Arrow Electronics Case Analysis

Arrow Electronics, led by Steve Kaufman was considered one of the largest electronic distributors of its time but internally, was facing tough issues when it came to their employee reviews. I will briefly discuss some problems I recognized in Arrow’s case and recommend some possible fixes.

There are a few problems with Arrow’s Employee Performance Reviews (EPR). First, it wasn’t accurately portraying hard-working employees that deserved either a raise or a promotion. The EPR’s were also covering up the fact that, there were employees within the company that possibly needed to be let go or looked at more closely. This ends up being a problem because if an employee is performing well on a consistent basis and is staying on the same level as another employee who is underperforming, eventually the well-performing employee will leave and the company will lose an asset. The case study mentions that employees are a company’s biggest assets, which is extremely true. Employees are the face of a company and I believe what ultimately decides the fate of a company.

Another issue with the EPR’s is the fact that, for whatever reason, managers disliked filling them out so they would come back slightly skewed. The average score was a 4.5 out of 5, meaning no one was getting a poor rating. This relates back to the previous; how is this system weeding out the good and bad? This issue leads me to believe that there was poor communication going on between managers and their employees and that clear objectives may not have been set in place. If there is nothing to reach for, it is hard to gauge performance. I have a few recommendations to effectively improve Arrow’s EPR system.

While rating employee’s performance is extremely important, I think it is also important to give employees the chance to rate their managers as well as the company as a whole. It doesn’t need to be monthly or even quarterly; it could be on a yearly basis. I believe it would help boost morale and also...