Fundementals of human resource management

THE SOUTHERN WIDGET MANUFACTURING

Introduction

Founded in 2006, Southern Widget Manufacturing sets out to be the leading manufacturer of widgets in the world. Southern Widget has sales and distribution centers around the world including six centers in the US. The company is a member of the World Widget Manufacturing Association (WWMA).

Widgets are used as a display tool for several products including: PC, TV, auto parts, furniture, etc.

The Widget is a Bamboo based product making both environmentally and economically sound. Bamboo, like wood, is a natural composite material with a high strength-to-weight ratio useful for many applications Widgets it is considered one of the fastest-growing plants in the world.

Mission Statement

·       Provide a high-quality, affordable product

·       Create long term relationships with customers

·       Respond immediately to changing needs of customers

·       Achieve complete customer satisfaction

·       Improve our customer services continuously

·       Maintain excellent employee relations

·       Sustain community involvement

Vision

The vision at Southern Widget Manufacturing is to utilize our well trained and satisfied employee teams to deliver outstanding customer services.

Mission

At Southern Widget Manufacturing every person in our company is a member of the team and a team player, with expectations that they perform their duties to their fullest capacity and potential. Our objective is a commitment to the highest quality of widgets and customer service. The customer’s satisfaction is our major focus, reached through innovative and cost effective production. We will lead the Widget industry with well trained and satisfied employees and pleased customers.

1)    Francisco works at Southern Widget as a welder. Although he is provided with protective goggles and a face mask, overalls and other types of protective clothing are not provided. After three months of work at Southern Widget, Francisco notices his skin becoming drier and gradually changing color. Alarmed with this development, he approaches his supervisor asking for details of the materials he works with. The supervisor declines to reveal any kind of information. What authority and laws can help Francisco file a claim?

2)    Virginia's boss, Luke, constantly uses sexually explicit language while communicating with his female subordinates. Though many female employees are bothered with this behavior, no one has ever complained for fear of negative repercussions. However, Virginia files a complaint against Luke with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Will this be considered as discriminatory behavior? Why or why not? Explain the prohibitions under Title VII for related behavior.

3)    Policy 137: The paint booths contain many toxic chemicals and are possibly harmful to unborn fetuses. In an abundance of caution Southern Widget will not allow its female employees of child bearing age to accept a position in the painting area. Employees working in the paint area make $5.00 more than other production employees. Is this considered discrimination, what is this called? Explain

4)    Southern Widget employees are being asked for their opinion on which type of insurance they would like to have. The choices are HMO or PPO. Explain the difference as they differ from traditional health care providers? Pretend you are an employee and give you choice, explain.

5)    You have been asked to write a FLSA policy. Be sure to include the three major parts as it might relate to Southern Widget.

6)    Thomas a Production Foreman was terminated. He has filed a Company grievance. On April 2, Thomas was told to open discharge valves into the Mississippi River which he refused to do. Additionally, he has been told by the company President, with witnesses, that he was such a good employee he had a job for life. Southern Widget’s rebuttal is that he refused a direct order and the company’s policy clearly state, that there are no contract employees. Does he have a case on either point? Discuss and serve as the arbitrator with the decision.

7)    John, the company Custodian, was in a horrific car accident as a child but has fully recovered from his injuries and is considered a very healthy individual. During the accident, John was burned and still has several facial scars that have disfigured his face. Many employees at John's company stare as he walks by and get distracted by his appearance. Is John protected by the ADA? Explain.

8)    The Widget Operators Local Unions 621 filed a petition to have Southern Widget create an alternative dispute resolution, including the most common techniques. Is that a good idea for the company, if so, what how should it include?

9)    Southern Widget is preparing to announce a new compensation system. Before the system goes live, as the HR Training Supervisor, you are required to do a company training on what goes into a compensation system. You will need to explain and discuss issues like: job structure, pay levels, motivation, cost control, etc.

10) As a future Supervisor what did you learn about Human Resources that you did not know before taking this course? What will you do to include this knowledge in your supervisory role?

