Columbus Custom Carpentry Case Overview This case is presented as close as possible to the way you may encounter it in working life. Your role is that of a newly hired HR manager. You will learn about the company by talking with various employees. When you first join an organization, you will have an idea of what the organization is like and there will be a few things of which you feel certain, but your list of unknowns will be much longer. Each interaction with employees provides more data, but you will find that not everyone agrees on the facts of a particular situation. Sometimes you may find that the people you are speaking with do not know the information you are asking about at other times, they know a great deal about the issue but choose to manage the information they provide to you for their own benefit Uncertainty, differences of opinlon, and competing priorities are the norm in the professional world. In your role as the HR manager, you are expected to analyze the situation, identify the problems, and develop workable solutions Columbus Custom Carpentry is a small, successful company. The company president has also found that human resource and organizational behavior issues are taking up more and more of his time and frequently result in ontanizational problems. Until now, the president's administrative assistant has handled all HR related administrative activities. You are the newly hired HR maruger Management Interviews Monday, 7:45 am Jennifer Reen, receptionist "Good morning, welcome to Columbus Custom Carpentry. You must be our new HR manager. Here is a copy of your schedule for today. The president has already sent out an announcement about you. We are not a big company, so you should get to know the office employees pretty fast. Manufacturing is a bigger department, so getting to know those employees will take more time. The warehouse employees come and go so fast you will probably get to know them only through the recruiting process. Mr. Cooney told me not to schedule any interviews for you today, but there is a stack of applications in your inbox Cary Dobbins wants three new hires for next Monday morning Monday, 8:00 am Anthony Cooney, president/CEO "Welcome to the Columbus Custom Carpentry family. We have a busy day laid out for you, so I won't take up too much of your time. We had talked during your interview about the employee basies we are having, and I hope your outside perspective will help us get a better understanding of what the underlying problems really are. I would like to meet again on Friday, and you can we me a preliminary idea of what you see as the primary issues. After that, we'll give you a couple more weeks to develop an action plan to deal with these problems. Monday, 8:15 am Barbara Dutt, president's administrative assistant have been doing the employment tasks and record keeping I'm sure you will find everything in order take you through the regular orientation and benefits enrollment process. I'm glad you are here, because I have been asking Mr. Cooney for help for quite a long time, all this HR stuff keps me from getting my real job done, My workload has only increased since I've joined the company, and judging by the complaints have been receiving from other employees, it seems like workload has been a point of stress for many of us here." Monday, 10:30 am Jessica Cooney, chief financial officer (CFO) "We cannot produce at the incredibly low cost level maintained by the mass market manufacturers. We would not get costs that low even if we mimicked their limited product lines and quality levels. We compete with them by creating styles and options that they don't offer. In addition, I have an old friend that works at one of our largest competitors. However, he is unhappy there and has been looking for a new job. He recently provided me with some insider knowledge about some product offerings his company is looking to launch. We have been working around the clock here to develop similar offerings ourselves to be able to launch those products before our competitor does." Monday, 11:30 a.m. (lunch meeting Derwin Boyer, manufacturing manager *A variety of people issues are hindering our productivity. We have bottlenecks in the warehouse areas. These bottlenecksspill into our manufacturing area because we have to pull people off assembly work to get their own raw materials or to move finished product out of the production area. We also have been dealing with problems related to performance. I think many of our warehouse workers 'stack off too much and are not putting in the effort needed to excel in their job." Monday, 1:30 pm John Brown, manufacturing supervisor it is hard to keep the guys working efficiently. We are always running out of raw materials, or the Minished product builds up and I have to pull guys off the production floor to deal with it. The Warehouse manager doesn't do his job, but if I have my guys take loads over, he complains that they did not get stacked right and that the damage is our fault. I really don't enjoy the job used to Monday, 2:00p.m. Cary Dobbins, warehouse manager "We are treated