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Who Goes First in Organisational Change

In: Business and Management

Submitted By Angiejoy49
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Business Law & Ethics

Ethics Essay
Case 2.1 – Ethical Application, “Who Comes First”
(p94-95, Moral Issues in Business)

Business Law & Ethics
Individual Assignment – Who Comes First

WHO COMES FIRST

Fred Higgins was presented with a moral dilemma that is common to many leaders in today’s ever-changing market place. Restructuring like his firm was facing follows poor sales or strong competition, leading to a need to cut costs and fast.
Reducing the staff from 23 down to 15 was a Head Office requirement, which brought with it some personal dilemmas.
While the situation was nothing unusual, it meant that Fred was forced to make strategic decisions on who went and who stayed, so that his own job would survive a recent downturn.
Some organisation changes are driven by large scale transformations, some by a need to meet new market challenges or to save human resources cost, as organisational leaders look to stretch the funding dollar further. Organisational Development is now a term in Human Resources, where strategic human resources for a business are analysed carefully as part of strategic planning.
Fred Higgins dilemma is one that can keep some managers awake at night, as they try to decide who should stay and who should go. The weight of the restructuring decision rests heavy on their conscience, if they like the people they work with.
It seems that Sol Manning, Fred’s general manager, was delegating the difficult task in a non-emotional way. He showed little empathy with the position he put Fred in - rather communicated that he expected him to make the decisions on whom to lay off as soon as possible. The fact that he didn’t ask after Fred’s recent holiday showed he was disengaged from the dilemma and was delegating it to Fred to sort.
Fred felt the corporate responsibility of community expectations and relationships with the

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