Strategic Human Resources – Assignment Sheet 2
Case Study:
In the past, the decision criteria for mergers and acquisitions were typically based on considerations such as the strategic fit of the merged organizations, financial criteria, and operational criteria. Mergers and acquisitions were often conducted without much regard for the human resource issues that would be faced when the organizations were joined. As a result, several undesirable effects on the organizations’ human resources commonly occurred. Nonetheless, competitive conditions favor mergers and acquisitions and they remain a frequent occurrence. Examples of mergers among some of the largest companies include the following: Honeywell and Allied Signal, British Petroleum and Amoco, Exxon and Mobil, Lockheed and Martin, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas, SBC and Pacific Telesis, America Online and Time Warner, Burlington Northern and Santa Fe, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific, Daimler-Benz and Chrysler, Ford and Volvo, and Bank of America and Nations Bank.
Layoffs often accompany mergers or acquisitions, particularly if the two organizations are from the same industry. In addition to layoffs related to redundancies, top managers of acquiring firms may terminate some competent employees because they do not fit in with the new culture of the merged organization or because their loyalty to the new management may be suspect. The desire for a good fit with the cultural objectives of the new organization and loyalty are understandable. However, the depletion of the stock of human resources deserves serious consideration, just as with physical resources. Unfortunately, the way that mergers and acquisitions have been carried out has often conveyed a lack of concern for human resources.
A sense of this disregard is revealed in the following observation:
Post combination integration strategies vary in tactics, some resemble to “marriage & love’ but in reality, collaborative mergers are much more hostile in implementing forceful decision and financial takeovers. Yet, as a cursory scan of virtually any newspaper or popular business magazine readily reveals, the simple fact is that the latter are much more common than the former.
The cumulative effects of these developments often cause employee morale and loyalty to decline, and feelings of betrayal may develop. Nonetheless, such adverse consequences are not inevitable. A few companies, such as Cisco Systems, which has made over 50 acquisitions (https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/corporate-strategy-office/acquisitions/acquisitions-list-years.html), are very adept in handling the human resource issues associated with these actions. An example of one of Cisco’s practices is illustrative. At Cisco Systems, no one from an acquired firm is laid off without the personal approval of Cisco’s CEO as well as the CEO of the firm that was acquired.

QUESTIONS:

1. Interview someone who has been through a merger or acquisition. Find out how they felt as an employee. Determine how they and their coworkers were affected. Ask about the effects on productivity, loyalty, and morale. Find out what human resource practices were used and obtain their evaluations of what was helpful or harmful.

Case Study

Read the case then answer the three questions below:

Frank became chief financial officer and a member of the Executive Committee of a medium-sized and moderately successful family-owned contracting business six months ago. The first nonfamily member to hold such a position and to be included in the Executive Committee, he took the job despite a lunch-time remark by the company's CEO that some members of the family were concerned about Frank's "fit with the company culture." But the CEO (who is married to the daughter of the founder of the company) said he was willing to "take a chance" on Frank.

Soon after Frank started, the company decided for the first time to "right-size" (a euphemism for downsize) to respond to rapid changes in its business. Frank, who had been through this before when he was a senior manager in his previous company, agreed this was good for the long-term health of the 20-year-old company. He decided not to worry that family members seemed more concerned about their own short-term financial interests.

Besides, the CEO was relying on Frank to help him determine how to downsize in an ethical manner; the CEO said he trusted Frank more on this than he did the head of his personnel department, who had "been around a little too long."

On Frank's recommendation, the company decided to make its lay-off decisions based on the annual performance appraisal scores of the employees. Each department manager would submit a list of employees ranked by the average score of their last three appraisals.

If the employee had been with the company less than three years, if the score for two employees was identical, or if there was some extraordinary circumstance, the manager would note it and make a decision about where to rank the person. At some point, Frank and the Executive Committee would draw a line, and those below the line would be laid off.

As Frank was reviewing the evaluations, he was puzzled to find three departments in which the employee at the bottom of the list had "N/A" where the evaluation score should have been written. When he asked the managers to explain, they told him these employees had been with the company almost since the beginning. When performance appraisals had been instituted six years earlier, the CEO agreed to the longtime employees' request that they keep receiving informal evaluations "as they always had."

The managers told Frank they'd questioned this decision, and the CEO had told them it wasn't their problem.

When Frank raised this issue with the CEO, he responded, "Oh, I know. I haven't really evaluated them in a long time, but it's time for them to retire anyway. They just aren't performing the way they used to. The company's been very good to them. They've got plenty of retirement stored away, not to mention the severance you've convinced me to offer. They're making pretty good money, so cutting them should let us lower the line a little and save jobs for some of the younger people – you know, young kids with families just starting out. And don't worry about a lawsuit. No way they'd do that."

