Strategies for changing morale and quality

Scenario -

Custom Food and Feed Corporation (CF&F)is a major manufacturer and marketer of food and animal feed ingredients. Over the past 10 years, there have been several major investigations and allegations of company mismanagement. In question is CF&F's compliance with federal and state regulatory regulations (safety, environment and quality), Federal and State Labor Laws, and Equal Employment Opportunity guidelines.
In the light of recent negative publicity and to regain and maintain the company's market share, a new CEO was appointed by the Board of Directors. The CEO has insisted that the president of the company look into the recent allegations and make recommendations for changes in company management practices in resource management. The president has outlined the CEO concerns for change and has tasked the Vice President of Human Resources to analyze the current company culture and to give recommendations to him for change. The Vice President of Human Resources has decided to use the Tech Division for this corporate analysis.

The Tech Division is the newest division, being 12-years old. This division has grown from a single product to seven products. The Tech Division is a non-union facility which has a staff of 92 managers and 300 hourly employees. This division uses fermentation technology to convert dextrose (sugar)into a variety of food and feed ingredients. This division operates 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Following are major results of the study:

There is no real concern for safety, environmental and/or quality controls.
Tech's managers use an authoritarian approach to managing human resources. This approach over the years has built many barriers between the hourly employees and management and there has been some talk of unionizing.
The plant manager's responsibility is to make all the daily production decisions. His staff of production supervisors is to monitor the production cycle and report to him for direction.
Frontline Supervisors have been promoted from within the company. There was no apparent consideration to who would be promoted and no guidance and training was given to them.
There is a history of nepotism that runs throughout the culture of this division.
Up until now, the Corporate Human Resource department has been responsible for all of the Human Resource activities for each of its divisions. The Vice President of Human Resources has convinced the president of the company that the first change is to put a Human Resource Manager (HRM) in the Tech division. The president agreed.

You are the newly hired Human Resource Manager for the Tech Division. Your responsibility is to diagnosis the present culture, develop strategies for implementing a plan for change, and implement the plan. The Vice President of Human Resources has pointed out that you will face many challenges and a strong resistance from different levels of management not to change the established culture.

Task needing assistance -

One of your new contacts from the teambuilding seminar has called you for help. She is the Human Resource Manager of a larger manufacturing company. Her division is divided into 7 departments and each department is dependent on the other for success.

In today's morning production meeting, the superintendents expressed much concern over low product quality. Additionally, the plant manager announced this week that corporate sales have increased production goals 50 percent for the next two quarters. Production demands have been high and the equipment has been running non-stop for several months.

Over the past few months she has noticed an increase in absenteeism from several of the departments. Resignations are on the rise. The division staffing goals are at an all time low, which means that since the production goals have increased, so will overtime. Employee motivation has been slowly decreasing and this is having a negative impact on employee performance.

Your friend has outlined several concerns. Your assignment is to help her follow the diagnostic process and identify at least four of those concerns. Help her create strategies that HRM could use to help change the present culture.

Send your friend an e-mail on the concerns and diagnosis you have highlighted and the strategies that you recommend for changing morale and quality of the product.