HBS: The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant by Wickham Skinner and Heather Beckham
In the above case written by Skinner and Beckham the high turnover rates of the Treadway Tire Company Lima Plant’s Line Foreman have become a problem for a plant that had the potential per the article to be one of Treadway’s top producers. Ashley Wall, the Lima plant’s human resource manager believed, “once the turnover problem was solved, Lima could become Treadway’s number one plant for productivity and its lowest cost producer in North America.” This article was truly interesting as it is a great example of what can go wrong even in the most modern and technologically savvy business environments; essentially Treadway spent tons of money on making its building nice, but did not invest enough in its people.
The Line Foremen found themselves in non-union positions, responsible for ever-growing production quotas, untrained managers responsible for personnel issues, and administrative tasks. They held most of the responsibility and had little authority; as personnel issues with their crews of hourly workers were handled by the unions. Treadway did little to train the people in this position to deal the high stress environment and found itself faced with high turnover numbers in this pivotal position- a clear hindrance to the modernized Lima plant taking a number slot in productivity.
Additionally, the line foremen found themselves without support from upper management who had come up from similar ranks- who held the we did so you can to attitude. Also their was a hierarchy that didn’t allow for upper management and the line foreman to mingle or be friends- thus making social situations awkward and adding additional strain to the management team/ line foreman relationships.
Line Foreman were thrown on the job with little training-