The company has had problems, Jennifer feels, because of a lack of adequate employee training and orientation. For example, two new employees became very upset last month when they discovered that they were not paid at the end of the week, on Friday, but instead were paid (as are all Carter employees) on the following Tuesday. The Carters use the extra 2 days in part to give them time to obtain everyone’s hours and compute their pay. The other reason they do it, according to Jack, is that “frankly, when we stay a few days behind in paying employees it helps to ensure that they at least give us a few days’ notice before quitting on us. While we are certainly obligated to pay them anything they earn, we find
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that psychologically they seem to be less likely to just walk out on us Friday evening and not show up Monday morning if they still haven’t gotten their pay from the previous week. This way they at least give us a few days’ notice so we can find a replacement.”
There are other matters that could be covered during orientation and training, says Jennifer. These include company policy regarding paid holidays, lateness and absences, health benefits (there are none, other than workers’ compensation), substance abuse, eating or smoking on the job (both forbidden), and general matters like the maintenance of a clean and safe work area, personal appearance and cleanliness, time sheets, personal telephone calls, and personal e-mail.
Jennifer believes that implementing orientation and training programs would help to ensure that employees know how to do their jobs the right way. And she and her father further believe that it is only when employees understand the right way to do their jobs that there is any hope their jobs will be accomplished the way the Carters want them to be accomplished.
8-32. Specifically, what should the Carters cover in their new employee orientation program and how should they convey this information? 8-33. In the HR management course Jennifer took, the book suggested using a job instruction sheet to identify tasks performed by an employee. Should the Carter Cleaning Centers use a form like this for the counter person’s job? If so, what should the form look like, say, for a counter person? 8-34. Which specific training techniques should Jennifer use to train her pressers, her cleaner/spotters, her managers, and her counter people? Why should these training techniques be used?
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*The accompanying strategy map for this chapter is in the MyManagementLab, and the overall map on the inside back cover of this text outlines the relationships involved.
§Written by and copyright Gary Dessler, PhD.
As she reviewed her company’s training processes, Lisa had many reasons to be concerned. For one thing, the Hotel Paris relied almost exclusively on informal on-the-job training. New security guards attended a one-week program offered by a law enforcement agency, but all other new hires, from assistant manager to housekeeping crew, learned the rudiments of their jobs from their colleagues and their supervisors, on the job. Lisa noted that the drawbacks of this informality were evident when she compared the Hotel Paris’s performance on various training metrics with those of other hotels and service firms. For example, in terms of number of hours training per employee per year, number of hours training for new employees, cost per trainee hour, and percent of payroll spent on training, the Hotel Paris was far from the norm when benchmarked against similar firms.
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PRINTED BY: 9676f539bb559f5@placeholder.9722.edu. Printing is for personal, private use only. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without publisher’s prior permission. Violators will be prosecuted. encouragement of unions. Historically, the laws encouraging the union movement included the Norris-LaGuardia and National Labor Relations (Wagner) Acts of the 1930s. These outlawed certain unfair employer labor practices and made it easier for unions to organize. The Taft-Hartley or Labor Management Relations Act of 1947 addressed keeping unions from restraining or coercing employees, and listed certain unfair union labor practices. In the 1950s, the Landrum-Griffin Act (technically, the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act) further protected union members from possible wrongdoing on the part of their unions.
When unions begin organizing, all managers and supervisors usually get involved, so it’s essential to understand the mechanics of the union drive and election. The main steps include initial contact, obtaining authorization cards, holding a hearing, the campaign itself, and the election. Supervisors need to understand their role at each step in this process. Follow the acronym TIPS—do not Threaten, Interrogate, make Promises, or Spy. And follow FORE—provide Facts, express your Opinions, explain factually correct Rules, and share your Experiences. Managers need to understand rules regarding literature and solicitation. For example, employers can always bar nonemployees from soliciting employees during their work time, and can usually stop employees from soliciting other employees when both are on duty time and not on a break.
