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JUNE 12, 2008

WICKHAM SKINNER
HEATHER BECKHAM

op yo The Treadway Tire Company:
Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the
Lima Tire Plant

tC

“We have a serious problem.” The words of Brandon Bellingham, the plant manager at
Treadway’s Lima, Ohio, Tire Plant, rang in Ashley Wall’s ears. She had just attended a tense meeting where she had presented the projected year-end turnover figures for the plant. Out of a total of 50 foremen at the Lima facility, 23 of these positions had turned over in 2007. Ashley Wall had transferred to the Lima Plant as Director of Human Resources when Treadway’s plant in Greenville,
South Carolina, had closed down in 2006. She was a seasoned human resources professional with over 10 years of experience at Treadway. Wall knew the turnover rate of foremen was higher at Lima than at other plants in the division; reversing this trend was her top priority. It was now November
28, 2007—approximately one month before Christmas. The plant would be closed from Christmas to
New Year’s for retooling and annual maintenance. By the time the plant reopened in January 2008,
Wall intended to complete a thorough analysis of the problem and a plan of action to correct it.
The Treadway Tire Company employed almost 9,000 hourly and salaried staff in North America.
The company was a major supplier of tires to the original equipment manufacturer1 and replacement tire markets, selling Treadway Primo, Treadway Performance, and private tire brands. The Lima Tire
Plant was one of eight manufacturing plants operated by the Treadway Tire Company.

No

For the prior several years, tire manufacturers had been faced with a variety of challenges, including skyrocketing raw material costs and intense global competition. Raw materials represented about 55% of the cost to produce a tire, and petroleum derivates were an important ingredient in the mix. Raw material costs were thus highly dependent on the price of oil. The price of standard crude oil climbed from below $25/barrel in September 2003 to $92/barrel by October
2007, pressuring the economics of tire companies.

Do

1 Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) included companies such as Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Professor Wickham Skinner and Heather Beckham prepared this case solely as a basis for class discussion and not as an endorsement, a source of primary data, or an illustration of effective or ineffective management.
This case, though based on real events, is fictionalized, and any resemblance to actual persons or entities is coincidental. There are occasional references to actual companies in the narration.
Copyright © 2008 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School.

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2189 | The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant

Wall sat down in her office, staring at the blank computer screen. She was acutely aware of the rising cost of raw materials and its impact on the company. Although she could not solve this problem directly, she could help cut overall costs and improve productivity at the plant by reducing turnover. But Wall knew that turnover was the tip of the iceberg. Serious morale issues had been brewing for some time with the line-foreman segment, and their dissatisfaction was beginning to infect the entire plant. Wall’s thoughts swirled around the myriad factors causing the problems.

Treadway’s Lima Tire Plant

op yo In 2007, the Lima Tire Plant produced approximately 25,000 passenger and light truck tires per day (See Exhibit 1 for detail on the manufacturing process). Located in Lima, Ohio, the plant building encompassed over 1.5 million square feet and was situated on 128 acres of land. About
1,120 people were employed at the Lima location: 970 were hourly employees and 150 were salaried employees. The hourly personnel at the plant were unionized by the United Steelworkers (USW), which had merged with the United Rubber Workers in 1995.2 The union contract dictated job classifications, pay rates, the schedule for pay increases, overtime rates, benefits, health/safety standards, and grievance procedures for hourly workers in the plant.
The Lima Plant had undergone a $100 million expansion and modernization effort in 2000, which enabled the plant to increase capacity and utilize new manufacturing technology. Due to the updated equipment and technology spending, Lima had become one of Treadway’s top plants for productivity and quality ratings. Wall believed that once the turnover problem was solved, Lima could become Treadway’s number one plant for productivity and its lowest cost producer in North
America.

tC

In 2006, Treadway shut down the Greenville, South Carolina, plant, which had been plagued by outdated equipment, and moved the volume to the more efficient Lima plant. With the additional volume, Lima shifted to continuous operations. The plant now operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with four rotating shifts.3 Most employees at Lima worked a 12-hour shift—either from 7:00
a.m. to 7:00 p.m. or 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.—with two breaks per shift and a half-hour for meals.
Continuous operations allowed Treadway to amortize the substantial fixed costs of running a tire plant over maximum production volume. By running two 12-hour shifts instead of three 8-hour shifts, the company was also able to reduce headcount, thus capturing significant cost savings.

