Background Information:
CURRENT OPERATING ENVIRONMENT
Contextual Framework Variables
i. Plastco'senvironment is stable and non-complex
iii. Its technology can be characterized as long-linked. The task of producing Plastco bags is routine. The company produces large batches of identical bags in a standardized way.
iv. Plastco’s unionizedworkforceis low skilled and of modest income.
Managerial Strategy
Based on the preceding contextual framework, the company has clearly adopted aclassical managerial strategy. The next heading below examines the structural implications of such a strategy
Structural Framework Variables
Besides the rewards system, these are the levers Plastco employs to produce a desired behaviour from its employees.
i. In terms of job design, Plastco’s bag-making jobs separate thinking from doing and are narrow and fragmented
ii. Coordination and departmentation is strict and formalized with a pyramidal hierarchy emphasizing accountability. This structure enables vertical coordination and departmentation by function.
iii. The processes used tocontrol employee behaviour require external control through supervision, along with strict rules, punishment and some extrinsic rewards.
iv. Communication can be described as formal and vertical and is restricted.
v. Decision-making and leadership at Plastco is limited to a task-oriented autocratic decision making style. Supervisors are quite controlling of their subordinates actions.
vi. Thereward system (compensation system)at Plastco is an extrinsic economic reward system directly linked to hours worked. In addition, the company provides 20% indirect compensation in the form of benefits to company employees. Benefits increase with seniority.
Task Environment/Domain
Plastco’s narrowdomainis defined by the variety of plastic bags it makes.
Key elements of the company’stask environment include its customers, competitors, suppliers and regulatory agencies it must adhere to, i.e. the Ministry of Labour and the Provincial Human Rights Commission.
Competitors, Employees, Culture & Values & HR Function
Competitors: Plastco must contend with an emerging competitor who can produce better quality bags for less.
Plastco is losing market share to this competitor.
Employees:The company's non-management employees are unionized and are divided into two departments;
the bag-making and maintenance departments.
The Maintenance Department staff ensures the bag-making machines are regularly serviced and kept in proper working order.
It is the bag-making department where Plastco is experiencing poor employee relations coupled with low job satisfaction, motivation, morale and significant turnover of its female employees. This department consists of:
• 4 all male utility workers, and finally
• 6 all female inspector/ packers.
The last group of workers is the lowest paid at $12/hour and is experiencing almost 100% turnover each year.
SeeAppendix A for full details on the salary, reporting relationship and flow of information within Plastco’s bag-making department.
Culture & Values : Classical firms prefer to depend on formal structures and focus very little on organizational culture
Human Resources Function:
Note: The case assigned does not make any mention of a human resources manager, or even an HR department operating within Plastco.There does not appear to be anyone at Plastco who serves as an HR Generalist to work in concert with the plant managers and two departmental supervisors to motivate employees.
Thus, it is not clear who bears ultimate responsibility for the successful design and administration of Plastco's compensation system.
This responsibility could reside with the owner of the company or its CEO, which is also not mentioned in the case. The company could also choose to contract out the compensation function to firms who specialize in this area. However, it is more feasible to assume that Plastco would create a new HR Manager position to take on this vital function in collaboration with the union. Plastco absolutely needs approval from the union representing company workers to institute changes to their compensation system via a collective bargaining process.
Primary /Root Problems Explain (list from most to least severe)
Who is involved? What is their role and responsibility in creating or resolving this issue?
Impact on costs, quality, customer service, or innovation?
Ineffective Compensation System Plastco CEO, the Plant Manager, 2 departmental supervisors, input from workers and the union representing the workers.Low Job Satisfaction
Negative membership behaviour leads to increased employee turnover;
Workers group norms are negatively impacting the bag-making department’s output; and Poor interpersonal relationships are creating divisions among the workers.
Low Organizational Identification
Negative organizational citizenship behvaiour leads to low employee cooperation, and no desire from them to demonstrate extra effort, initiative, customer service, and to go the e xtra mile.