The employer and union hammer out an agreement via the collective bargaining process. The heart of collective bargaining is good faith bargaining, which means both parties must make reasonable efforts to arrive at agreement, and proposals are matched with counterproposals. Both negotiating teams will work hard to understand their respective clients’ needs and to quantify their demands. In the actual bargaining sessions, there are mandatory bargaining items such as pay, illegal bargaining items, and voluntary bargaining items such as benefits for retirees. If things don’t go smoothly during collective bargaining, the parties may utilize third-party intermediaries, including mediators, fact finders, and arbitrators. Strikes represent a withdrawal of labor. There are economic strikes resulting from a failure to agree on the terms of the contract, as well as unfair labor practice strikes, wildcat strikes, and sympathy strikes. During strikes, picketing may occur. Other tactics include a corporate campaign by the union, boycotting, inside games, or (for employers) lockouts.
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Most managers become involved with disputes and grievances during their careers. Most collective bargaining agreements contain a specific grievance procedure listing the steps in the procedure. In general, the best way to handle a grievance is to create an environment in which grievances don’t occur. However, if a grievance does occur, things to do include investigate, handle each case as though it may eventually result in arbitration, talk with the employee about the grievance, and comply with the contractual time limits for handling the grievance. On the other hand, don’t make arrangements with individual employees that are inconsistent with the labor agreement or hold back the remedy if the company is wrong.
Membership is down but in some ways unions are becoming more influential today, so it’s important to understand the union movement today and tomorrow. For example, unions are becoming more aggressive in terms of pushing Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, which, among other things, would enable employees to vote for the union by signing authorization cards, rather than going through a formal union election. New union federations, such as Change to Win, are being more aggressive about organizing workers, and unions are going global, for instance, by helping employees in China organize local Walmart stores.
15-4. Why do employees join unions? What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a union member?
15-5. Discuss four sure ways to lose an NLRB election. 15-6. Briefly illustrate how labor law has gone through a cycle of repression and encouragement. 15-7. Explain in detail each step in a union drive and election. 15-8. Define impasse, mediation, and strike, and explain the techniques that are used to overcome an impasse.
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15-9. You are the manager of a small manufacturing plant. The union contract covering most of your employees is about to expire. Working individually or in groups, discuss how to prepare for union contract negotiations. 15-10. Working individually or in groups, use Internet resources to find situations where company management and the union reached an impasse at some point during their negotiation process, but eventually resolved the impasse. Describe the issues on both sides that led to the impasse. How did they move past the impasse? What were the final outcomes?
15-11. Appendix A , PHR and SPHR Knowledge Base, at the end of this book (pages 580–588) lists the knowledge someone studying for the HRCI certification exam needs to have in each area of human resource management (such as in Strategic Management, Workforce Planning, and Human Resource Development). In groups of four to five students, do four things: (1) review Appendix A ; (2) identify the material in this chapter that relates to the required knowledge Appendix A lists; (3) write four multiple-choice exam questions on this material that you believe would be suitable for inclusion in the HRCI exam; and (4) if time permits, have someone from your team post your team’s questions in front of the class, so that students in all teams can answer the exam questions created by the other teams. 15-12. Several years ago, 8,000 Amtrak workers agreed not to disrupt service by walking out, at least not until a court hearing was held. Amtrak had asked the courts for a temporary restraining
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order, and the Transport Workers Union of America was actually pleased to postpone its walkout. The workers were apparently not upset at Amtrak, but at Congress for failing to provide enough funding for Amtrak. What, if anything, can an employer do when employees threaten to go on strike, not because of what the employer did, but what a third party—in this case, Congress—has done or not done? What laws would prevent the union from going on strike in this case?
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The purpose of this exercise is to give you practice in dealing with some of
the elements of a union-organizing campaign.113
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You should be familiar with the material covered in this chapter, as well as the following incident, “An Organizing Question on Campus.”