"Do they know they're not performing well?" Frank asked.

"I don't know," the CEO responded. "They should. Everybody else in the company does."

As they walked to the door, the CEO put his arm around Frank's shoulder. "By the way," he said, "you should know that you've won over the Executive Committee. They think you are a terrific fit with this company. I'm glad you talked with me today about these three employees. You got it right: This is a company that cares for its employees – as long as it can and as long as they're producing. Always has, always will."

Frank left the CEO's office with the vague feeling that he had some moral choices to make.

Answer the questions below:

1. Does he have an ethical dilemma? If yes, what is it?

2. What options are open to him? How would you assess these options using utilitarian and Kantian perspectives?

3. How should Frank proceed (what should he do)? Justify your answer.

Business law

Farid and Ah Fong graduated from a university in 2020 with a qualification in Bachelor of Business and
Commerce. They decided to form a business offering advice to clients who wish to grow their businesses
at a large scale. Fatimah who is a novice businesswoman is looking for a successful business partner in
order to grow her business. She met a businessman by the name Felix but she is unsure of his financial
credibility. She approached Farid and Ah Fong for consultation and advice as she came across their
advertisement in the social media. Farid and Ah Fong did a thorough business research and recommended
to Fatimah to proceed to have a business dealing with Felix as a business partner. Fatimah approached
Felix and entered into a multi-million-dollar project. After a few months, Fatimah discovered that Felix is
a financially troubled businessman. Fatimah is very upset. She approached Farid and Ah Fong for a
clarification. However, Farid and Ah Fong claimed that they have conducted a thorough research on Felix’s
financial standing. However, it has now transpired that Farid and Ah Fong did not look at the financial
standing of Felix for the year 2018 but only looked at the financial standing for the year 2019. They claimed
that there is no need to check the financial standing for the last two years. They also claimed that since
they just graduated, they do not have much experience. Fatimah seeks your advice as to her rights against
Farid and Ah Fong.

HUAWEI’S INTERNATIONALIZATION STRATEGY

INTRODUCTION

In October 2016, Shenzhen-based networking and telecommunications equipment and services company Huawei Technologies Ltd. (Huawei) unveiled its 14-port and 3-D Hexa-beam antennas to address the challenges associated with the 4.5G and 5G era at the 5th Annual Global Antenna and Active Antenna Unit Forum held in Paris. Commenting on the launch, Zhang Jiayi, president of Huawei’s antenna business unit, said, “Huawei focuses on satisfying the requirements of operators in the MBB (mobile broadband) era.”

Founded in 1987 in Shenzhen by Ren Zhengfei (Ren), a former military engineer in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) – the unified organization of the armed forces of China, Huawei started as a sales agent for a Hong Kong-based company selling private branch exchange (PBX) switches. Soon, the company innovated and started selling its own PBX switches. Having established its domination over the Chinese telecommunications market, the company entered the global markets of Russia and Africa in 1996 and later mature The origin of Huawei Technologies Ltd. (Huawei) dated back to 1987 when Ren Zhengfei (Ren), a former military engineer in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), founded the company in Shenzhen with the aim of making it the backbone of China’s communications industry.

The company started as a sales agent for a Hong Kong company selling private branch exchange (PBX) switches with an initial investment of US$ 3400. By 1990, it had acquired enough resources to open its first research laboratory. In the same year, i.e. 1990, the company made its own PBX and started selling the switches to hotel networks at prices lower than those of imported devices

HUAWEI’S INTERNATIONALIZATION STRATEGY

In the mid-1990s, the Chinese domestic telecommunications networking equipment market was dominated by giant international telecom equipment companies. Their dominance led to Huawei having a relatively weaker position in China. Ren believed that the Chinese telecommunications market was the largest and among the most open markets in the world attracting global telecommunication giants to the country. As a result, he felt, “The best food has all been eaten up by the global giants and what we can do is to have those leftovers.” This prompted Huawei to consider entering international markets. Commenting on its international expansion, Ren, said, “We were forced to go into the international market for our very survival.”

CHALLENGES IN THE GLOBAL TELECOM MARKETS

Though Huawei achieved huge success in several global markets, the US was a different story altogether. Despite bidding several times since the company first entered America, Huawei failed to win a single big contract from top-tier carriers such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon. The US telecom companies had had long relationships with home-grown suppliers such as Lucent, Motorola, and Cisco. Moreover, the US telecom majors felt that while the telecom equipment manufactured by Huawei was fine for emerging markets, it was not reliable or suitable for the 24/7 service required by networks in the US. Though by 2011, Huawei had developed some of the most innovative and fastest equipment in the telecom industry, it continued to face resistance in the US.

