CASE STUDY:MOTORS AND MORE, INC. By Don McCain, Ed.D.
Objectives:
Upper-level undergraduate students will work through issues associated with developing and sustaining an HR department to support an organization facing labor shortages and high product demand. At the end of the study, students learn how to:
1. Align HR initiatives with corporate strategy.
2. Develop a complete HR organization structure, including roles and responsibilities, and then adjust the structure to support the organization.
3. Develop a basic staffing plan.
4. Develop a basic training plan.
5. Determine and support a pay and benefits plan.
6. Determine future HR requirements.
CASE OVERVIEW:
You are hired as the HR director for the fictitious Motors and More, Inc. Motors and More, a business to business sales company, manufactures small motors and accessories for industrial and home products.
The industry is highly competitive, and the company follows a prospector strategy.
A prospector strategy takes advantage of new markets and products (Gomez-Mejia, Galkin and Cardy, 2001). Organizational emphasis is on growth, innovation and new product development. A prospector wants to be first to market. To respond to competitive and rapidly changing markets, prospectors have flexible, flat and more decentralized organizational structures.
Motors and More is headquartered in a small southern town of 28,000 people, with a low unemployment rate of 3.1 percent. This means that demand for workers exceeds the labor supply. There is a technical school and a community college within 50 miles of Motors and More. Motors and More's president is former military and is highly patriotic. He is committed to staying in the community. Recently, several other local companies have experienced labor organizing activities.
Motors and More employs 116 people. Until you were hired, there was no HR department. Recently, the organization's employee turnover rate has been higher than normal. The marketing and sales department continues to sell products to an expanding market. Because of this increased product demand, output must be increased by 96 percent.
Eighty-eight percent of Motors and More employees are Caucasian. With the exception of one female supervisor in the customer service department, the president and all other managers are Caucasian men. Management promotions have been based on seniority. The local labor market population is approximately 48 percent minority. There is a growing Hispanic and Kurdish population that have not been accepted into the community.
All the employees in manufacturing (including quality control), customer service and operations (responsible for shipping and receiving; distribution of raw materials, components parts and finished goods inventory; and maintenance and cleaning) have at least a high school degree or GED. The organization provides some skills training courses.