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Art Tipton is human resource director of Pierce University, a private university located in a large urban city. Ruth Zimmer, a supervisor in the maintenance and housekeeping services division of the university, has just come into Art’s office to discuss her situation. Zimmer’s division is responsible for maintaining and cleaning physical facilities of the university. Zimmer is one of the department supervisors who supervise employees who maintain and clean on-campus dormitories.
In the next several minutes, Zimmer proceeds to express her concerns about a union-organizing campaign that has begun among her employees. According to Zimmer, a representative of the Service Workers Union has met with several of her employees, urging them to sign union authorization cards. She has observed several of her employees “cornering” other employees to talk to them about joining the union and to urge them to sign union authorization (or representation) cards. Zimmer even observed this during working hours as employees were going about their normal duties in the dormitories. Zimmer reports that a number of her employees have come to her asking for her opinions about the union. They told her that several other supervisors in the department had told their employees not to sign any union authorization cards and not to talk about the union at any time while they were on campus. Zimmer also reports that one of her fellow supervisors told his employees that anyone who was caught talking about the union or signing a union authorization card would be disciplined and perhaps dismissed.
Zimmer says that her employees are very dissatisfied with their wages and with the conditions that they have endured from students, supervisors, and other staff people. She says that several employees told her that they had signed union cards because they believed that the only way university administration would pay attention to their concerns was if the employees had a union to represent them. Zimmer says that she made a list of employees who she felt had joined or were interested in the union, and she could share these with Tipton if he wanted to deal with them personally. Zimmer closed her presentation with the comment that she and other department supervisors need to know what they should do
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in order to stomp out the threat of unionization in their department.
Divide the class into groups of four or five students. Assume that you are labor relations consultants the university retained to identify the problems and issues involved and to advise Art Tipton on the university’s rights and what to do next. Each group will spend the time allotted discussing the issues. Then, outline those issues, as well as an action plan for Tipton. What should he do next?
If time permits, a spokesperson from each group should list on the board the issues involved and the group’s recommendations. What should Art do?
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The former human resources head for UPS describes what it’s like (for both an employer and an employee) to work with a labor union. The roles and functions of labor unions are discussed, and the advantages and disadvantages that can accrue to both employees and management are explained. The future of unions, and other arrangements that fulfill some of the same roles, are also discussed.
15-13. From what you know about UPS, what do you think would make the union believe that the company was ripe for being organized? 15-14. Do you agree that unions “stifle creativity”? Why or why not? 15-15. Do you agree that employees who excel in nonunion environments earn more than they would in unionized companies? Why? 15-16. What other “replacements” for unions have helped reduce union membership, according to the chapter?
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The talks between the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (producers) began tense, and then
got tenser.114
The biggest issue was how to split revenue from new media, such as when television shows move to the Internet. The producers said they wanted a profit-splitting system rather than the current residual system. Under the residual system, writers continue to receive “residuals” or income from shows they write every time they’re shown (such as when Seinfeld appears in reruns). Writers Guild executives argued producers’ revenues from advertising and subscription fees had recently jumped by
about 40%.115
The situation grew tenser.116 Even after meeting six times, it seemed that “the parties’ only apparent area of agreement is that no real bargaining
has yet to occur.”117
Soon, the Writers Guild asked its members for strike authorization, and the producers were claiming that the guild was just trying to delay negotiations until the current contract expired (at the end of October). As the president of the producers’ group said, “We have had six across- the-table sessions and there was only silence and stonewalling from the WGA leadership. . . . The WGA leadership apparently has no intention to
bargain in good faith.”118 As evidence, the producers claimed that the WGA negotiating committee left one meeting after less than an hour.
