8/13/2019 The New Director of Human Resources

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Q1. Discuss the relationship between corporate human resources structure andoperations at the plant level. Whatimpact, if any, did that relationship have on thesituation described by Newcombe?

Answer: After investigation of Mount Ridge Engineerings corporate human resource structure and plant operationprocedures, in my opinion currently the relationships between humanresource policies and actual plant operationsare very weak. Although we can say that thehuman resource department has established a fairly complete set of

procedures and policies,the actual implementation of the policies at plant level operations do not seem to bethoroughenough, no employee implement those rules. Especially, the staffing function is very weak.There is noproper linkage between corporate HR structure and operations at the plant level.In other word there is no chain ofcommand kind of linkage between them. It seems thatoperations office can do the HR functions by themselves likehire and fire which is in factcorporate HR departments sole function. Even in the termination form there isonlyEmployees signature and Plant supervisors signature i.e. no control of the corporate HR department at all. Theleave reason seems to be written by the supervisor not the employee,this is not logical. In fact, forcing a person forsigning on the blank form of termination noticeis completely illegal and against labor act (if the allegation of Johnsonis true). This maycreate a big legal problem in future.Here are the examples which show the fuzzy relationshipbetween corporate human resourcestructure and operations at the plant level:1.

What Johnson had done was out of his job description or employee handbook:Johnson would like to have apromotion due to know a good deal about the equipmentoperators job. But seems the standard promotion channel

was not set up or Braxtondidnt follow the system when doing evaluation. Hence Johnson did a lots but stillcouldntget the promotion from.

Describe Mount Ridges business strategy. What is the relationship between its business strategy and its humanresource practices?Mount Ridge is a utility company specializing in energy production. Four years ago the companys founder, GarretLevinson, believed that coal would be both the primary fuel for electricity as well as serve as a standardization ofefficiency and cost control in the future. He decided to create his company around this idea, and produce energyusing coal as a fuel source. Since steam is a byproduct of using coal to create power, Mount Ridge sells theelectricity produced to the local utility, and is able to recycle energy by selling the steam to a nearby industrial plant.Not only is this recycling healthier for the environment (as opposed to letting the excess steam go to waste), but italso allows Mount Ridge to cut energy costs in order to gain a competitive advantage in the energy field, a businessstrategy known as cost leadership. This strategy resulted in commercial success very quickly, and though MountRidge is centralized in Kentucky, it has ambitiously chosen to pursue building plants across the Northeast where thedemand for cogeneration plants is strong.Joyce Newcome was hired as Director of Human Resources in the companys infancy, and had to find ways tomax imize the personnel aspect of the companys rapid growth. This was not an easy task, as the size of theworkforce increased from four employees to 650 in less than a decade. The extreme level of productivity necessaryto sustain this growth would not have been possible without strong Human Resource Management policies in place tokeep the employees happy with their jobs and, thus, maintain loyalty and productivity in the workforce. One way thisis achieved is by holding annual employee appreciation dinners to let the employees know that their work is valued.However, with such a large number of employees it is inevitable that some... [continues]

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