Low Employee Motivation
Negative task behaviour leads to an inability to reach desired performance levels defined by management as well as decreased job effort.
1. There is no HR manager to recruit new and capable staff, to work with departmental supervisors to motivate staff, and to design and administer the compensation system. Plastco's senior management does not appear to be taking the company's human capital very seriously. They have yet to hire or promote from within an HR manager and develop a strategic HR plan linked to the company's vision, mission objectives, values and culture. It would be cheaper to promote someone within the company to the position of HR manager rather than hiring externally.Female employees are not being maximized and there is a near 100% turnover of female employees.
The union has failed to properly represent the female Plastco employees. The union could do more to advocate for their career success.
The company is not following employment equity legislation.
The female workers could very easily file a grievance with their union given they are not rising within their department and often are blamed unfairly for their incompetence by male colleagues.
If relations continue to deteriorate between management and the staff, the company could face a strike only further impairing its productivity and profitability.There does not appear to be a succession plan in place for employees.The company's management and hr personnel have not prepared a succession plan to promote from within and attract new talent from outside.
The time and cost of preparing a succession plan is well worth it. Currently, with no succession plan in place, the company's productivity and bottom line are suffering.Production has fallen to minimum levels and is
adversely affecting profitability. Production has fallen to minimal levels because there is no real employee communication and coordination between Plastco's two departments
Furthermore, the maintenance department is not properly servicing the bag-making department's machines resulting in low productivity levels.Plastco's reduced productivity and reduced quality plastic bags have led to increased customer complaints and high levels of waste.
This in turn, has led to a loss in customers, market share and profits.
2. A new competitor has emerged offering better quality and cheaper bags.
Since Plastco employees are not happy with their jobs and feel poorly compensated for their work, performance levels have declined resulting in lower productivity and lower quality plastic bags.
Customers are upset with Plastco’s inconsistent product quality and are migrating over to the new competitor.
Plastco cannot afford to lose its customers and market share.
The company is at real risk of going under if it does not act quickly to turn its production levels and profits around.
3. A shift in consumer attitudes to embrace environmentalism has made the future of the plastic bag industry uncertain.
All company employees are at risk if they find themselves in an industry that has no future.The company needs to expand beyond its current narrow domain of only manufacturing conventional plastic bags.
New alternative bags should be developed and sold immediately, i.e. 100% biodegradable bags, or plastic bags manufactured from recycled materials.
Plastco needs to develop alternatives which are cost-effective and popular with customers to regain market share and profitability.
Secondary Problems Explain (list from most to least severe)
Who is involved? What is their role and responsibility in creating or resolving this issue?
Impact on costs, quality, customer service, or innovation?
1. Plastco employees are dissatisfied with the rewards they receive
Senior management, HR personnel, Plastco's unionized employees and their union.
They may even decrease their work performance, or leave the company altogether.
Plastco's employees' reward dissatisfaction was caused by a:
• Violation of Psychological Contract Plastco employees believe their job efforts are not fairly compensated.
• Employeesperceive an inequityfor the rewards they receive for all their hard work.
• Relative Deprivation Plastco female perceive they are worse off compared to their male coworkers.
2. Lack of Organizational Justice
The bag-making department's employees perceive the company’s procedures, interactions and outcomes to be unfair in nature.Plastco's classical managerial strategy is suboptimal and creating a host of employee relations and declining performance and profitability problems.
Management’s reliance on the classical managerial style is only providing enough rewards to foster a bare minimum employee and employer relationship. As a result, job a nd reward satisfaction, as well as company loyalty, membership behaviour and organization citizenship are all low.
The current rewards are not sufficiently motivating staff. And frankly, the real employee motivator is the threat of dismissal.Employee turnover and declining productivity and profits cannot be sustained much longer. Market conditions and customer satisfaction are deteriorating rapidly particularly as a new competitor has emerged on the scene.