THE CHALLENGES CONTINUE...

While Huawei was making several efforts to crack the global telecom markets, in July 2015, Malcolm Turnbull, Communications Minister, Australia, stated that amidst security threats, telecom companies in Australia had been barred from using equipment from Huawei and ZTE. This meant that Huawei would lose its existing business in Australia since it provided equipment for consumer devices and backend networks for Vodafone and Optus. There could also be more trouble in store for Huawei with the Pentagon and the US military announcing plans in October 2015 to ban the use of Huawei equipment.....

LOOKING AHEAD

In November 2016, when the US telecom market announced its plans to build the nation’s 5G wireless network, Huawei was also gearing up to roll out its 5G wireless network by 2020. Though Huawei had earlier stated that it had given up on the US market, Ren hinted that the company had not given up on the country permanently and that it planned to make a “glorious” return to the US. However, Huawei stated that it would not focus on the US market currently but would concentrate on other global markets. According to Ken Hu (Hu), Huawei’s CEO-in-rotation, “For our 5G strategy, we currently focus on markets like China and Japan among others. In the US right now, we’re not making significant progress and we don’t have big plans for that market.”

Case study question

In the context of Huawei discuss the strategies for having a global footprint which is followed by companies in an International Business setting.

On January 1, 2020, Palka, Inc., acquired 70 percent of the outstanding shares of Sellinger Company for $1,316,700 in cash. The price paid was proportionate to Sellinger’s total fair value, although at the acquisition date, Sellinger had a total book value of $1,580,000. All assets acquired and liabilities assumed had fair values equal to book values except for a patent (six-year remaining life) that was undervalued on Sellinger’s accounting records by $291,000. On January 1, 2021, Palka acquired an additional 25 percent common stock equity interest in Sellinger Company for $513,125 in cash. On its internal records, Palka uses the equity method to account for its shares of Sellinger.

During the two years following the acquisition, Sellinger reported the following net income and dividends:

a) Show Palka’s journal entry to record its January 1, 2021, acquisition of an additional 25 percent ownership of Sellinger Company shares.

b) Prepare a schedule showing Palka’s December 31, 2021, equity method balance for its Investment in Sellinger account.

On January 1, 2020, Palka, Inc., acquired 70% of the outstanding shares of Sellinger Company for $1,290,800 in cash. The price paid was proportionate to Sellinger’s total fair value, although at the acquisition date, Sellinger had a total book value of $1,570,000. All assets acquired and liabilities assumed had fair values equal to book values except for a patent (six-year remaining life) that was undervalued on Sellinger’s accounting records by $264,000. On January 1, 2021. Palka acquired an additional 25% common stock equity interest in Sellinger Company for $475,000 in cash. On its internal records, Palka uses the equity method to account for its shares of Sellinger.

     During the two years following the acquisition, Sellinger reported the following net income and dividends:

1. Show Palka’s journal entry to record its January 1, 2021, acquisition of an additional 25% ownership of Sellinger Company shares

2. Prepare a schedule showing Palka’s December 31, 2021, equity method balance for its Investment in Sellinger account.

You are the Director of Clinical Informatics at an academic medical center in the western United States. Part of your role is to oversee the patient portal which is considered part of the outpatient EHR. The center is planning to adopt and integrate a PHR with its EHR. The hospital CEO drafts of vision statement that states, “By using the latest technology, University Hospital will improve how our patients experience Health Care. Instead of patients coming to us for help, we will be there whenever and wherever they need us, asking, ‘How can we help you?’ This initiative will make healthcare easier to access and more convenient to use, improve patients’ health, and reduce the rising cost of healthcare in our area.”

What is your role in engaging populations to understand information about their health and how to access health information resources?

What steps would patients take to correct their data?

What barriers should this facility anticipate and rolling out the PHR, and what tactics should the organization take to overcome them?

Student Instruction for This Assignment

You have entered the OM Program after finishing an a post-secondary degree in a discipline. Some of you have worked after you last graduated and thus have acquired work experience. These two background can lead you to start a career in Operations Management in Canada, for which you will have to go through job interviews. Your confidence in presenting your work experience and education is crucial for your success. It would be prudent to build and showcase such confidence and this assignment intends to help you with this task.

In this assignment you consider yourself in a job interview and faced with this question: what do you know about Operations Management that distinguishes you from others? Give us an example of how you may apply your skills and knowledge.

-Choose one area (method, procedure, etc.) of Operations Management you have learned well,

-Give an example of how you can apply that area to what you had learned or the area you worked in previously.

You are the biological advisor to the CEO of a major US fishing fleet. Prepare a document to be sent to the CEO describing guidelines that are imperative to maintain sustainable fisheries. Make sure to address specific fish species that are currently at risk today.