Both sides knew timing was very important. During the fall and spring, television series production is in full swing. So, a writers’ strike now would have a bigger impact than waiting until, say, the summer to strike. Perhaps
not surprisingly, some movement was soon discernible.119 Then the WGA and producers reached agreement. The new contract was “the direct result of renewed negotiations between the two sides, which culminated Friday with a marathon session including top WGA officials and the heads
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of the Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.”120
15-17. The producers said the WGA was not bargaining in good faith. What did they mean by that, and do you think the evidence is sufficient to support the claim? 15-18. The WGA did eventually strike. What tactics could the producers have used to fight back once the strike began? What tactics do you think the WGA used? 15-19. This was a conflict between professional and creative people (the WGA) and TV and movie producers. Do you think the conflict was therefore different in any way than are the conflicts between, say, the Autoworkers or Teamsters unions against auto and trucking companies? Why? 15-20. What role (with examples) did negotiating skills seem to play in the WGA producers’ negotiations?
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On visiting one of Carter Cleaning Company’s stores, Jennifer was surprised to be taken aside by a long-term Carter employee, who met her as she was parking her car. “Murray (the store manager) told me I was suspended for 2 days without pay because I came in late last Thursday,” said George. “I’m really upset, but around here the store manager’s word seems to be law, and it sometimes seems like the only way anyone can file a grievance is by meeting you or your father like this in the parking lot.” Jennifer was very disturbed by this revelation and promised the employee she would look into it and discuss the situation with her father. In the car heading back to headquarters, she began mulling over what Carter Cleaning Company’s alternatives might be.
15-21. Do you think it is important for Carter Cleaning Company to have a formal grievance process? Why or why not? 15-22. Based on what you know about the Carter Cleaning Company, outline the steps in what you think would be the ideal grievance process for this company. 15-23. In addition to the grievance process, can you think of anything else that Carter Cleaning Company might do to make sure grievances and gripes like this one are expressed and are heard by top management?
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*The accompanying strategy map for this chapter is in the MyManagementLab; and the overall map on the inside back cover of this text outlines the relationships involved.
§Written by and copyright Gary Dessler, PhD.
Lisa Cruz’s parents were both union members, and she had no strong philosophical objections to unions, per se. However, as the head of HR for the Hotel Paris, she did feel very strongly that her employer should do everything legally possible to remain union-free. She knew that this is what the hotel chain’s owners and top executives wanted, and that achieving their strategic goals would be best accomplished by staying union free. Furthermore, the evidence seemed to support their position. At least one study that she’d seen concluded that firms with 30% or more of their eligible workers in unions were in the bottom 10% in terms of performance, while those with 8% to 9% of eligible workers in unions
scored in the top 10%.121 The problem was that the Hotel Paris really had no specific policies and procedures in place to help its managers and supervisors deal with union activities. With all the laws regarding
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PRINTED BY: 9676f539bb559f5@placeholder.9722.edu. Printing is for personal, private use only. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted without publisher’s prior permission. Violators will be prosecuted. management policies and practices that promote organizational effectiveness. Human resource metrics (quantitative measures of some human resource management activities, such as employee turnover) are critical in creating high-performance human resource policies and practices. This is because they enable managers to benchmark their own practices against those of successful organizations.
3-3. Give an example of hierarchical planning in an organization.
3-4. What is the difference between a corporate strategy and a competitive strategy? Give one example of each. 3-5. Explain why strategic planning is important to all managers. 3-6. Explain with examples each of the eight steps in the strategic management process.
3-7. Explain with examples how human resources management can be instrumental in helping a company create a competitive advantage.
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3-8. With three or four other students, form a strategic management group for your college or university. Your assignment is to develop the outline of a strategic plan for the college or university. This should include such things as strategic goals; and corporate, competitive, and functional strategies. In preparing your plan, make sure to show the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats the college faces, and which prompted you to develop your particular strategic plans. 3-9. Using the Internet or library resources, review the annual reports of five companies. Bring to class examples of how those companies say they are using their HR processes to help the company achieve its strategic goals. 3-10. Interview an HR manager and write a short report on “The Strategic Roles of the HR Manager at XYZ Company.” 3-11. Using the Internet or library resources, bring to class and discuss at least two examples of how companies are using an HR scorecard to help create HR systems that support the company’s strategic aims. Do all managers seem to mean the same thing when they refer to HR scorecards? If not, how do they differ? 3-12. In teams of four or five students, choose a company for which you will develop an outline of a strategic HR plan. What seem to be this company’s main strategic aims? What is the firm’s competitive strategy? What would the strategic map for this company look like? How would you summarize your recommended strategic HR policies for this company?