Do

No

The hourly line-production employees at Treadway’s tire plants were supervised by salaried, nonunion, floor-level managers called line foremen, of which there were 50 at Lima. Directly above the 50 line foremen were 13 general supervisors who managed several line segments. Lima’s five area managers were responsible for everyone in their sector, including the hourly tire production team, the line foremen, and the general supervisors. Oversight of the entire plant was the responsibility of a single plant manager, Brandon Bellingham (see Exhibit 2 for abbreviated plant organization chart).
While foremen supervised all phases of production and quality assurance work, at the Lima plant the largest number of foremen were involved in the three phases of rubber component preparation, tire assembly, and curing/final finish.

2 United Steel Workers (USW) represented more than 850,000 workers in the United States and Canada, of which 70,000 were employed in the tire and rubber industries.

3 Shifts were categorized A, B, C, or D with an average schedule of 3 days on, 3 days off, and about 14 to 16 total days worked in a month.

2

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Foreman Staffing Objectives

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The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant | 2189

The manufacturing foremen constituted the largest group of salaried employees at Lima. Foremen were employed primarily in four main areas: Production, Maintenance, Material Control, and Quality
Assurance. One of the factors influencing the performance of line foremen on the job was their educational background and skill set. Treadway’s management was debating whether to change the composition of the foreman candidate pool. As of December 2006, when Wall joined the Lima plant, its foremen came from three sources: the majority (80%) were internal promotions of Lima’s unionized workers; a second group (16%) were young graduates from the local colleges; and a select few (4%) were experienced foremen transfers from other Treadway plants.

op yo According to Wall, “Our most successful general supervisors and area managers have risen from the foreman ranks. However, currently there do not seem to be enough people in the foreman position with the potential to move up to the next level of management. In addition, none of the hourly employees that have shown an interest in the foreman position have a college degree.
Although I agree with Treadway headquarters that we need to increase the percentage of college graduates and inter-company transfers, I personally feel that over the next two years, a realistic goal would be 60 % internal hires, 30% new college graduates, and 10% company transfers.”
Since Wall had been hired, she had made an effort to increase the percentage of external candidates with college degrees in the foreman pool. Of the 23 foremen who were hired in 2007 to replace departing workers, 8 were external hires with college degrees (Exhibit 3 provides a distribution analysis of hiring and turnover patterns).

The Line Foreman Experience

tC

The job of line foreman at Lima was a daily challenge, requiring foremen to juggle and resolve a variety of personnel, resource, and administrative issues in a 12-hour shift. On top of this, line foremen often felt pulled in different, often conflicting directions by management, the workers, and the union.

No

According to plant manager Bellingham, “Meeting performance goals is the most important duty of the line foreman.” Every day a breakout report by line area of the previous day’s actual performance versus forecasted performance was circulated to all line foremen, general supervisors, area managers, and the plant operating committee. The report detailed such metrics as labor hours per unit, units completed, and units rejected owing to quality issues. If results fell below forecasted levels, the line foreman was subject to a severe tongue lashing and usually threatened with a poor performance review.

Do

A foreman’s top priority was to start the tire production line each work day and ensure that no technical issues would stop production during the shift. Often, the line foreman would be required to call Maintenance right away to identify and quickly fix unresolved equipment and quality issues from the previous shift. Staffing the production team (up to 20 people on a line at any moment) also caused frequent headaches for the foremen. Due to the strenuous nature of long shifts, the scheduled hourly workers often came late to work or called in sick, causing foremen to scramble for last-minute substitute workers and assign them spontaneously to appropriate tasks. The foremen were also in charge of maintaining strict safety and health standards and for investigating any violations.

Foremen also had to manage many union and administrative procedures. Foremen documented employee disciplinary actions and negotiated work standards with the union reps. When an hourly employee felt the company had violated the union contract or disciplinary action was not justified, a
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2189 | The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant

union steward was called in and a grievance process was initiated. The foremen were typically not involved in the grievance committee’s ruling, and disciplinary decisions such as demotion and termination were out of their control. Foremen spent the end of each shift completing various administrative duties, including scheduling hourly workers, approving vacation requests, checking time sheets, and solving payroll issues.

