...Re-organization and Layoff: Issue and Problem Identification Paper Team D: Keshia Simpson, Shaquia Brewer, Lamar Vargas, Lynne G. PHL/320 November 2, 2015 Professor Greg Reeves Re-organization and Layoff: Issue and Problem Identification There's always a problem in an organization that must be resolved. This paper will identify the problem, explain why this is an underlying problem, reflect on my groups collaboration process in defining the problem, and explain how a clearly defined problem can help find a solution. Collaboration Defining the Problem As we begin to collaborate on this article we tossed around several ideas of what we believe the problem is. One of the initial problems that we discussed was the lack of actual managers. It was discussed that there was not enough managers to properly manage companies, a lot of the problems were going unrecognized, and were unsolved therefore eventually leading to the company being forced to lay off due to the lack of business or other issues. After a company had been forced into layoff’s, the managers did not help the employee’s understand why. The improper handling of these issues can have a negative impact on the company overall. After we carefully examined this as an issue, we discovered that no matter how many managers a company has, the managers should be properly trained to identify issues, overcome problems, and in case of layoff’s they should be able to keep the company’s morale intact....
Words: 837 - Pages: 4
...Organizational Downsizing Techniques and Handling Layoffs Team 1 Christina Berardi Bridget Quinn-Carey Tung-Yueh, Lee Over the last two decades, organizational downsizing has been a key management strategy favored by many organizations attempting to cope with fundamental and structural changes in the shifting economy. In the mid-1980’s, downsizing was implemented primarily by companies experiencing difficult economic times (Gandolfi, 2006). Companies hoped to cut costs and improve performance. By the late-1980’s, it developed into a proactive restructuring strategy for a multitude of organizations. Furthermore, since then, organizational downsizing has now transformed the corporate landscape and changed the lives of hundreds of millions of individuals around the world (Gandolfi, 2006). There are several definitions that have been developed to effectively define the phenomenon of organizational downsizing. To sum it up in one sentence, organizational downsizing refers to a set of activities, taken on by the core management of an organization, designed to improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness. It represents a management strategy that affects three components: (a) the size of the firm’s workforce, (b) the costs, and (c) the work processes. On the surface, downsizing can be interpreted as merely a reduction in organizational size, and the process is a chaotic and uncertain experience...
Words: 4982 - Pages: 20
...Case Study 2 Jessica Adkins Liberty University February 7, 2016 Performance Appraisals Mrs. Howell will be unable to use the information found within the performance appraisals to decide which employees should be discharged. This is due to the managers failing to complete the appraisals properly. A performance appraisal is defined as “the identification, measurement, and management of human performance in organizations (Luis R. Gomez-Meija, 2016, p. 205) Performance appraisals are generally tools that are used in evaluating an employee’s performance based on the dimensions set by the firm (Luis R. Gomez-Meija, 2016). Performance appraisals supply firms with employee shortcomings once per year, ensure consistency among employees, and recognize valuable employees (Segal, 2000). Performance appraisals are of upmost importance to firms who are facing downsizing since it supplies accurate information for the decision-making process that is required to make employee decisions (Segal, 2000). The firm is facing the issue of performance appraisals having inaccurate information. This inaccurate information is prohibiting Karen Howell from laying off the correct employees. The firm should not layoff any employees until the information found in the appraisals can be more accurate. Requiring the managers to conduct new appraisals is the only way to prohibit the firm from facing legal issues. If the firm is unable to wait for these results then Mrs. Howell will have to use other methods...
Words: 2178 - Pages: 9
...Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins 507 U.S. 604 (1993) Case Study JSale. GB41- Employment Law Professor Shawn Pattinson 1 Do you agree with the court that age and years of service are sufficiently distinct to allow for terminations based on years of service and to find no violation of the ADEA where the terminations result in a greater proportion of older workers being fired? The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (the ADEA) forbids discrimination based on age by protecting individuals over the age of forty from “arbitrary” age discrimination. Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act to “promote employment of older persons based on their ability rather than age (29. U.S.C. 621b. 1990). In Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins, the Supreme Court of the United States resolved a split in the circuit courts of appeals and held that an employer does not violate the Act when the employer makes a decision wholly motivated by factors other than age. In Hazen Paper, the employer terminated an employee to prevent the employee from vesting in his pension. Under the employer’s plan, the pension vested based upon the employee’s years of service and was not directly related to age. The Supreme Court rejected the plaintiff’s argument, holding that “age and years of service are analytically distinct” and that it is “incorrect to say that a decision based on years of service is necessarily ‘age-based (Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins. 507 U.S. 604 (1993). The Supreme Court concluded...