3-13. Appendix A , PHR and SPHR Knowledge Base, at the
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end of this book (pages 580–588) lists the knowledge someone studying for the HRCI certification exam needs to have in each area of human resource management (such as in Strategic Management, Workforce Planning, and Human Resource Development). In groups of four to five students, do four things: (1) review Appendix A ; (2) identify the material in this chapter that relates to the required knowledge Appendix A lists; (3) write four multiple-choice exam questions on this material that you believe would be suitable for inclusion in the HRCI exam; and (4) if time permits, have someone from your team post your team’s questions in front of the class, so that students in all teams can answer the exam questions created by the other teams.
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A few years ago, Starbucks was facing serious challenges. Sales per store were stagnant or declining, and its growth rate and profitability were down. Many believed that its introduction of breakfast foods had diverted its “baristas” from their traditional jobs as coffee-preparation experts. McDonald’s and Dunkin’ Donuts were introducing lower-priced but still high-grade coffees. Starbucks’ former CEO stepped back into the company’s top job. You need to help him formulate a new direction for his company.
The purpose of this exercise is to give you experience in developing an HR strategy, in this case, by developing one for Starbucks.
You should be thoroughly familiar with the material in this chapter.
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Set up groups of three or four students for this exercise. You are probably already quite familiar with what it’s like to have a cup of coffee or tea in a Starbucks coffee shop, but if not, spend some time in one prior to this exercise. Meet in groups and develop an outline for an HR strategy for Starbucks Corp. Assume that for a corporate strategy Starbucks will remain primarily an international chain of coffee shops. Your outline should include four basic elements: a business/competitive strategy for Starbucks, the workforce requirements (in terms of employee competencies and behaviors) this strategy requires, specific HR policies and the activities necessary to produce these workforce requirements, and suggestions for metrics to measure the success of the HR strategy.
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Chip Conley is the founder of Joie de Vivre Hospitality (JDV), a collection of boutique hotels, restaurants, and spas in California. The kitschy atmosphere of the boutiques allows JDV to differentiate itself from both the luxury and the chain hotels. Customer loyalty is so great that JDV relies primarily on word-of-mouth advertising and spends little on traditional advertising methods.
3-14. How does Joie de Vivre Hospitality differentiate its boutique hotels from other hotel offerings in the area? 3-15. How did Chip Conley and Joie de Vivre Hospitality demonstrate great strategic flexibility during the dot-com crash and post-9/11 industry recession? 3-16. What is Joie de Vivre’s philosophy on advertising for its hotels? How does this support the firm’s strategic aims? 3-17. Similarly, list five specific human resource management practices that you would suggest JDV use in order to produce the employee behaviors required to achieve JDV’s strategic aims.
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Siemens is a 150-year-old German company, but it’s not the company it was even a few years ago. Until recently, Siemens focused on producing electrical products. Today the firm has diversified into software, engineering, and services. It is also global, with more than 400,000 employees working in 190 countries. In other words, Siemens became a world leader by pursuing a corporate strategy that emphasized diversifying into high-tech products and services, and doing so on a global basis.
With a corporate strategy like that, human resource management plays a big role at Siemens. Sophisticated engineering and services require more focus on employee selection, training, and compensation than in the average firm, and globalization requires delivering these services globally. Siemens sums up the basic themes of its HR strategy in several points. These include:
A living company is a learning company. The high-tech nature of Siemens’ business means that employees must be able to learn on a continuing basis. Siemens uses its system of combined classroom and hands-on apprenticeship training around the world to help facilitate this. It also offers employees extensive continuing education and management development.
