Reference no: EM133181968

Replicas Inc. is a company of 1400 employees that imports, assembles, and distributes children's toys for resale to stores across North America. Currently a variety of toy parts are imported and then assembled by specialized teams of skilled and unskilled workers. The assembly is completed mostly by hand with some use of technology. Their 3-year corporate strategic plan includes not only a projected increase of 150 skilled employees, mostly in manufacturing, but also consist of a progressive trend to increasing automation due to a projected increase in demand of their products. It is also projected there will be a decrease in manual labour by 30 employees.

The Human Resources Plan shows a scaling of their production to double their manufacturing capacity by increasing the use of technology in their operations. Currently, the organization has a cohesive group of employees and a close-knit organizational culture that cares about is employees and customers. A few managers are worried that its employees could become dependent on technology, and this would affect the corporate culture. The firm is also worried about the costs to implement the new technology and whether the employees can be trained on the new systems and processes due to the average employee of 55. Moreover, adding new employees and downsizing others will add tension to the past ways of behaving.

Management has decided to employ a team from across the organization to further understand the effects their new business and human resources plan will have on their business, culture, employees, and customers. As the head of the Human Resources team, you will lead this team to examine the issue and provide some guidance before they move ahead with the proposed plan.