Reference no: EM133095916

"The Human Resource Manager and Managing Multiple Responsibilities

At 7:30 a.m. on Monday, Sam Lennox, human resource manager of the Lakeview plant of Supreme Textile Corporation, pulled out of his suburban home and headed for work. It was a beautiful day; the sun was shining in a bright-blue sky, and a cool breeze was blowing. The plant was about nine miles away and the 15-minute ride gave Sam an opportunity to think about business problems without interruption. Supreme Textile Corporation owned and operated five plants: one yarn-spinning operations, two knitting plants, and two apparel-making operations. Supreme enjoyed a national reputation for high-quality products, specializing in men's sports shirts. Corporate head-quarters was located in Twin-Cities adjacent to two of the plant operations. The Hillsville, Eastern, and Lakeview plants were 100 to 200 miles apart. Each employed 70 to 100 people. About 250 employees were located at headquarters in Twin-Cities. Sam had started with Supremes' Eastern plant after college. He progressed rapidly through several staff positions. He then served two years as a night foreman. He became known for his ability to organize a "smooth team," never having a grievance procedure brought against him. While his productivity figures were not outstanding, he was given credit by many people in the company for being the person who prevented the union from successfully organizing the Eastern plant. As a result, he was promoted to assistant personnel manager. Sam's progress was noted by Glenna Johnson, corporate vice president of personnel. Glenna transferred Sam to the Lakeview plant, which was having some personnel problems, as a special staff assistant. Six months later he was made personnel manager when "the incumbent suddenly resigned. Sam had been able to work out most of the problems and was beginning to think about how to put together a first-rate personnel program.

Sam was in fine spirits as his car picked up speed, and the hum of the tires on the newly paved highway faded into the background. He said to himself, "This is the day I'm really going to get things done." He began to run through the day's work, first one project, then another, trying to establish priorities. After a few minutes, he decided that the management by objectives (MBO) program was probably the most important. He frowned for a moment as he recalled that on Friday, Glenna Johnson had asked him if he had given the project any further thought. He had been meaning to get to work on this idea for over three months, but something else always seemed to crop up. "I haven't had much time to sit down and really work it out," he said to himself. "I'd better hit this one today for sure." With that, he began to break down the objectives, procedures, and implementation steps. "It's about time," he told himself. "This idea should have been followed up long ago." Sam remembered that he and Johnson had discussed it over a year ago when they had both attended a seminar on MBOs . They had agreed it was a good idea, and when Sam moved to the Lakeview plant they decided to try to implement it there. They both realized it would be met with resistance by some of the plant managers. A blast from a passing horn startled him, but his thoughts quickly returned to other projects he was determined to get under way. He started to think about ideas he had for supervisory training programs. He also needed to simplify the employee record system. Not only was the present system awkward, but key information was often lacking.

There were also a number of nagging carryover employee grievance problems. Some of this involved weak supervisors, poor working conditions, and poor communications and morale. There were a few other projects he couldn't recall offhand, but he could tend to them after lunch, if not before. "Yes, sir," he said to himself, "this is a day to really get rolling." Sam's thoughts were interrupted as he pulled into the parking lot. He knew something was wrong as Al Noren , the stockroom foreman, met him by the loading dock. "A great morning, Al." Sam greeted him cheerfully. "Not so good, Sam, my new man isn't in this morning," Al growled. "Have you heard from him?" asked Sam. "No, I haven't," replied Al. Sam frowned. "Better call him," he said. Al hesitated for a moment before replying, "Okay, Sam, but can you find me a replacement? I have two cars to unload today." As Sam turned to leave, he called, "I'll call you in half an hour, Al," and headed for his office. When he walked into the Human Resources office, there were several plant employees huddled around his administrative assistant, Terry. They were complaining that there was an error in their paychecks. After checking their files and calling payroll twice, he found that an automatic pay increase had not been picked up properly. He finally got everyone settled down. He sat down at his desk, which was opposite Terry and two HR assistants. One of the assistants brought him a big pile of mail. He asked her to get him some office supplies and started to open the mail. The phone rang, it was the plant manager, asking him about finding a new administrative assistant. As Sam sat listening to all the problems the manager had with admins , he thought, "Really?" He started to call a couple of for e men to see if they had someone to help Al in the stockroom when he was interrupted by one of his assistants asking him to check over several termination reports. He was trying to decide whether any of these represented trouble spots when the phone rang again. Glenna Johnson was on the other end. With an obvious edge to her voice, she asked, "I've heard rumblings about some "of the grievances we can't seem to solve. What about it?" Sam responded that he hadn't had time, but would get to it. There followed a series of questions.