Words: 1403 - Pages: 6
...Persuasive Essay: Layoffs within a Company Prudence Blackman COMM/215 October-13, 2014 Dr. Stephanie Lyncheski Persuasive Essay: Layoffs within a Company The decision to lay off employees cannot be the easiest for companies. There is a variety of different reasons why employers layoff their employees, and the laws in many states allow them to at any time as long as the reason does not contravene state or federal law. Being let go from your job can happen by firing or layoff, and though neither is, usually, desired, the layoff is typically the method that carries less of a stigma. Firing occurs with one worker for any reason that, usually, involves job performance, unethical behavior or personality differences. Meanwhile, a layoff, usually, occurs with more than one worker for more impersonal reasons involving business or economic decisions. Regardless of the reason, companies must take great care in the way they conduct a layoff to avoid legal ramifications. Even though, layoffs can cause low morale amongst employees, companies have to use layoffs, as a way to optimize labor costs, staff reduction, and relocation. In addition, it is also necessary for the event of mergers or buyouts but it is necessary to aid in the restructuring of the company in hopes to regain financial stability. Cutting Costs The most common reason for being laid off is the company needing to cut costs in some way. This need could stem from debts that have to be paid off or lack of profits, because...
Words: 1068 - Pages: 5
...Légumex Employees: 8,400 Sales: FFr7.69 billion (1996) Stock Exchanges: Paris SICs: 3634 Electric Housewares & Fans; 3631 Household Cooking Equipment; 3635 Household Vacuum Cleaners; 3639 Household Appliances, Not Elsewhere Classified Company Background Moulinex is a French brand of small electrical appliances and kitchen equipment and is owned by Groupe SEB. Moulinex was originally established as a company in 1937, however at the beginning of September 2001, Moulinex declared bankruptcy. Moulinex was the company that originally designed the Mouli grater. It became a household name through its kitchen blenders and appliances - the first of which it launched in 1932. It also enjoyed great success in the US when it began making microwave ovens in the 1980s. But the company was hit hard by the emerging market crises in Asia and Russia, which caused sales to plummet and competitors to cut prices aggressively. Its losses for the first half of the year tripled to 213 million French francs, or $32.8 million, on a 2.9 percent drop in sales, to 3.3 billion francs. The declines were attributed to weakness in...
Words: 826 - Pages: 4
...1. How would you describe the organizational culture at GM? Why was decision making so slow—“plodding” as one analyst described it? While the case does not give much insight into GM’s culture, what is evident is that they have been slow to change. Having not shown a profit for six years (or much profit in the last 15), GM has either been slow to recognize changing customer preferences and/or slow adapting to technological changes in the competitive automobile industry. Decision making can be equated to ‘analysis of paralysis,” or the over-thinking of a situation, so that a decision is never made, in effect paralyzing the outcome. 2. Why do you think the previous CEO’s (Mr. Henderson) attempts to change the organizational culture might have been lacking? Henderson’s failure could be attributed to his obsession with numbers. Too much focus on numbers may have clouded his judgment in that it was the culture of GM which needed to be changed. Another reason could be that Henderson was a GM insider who had been with the company since 1984. Having risen from the ranks to eventually become Vice President, Henderson could have adopted the same analysis of paralysis of other GM managers. Having been responsible for approving many of the programs in his position as VP, Mr. Henderson may have also felt some attachment to them and let them continue. 3. What changes is Mr. Whitacre making to the culture of GM? Whitacre seemed focus on changing the decision making process of GM...