Tell us about the best leader (manager, teacher, coach, parent, military officer, etc.) you have ever worked with it. What characteristics or consistent behaviors did this leader possess (give examples)? Please use specific leadership theories (Situational Leadership, Path-Goal, etc.) and examples of how your favorite leader's characteristics and behaviors related to these theories.

Share your favorite leadership quote(s) from this list or elsewhere. Why does it speak to you? What does it say about your values related to leadership? Share a story of a famous leader or a leader that you have worked with who has exemplified this quote? Describe why you think this, and give examples if appropriate.

Part 4/A

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Date: July 1, 2012; 12:30 PM

After the big igniter problem, the company is still reeling. The ramifications were severe; they lost several big customers over it, along with creating a huge amount of scrap. To make matters worse, they were not able to recoup their payment from TriTech because the igniters were delivered as they had been designed. It was their own fault, not TriTechs. After a few weeks, purchasers were able to find replacement parts, but delivery took several weeks, and at significant cost. During that time, Patrick had hourly employees take a two-week unpaid leave. After employees were asked to return, productivity was low—presumably because morale was low after the forced leave, and they were likely performing a work slow-down that was not sanctioned by the union. After what they have been through, Bill’s cannot afford to have poor productivity now—all of the gains made between March and May were wiped out with the igniter snafu.

Part 4/A - Answer the following questions:

1. First, describe your gut reaction to this situation. What do you think?

2. What can Patrick do to improve productivity? What types of leadership would be most appropriate? Use the information from Chapter 12 to answer this question.

3. How can this situation be applied to Power and Politics in Chapter 13? Be specific.

4. Based upon what you have learned from the text, what recommendations do you have for Patrick. Be specific.

Part 4/B

Date: July 15, 2012

Early in July, Patrick noticed that productivity numbers were very low and attributed the problem to a work slow-down. Knowing that the union had not sanctioned the slow-down, Patrick took a hard stand. He implemented strict new rules for bathroom breaks, smoking breaks, and lunch.   Productivity seemed to go up. He walked through the factory 3 times a day to be sure that the machines were running, and that they had an hourly employee working on them. Even though they complained about the new rules, employees seemed to be generally following them and working harder. He assumed this resolved the productivity issue once and for all.

But, three days after implementing the new rules, the earnings report came in, and things looked bleak. In the last 3 months, Bill’s had lost over a million dollars per month. At this rate, Bill’s could only survive another 4 months before they were completely insolvent.

Patrick would have no choice but to lay people off. He decided to lay off 100 people with the lowest seniority, and move other employees around to get the work done. Many hourly employees would have to change shifts and work days to accommodate the new schedule. Patrick knew this would cause problems for people’s personal lives, but he had no choice, what else could he do? They would also have to work harder since they continued to have the same amount of work, but had 100 fewer people to complete it.

After a week of planning with Susan and Janet (the managers of HR and Operations) and a few key supervisors, Patrick executed the layoff. Within an hour, union officials from within the plant and state union representatives were calling. They were threatening a walk-out. Patrick needs to fix things. Now.

Part 4/B -Answer the following questions:

1. First, describe your gut reaction to this problem. What do you think?
2. Over the course of the last 7 months, Patrick has faced multiple challenges. Please list what you believe are the five biggest problems Patrick has faced. Be specific. Why are those the biggest, and how do these impact the larger organization?
3. Chapter 14 discusses organizational structure and change. Based upon the information provided in the readings, what is Patrick’s first step in finding the causes of the problems at the plant? Be specific and refer to the text.
4. If Patrick decides to undergo significant organizational change to solve some of the problems at the plant, first he must diagnose the root cause. What questions would be appropriate to ask, and to whom would he ask them?
5. Based upon your knowledge of the entire case, list at least three issues that you believe could be root causes of the problems that Patrick has seen?

