Hr Case

Abstract

This case study is about the tropical storm Wilma which hit North Carolina and the Optima Air Filter Company in August 2005.As result many employees’ homes were shattered and the company had to hire new workers one for each of its shifts. There was general confusion about jog description because no one had ever bothered to draw up job descriptions for them.

As a result Phil Mann, the firm’s President and Maybelline (factory supervisor) decided to meet with Linda Lowe, a consultant from the local universities business school. She immediately had the old-timers fill out a job questionnaire that listed all their tasks, duties & responsibilities but there was a disagreement with the worker and their employer about their job description while, the customers clamored for their filters.

Question 1:

Should Phil & Linda ignore that old-timers protests and write up the job descriptions as they see fit? Why? Why not? How would you go about resolving the differences?

In all likelihood, the old-timers are accurate in their descriptions. There are several of them, and it appears that all of their descriptions agree. Also, since they were the ones actually doing the work, it is likely that they were the only ones who knew what was actually being done. One way to resolve the differences would be to examine the specific items that Phil and Maybelline feel the old-timers are padding their jobs with. Ask for evidence from the old-timers that they did these functions, and ask for evidence from Phil and Maybelline that someone else carried out those tasks.

Phil & Linda should never ignore the old-timers’ protest. Since its the old–timers who have full knowledge about the tasks, duties and responsibilities they used to perform. Ignoring them may result to turbulence among the workers and they’ll feel cheated hence leading to lower productivity. Writing job description without the information acquired from old-timers would be like climbing mountain without a...