Application Case

The Flood

Written and copyrighted by Gary Dessler, PhD$.$

In August $2017,$ hurricane Maria hit Miami, Florida, and the Optima Air Filter Company. Many employees' homes were devastated. Optima found that it had to hire aimost three completely new crews, one for each shift. The problem was that the "old$-$timers" had known their jobs so well that no one had ever bothered to draw up job descriptions for them. When about $30$ new employees began taking their places, there was general confusion about what they should do and how they should do it$.$

The flood quickly became old news to the firm's out$-$of$-$state customers, who wanted filters, not excuses. Phil Mann, the firm's president, was at his wits' end. He had about $30$ new employees,

$10$ old$-$timers, and his original factory supervisor, Maybelline. He decided to meet with Linda Lowe, a consultant from the local university's business school. She immediately had the old$-$timers fill out a job questionnaire that listed all their duties. Arguments ensued almost at once: Both Phil and Maybelline thought the old$-$timers were exaggerating to make themselves look more important, and the old$-$timers insisted that the lists faithfully reflected their duties. Meanwhile, the customers clamored for their filters.

Questions

$4-16.$ Should Phil and Linda ignore the old$-$timers' protests and write the job descriptions as they see fit? Why? Why not? How would you go about resolving the differences?