Part 4/C:

Date: July 20, 2012

It has been a taxing, exhausting first six months for Patrick. In that time, he learned a great deal about the financial and accounting systems, the hierarchy and reporting structures, and the market. However, upon reflection be began to notice that while he had spent a great deal of time thinking about money and structure, he hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about the company itself. As he reflected, a number of things popped out at him. The next morning, he started to open his eyes to his surroundings and the results were enlightening.

First, he noticed the parking lot, and realized that there were actually two—one out front for the office people, and a much larger one behind the factory where hourly factory employees and supervisors parked.

Next, he noticed that when you walk into Bills’ there are several grills sitting in and around the offices. But none were Bill’s Grills—they were grills from competitors. There were several pictures from the old days—pictures of Bill in the original garage where the company started, pictures of their first factory in the old warehouse, and pictures of Bill at the company picnic. But, all the while he had been there, few had mentioned Bill’s name.

Finally, he went onto the factory floor.   Within minutes of entering, he noticed an employee bending steel for the gas line that connects the propane canister with the grill itself. After observing for a moment, he realized that the employee had removed the safety shield that kept her arm from entering the metal bending press. Further, when she bent the steel, it left a stress crack in the metal—one that went unnoticed. Knowing what he did about steel and pressure, Patrick was concerned that the crack would turn into a full-blown hole when under pressure from the propane coming out of the propane tank.   Patrick watched the employee bend three pieces of steel, each resulting in a stress crack. Out of curiosity, he stepped up to the employee, who continued to work, and asked “Did you know that you are making bad product?” She responded “Yes”, and went on with her work. “But why?” said Patrick, “this is a huge liability and potentially very dangerous for consumers.” Her response was simple: “Because my supervisor told me to. She said the order had to get out--if we missed this shipment, we would lose the account.” And, with that, she went back to work. ‘Ironic’ thought Patrick. All of this took place beneath a large banner that said “Quality is our Top Priority”. This exchange left Patrick thinking about the organization’s culture in a totally new way. What was he going to do?

Part 4/C -Answer the following questions:

1. Based upon the scenario above, what do you think about the organizational culture at Bill’s?
2. Think about the dimensions that make up a company’s culture. Based on what you’ve learned about Bill’s throughout this semester, and the company’s assumptions, values and artifacts, do they have a strong or weak culture? Why or why not?  
3. Does Bill’s need a culture change? If so, how?

Section 2 – Why might people believe improbable things?

Explain how people may generate and perpetuate one of the following beliefs: (a) believing that Bigfoot exists, (b) believing that horoscopes are accurate. Include AT LEAST 2 principles from the Self, Social Cognition, or Social Attribution chapters. Points are awarded for an accurate description of the principle as well as correct application of the concept to your example. (4 points)

1. Given two integer arrays sorted in the ascending order, code the function SortArrays to merge them into one array in the descending order. You need to make sure if the values in the arrays are changed, it will still work. (25 points)

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

void SortArrays (int a[], int b[], int c[], int size);

void printArray(int m[], int length);

const int NUM = 5;

int main()

{

int arrA[NUM] = {-2, 31, 43, 55, 67};

int arrB[NUM] = {-4, 9, 11, 17, 19};

int result[2*NUM];

SortArrays(arrA, arrB, result, NUM);

printArray(result, 2*NUM);

return 0;

}

void SortArrays (int a[], int b[], int c[], int size)

{

}

void printArray(int m[], int length)

{

for(int i = 0; i < length; i++)

cout<< m[i]<<" ";

cout<<endl;

Identify a small business you’d like to open. What types of products or services do you plan to offer?

• Describe trends, your target market and major competitors (size, demographics).
• Conduct some research that supports your claims.

Can there be a little more explanation on 'trends' and 'demographics'?

Right now you live in a house that is pretty old and doesn’t have double- paned windows. Your heating bill in the winter and spring will be really big, and you think it might be due to the huge single-paned window in the living room. Your landlord has told you that he is willing to replace it with a double paned window but you have to cover the cost of the window. You want to do a quick calculation to see if you can recover the cost of the new window before you graduate (and hopefully move out). If electricity used for heating costs 6.90 cents per kWh, will you save enough money? Assume 120 days of winter, followed by 90 days of spring until your graduation.