Morale

op yo An employee satisfaction survey conducted in August 2007 and exit interviews of departing foremen revealed solid discontent in the plant and highlighted concerns about the line-foreman position. (See Exhibit 4 for results from the employee survey and Exhibit 5 for a sample exit interview.) In addition, several incidents had occurred that highlighted the tension between hourly workers and foremen. In one example, a line worker had arrived back late from his break and according to an hourly witness, “The line foreman went ballistic and started screaming at him. The guy tried to explain himself, but the foreman just kept shouting. These foremen assume we are all slackers and won’t even hear us out.” Immediately after the confrontation, Wall assembled a group of line foremen to discuss their jobs. They expressed concerns about their lack of authority and adversarial relations with the hourly workers. Wall recalled the foremen’s comments:
No matter what happens, we’re expected to meet or exceed targets, which get higher every year. But what am I supposed to do if I’m missing machines? What if half a dozen workers don’t show up for work? Sure, I scramble, looking for folks with the right skills to fill in. You need to have your line going quick or you have no chance of hitting your production targets for the day. A lot of this is beyond my control, and Management doesn’t seem to understand that. tC

I discipline the hourly workers when necessary, but even here I feel powerless. The union guys on the grievance committee often send the worker back, smiling, with a cleared record, and no explanation to me.
You have to stay on top of things or they let you have it; it’s a jungle in here.
We just don’t have any authority anymore and yet still have all the responsibility. No one listens to us as foremen, no one acts on our requests. We’re between a rock and a hard place.

No

Bellingham, the Lima plant manager, attributed the morale problem of the foremen primarily to lack of communication. Bellingham commented, “Foremen feel isolated from the rest of the plant.
They are the lowest players on the totem pole, and they feel that their contributions are undervalued and their concerns ignored. Open communication is essential to this. As a perk, I have recently tried to introduce occasional social events after work for foremen, other salaried employees, and their managers—a sports theme night at the local bar, for example. The foremen appreciate the gesture, but our general supervisors and area managers are not accustomed to this style of management or level of social interaction.”

Do

Hiring
In 2007, the average base rate for a new line foreman was equivalent to approximately $30 per hour (about 16% above the average hourly rate). They were also eligible for overtime pay. Pay rates in the plant were also adjusted to reflect experience and years of service with Treadway.

The selection process for current Lima hourly employees interested in a line-foreman position began when available jobs were posted on bulletin boards in the plant and the Treadway corporate

4

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The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant | 2189

Intranet, to facilitate transfers from other plants. Respondents’ employee records were scrutinized and an interview with the area manager was scheduled. Those who applied for foremen positions also had to successfully complete the First Line Test (FLT)—a five-hour exam that 45% of applicants passed, on average.
The three-hour written portion of the FLT asked applicants to develop a production plan, with both short-term and long-term forecasts, and to solve several mini-case studies on interpersonal relations. The screening committee then interviewed the candidates for two hours to gauge their ability to quickly respond to a hypothetical situation requiring problem-solving, task-structuring, and planning skills in an attempt to assess the capabilities and the standards that they would bring to the foreman position.

op yo To recruit college graduates with a bachelor’s degree, the Lima plant management advertised foremen vacancies at college job fairs and on Internet job websites. There was also an employee referral program in place. In addition to completing the FLT, successful external candidates were interviewed by the area manager and a general supervisor, whom the candidates had to convince of their sincere interest in a manufacturing career.

Training

As of November 2007, new line foremen received only informal training, at the discretion of the general supervisor and area manager. According to Herb Adams, a general supervisor, “I don’t have a lot of time to devote to hand-holding. I tell my guys you have to take control to survive on the plant floor. They have to keep their eyes open for the trouble makers and let them know who is boss.
That’s the only way to make it as a foreman. ” Area managers and general supervisors preferred that current foremen adopt the tried-and-true management style from their own days as foremen.

No

tC

Despite the reluctance of area managers and general supervisors to change, Wall felt that enhanced training was key to reducing the turnover among line foremen. She estimated that just over 43% of the 23 line foremen who had left the position in 2007 had done so voluntarily. Some former Lima foremen returned to hourly positions at Lima or transferred to non-foremen jobs in other Treadway plants, but many left Treadway altogether. Wall felt line foremen who were asked to leave the job failed for one of three reasons: they could not control the workers, they did not meet forecasts, or they had persistently counterproductive interactions with general supervisors and area managers. Observations from the salaried personnel manager, Robert Henry, echoed the need for training:

Do

A lot of our foremen are put on a line before they have enough knowledge. The general supervisors expect them to just sink or swim. There are a lot of specialty areas in which the generalist foremen have to quickly come up to speed. Some foremen don’t have a clue what industrial engineering is, or how to track their hours. They don’t know how to manage a dispute, and they know less about their legal rights than the unionized workers do. A host of problems could also be prevented if the foremen could figure out how to get along with the hourly people.

