Case 1 something forced someone to resign

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 disappointed. 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.