1.
Global teamwork is the key to developing and using all the potential of the firm’s human resources. Because it is so important for employees throughout Siemens to feel free to work together and interact, employees have to understand the whole process, not just bits and pieces. To support this, Siemens provides extensive training and development. It also ensures that all employees feel they’re part of a strong, unifying corporate identity. For example, HR uses cross-border, cross-cultural experiences as prerequisites for career advances.
2.
A climate of mutual respect is the basis of all relationships —within the company and with society. Siemens contends that the wealth of nationalities, cultures, languages, and outlooks
3.
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represented by its employees is one of its most valuable assets. It therefore engages in numerous HR activities aimed at building openness, transparency, and fairness, and supporting diversity.
3-18. Based on the information in this case, provide examples for Siemens of at least four strategically required organizational outcomes, and four required workforce competencies and behaviors. 3-19. Identify at least four strategically relevant HR policies and activities that Siemens has instituted in order to help human resource management contribute to achieving Siemens’ strategic goals. 3-20. Provide a brief illustrative outline of a strategy map for Siemens.
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As a recent graduate and as a person who keeps up with the business press, Jennifer Carter is familiar with the benefits of programs such as total quality management and high-performance work systems.
Jack, her father, actually installed a total quality program of sorts at Carter, and it has been in place for about 5 years. This program takes the form of employee meetings. Jack holds employee meetings periodically, but particularly when there is a serious problem in a store—such as poor-quality work or machine breakdowns. When problems like these arise, instead of trying to diagnose them himself or with Jennifer, he contacts all the employees in that store and meets with them when the store closes. Hourly employees get extra pay for these meetings. The meetings have been useful in helping Jack to identify and rectify several problems. For example, in one store all the fine white blouses were coming out looking dingy. It turned out that the cleaner/spotter had been ignoring the company rule that required cleaning (“boiling down”) the perchloroethylene cleaning fluid before washing items like these. As a result, these fine white blouses were being washed in cleaning fluid that had residue from other, earlier washes.
Jennifer now wonders whether these employee meetings should be expanded to give the employees an even bigger role in managing the Carter stores’ quality. “We can’t be everywhere watching everything all the time,” she said to her father. “Yes, but these people only earn about $8 to $15 per hour. Will they really want to act like mini-managers?” he replied.
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3-21. Would you recommend that the Carters expand their quality program? If so, specifically what form should it take? 3-22. Assume the Carters want to institute a high-performance work system as a test program in one of their stores. Write a one-page outline summarizing important HR practices you think they should focus on.
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*The accompanying strategy map for this chapter is in the MyManagementLab, and the overall map on the inside back cover of this text outlines the relationships involved.
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* Written by and copyright Gary Dessler, PhD. Starting as a single hotel in a Paris suburb in 1990, the Hotel Paris now comprises a chain of nine hotels, with two in France, one each in London and Rome, and others in New York, Miami, Washington, Chicago, and Los Angeles. As a corporate strategy, the Hotel Paris’s management and owners want to continue to expand geographically. They believe doing so will let them capitalize on their reputation for good service, by providing multicity alternatives for their satisfied guests. The problem is, their reputation for good service has been deteriorating. If they cannot improve service, it would be unwise for them to expand, since their guests might prefer other hotels after trying the Hotel Paris.
Several things are complicating their problem. Elected in 2012, French president Francois Hollande has been unable to halt or even slow the country’s economic decline. His attempts to impose incremental tax rates of 75% on wealthy citizens are prompting many to contemplate leaving France. Furthermore, many tourists—faced with similar economic challenges elsewhere—are increasingly staying at short-term rental apartments in Paris, found on the Web, for a fraction of what a fine hotel stay might cost.
