Chapter 1: Human Resources in a Globally Competitive Business Environment

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Applying Your Knowledge
Employee Participation and Customer Satisfaction* Case1-1
“Joe and I virtually share everything. We sit together. We’re in meetings together. We’re together even we’re apart.” So says R. Timothy Epps, vice president of people system at Saturn Corporation. The partner to which he refers is Joseph D. Rypkowski, a vice president of the United Auto Workers (UAW). This partnering between management and labor is the crux of Saturn Corporation’s revolutionary idea. Not only are Epps and Rypkowski “paired,” but so are Skip LeFauve, Saturn’s president, and Dick Hoalcraft, the UAW’s top boss. From the top management level down through the ranks, both represented and non represented workers have partners, and, unlike many other organizations with adversarial labor-management relations, the UAW and Saturn’s management work together as teams in virtually every facet of the operation. According to Epps, We’re committed tom an entirely different set of beliefs. One is to have UAW involvement in all aspect of the business. The other crucial principle is that we believe those people affected by a decision should be involved in that decision.” Saturn Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors (GM). Its market share in the U.S. is down to 31.5 percent, and GM, the largest industrial corporation in the world, has been struggling of late. GM is Detroit’s high cost producer. Saturn is part Gm’s strategy to get its North American automobile business back in gear. The genesis of the Saturn experiment in team work occurred in February of 1984 with the establishment of Group 99. This group consisted of 99 employees representing a broad cross section of UAW members, GM managers, and