The conversation ended with, "Sam, you really need to get on top of these problems." Sam sighed. Terry was at his desk asking him to approve a couple of rate changes. Several job applicants came into the office as a result of want ads the company had posted on a local job website over the wee k end. There was a buzz as the applications and interviews progressed. Sam started to help out, and was talking with one applicant when Cecil Hardy came in. Cecil was the plant engineer, who liked to stop by to chat and have a cup of coffee. He was approaching retirement and today wanted to talk about the co m pa-ny's pension benefits. He also described in detail a round of golf he had played Sunday afternoon. Sam had played golf when he was in school and enjoyed an occasional game with Cecil. It was suddenly 10:45 and time to go to a staff meeting to discuss quality control. Sam wasn't awfully interested, but the plant manager wanted all the department heads at staff meetings. "They always drag on so long, and we get off on things that don't seem real important to all of us," Sam reflected as he headed toward the conference room. Sam went to lunch with a friend who owned a plastics fabrication business. He called an hour ahead to say he wanted to discuss a major medical package that had been proposed by an insurance company. They drove across town to a new restaurant. When Sam returned at about 2 p.m. , the office was busy again with job applicants. He suddenly r e membered the replacement stock person. "Too late now," he mused. He sat down and began to assemble the files relating to the grievances.

The production superintendent called to discuss his need to hire several production people. He wanted experienced people and wasn't happy with some of the prospects Sam's department had sent him. Sam took a break to get a soft drink from the storage room. He noticed that some of the confidential employee files had been pulled out and not returned. As he straightened them out he thought, "I wonder who did this?" Sam returned to his desk to find a Boy Scout troop selling advertisements in a program for a rally they were putting on. This was one of the odd tasks Sam had been assigned by the plant manager. As the aft r noon wore on, Sam became increasingly irritated at not being able to make much progress with the grievances. "Trouble is," he thought, "I'm not sure what should be done about the Sally Foster and Curt Davis cases." At 4:45 the personnel manager at the Eastern plant called to ask about some employee matters Sam had handled when he was there. When he finished, it was 5:30 and he was the only one left in the office. Sam was tired. He put on his coat and headed toward the parking lot. He ran into Al Noren , who was also heading for his car. "Thanks for the stock person," Al grumbled as he drove off. With both eyes on the traffic, Sam reviewed the day he had just completed. "Busy?" he asked himself. "Too much so-but did I accomplish anything?" His mind raced over the day's activities. Ye s and no seemed to be the answer.

"There was the usual routine, the same as any other day. The human resource function kept going, and we must have hired several new people. Any creative or special project work done?" Sam grimaced as he reluctantly answered, "No." With a feeling of guilt, he probed further. "Am I a manager? I'm paid like one, I'm respected like one, and I have a responsible assignment with the necessary authority to carry it out. Yet some of the greatest values a company derives from a manager are creative thinking and accomplishments. You need some time for thinking. Today was like most other days; I did little, if any, creative work. The projects that I so enthusiastically planned to work on this morning are exactly as they were last week. What's more, I have no guarantee that tomorrow will bring me any closer to their completion. There must be an answer.

" Sam continued, "Night work? Yes, occasionally. This is understood. But I've been doing too much of this lately. I owe my wife and family some of my time. When you come down to it, they are the people for whom I'm really working. If I am forced to spend much more time away from them, I'm not meeting my own personal objectives. What about church work? Should I eliminate that? I spend a lot of time on it, but I feel I owe my higher power some time, too. Besides, I believe I'm making a worthwhile contribution. But where does recreation and going to the gym fit in?" Sam groped for the solution. By this time, he had turned off the highway onto the side street leading from his home, the problem still uppermost in his mind. "I guess I really don't know the answer," he told himself as he pulled into his driveway. "This morning, everything seemed so simple, but now." His son ran toward the car, calling out, "Mommy, Daddy's home."

Discussion Questions

1. Human resource management consists of numerous activities. What areas were illustrated by Sam's schedule on this particular day?

2. List the areas of ineffective management and time-robbers that are affecting Sam.

3. Discuss Sam's career progress. Is he now promotable?"