The living room is 3.5 m by 4.2 m, and is 2.4 m tall. The exterior wall has the standard 20 cm of fiberglass insulation. The existing window is on the narrower wall at one end of the living room and is 130 cm wide, 75 cm tall, and 4 mm thick. The new window is a state-of-the-art double paned window, with two panels of 4 mm glass separated by a 2 mm air-filled gap. Use the following values of thermal conductivity:
kfiberglass=0.04 W m−1 K−1, kglass=0.96 W m−1 K−1, kair=0.024 W m−1 K−1.

And also assume the following values for the average temperature:

Thouse=20∘C inside the house (to be maintained)

Twinter=3∘C outside the house during winter

Tspring=8∘C outside the house during spring

Finally, you estimate that the house is heated for 12 hours per day on average.

1.Calculate the heat conduction rate of the single-paned window during spring and winter.

2. With multiple layers of material with separate thickness and thermal conductivity values, the heat conduction rate must be calculated using the total resistance R.

Using the description of the double pane window, calculate its total resistance R. Give your answer in W−1 m2 K, to four decimal places.

3. Calculate the heat conduction rate of the double pane window during spring and winter.

4.calculate the total energy saved during spring and winter by switching to the double pane window in kwh

5. Using the answers above, calculate the total savings in the heating bill. Assume that the efficiency of converting electrical energy to heat is 100%. Give your answer in dollars.

in C++

Given two integer arrays sorted in the ascending order, code the function SortArrays to merge them into one array in the descending order. You need to make sure if the values in the arrays are changed, it will still work. (25 points)

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

void SortArrays (int a[], int b[], int c[], int size);

void printArray(int m[], int length);

const int NUM = 5;

int main()

{

int arrA[NUM] = {-2, 31, 43, 55, 67};

int arrB[NUM] = {-4, 9, 11, 17, 19};

int result[2*NUM];

SortArrays(arrA, arrB, result, NUM);

printArray(result, 2*NUM);

return 0;

}

void SortArrays (int a[], int b[], int c[], int size)

{

}

void printArray(int m[], int length)

{

for(int i = 0; i < length; i++)

cout<< m[i]<<" ";

cout<<endl;

}

Ethics emphasizes happiness, justice, human rights, and equality. How do these ideas relate to the environment and future generations? Support your perspective using ethical theorie(s).

How might our attribution about the cause of a behavior be different for ourselves versus someone else? Please be sure to base your answer on social psychological theory, including concepts from the Self, Social Cognition, and Social Perception chapters. (3 points)

Why is it important to take into account both situational and dispositional factors when attempting to describe, predict, or explain behavior? In other words, how does your attribution of the cause of a behavior influence how you respond to that behavior? Please also be sure to include possible negative consequences of failing to consider dispositional factors or failing to consider situational factors. (3 points)

In particular, what, if any, role do automatic versus controlled cognitive processes play in mitigating the issues discussed in #5? (2 points)

1. Do you believe that the various definitions of terrorism contribute to the meaning of counterterrorism?
2. Based on the research you have conducted up to this point in the course, define counterterrorism in your own words.
3. Do you believe that violence, fear, and intimidation are factors to consider when determining the interpretation of counterterrorism?
4. Do you believe that mass terror and random terror are similar in nature? If so, why?

A 193 Ω resistor, a 0.750 H inductor, and a 6.00 μF capacitor are connected in series across a voltage source that has voltage amplitude 28.5 V and an angular frequency of 245 rad/s . What is vR at t= 18.0 ms ? What is vL at t= 18.0 ms ? What is vC at t= 18.0 ms ?

In a rainy Summer day you observe a beautiful rainbow. Complete the following statements with greater than, less than, or equal to.

1. The wavelength of the light inside a raindrop is ... the wavelength of the same light in air.

2. The speed of the light inside a raindrop is ... the speed of light in air.

3. The frequency of the light inside a raindrop is ... the frequency of the same light in air.