NOGO Railways Challenges - Essay Example

? inserts his/her full Contents Contents 2 Introduction 3 2.Problem 3 3.Causes 4 4.Systems 6 5.Alternatives 8 6.Recommendations 9 Work Cited 10 1. Introduction NOGO Railways operates in a remote mountainous region and is involved in the haul of timber, coal, potash and phosphorous (Brown). Dave Keller, the communication manager of NOGO Railways, has requested the assistance of an outside consultant in response to the challenges facing him. He had been promoted to the position despite his limited managerial experience, perhaps as the case describes it, as the “helmsman of a sinking ship” (Brown). Dave is wary of Allen’s intentions and is torn between making the required changes and not making those changes. However, the situation is not new to NOGO Railways as it has struggled with the same issues (highlighted later) since its inception. It is only that Dave has now been promoted to such a position where he must address the problems encountered. 2. Problem NOGO Railways faces a myriad of problems which can best be separated as surface-level problems and deeper or micro problems. At the macro level, the company faces an outdated and ill designed system of organizational policies and practices, thereby reflecting a poor HR system. This is the backbone of all other problems such as high debt and resistance to change. Owing to faulty (and biased) recruitment practices, productivity has been low and unnecessary positions have been created for the sake of compensating family and relatives. One such example is that of Fireman’s position whose only task was to take charge of the engine in the event of assistance required by the engineer (Brown). The major problems facing Dave (and the company) are that employee expenses have been on a rise and that there was friction amongst NOGO’s employees with respect to change management. Next, it is important to analyze the micro level issues that NOGO is faced with. One of these is featherbedding which is defined as the practice of restricting output of work so as to create more jobs and reduce the chances of unemployment. Another problem pertained to the absence of a formal, structured recruitment process that objectively selected candidates with the right ‘fit’ for the job. These faulty hiring procedures gave way to favoritism. This meant that employees whom Dave worked with were related to each other in some way as spouses, children, brothers or cousins. This practice tends to create a disconnected workforce with ties based on their relations and not work. 3. Causes The presence of a unionized workforce meant that the union acted as a resistance to any changes implemented by the management. This was clearly causing resistance to change which was one of the macro-level problems confronting NOGO. The union terms were guaranteeing complacency and minimizing worker efficiency owing to a contract that workers would get pay for 40 hours of work even if there was no availability of such work (Brown). These contract terms (as settled by the unions) meant that NOGO was covering the living expenses of their away-from-home, overtime employees as well as duplication of tasks such that clerks would have no task to carry out in the presence of telegraph operators. Furthermore, the union as well as improperly crafted contracts provided workers unnecessary cushion of refusing to do a task just because it wasn’t part of their job description. This was directly contributing to the high employee expenses which, again, was one of the major problems facing NOGO. Furthermore, the lack of HR planning and strategy was at the backbone of a host of problems encountered by the company. For one thing, the lack of HR planning led to overstaffing leading to greater number of employees being hired than was necessary. This bred “featherbedding”. The employee contract was not designed appropriately with conditions such as prohibition of women clerks to work directly with train and radio communication personnel reducing the productivity of these workers while at the same time forcing the company to pay them for nothing. This could be referred to as wastage of money as hiring males instead would have led to more efficient results for the company. Furthermore, poor job design meant that workers could only work in their specialized areas with little or no training with respect to multi-tasking or group work. This reflected no attempt to encourage job rotation and no attempt to prepare replacement employees who could work across various departments. As the case mentions, “clerks could only replace clerks” and telegraph operators were only skilled in their field (Brown). There was no formal cross-departmental training. This could have contributed to the high employee costs owing to additional employees being hired to take on the work of absent/ill employees. Policy implementation and enforcement was also lacking as is reflected in the “various unsuccessful attempts” to eliminate the position of the fireman (Brown). Furthermore, there was no accountability of the workforce. In other words, the system of check and balance and transparency at NOGO was clearly weak. For instance, the clerks that ‘had nothing to do’ during instances of derailment were not being checked. Also, the bargaining power of the workers was extremely high as they would succeed in pressurizing the management through their covert tactics. This is reflected in the fact that Dave was afraid