Top management, with input from the HR and other managers, and with the board of directors’ approval, chooses a new competitive strategy and formulates new strategic goals. They decide: “The Hotel Paris International will use superior guest services to differentiate the Hotel Paris properties, and to thereby increase the length of stays and the return rate of guests, and thus boost revenues and profitability.” All Hotel Paris managers—including the director of HR services—must now formulate strategies that support this competitive strategy.
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The Hotel Paris’s basic strategy is to use superior guest services to expand geographically. For HR director Lisa Cruz, reviewing the hotel’s activities makes it clear that achieving the hotel’s strategic aims means achieving a number of required organizational outcomes. For example, Lisa and her management colleagues must take steps that produce fewer customer complaints and more written compliments, more frequent guest returns and longer stays, and higher guest expenditures per visit.
The question facing Lisa, then, is this: What competencies and behaviors must our hotel’s employees exhibit, if we are to produce required organizational outcomes such as fewer customer complaints, more compliments, and more frequent guest returns? Thinking through this question helps Lisa come up with an answer. For example, the hotel’s required employee competencies and behaviors would include, “high- quality front-desk customer service,” “taking calls for reservations in a friendly manner,” “greeting guests at the front door,” and “processing guests’ room service meals efficiently.” All require motivated, high-morale employees.
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The HR manager’s task now is to identify and specify the HR policies and activities that will enable the hotel to produce these crucial workforce competencies and behaviors. For example, “high-quality front-desk customer service” is one such required behavior. From this, the HR director identifies HR activities to produce such front-desk customer service efforts. For example, she decides to institute practices to improve the disciplinary fairness and justice in the company, with the aim of improving employee morale. Her assumption is that enhanced
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Book Reference
Dessler, G. (2015). Human resource management [VitalSource Bookshelf version] (14th ed.).
Unit II Case Study
Video Case: Strategic Management: Joie de Vivre Hospitality
Instructions: Read the video case in your textbook titled “Strategic Management: Joie de Vivre Hospitality,” then watch the corresponding video in the Unit Study Guide. Answer two of the Discussion Questions on page 81. Be sure to restate each question in your own words before answering in essay format. Your total assignment response must be at least 400 words in length. You must use at least your text book to complete this assignment. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. All references and citations used must be in APA style.
PearsonMyLab Video: Joie de Vivre Hospitality: Strategic Management
Pearson Link: http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/bp/bp_video_links/2013/mgmt/hrm/JDVH-VID2-WEB640.html
Unit III Case Study
Video Case: Interviewing Candidates (Zipcar)
Instructions: Read the video case in your textbook, titled “Interviewing Candidates (Zipcar),”then watch the corresponding video in the Unit Study Guide. Answer two of the Discussion Questions on page 209. Be sure to restate the question in your own words before answering in essay format. Your total assignment response must be at least 400 words in length. You must use at least your textbook to complete this assignment. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. All references and citations used must be in APA style.
PearsonMyLab Video: ZipCar: Interviewing Candidates
Pearson Link:
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/bp/bp_video_links/2013/mgmt/hrm/ZIPC-VID3-WEB640.html
Unit IV Case Study
Video: Training (Wilson Learning)
PearsonMyLab: Wilson Learning: Training
Pearson Link:
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/bp/bp_video_links/2013/mgmt/hrm/hrm_0701_512.html
Unit VII Case Study
Video Case: Union-Management Relations (UPS)
Instructions: Read the video case in your textbook, titled “Union-Management Relations (UPS),” then watch the corresponding video in the Unit Study Guide. Answer Discussion Questions 15-13 and 15-16 on page 483. Be sure to restate each question in your own words before answering in essay format. Your total assignment response must be at least 400 words in length. You must use at least your textbook to complete this assignment. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations. All references and citations used must be in APA style.
UPS: Union-Management Relations
http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/bp/bp_video_links/2013/mgmt/hrm/hrm_0802_512.html