Words: 391 - Pages: 2
...Sun Hydraulics: Leading in Tough Times Case Study Executive Summary Sun Hydraulics, an industry leader of hydraulic valves and manifolds, has seen steady growth over the past eight years. It has been a profitable company throughout the years with varying return on sales. Presently Sun is constrained by declining sales and high labor costs heading into the present recession. The horizontal corporate structure has proven ineffective in ridding itself of low performing employees that are weighing down the company and thus decreasing profitability. It is time for Allen Carlson, president and CEO of Sun Hydraulics Corporation, to address the employees and shareholders of his decision on how Sun plans to deal with labor and profits during these tough times. I recommend that Sun Hydraulics should proceed with layoffs and early retirement plans to effectively and immediately reduce labor costs during the present recession. This approach seen by some as a short-term solution, allows Sun to rid itself of low performers that the present corporate structure has failed to do. Not only will it increase overall moral over time, but also these layoffs will allow current employees to contribute more time towards future growth and less time coaching or babysitting present employees that may be unhappy or underperforming. Organizational Profile/Overview Bob Koski along with another engineer established Sun Hydraulics, describe as the BMW in the Hydraulics Industry, in 1970...
Words: 1611 - Pages: 7
...Case 1 1. How does the Accenture People site help Accenture better serve its customers? By creating social networking site such as Accenture People site will definitely be very helpful for organization to provide efficient service. First, employees would able to access massive information on line in real-time matter to exchange information on work tasks and professional knowledge. Second, a world-wide company such as Accenture can use the site on speeding up their productivities on work procedures and decision making. Third, when there is a problem need to be solved, anyone who works in the company can get on the site and ask for immediate assistances. Above all, when employees use the Accenture’s site to gather correct information in effective way, consequently, they can satisfy their customers with efficient manner. 2. How successful do you think Accenture will be at getting its employees to create their profiles? Nowadays, because of well-developed technologies, organization can use this advantage to create this kind of networking site to cohere employees. Another advantage for Accenture, employees are supposed to have IT background, therefore, it would be easier for them to build up this Accenture’s site. 3. Can you see any drawbacks related to employees creating their own profiles? The major concern for creating personal profile in the organization is privacy. In my opinion, privacy should not be the issue at work place as long as the personal profile and information...
Words: 668 - Pages: 3
...job. While the feelings of the employees who will be laid off are no doubt at the front of your mind, there is also reason to be concerned about how news of layoffs will affect the work of the remaining employees. The remaining employees will likely be concerned about the stability of their own jobs, and this concern or even fear, can seriously and negatively affect your workplace culture. Communication is the key to ensuring that your struggling financial situation and resulting layoffs do not destroy your business. The first thing that you need to do if you feel like layoffs are imminent is to hold a “State of the Business” meeting. In this meeting, all employees need to hear from the owners of the business. You should let the employees know what the current state of the business is and that you have no option but to layoff some employees in order to make it possible to retain all the others. Let the employees know how you plan on handling layoffs. Give deadlines, show the numbers and make it apparent to your employees that layoffs are a necessary step. While this may not make the laid off employees feel any better, it will ease some of the anxiety and fear felt by some of the other employees. The next thing that you want to bring up in the business meeting is that you will first reduce management salaries before making cuts to frontline worker’s pay. Do not underestimate the importance of keeping your...
Words: 2034 - Pages: 9
...Economic Factors Economics affects everyone on a day to day bases whether aware of this fact or not. Economics in a nut shell is the branch of study and knowledge concerned with the production, consumption and transfer and allocation of wealth. Specifically we will be looking at the branch of economics known as macroeconomics or the economy as a whole and globally. Every action that involves goods, services, and money affects the economy of a country or nation. Simple actions such as shopping or buying groceries can have a huge effect on an individual, business and governmental level. Other factors that have a huge effect on global economics are layoffs and unemployment, as well as government actions such as tax increases or decreases. Food is a necessity for the survival and ability for individuals to thrive. Buying groceries is a task that most have come to hate, but realize the need to continue this act. Every time a grocery cart is loaded, paid for and bagged the economy is affected. Households business and even government are affected by the production, distribution and purchasing of groceries. On an individual and house hold level, families have to budget for groceries. Food is dire for survival, but for some people living pay check to pay check obtaining food can become a constant worry over having the necessary funds. According to “USDA” (2015) “the food-at-home (Grocery store or super market food items) CPI was down 0.5 percent in March and is 1.9 percent higher...