Given the extremely high level of female employee turnover, Plastco may be subject to a grievance.
3. The company is struggling with the turnover of its inspectors, utility workers and particularly its female inspector/ packers.
Company management, Plastco bag-making department’s unionized employees and their union.
Within the bag-making department, one operator leaves the company every year. 33% or 1.32 utility workers depart every year.
Nearly 100% or almost 6 out of 6 of the female inspector/packers leave the company every year.
Continued employee turnover cannot be sustained for much longer.
Female employees may very well file a grievance with the union or a human rights complaint with the provincial human rights commission.
Employee relations are so poor that a rift now exists between the two departments, and within the bag-making department. Employees from both departments and employees within the bag-making department.
The wage gaps across the bag-making department are creating serious tensions and contributing to employee turnover.
There is poor communication between the two departments. Currently, lower level employees in both departments have to rely on vertical communication up through their supervisors and the plant manager.
The six bag making operators earn $24/hr, and the four utility workers earn $18/hr followed by the six female who only earn $12/hr. Given that women employees are not advancing up the department ranks and their turnover is nearly 100%, they have clear grounds to file a grievance.
4. Plastco's management needs approval from the employee union to institute changes to their compensation system via a collective bargaining process.
An imminent workplace conflict may be brewing between Plastco's management team and its unionized employees
If management is not careful, the union may push for a grievance and possibly a strike in an attempt to improve working conditions for its members.
Management should also investigate a variety of organizational and workplace innovations to improve employee as well as labour relations.
Management should be keen on creating more harmonious relations with the union. But collective bargaining takes time. It may take 4 months to a year for the union and company to agree on compensation changes. The length of time depends on the changes proposed, and how complex they are to administer.
Plastco may not be in a position to tie up its management staff for so long even though it may not have a choice.
If employee and labour relations continue to deteriorate, the union may call for a strike and that would be disastrous to company production and profits.
1. Alternative/ SolutionsPros (Benefits)Cons
(Costs)Design and implement an optimal reward and compensation strategy to advance Plastco’s corporate strategy and support a new managerial strategy to add the greatest possible value to their organization.
• If designed properly, this solution can motivate employees, boost morale, and promote desired work behaviour, controls compensation costs, and ensure pay equity.
• An effective compensation program can retain and attract qualified employees.
• Meet employees' intrinsic needs leading to greater work satisfaction and performance. Intrinsic needs are the non-financial psychological rewards employees receive by completing meaningful work and doing it well.
• Redesign employee jobs to contain the 5 intrinsically motivating dimensions of job enrichment. These five dimensions are as follows:
• Strive to offer a comprehensive total rewards package, including an attractive base salary, comprehensive health and wellness benefits, vacation package, company pension plan and stock options to help
employees reach their potential at work and at home.
• Plastco needs union approval before it can implement performance pay which is in opposition to seniority-based pay. This method of pay increases with an employee’s tenure.
• Plastco will likely not be offering above market wages to its employees given its constrained financial position. It may have to offer non-monetary rewards to employees instead.
• Implementing a Total Rewards Package may cost more and time then the company can afford in the short-term. But it is definitely worth striving for if the company recovers a healthy profit margin through restoring the quality of its products and trust with customers.
2. Plastco can abandon its current classical managerial strategy and adopt a human relations approach and then perhaps later, pursue a high involvement strategy.
• By moving away from a top down managerial strategy to alternative managerial strategies which encourage more learning and participatory decision-making, Plastco employees can experience greater autonomy at work, i.e. working as part of self-managing teams.
• This option affords greater staff cross-training, capacity building and workforce retention.
• Both human relations and high-involvement managerial strategies are more intrinsically motivating thus resulting in higher morale and better employee performance and greater productivity.Plastco may not have the staff expertise, resources, time and money to switch managerial strategies.
3. Plastco can select an HR Manager from its existing management or supervisory team and then create an HR plan.
• An HR manager is a vital management position necessary to revamp company operations for the better.
