Mr Assefa, who is currently the deputy manager of the materials department in A paper and pulp making company is angry and disappointed and is fuming. With this state of mind, he ran to his boss’s (Mr. Abebe, General Manager of Materials Department) office and throw his resignation letter on his boss’s table, shouted and walked out of the room swiftly.
Mr. Assefa has a reason for his sudden outburst. He has been driven to the wall. Perhaps details of the story will tell the reasons for Assefa’s anger and decision to resign and why he put in his resignation papers, barely four months after he took up his assignment.
The story is that the year was 2005 when Asefa left his prestigious position at another company (company X) in Hawassa. He was the manager for materials department in his previous company and as a manager for materials department Assefa enjoyed the power. He could even place an order for materials worth $ 100, 000. He needed nobody’s prior approval.
Asseffa joined the current large company/conglomerate (Company Y), which is a paper and pulp making plant located in Addis Ababa as deputy manager for materials Department. The plant is owned by a prestigious business enterprise in Ethiopia. Obviously bonuses, attractive salary, rank, designation and reputation of the conglomerate lured Assefa away from his previous organization. When he joined the pulp making company, little did Assefa realize that he needed prior approval to place an order for materials worth $ 50, 000. He had presumed that he had the authority to place an order by himself worth half the amount of what he used to do in the previous company. He placed the order, and the material arrived, were received, accepted and used up in the plant.
Trouble started when the bill for $ 50, 000 came from the supplier/vendor. The accounts/finance department withheld payment for the reason that the bill was not endorsed by Mr. Abebe. Abebe refused to sign the bill as his approval was not taken by Assefa before placing the order. Assefa got disapointed. A brief encounter with Abebe only aggravated the problem. Assefa was curtly told that he should have known company rules before venturing. And he decided to quit the company.
Questions
1) What do you think was the main missing HRM practice that led Mr. Assefa to place an order worth $ 50, 000 without consulting his boss and finally quit his job? And which description in the case above gave you a lead to identify the missing link. (2.5 Marks)
2) If you were the owner and the top manager of the current company, what would you do to make sure that such a disparity would not happen? Discus your perspective in detail by relating it to the appropriate HRM practice that you indicated as missing in question no. 1 above. (2.5 marks)
Case 2 (10 marks)
Mr. Girmay is a senior employee of ABC Software Company having its head office at Adama and branches at all major cities in the country. The managing partner of the firm asked Mr. Girmay to head its northern branch at Mekelle. The firm has been quite successful since its inception in New softwares, but has witnessed high turnover among its younger staff in the last five years. The managing partner is convinced that the problem is not salary, because a recent survey indicated that the firm’s salary structure is competitive with that of other major firms. Driven by this incomprehension, the managing partner wants Mr. Girmay to find out the real reasons.
Having settled in Mekelle, Mr. Girmay met the four senior managers to determine why the branch has had such a high attrition rate among the younger staff.
Mr. Addis, age 46, states that the younger staff lacks dedication and fails to appreciate the career opportunities provided by the firm.
Mr. Balecha, age 52, says the younger employees are always complaining about the lack of meaningful feedback on their performance, and many have mentioned that they would like to have a sponsor in the organization to assist with their development. Further explains that the firm does provide performance rating to its staff and the previous manager had always maintained an open-door policy.
Mr. Dawit. aged 39. Says he has received complaints that training is not relevant and is generally dull. He explains that various persons in the firm who worked with training from time to time acted mainly on guidance from Bahir Dar.
Ms. Hawi. aged 35, says she believes that the root of the problem is the absence of an HR department. However. She says that when the idea was mentioned to the managing partner in Adama, it was totally rejected.
Questions
1) Do you think that the ABC Software Company needs an, HR department? (4 Marks)
2) How would you sell the idea of the HR department to the managing partner? (3 Marks)
3) What type of organizational structure would you recommend? (3 Marks)