Wall had been trying to create a new, month-long rotational training program for line foremen.
The program would assign area managers as formal mentors and expose the new line foremen to the key processes in the plant. The new foremen would spend a day with Payroll to learn about problems with time sheets and paychecks, and a day with Human Resources to cover information on union contracts and disciplinary issues. However, due to budget cuts in late 2007, Bellingham decided to put this program on hold, stating, “I understand we have to do a better job of training our
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2189 | The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant

foremen. They are often working with little knowledge of the correct way to handle labor situations.
I like the idea of a formal training program, but it not feasible in the context of our current costcutting mandate.”

Outlook for Line Foremen

op yo The line foremen were evaluated annually in a performance review by their general supervisor
(see Exhibit 6 for sample performance review). According to Bellingham, there were two factors on which the general supervisors judged the line foremen: “their ability to meet or exceed forecasts, and how they manage and train their hourly workers.” The overall performance measurement system was very informal. In the words of Herb Adams, “As long as you meet targets without aggravating the union or management too much, you’re fine.”
At Lima, the general supervisors were traditionally promoted from foremen positions, and area managers were usually promoted from general supervisory positions. In 2007, one line foreman had been promoted to general supervisor, and there were no openings for the area manager position.
According to Tom Hamilton, another general supervisor, “My line foremen just don’t see any way to move up at Lima. I always recommend the guys with the most long-term management potential to Human Resources, but whenever there’s a general supervisor vacancy, someone else—usually some college grad—gets hired.” It was understood that no new salaried positions would be created at Lima in 2008. Any openings would be due to retirements, promotions, and other job changes.

tC

Reading through her personnel files, Ashley Wall knew the problem of turnover in the line foreman position—affecting a third of the salaried work force—was a complicated issue for Lima management to address. Morale and productivity were imperiled. The plant was not satisfactorily developing new managers. Relations between management and the union were threatened.

Do

No

Wall quickly realized she would need to work through the holiday shutdown in order to be ready to give the plant manager her recommendations on January 2. She needed to develop a thorough analysis of the root causes and a specific plan to address these issues. With less than five weeks to develop a recommendation, she began to search her personnel files to gain a deeper understanding of the problem and what actions had to be taken.

6

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tC

No

Tire Manufacturing Process

2189

Plies
(Calendarized
rubber and fabric cut into sheets)
Belts
(Calendarized fabric and steel into cords)

Final Inspections

Curing,
Trimming,
Painting

Tire Building

Beads
(Wrapped wire covered with rubber)

Treads & Sidewalls
(Extruded Rubber)

Component Preparation

op yo Rubber Mixing

rP os t

Inner liner
(Calendarized
rubber)

The tire manufacturing process in the Treadway plant began with the preparation and mixing of the rubber compound. The mixing took place in a large machine called a Banbury mixer. Next, several machines shaped the rubber into the six individual components of the tire: plies, belts, beads, sidewalls, tread, and inner liner. After all six of the components were prepared, automatic machine rollers pressed all the parts firmly together into a "green” or unfinished tire. The
“green” tire was then inspected before it went into a curing press. This process vulcanized the rubber and once the tire was trimmed and painted, the result was a finished tire. The final step in the process was a series of inspections, which included an x-ray to reveal internal flaws.

Exhibit 1

Do
-7-

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General
Supervisor (2)

Foreman (12)

Rubber Mixing

General
Supervisor (2)

Foreman (6)

Production
Manager (2)

Hourly
Personnel

Component
Preparation

Human
Resources
Director

Foreman (8)

General
Supervisor (2)

Tire Assembly

Controller

Operations
Director

Maintenance
Manager
(1)

Foreman (10)

General
Supervisor (2)

Curing/ Final
Finish

Foreman (6)

General
Supervisor (2)

Foreman (4)

General
Supervisor (1)

2189

Quality Assurance
Manager (1)

Foreman (4)

General
Supervisor (2)

rP os t

Material Control
Manager (1)

Industrial
Engineering
Director

op yo tC

No
Plant Manager

Abbreviated Organization Chart, 2007 (Treadway Tire Company’s Lima, Ohio, plant)

Salaried
Personnel

Exhibit 2

Do
-8-

Exhibit 3

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The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant | 2189

Foreman Distribution Breakout: Internal vs. External Hiresa

Department

External Hire

Internal Hire

Transfers

Total

Foreman distribution 12/31/06

8

40

2

50

Voluntary turnover
Involuntary turnover
Total

3
3
6

6
10
16

1
0
1

10
13
23

New placements

8

14

1

23

38

2

50

10

op yo Foreman distribution 11/28/07

Do

No

tC

a Internal hire refers to foremen who had been promoted from the ranks of an hourly position in the plant. None of the internal hires had college degrees. External hire refers to those hired from outside the plant – (all external hires had a college degree).