Words: 1123 - Pages: 5
...Challenges of an Organization Adapting to Change By Deborah Simmonds 2296 Waters Run Decatur GA. 30035 678-887-9547 kaydra-hayden@hotmail.com MGMT 591 – Leadership and Organizational Behavior August 20, 2012 Prof. Joseph Plumley Project Outline Introduction Problem Statement Literature Review Analysis Solutions Reflection References I. Introduction A. Identify the organization 1. Brief overview of the organization The organization that will be the topic of discussion in my final project is Piedmont Heart Institute. Building on more than a century of experience, they employ more than 85 prominent cardiovascular physicians therefore forming one of the premier cardiac centers in the region by bringing together three of the largest cardiology practices in the region. Piedmont Heart Institute was formed so that they could provide patients with a new and innovative place for care. Like many healthcare facilities, Piedmont Heart Institute went through a big lay off in 2010 and not only was locations shut down but it caused the layoff of quite a lot of employees. They went from being a stand-alone company to now being a part of a larger entity Piedmont Hospital. With the layoff’s, Piedmont Heart Institute lost a lot of employees that were highly valuable and cannot be replaced which means jobs are getting dropped by the way side. As an entity operating under the umbrella of Piedmont Hospital, Piedmont Heart Institute has pledge to become the...
Words: 3325 - Pages: 14
...Alternatives to Layoffs The Great Recession of 2007-2009 had unemployment rates increase from 5.0 percent in December 2007 to 9.5 percent in June 2000. California saw some of the highest unemployment rates in the country at over 10 percent. This included one of the highest mass layoff events in history. There were 3,059 layoff actions in February 2009 involving 326,392 workers according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With this recent history of mass layoffs business, government, educators, and even students have started to take a closer look at layoffs. An article in Newsweek (The Case Against Layoffs: They Often Backfire) illustrates how layoffs often backfire on businesses and can actually incur big costs due to severance, outplacement, toll on morale, and productivity. Studies have also shown that there are negative stock returns after companies announced layoffs. The article continues to say “a study of 122 companies found that downsizing reduced subsequent profitability and that the negative consequences of downsizing were particularly evident”. Also, when a layoff is announced companies often lose their best employees. These are the top performers who weren’t going to be laid off, but feel insecure with their current employer so they look for a more stable situation. Layoffs are not reliable in cost cutting, they are not good for employees, they are not good for employers, and they are not good for the economy and society. Other methods to layoffs need...
Words: 1844 - Pages: 8
...com b Károly Róbert College Mátrai út 36, Gyöngyös 3200, Hungary evarga@karolyrobert.hu a T he cyclical movement of the economy is a natural process but, fortunately, a global economic crisis is a rare phenomenon. The credit crunch starting in September 2008 has grown into a global one primarily affecting car manufacturing and then it has its percussions in the whole economy-gradually reaching all the players. The crisis management in human resources implies layoffs, redundancies or shorter working hours and weeks. In many cases there were not wellthought corporate strategies for crisis management as managers as well as employees had to face a problem they had never experienced before. One of the corporate operative steps is to examine and realise how deeply the organisation itself is affected in the crisis. Our objective is to present what theoretical and practical solutions were or are invented besides the ones already mentioned. Keywords: crisis management, human resources management, atypical employment 1. About the crisis in general About a year ago the credit crunch became widespread primarily hitting the financial institutions worldwide and had its impacts felt in the motor industry reaching all players of the economic life. There were no companies that could escape its impact and most organisations lived through the recession negatively. The fluctuation of the economy is a natural phenomenon. However, the constant and worldwide crisis is rare to be experienced...
Words: 3724 - Pages: 15
...1. The key ethical issue of American clothing company. a) The key ethical issue of American clothing company is it has to do something to meet the losses in slack sales periods caused by too many workers such as layoffs. However, such behavior is deviated from the company’s fundamental tenet for this company take the concept that apparel manufacturing should treat worker as well as possible. b) Reasons for such ethical issue are 1) Treating employees well is the company’s core belief. Randomly laying off workers contradicts to the values, but 2) the reality force determines that the company has to do something to avert the loss. Therefore, American Clothing Company faces the dilemma of making trade-offs between these two. 2. Two critical stakeholders of American Clothing Company and how they are affected. a) Two critical stakeholders of American clothing company are employees and shareholders. Employees should be considered as critical stakeholders because their benefits would be undoubtedly affected if being fired. Then, shareholders’ benefits can also be affected in that the profitability of the company would be influenced by the resolution of the problem. b) If the company chooses to lay off their employees, 1) for affected employees, they will lose their economic sources, and have to find another job for survival. 2) For shareholders, the company may lose their reputation for the layoff, which contradicts to their public image. Thus their long-term profitability may...
Words: 1689 - Pages: 7
