Interesting, as this is where should and could is not what we deal with, we talk of real cases and real life problems, which have been roadblocks in the successful functioning of many organizations.
Learning is maximum, because we not only introduce ourselves to these cases but we analyse them and find solutions from individual as well as from a team perspective.
Value addition, as we deal with problems faced by other businesses of various nature and type, in the process of analyzing the problem and finding solutions we learn about different businesses and of our business environment more and more.
Effective, because case studies are a very concise form of looking at a problem and yet effective.
You are the HR manager at a call center. The company makes sales for a UK based telephony company. High sales targets to be met day-in and day-out that requires individuals with good presence of mind with lot of enthusiasm. The major concern is high attrition rate that is due to frequent job-hopping by the young crowd. Even before the induction is over, half of the staff has left or is ready for it. The company bears the cost of training that takes 4 to 6 weeks of completion. The cost to company for selecting an employee is break even only once the training is over and the employee hits the floor. The situation is you need to target the part that would make good sales. But that group is the one with high attrition.
What are the qualities you would look for in an individual?
What initiatives would you take to retain the employee?
What would you do to keep the performance up?
Two large home-health care organizations, both headquartered in Southern California, had been fierce competitors. Homedco and Abbey Healthcare group decided that rather than continuing to compete, they could strengthen their market positions by merging to create one large firm, Apria Healthcare Group. Together, they planned to expand their home health services nationwide as the effects of managed care spread.
Yet three years later the Stock value of Apria had declined by 25 percent, and earnings fell. How far Apria declined was soon evident; when efforts began to find another company to take over the firm, few buyers were interested. What happened was primarily due to operational problems caused by the merger. Those issues had not been resolved because of internal conflict between ex-Homedco and Abbey Healthcare executives and employees. Ultimately, the Board of Directors, which was evenly split, accepted the need to remove Timothy Aitken, former CEO of Abbey Healthcare, and have Teremy Jones from Homedco as CEO.
It was obvious from the beginning that the organizational cultures were very different. Whereas Homedco had a more formalized structure with more centralized decision making, Abbey Healthcare had very decentralized decision making and branch managers had significant authority. Also, merging computer and billing systems by using the Abbey Healthcare system meant that employees from Homedco had to be trained, which did not happen fast enough. As a result, numerous billing errors and the resulting complaints and phone calls from unhappy customers overwhelmed Apria customer service departments.
To save costs and eliminate duplication of Jobs, about 14 percent of the employees in the combined company lost jobs. But the greatest numbers of those cut were former Abbey employees. For those remaining, it appeared that most Homedco managers were not affected as much as the Abbey Healthcare managers. For instance, only 6 of 21 regional managers were formerly with Abbey Healthcare, which caused most of the best performing Abbey sales representatives to quit. Even changing some basic HR policies caused problems. For example, when Homedco HR policies were extended into Abbey offices, a new dress code and time recording procedures irritated many former Abbey workers. A significant number of them left in the first year. The level of conflict was so severe that employees from one firm referred to those from the other company as “idiots” and refused to return phone calls from employees with the other firm. Finally both Aitken and Jones left the firm, and a new executive team has been struggling to rebuild Apria. Instead of being a healthy merger, it turned into the “merger from hell”.
Questions:
1. Describe how analyses of human resource issues have been done prior to Apria merger.
2. Given the problems Apria has, what actions could be taken to begin creating better organizational culture?
Source: Robert L.Mathis and John H.Jackson, Human Resources Management, South-Western Publishing Co. 2000, pp. 69-70.
NIPM – the National Institute of Personnel Management, is an institute of Personnel Management and the only all – India body of professional managers engaged in the profession of personnel management, industrial relations, labour welfare, training and HRD in the country. It came into existence in March 1980 as a result of merger of two professional Institutions, namely the Indian Institute of Personnel Management, established in 1948 in Kolkata and the National Institute of Labour Management, established in 1950 in Mumbai. With its National Office in Kolkata, NIPM has a total membership of more than 10,000 spread over 52 Chapters all over the country. NIPM is a non – profit making body devoted to the development of skill and expertise of the persons engaged in the management of human resources through regular lecture meetings, seminars, training courses, conferences and publications through its Chapters all over the country.