9
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Exhibit 4

Excerpts from 2007 Lima Employee Surveya

Management is sensitive to employee problems.

8

I feel prepared to accomplish duties of my job.

15

10

My immediate supervisor is a positive role model.

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2189 | The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant

20

28

10

12

4

I am satisfied with morale in the company.

2

Strongly Disagree

Disagree

18

50%

Neither Agree nor Disagree

4

75%
Agree

1

2

14

21

25%

2

2

18

5

0%

10

30

op yo 7

Company offers clear opportunities for advancement.

7

100%
Strongly Agree

What can be done to make supervision positions at the plant more effective?
Select comments from Salaried Employees:

tC

“The younger line foremen are smart and pushy, but they just don’t get enough training—especially in how to work with the union and how to manage their workers.”
“If the hourly employees feel they can get away with something—they’ll do it. The line foremen must be able to step up to it, set limits, and maintain respect.”

No

“We have to do a better job of communicating with the foremen and letting them know why decisions get reversed. The grievance hearings are not discussed with them, and right now all they hear are rumors and second-hand reports.”
“Foremen would be more successful if they could treat their people with courtesy and not have such negative attitudes about them.”
“That counseling stuff and talking about motivation doesn’t cut it here. Foremen need to use an iron fist.”

Select comments from Hourly Employees:

“Foremen don’t treat us with any respect. They just bark orders and expect us to jump. They don’t seem to understand how hard our job is.”

Do

“My foreman won’t cut me any slack. It is like he enjoys catching me doing something wrong. He never has anything good to say about my work.”

a Graph represents responses from foreman position; select write-in comments are from all levels of salaried and hourly

personnel.

10
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Exhibit 5

Sample Exit Interview (Lima, Ohio, plant)

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The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant | 2189

Please take the time to answer the following questions to the best of your ability. Your individual responses are kept confidential and will not become part of your personnel file. This information is vital in assisting us analyze factors that contribute to employee turnover.
Job Title

____line foreman_______

Briefly explain your reason for leaving:
I was not satisfied with my job or work environment. necessary skills /tools, and couldn’t get my job done.

I was effectively left alone, without the

op yo Check the box which best describes your feelings about the following aspects of your employment.
Very Satisfied

Satisfied

Dissatisfied



Duties of the job

Training and development





Salary



Benefits
Working conditions





Work hours
Supervisors

tC

Advancement Opportunities
Co-workers






Add any additional comments about your choice to leave here:
My general supervisor would just say “Do it!’ I received no training on how to do my job. The hourly employees showed me no respect.

No

What suggestions would you make for improving the following:
Work conditions:

More respect and authority for the foreman positions.

Employee Relations:

More communication from upper management and training in the labor

contract.

Hands on time with supervisors who take an interest in helping you succeed.

Productivity:

Guidelines and training on how to get it all done.

Do

Supervision:

11
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Exhibit 6
Name:

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2189 | The Treadway Tire Company: Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant

Sample Salaried Personnel Performance Review (Lima, Ohio, plant)
John Clark

Date:

Department: Tire Assembly

11/15/2007

Position:

Foreman

Instructions: A performance review should be completed each year for every employee under your supervision. Use Comments section to justify your ratings. Any Outstanding or Unsatisfactory rating must be explained in the Comments section. Both you and the employee must sign this form. Performance Levels:

Far exceeds expectations.
Performs well above average.
Acceptable performance; meets all job responsibilities.
Performs below standards.
Performs well below standards.

Performance Appraisal:

op yo Outstanding (O)
Excellent (E)
Competent (C)
Marginal (M)
Unsatisfactory (U)

Dependability/Responsibility: Willingly takes on, is held accountable, and performs assignments in a timely manner.
C
Comments:______________________________________________ ____
_ _______ _ ___ _ ___ __
E

tC

Safety/Housekeeping: Promotes proper and safe operations on the job.
Comments: No accidents this year.

Quantity of Work: Work output is consistent with established standards.
Always meets production forecasts.
________
Comments:
Quality of Work: Ensures accurate and quality work products.
Comments:_________________________________________________

____

E
__

_ _ ___

__

C
___ ____ _____ _

____

__

No

Management and Control: Establishes priorities, motivates subordinates, and applies policies fairly.
C
Comments:____________________________________________
_________ __________
__
__
Overall Rating:
Comments:_ _John is a hard worker and never complains.