like stepchildren, the manufacturing department pays more and has the best equipment. People in the manufacturing department always seem to make more money or get bigger raises than the warehouse employees, but it's not been made clear to me why that is happening or what we can do to ensure that we get properly rewarded too "The manufacturing supervisor is also rude to me on a daily basis. I don't appreciate his communication style and feel like he doesn't understand how to communicate effectively with people at work Monday, 3:00p.m. Alicia Swift, marketing manager "It is critical that we are seen by our customers as top quality because we charge more than the prices they see at the big-box stores, Damaged goods and Shipping problems reflect poorly on our product, even if it is good quality. Unfortunately, there have been a lot of shipping problems lately which have made my job very frustrating it's gotten to the point where I almost dread coming into the office in the morning because I don't want to deal with all the complaint emails that came in the previous night." Monday, 3:45 pm Kristen Moore, crater (new hire) took this job to set off or second shini, buttam hoping to transfer to the manufacturing group as soon as I can. My friend who works over there told me about this place, but they make you start in the warchouse and work your way up. What I don't get is why the crating job pays less than the forklift job: running the forklift is easier wock, Besides, worlding on the crathug like is really like working in the manufacturine side, where they use similar jies to make the doors. The manufacturing techs get paid a lot more than craters. It sure is nice being home with my family in the evenime, but it I don't get that transfer and the raise that goes with it. I will have to get a second job to make ends meet Sun A Kristen Moore, crater (new hire) took this job to get off of second shift, but I am hoping to transfer to the manufacturing group as soon as I can. My friend who works over there told me about this place, but they make you start in the warchouse and work your way up. What I don't get is why the crating job pays less than the forklift Job; running the forklift is easier work. Besides, working on the crating jig is really like working in the manufacturing side, where they use similar jies to make the doors. The manufacturing techs get paid a lot more than craters. It sure is nice being home with my family in the evening but if I don't get that transfer and the raise that goes with it. I will have to get a second job to make ends meet" Monday, 4:00p.m. Nathan Smith, production technician (manufacturing assembly) "When I first got here, we made the doors from scratch. You could take pride in a door you made yourself. Now we just throw Parts into a jig and stick them together. It allows new people to make a quality door with little training, but it is kind of sad for those of us who consider ourselves craftsmen. I've really lost the excitement for the work that I do here. I don't feel like I can be creative in this job which makes it more difficult for me to get excited about my tasks or enjoy the job. Monday 4:15 pm Jeffery Green, raw materials warehouse "I like running the forlift in raw materials. I know I could make a little more in production, but I think it would be bacing doing the same thing all day, we have a good team in my are most of us have been here awhile and know our jobs. The supervisor spends most of his time working on orders and inventory Issues rather than standing over us. I tike that. It's not the same in production. The supervisors are always on their tails, and it anything goes wrong, there is lots of yelling. They are always trying to blame other departments because they are under so much pressure to produce. They uswitch models on the fly, then comptain that we don't have the parts bin correctly stocked. The worst is when they try to help. Talk about screwing things up in a hurry! We should take away all of their for de licenses." Questions: What are the 4 BIGGEST OB issues facing this company? Start by identifying the OB concept." and then describe the problem. (When I say "biggest I mean those issues that are most prevalent or pervasive across Individuals/departments.) (Hint: I'm looking for specific issues (eg, performance, trust, etc.) that directly align to the topics/terms we have covered in class thus far. As a general rule, il the issue you identify is not in our textbook glossary as a defined term/subject, then it is unlikely to be one of the biggest OB issues in this case) For example 1. Employee Trust: Describe issue) 2. Employee Performance (Describe issue) 1 2 3 4 What related recommendations would you make to the president based on your initial interviews What OB related recommendations would you make to the president based on your initial interviews? (Link your recommendations directly to each of the problems you identified. For example, if the first problem you identified was employee trust your first recommendation below would identify how you would deal with the problem of employee trust), 1. 2. 3