The major issue in the case revolves around McCain's view of her role and its appropriateness given Harrison's strategic goals. You should point out to students that McCain is only indicative of a general problem within the company. The company is definitely targeting the middle-class, fashion conscious customer and need sales staff to effectively service the type of customer it wants to attract. To carry out its strategy, Harrison will need selling professionals who can offer personalized customer service. McCain and other human resource managers are presently operating in a reactive mode spending most of their time on maintaining day-to-day human resource operations. For example, McCain has little time for innovation or for developing policies to move the human resource operation forward. She seems to be unaware of the interdependent relationships among the various human resource functions. Her answer to the recruitment problem seems to be to do more recruiting. She needs to examine how practices in salary, training, and performance evaluation may contribute to turnover. While we have no detailed job descriptions for the two human resource assistants, the ratio of human resource staff to number of employees seems to be adequate. What is needed is better delegation on the part of McCain to the staff in her department. From her comments in the case, she seems to be relying on a high-task oriented style. For example, she states, “...I like to observe their (employees) work habits regularly." She needs to delegate some of her duties (especially those relating to recruiting and staffing) to the human resource assistants. McCain is presently spending a good deal of her workweek on interviewing job applicants. The results of the survey presented in Exhibit 1.5 indicate significant differences in the perceptions of human resource managers compared to store managers about the role and responsibilities of human resources in the organization. HR managers are not aware of her role in meeting the needs of the business and managing change. It suggests they still hold a very traditional view of the role of human resource professionals in organizations. In addition, to prescribing changes in the overall role of human resources in the company, students should suggest specific changes needed in each of the major functional areas discussed in the case (see question number 5 below). See student answer to this case on page vii of this manual. Given the organization's size and strategic goals, evaluate the development of the human resource function at Harrison Brothers. What problems do you see? How could its major functions be improved?
The major issue in the case revolves around McCain's view of her role and its appropriateness
given Harrison's strategic goals. You should point out to students that McCain is only indicative of a
general problem within the company. The company is definitely targeting the middle-class, fashion
conscious customer and need sales staff to effectively service the type of customer it wants to attract.
To carry out its strategy, Harrison will need selling professionals who can offer personalized customer
service. McCain and other human resource managers are presently operating in a reactive mode
spending most of their time on maintaining day-to-day human resource operations. For example,
McCain has little time for innovation or for developing policies to move the human resource operation
forward. She seems to be unaware of the interdependent relationships among the various human
resource functions. Her answer to the recruitment problem seems to be to do more recruiting. She
needs to examine how practices in salary, training, and performance evaluation may contribute to
turnover. While we have no detailed job descriptions for the two human resource assistants, the ratio
of human resource staff to number of employees seems to be adequate. What is needed is better
delegation on the part of McCain to the staff in her department. From her comments in the case, she
seems to be relying on a high-task oriented style. For example, she states, “...I like to observe their
(employees) work habits regularly." She needs to delegate some of her duties (especially those relating
to recruiting and staffing) to the human resource assistants.
McCain is presently spending a good deal of her workweek on interviewing job applicants. The results of
the survey presented in Exhibit 1.5 indicate significant differences in the perceptions of human
resource managers compared to store managers about the role and responsibilities of human resources
in the organization. HR managers are not aware of her role in meeting the needs of the business and
managing change. It suggests they still hold a very traditional view of the role of human resource
professionals in organizations. In addition, to prescribing changes in the overall role of human resources
in the company, students should suggest specific changes needed in each of the major functional areas
discussed in the case (see question number 5 below). See student answer to this case on page vii of this
manual.
Given the organization's size and strategic goals, evaluate the development of the human
resource function at Harrison Brothers. What problems do you see? How could its major
functions be improved?
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