E
He only had a couple grievances in

his group this year. ____________________ _______________

Do

Employee Signature:
Completed by:

John A Clark

Herb Adams

11/15/07
11/15/07

12
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...A Case for Case Studies Margo A. Ihde Liberty University Author Note Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Margo A. Ihde, Psychology 255-B05, Liberty University, Lynchburg, Va. 24515. E-mail: mihde@liberty.edu A Case for Case Studies Case Studies are utilized across many disciplines including but not limited to medical science, political science, social science and psychology. There is however some confusion as it relates to the use of case studies. The first such confusion that must be clarified is what the definition of a case study is and what constitutes a case study. The second clarification is to identify the reasons for using a case study. A third area is outlining the advantages and disadvantages of using a case study. Lastly, when a researcher concludes a case study would be the best option they then must determine where and in what ways would the data and information be sourced. Identifying the answers for these four areas is imperative to understanding and utilizing a case study. Case Study – Defined The definition for a case study within all many disciplines is very similar. A case study is usually described as an investigation into a real situation involving an individual, a group, an organization, or a society focusing on a single subject or object (Pegram, 2000). To begin, identifying a case studies purpose would contribute to determining what would and should be investigated. The study could focus on the “history...

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...Select a case study from the University of Phoenix Material: Young and Middle Adulthood Case Studies located on the student website. Write a 700- to 1,050-word paper describing the influence the experiences have made on the person’s development. Address the following in your paper: Discuss the family, social, and intimate relationships of the person in the case study. Identify any role changes that have occurred. Explain the immediate and future effect of healthy or unhealthy habits practiced by this person. Include at least two peer-reviewed resources. Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines. University of Phoenix Material Young and Middle Adulthood Case Studies Read the following case studies in order to complete the Week Three Individual Assignment. Case Study 1: Jackson Jackson is a 25-year old male who has recently been admitted to a substance abuse program in Chicago, Illinois. He has been arrested several times for possession of a controlled substance but has not served any time in jail. He grew up in a single-parent household with his mother, Tina. Tina, 45, is employed as a high school teacher; his biological father is not involved in his life. Tina’s boyfriend, Michael, often attempts to serve as a father figure to Jackson. Jackson went to college immediately after high school, focused on a degree in chemistry. In high school, he was a good student who earned A’s and B’s in most courses. After a car accident, a slight head injury...

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...CASE STUDY COMPONENTS: Introduction: Identify case study topic and list assertions (3-6) that can be verified with evidence (field notes, interviews, etc.) 1. Assertions and Evidence: Discuss each assertion separately (minimum one paragraph for each assertion) and include supportive evidence. Underline assertion statements as presented. 2. Implications/Effects: Conclude with an interpretive discussion of implications/effects. Inferences and conclusions based on evidence presented can be drawn. SAMPLE CASE STUDY FOCUSING ON MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES: Management Case Study Introduction Throughout the study, Shelley’s class was well managed. Explanations and evidence to support the following six assertions regarding Shelley’s management style are presented: 1. Shelley did not focus extensively on behavior management; 2. Shelley monitored student behavior throughout lessons; 3. Shelley promptly dealt with potential disruptive behavior; 4. Shelley reinforced acceptable behavior; 5. Shelley was very tolerant of student interaction and discussion; and, 6. Shelley devoted a great deal of time to task management. Assertions and Evidence Throughout the study, Shelley did not focus extensively on behavior management. On most days, the students in Shelley’s class were very well behaved and seemed to be familiar with Shelley’s rules regarding classroom behavior...

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...Case 1. STATE UNIVERSITY BOARD OF REGENTS: What Am I Living For? Question: Is there anything wrong with the actions of the three personalities in this case? Elaborate your answer. After reading the case study and analyzing it, from my opinion I think yes there is anything wrong with the actions of the three personalities- Mr.Bondoc, his wife and Dr. Agao. For elaboration I will explain them one by one. Mr.Bondoc acted as the champion of the student’s cause therefore it’s his responsibility to fight for the own good of the students, the one who will voice out their stands and if possible disagree to the proposals that may greatly affect them like increasing of their tuition fee.It’s great that he has the attitude of convincing others in personal way for them to agree of opposing the proposals of Dr. Agao because of this they can stop his proposals. He must maintain and assure that he is doing his job and must not allow others to control him in bad way or stop him to do his obligation but stated on the case study his wife wished him to maintain good relationship with Dr.Agao which unfortunately leads him to suddenly accept his proposals. It showed that he let others dictate him what to do and failed to do his job. About the wife of Mr.Bondoc, she was carried away by the good actions showed by Dr. Agao without knowing his real intentions of befriending her. Shecan be easily manipulated like what Dr. Agao wanted her to do through doing special treatments...

