As a new member of the board of
directors for a local bank, Jack Nelson was being introduced to all the
employees in the home office. When he was introduced to Ruth Johnson, he was
curious about her work and asked her what the machine she was using did.
Johnson replied that she really did not know what the machine was called or
what it did. She explained that she had only been working there for 2 months.
However, she did know precisely how to operate the machine. According to her
supervisor, she was an excellent employee.
At one of the branch offices,
the supervisor in charge spoke to Nelson confidentially, telling him that
"something was wrong," but she didn't know what. For one thing, she
explained, employee turnover was too high, and no sooner had one employee been
put on the job than another one resigned. With customers to see and loans to be
made, she continued, she had little time to work with the new employees as
they came and went.
All branch supervisors hired
their own employees without communication with the home office or other
branches. When an opening developed, the supervisor tried to find a suitable
employee to replace the worker who had quit.
After touring the 22 branches
and finding similar problems in many of them, Nelson wondered what the home
office should do or what action he should take. The banking firm generally was
regarded as being a well-run institution that had grown from 27 to 191
employees during the past 8 years. The more he thought about the matter, the
more puzzled Nelson became. He couldn't quite put his finger on the problem,
and he didn't know whether to report his findings to the president.
1-20.
What do you think is causing some of the problems in the bank's home office and
branches?
1-21.
Do you think setting up an HR unit in the main office would help?
1-22. What specific functions should
an HR unit carry out? What HR functions would then be carried out by
supervisors and other line managers? What role should the Internet play in the
new HR organization?
Source:
GEORGE, SUPERVISION IN ACTION: ART MANAGING OTHERS, 4th, (c) 1985. Printed and
Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson Education, Inc., Upper
Saddle River, New Jersey.
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