Management Balance
Managing through a Cube
Introduction
In order to have a smoothly running company, there must be a balance amongst the employees, or the human capital. The company needs employees who are essentially happy and healthy. However, when employees are over-worked, like those in an under-hired division, or employees who do not have enough to do like those in an over-hired division, the employees are no longer within the balance of happy and healthy.
The company is a company of 2000 employees, with three divisions. In an ideal case, the three divisions would work perfectly balanced and in sync with one another. However, in this specific case study, there is a lack of balance of workers. The balance is either too much supply in the second division, due to over-hiring. Or there is too much demand of employees in the third division due to under-hiring.
Over-hiring in the Second Division
The first of the two problems that the company is facing is the over-hiring of employees in the second division. Over-hiring is essentially defined as too many employees in relation to the amount of work that is required of a certain department or organization. According to the case study, the workforce is not proportionate to the workload for the division.
As a consultant to this case study, the first order of business to handle the over-hiring of employees in the second division would be to fire the excess workforce. When the company was in a growth, the company should have went through a temporary work placement agency. This way the company could have had more disposable employees to avoid over-hiring. When the company’s growth became stagnant, the company could have then terminated the temporarily placed employees without as much thought and severance needed to be put into each and every termination. As a consultant, this option would only be given to the company according to the state’s work laws, i.e. if the state is a will to work state or a labor union is involved. This is due to the possibility of lawsuits due to the possibility of illegal termination of an employee without a proper reason. Firing employees is a difficult task, but it is essential to maintain balance and efficiency ( Eastern, 2012). As long as there was not a breach of contract, and the company acts within the constraints of the law, then firing employees would be the best interest, even if severance packages, unemployment, or other aspects may come into play (Davis, 1989).
Under-hiring in the Third Division
If people from the second division could fit the job requirements within the third division, switch the people from the second division to the third division to apply more balance to the company. Upper management should look at the whole picture of the company. Each division should be analyzed, especially the two divisions in question. The job analysis will include an evaluation of exactly what is expected out of the individual employees; how they do their job coupled with the results they obtain (Rothwell and Kazanas, 2004). With this information, upper management will be able to decide with jobs are essential to the running of the division, and which employees are reaching their duties and responsibilities within the roles of their positions.
After transferring whatever employees are capable of transferring amongst the divisions in order to keep from a mass firing of personnel, which will keep morale higher beause less people will be afraid of losing their jobs, upper management should now take another look at the company. Where, if any, holes lie? The under-staffing of the third division should have been solved by switching those who are qualified over to the third division from the second division. However, if there were not enough people qualified, then hiring outside of the company may have been necessary. Furthermore, if not enough people were transferred between the divisions, then firing will still need to take place, and upper management needs to use a form of a review system in order to properly fire the people who are the least productive and essential to the company.
Management Importance
What's the Most Important thing to Management?
Plans for Upper Management
Upper management needs to put into place some sort of strategy for firing purposes. This will help keep people from being as worried about their positions at the company. Suggestions would consist of severance pay, placement services for jobs at other companies, and allowing a flow of communication as to why they are being fired. The communication should be more as if it exists, but for the company’s sake, it should be more like ripping off a Band-aid. Let the person know they are being fired, but going into too much detail could potentially lead to legal issues if the wrong thing is said while firing a person. By following the strategy, the company can keep shareholders happy and the morale higher within a company that has had to have a severe restructuring of organization in order to stay balanced and effective.
References
Davis, P. M. (1989). Firing employees: Can you be sued? Design News, 45(6), 406. Retrieved from http://rx9vh3hy4r.search.serialssolutions.com/?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info:sid/summon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Firing+Employees%3A+Can+You+Be+Sued%3F&rft.jtitle=Design+News&rft.au=Davis%2C+Phillip+M&rft.date=1989-03-27&rft.pub=Reed+Business+Information%2C+a+division+of+Reed+Elsevier%2C+Inc&rft.issn=0011-9407&rft.volume=45&rft.issue=6&rft.spage=406&rft.externalDocID=5831264¶mdict=en-US.
Eastern, J. (2012). Firing an employee is never easy. Internal Medicine News, 45(17), 25. doi:10.1016/S1097-8690(12)70753-9.
Rothwell, W. J. and Kazanas, H. C. (2004). Mastering the instructional design process: A systematic approach. Third Edition. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.