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...Case Study for “Carl Robins a new employee for ABC, Inc.” Rodrequez M. Dover University of Phoenix Class: Comm/215 Essential of College writing Author Note This paper is my first case study report. My thesis for this report is: It is important before hiring for any job that we check all the requirements for the new recruits, and that we have all the things require for their training.". In this case study we learn quickly that Carl Robing was new at ABC, Inc. as a recruiter and he had recruited 15 new trainees to work for Monica Carrolls. We also learn that he did not have a outline or a way to keep up with what he would need for the new hires to start on time. Carl did not do some of the most important steps to make sure that this hiring process went off without a hitch. He did not secure the room that they would us for training or make sure that all the orientation manuals were correct. Carl did not make sure that all there information was in the system nor did he set up there mandatory drug screen. Carl upon receiving his new job should have took the time to research what he would be doing in his new position and what was the companies’ policies for each thing that he would be doing. I feel if Mr. Robing had done that doing his training he would have been better able to execute the task of hiring new trainees. I know some of you may be thinking how you know that they have these policies glad you asked. I know because the drug test was mandatory...

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...Case Study: Trip Seven Screen Printing Carolina Barvo Vilaro, Professor Terrell Jones Purchasing Management TRA3132 Florida State College at Jacksonville ABSTRACT This paper has the purpose to analyze the case study of Trip Seven Screen Printing. Through this paper I will discusses viable solutions for the problem that arise with the current supplier of Trip Seven Screen Printing. INTRODUCTION Being in constantly communication with suppliers, meet with the payments and be transparent in what both parties need at the time of generating an order, it will allow supplier to deliver a quality product or service, and achieve the expectations of the customer. It is important to build a good relationships with suppliers. It is a characteristic that e companies should take in consideration to succeed in the market. This will allow them to get good results for their business, improve the quality of the inputs and achieve future agreements which are beneficial for the company. Proper coordination with vendors allows companies to produce a better final product or service, which will generate greater customer satisfaction and, therefore, higher sales for the business. The good relationship becomes more crucial in the case of companies that rely on a provider in specific. This can be related to the case study in which Trip Seven Screen Printing has as a unique supplier, American Apparel, even though their relation has been satisfactory for the past years, recently, issues...

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...Case Study: Considerations on group development Case Study: Considerations on group development In the current business world, several organizations have adopted the idea of creating a team to address an emergency situation, to improve something that is idling or to create a new thing from scratch, all in order to work in a more effective and efficient way. Every group faces challenges and victories, even if small ones. According to Robbins and Judge, “Teams are more flexible and responsive to changing events than traditional departments or other forms of permanent groupings. They can quickly assemble, deploy, refocus, and disband”. (Robbins 308) It is with this in mind that this paper will analyze the case study number 3, “ Building a Coalition”, and develop thoughts and considerations about the issues in the study, connecting them to the theory on building teams. Group Development The story begins with the creation of a new agency by the Woodson Foundation, a nonprofit social service agency, and the public school system in Washington D.C., with the participation of the National Coalition for Parental Involvement in Education (NCPIE), which is an organization of parents that is involved in the school through the Parent Teacher Association (PTA). They share a common interest in building this new agency in order to create an after school program to help students learn. The three separate groups opted to develop a cross-organizational development team, responsible for...

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...Case Study 1: Prelude To A Medical Error 1. Background Statement My case study is over chapters 4 and 7. The title is Prelude to a Medical Error. In this case study, Mrs. Bee is an elderly woman who was hospitalized after a bad fall. After her morning physical therapy, Mrs. Bee felt she could not breathe. Mrs. Bee had experienced terrible spasms in her left calf the previous evening and notified Nurse Karing. Nurse Karing proceeded to order a STAT venous Doppler X-ray to rule out thrombosis. She paged Dr. Cural to notify him that Mrs. Bee was having symptoms of thrombosis. Dr. Cural was upset that he was being bothered after a long day of work and shouted at the nurse, telling her he had evaluated Mrs. Bee that morning and to cancel the test. When Nurse Karing returned to the hospital the next day, Mrs. Bee’s symptoms were worse. She ordered the test. After complications, Dr. Krisis from the ER, came immediately to help stabilize Mrs. Bee. Unaware of Nurse Karing’s call to Dr. Cural, Dr. Krisis assumed the nursing staff was at fault for neglecting to notify Dr. Cural of Mrs. Bee’s status change the previous evening. Denying responsibility, Dr. Cural also blames the nursing staff for not contacting him. Not being informed of Mrs. Bee’s status change, her social worker, Mr. Friendly, arrives with the news that her insurance will cover physical therapy for one week at a rehabilitation facility and they will be there in one hour to pick her up. An angry Nurse Karing decides...