• A new HR manager can proactively manage the company's workforce and help anticipate any major staffing changes and assist with succession planning.There is no guarantee that senior management will create this new position.
4. Plastco may not have sufficient internal candidates capable of doing this job well. The company may have to go through an expensive external competition to find one.Plastco can deliver better products with improved quality and customer service. A total quality management tool like Six Sigma can reduce production costs and improve quality. This is absolutely essential to reassert the company's position in the marketplace and win back its customers.The company may not be able to respond in time to the competitive threat it faces and regain the trust of lost customers.Plastco's new compensation strategy can improve employee
interpersonal relationships.
• Plastco can pay its female employees more and can promote them to higher positions within the company to address pay inequity and avoid the risk of a union grievance.
• Improving interpersonal relationships boosts employee morale leading to improved product quality and quantity.
• A new compensation strategy incorporating more intrinsic rewards can lead to more harmonious and satisfied employees.
• Management can strive to reward top performers to further enhance workforce productivity. Plastco needs union approval to institute the changes to its compensation system.
• Plastco proposed changes to wages, hours and working conditions must be made in collaboration with the union via a collective bargaining process.
• This process can take a long time (4-12 months) depending on the complexity of the changes proposed.
• This is time Plastco may not have given the precarious business situation it finds itself.To address rising environmental attitudes, Plastco can develop quality green products to retain its customer base and regain lost customers.Plastco can replace its current product line with similar bags that are all 100% biodegradable.
• The company can investigate converting its excess waste for reuse at the plant. Alternatively, it can convert it into other marketable plastic products. It will take and money to convert Plastco's production process.
5. The company may be incapable of affording these changes right now given its weakened financial position and that a competitor is quickly gaining market share from Plastco.Plastco can automate its entire bag-making department and thus dispense with the department's compensation costs altogether.
• This option makes sense if Plastco's revised compensation strategy for its bag-making department costs more than automating the department.
• Overhauling the plant will be expensive and more than what the company can afford right now.
• The union representing the bag-making department’s workers would never accept this option. They would never accept the sudden job loss of its members.
This option could trigger a prolonged strike over the automation issue.
Recommendations2 or 3 Activities offering the best payback & which offer the most bang for buck Justification for choosing this action
1. Plastco should adopt a cost-effective optimal reward system consisting of a total rewards package to support their corporate strategy and promote desired employee behaviour. The company should also switch to a human relations strategy, and at a later date switch to a high involvement managerial strategy.
"There are five elements of total rewards, each of which includes programs, practices, elements and dimensions that collectively define an organization's strategy to attract, motivate and retain employees."
These elements include i. Compensation
ii. Benefits (non-monetary) iii. Work-Life Balance
iv. Performance and Recognition
Development and Career OpportunitiesBoth human relations and high-involvement managerial strategies are more intrinsically motivating than the company's current classical managerial strategy. Both result in a more engaged work group and higher morale which leads to better performance and higher productivity.
A comprehensive total rewards package can be designed to incorporate more intrinsic rewards into existing company jobs motivating employees to be more harmonious and satisfied to perform at their best. A total
This recommendation assumes that the union also agrees the launch of a Total Rewards Package is in the best interests of its members.Plastco should select an HR Manager from their existing management team. The new HR manager should devise an HR Plan and work immediately to retain women in the company as well as promote them to higher positions in the company ranks.
This will address the pay inequity women face and get the company in compliance employment equity legislation.
2. From a strategic point of view, an HR manager can proactively manage the company's workforce and assist with succession planning. Such a manager could prepare written guidelines for clarification with respect to all
company policies such as “when and how employees are paid, how bonuses, incentives or salary increases will occur, and all elements that have to do with what happens if an employee leaves the company, whether they
company policies such as “when and how employees are paid, how bonuses, incentives or salary increases will occur, and all elements that have to do with what happens if an employee leaves the company, whether they