Scenario: You have just started work as the new Human Resources Manager for Acme Manufacturing, a Fortune 1,000 company. The job has been vacant for six months now. You have been wondering about this, especially since reading about employee harassment incidents and fights recently in the news.
The General Manager (GM) calls you into his office the minute you arrive. He shuts the door after saying a quick word of welcome, and begins to tell you about an incident that happened last week that needs your immediate attention. The company’s manufacturing operations runs three shifts of production workers so the plant is operating 24/7. Over the past six months hostilities have arisen between employees on the third and first shifts. What started out as jeering and criticisms by the first shift, claiming they have to clean up the mess and complete all of the work left undone by the third shift, has escalated to physical confrontations and altercations. Although the GM said that aggressive bantering back-and-forth is common for shift workers in manufacturing, he admitted he was worried after seeing a gun on one of the employees last week that was concealed, or so the employee thought, in a shoulder holster under this jacket. The GM said he needs your help. Specifically, he asked that you:
- Determine and explain the appropriate disciplinary action for the employees involved in this situation and identify motivational alternatives that can help turn the situation around;
- Draft policies and procedures that could be used in the guidance and performance management of the shift workers; and
- Develop performance standards for the shift workers, identify appropriate methods of performance appraisal, and develop appropriate training to help get them back on track.
Feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation, you go back to your office and begin devising a plan to help get employee relations back on track, realizing that human resource policies and practices may help avert potentially dangerous situations in the future if implemented correctly.
Write a 8-10 page memo to the GM responding to the three concerns listed above. Be sure to cite any references used in proper APA format.