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...1. In the case of Retrotonics, Masters’ management style has several features ,such as disrespecting and improper decision-making. Firstly, Masters ignored his subordinates’ feeling which make them embarrassed. For example, the production manager, Lee, who suffered Masters’ criticism in front of other employees(Drew 1998, para 4). Although employees need the evaluation from the manager, they tend to accept the criticism privately. Another factor of Masters’ management style is making decisions in improper ways. According to Drew(1998, para 3), Master set difficult and stressful deadlines for the staff. This is the main reason why employees in engineering apartment are stressed. Therefore, those decisions that Masters made have negative effects on both staff and productivity. 2. There are three management styles are suit for Masters’ situation, in terms of delegating, democratic style and autocratic style. Firstly, delegating which is an important competence for managers. Delegating can avoid to interferes in management. In Masters’ case, Imakito and Lee are experienced and professional in their work. Hence, delegating assignments to them is a method to achieve the business goals effectively. Furthermore, democratic style which encourage employees to share their own opinions and advice is suit for manage the engineering department, because most staff in this department are experts in their work(Hickey et al 2005, pp.27-31). Having more discussions and communication with those...

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...A Case Study by any Other Name Cathy Foster Liberty University   A Case Study by any other Name Researchers have different methods of observing their subjects. Among the most popular is the case study. Case studies are used a lot in psychology and one of the most famous psychologists that used case studies to detail the private lives of his patients was Sigmund Freud. What is a Case Study? “A case study is an observational method that provides a description of an individual” (Cozby & Bates, 2012). During a case study the individual is usually a person however that’s not always the situation. The case study can also be a setting, which can include a school, business, or neighborhood. A naturalistic observational study can sometimes be called a case study and these two studies can overlap (Cozby & Bates, 2012). Researchers report information from the individual or other situation, which is from a “real-life context and is in a truthful and unbiased manner” (Amerson, 2011). What are some Reasons for Using a Case Study Approach? There are different types of case studies. One reason to use a case study is when a researcher needs to explain the life of an individual. When an important historical figure’s life needs explaining this is called psychobiography (Cozby & Bates, 2012). The case study approach help answer the “how”, “what”, and “why” questions (Crowe, 2011). What are Some Advantages and Disadvantages to the Case Study Approach? Some advantages...

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...Case Study 3 Randa Ring 01/25/2012 HRM/240 1. How did the problems at Deloitte & Touche occur in the first place? I feel that the problem began in the work environment. It looks as if there was limited opportunity for advancement. As well that the company was not able to handle issues that a raised from work and family. I think that it was a wonderful idea to have the company made up of women. I feel that it was a very positive thing because a lot of their issues where not geared towards men. 2. Did their changes fix the underlying problems? Explain. Yes I feel that the changes that they made did fix some of their underlying problems. With them keeping their women employees no matter what position that they were in at the time went up. For the first time the turnover rates for senior managers where lower for women than men. 3. What other advice would you give their managers? They really need to watch showing favoritism towards the women. They did to treat everyone as an equal. I also feel that they should make the changes geared towards the men and women’s issues that have to deal with family and work. 4. Elaborate on your responses to these questions by distinguishing between the role of human resources managers and line managers in implementing the changes described in this case study When it comes to Human resource managers, they will work with the managers in implementing changes. As well they will make a plan to show new and current...

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...Case Study Southwestern University Southwestern University (SWU), a large stage college in Stephenville, Texas, 20 miles southwest of the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, enrolls close to 20,000 students. In a typical town-gown relationship, the school is a dominant force in the small city, with more students during fall and spring than permanent residents. A longtime football powerhouse, SWU is a member for the Big Eleven conference and is usually in the top 20 in college football rankings. To bolster its chances of reaching the elusive and long-desired number-one ranking, in 2001, SWU hired the legendary BoPitterno as its head coach. One of Pitterno’s demands on joining SWU had been a new stadium. With attendance increasing, SWU administrators began to face the issue head-on. After 6 months of study, much political arm wrestling, and some serious financial analysis, Dr. Joel Wisner, president of Southwestern University, had reached a decision to expand the capacity at its on-campus stadium. Adding thousands of seats, including dozens of luxury skyboxes, would not please everyone. The influential Pitterno had argued the need for a first-class stadium, one with built-in dormitory rooms for his players and a palatial office appropriate for the coach of a future NCAA champion team. But the decision was made, and everyone, including the coach, would learn to live with it. The job now was to get construction going immediately after the 2007 season...

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