that the elimination of the fireman position would result in deliberate slowdown of work by employees to show their discontent (Brown). This can partially be attributed to the strong involvement of the union which protected inefficient workers and worked to support their interests regardless of those of the organization. In other words, there was no negotiator or middle-ground between the union and the organization to mediate the interests and terms of both parties in order to achieve mutually acceptable outcomes. The lack of such a mediating party had also created a barrier between the employees and the organization as employees often resisted management’s proposals/changes which reflected that these employees needed personnel for arbitration and addressing their grievances. Since no such personnel were available, they resorted to the help of unions which created greater friction between the management and the employees. In other words, there was no direct, one-on-one co-ordination and communication between the management and the employees which was drawing the two parties further apart. Considering that majority of NOGO’s problems rested with the HR domain, there was no department or personnel to address these issues. The absence of strategic involvement of the HR department led to the stockpiling of these issues over the years whose responsibility ultimately rested on just one person- Dave. Additionally, the expectations from one’s job as well as job descriptions lacked clarity including management positions. For instance, the case highlights the communication manager’s responsibilities as pertaining to the supervision of individuals involved in the radio, computer, teletype and telephone operations (Brown). This clearly reflects overburdening of responsibilities as majority of the tasks that Dave was handling should have been handled by HR personnel. The lack of clarity in Dave’s responsibilities was also reflected in the fact that Allen gave him unofficial and unwritten responsibilities that had reduced Dave’s enthusiasm towards work. 4. Systems Various systems have been affected by these problems at NOGO. The first is the manpower planning system which has been affected by lack of HR, a large number of unnecessary employees as well as lack of cross-functional training making it difficult for one employee to replace the other from a different functional area. Secondly, the system of transparency and work environment have been simultaneously affected as the current system of nepotism has resulted in lack of cohesion amongst employees with employees not identifying with those with whom they lack family ties. Furthermore, employee motivation remains low with the majority possessing a defensive mindset and opposing organizational change. Thirdly, efficiency has been affected owing to the minimum wage cushion provided by the union was resulting in reduced acceptance of additional duties by the workers. The practice of featherbedding further implied that workers’ productivity was not maximized as the focus was on retaining a large number of workers as opposing to retaining the ‘best’ ones. The fact that telephone operators were majorly men and clerks were majorly women further created a gender divide in terms of technical skills and duties. Furthermore, the contract terms stated that women could not work with radio communication and train personnel, thereby barring them from certain technical duties. The fact that clerks could only replace clerks and telephone operators could only replace telephone operators further created highly specialized technical domains for both positions, thereby eliminating the possibility of cross-functional work. Also, the threat of covert tactics to protest the elimination of fireman’s position would adversely affect employee efficiency. The work environment had fallen prey to the lack of employee morale and workers’ loyalty to NOGO. The current style of management was affected by the fact there was no direct communication and coordination between the employees and the management and that employees shared their loyalty with the union which protected and safeguarded their interests as opposed to NOGO Railways. There was lack of identification with the company as workers were concerned about their personal well-being rather than the organization’s interests. Finally, as far as the managerial system is concerned, there seems to be a lack of formal cross-functional training for managers to enable them handle large bundle of responsibilities. For instance, Dave was responsible for various subsystems; however, he did not receive any training support from Allen before being assigned the job. Considering that Dave lacked experience in this field, such training was quintessential to his performance. 5. Alternatives One of the most immediate solutions is to develop a structured HR department with accompanying policies, procedures and internal rules. Theory suggests that the role of HR is quintessential in order to enable the organization achieve its mission, vision and goals. As part of revamping the HR setup, one of the first steps would be to develop a planned recruitment process whereby individuals are granted jobs on the basis of merit and not family ties. Furthermore, HR planning must be undertaken to ensure that no unnecessary people are hired. In other words, the right amount of workers is hired at the right time. Another alternative is that the job descriptions are redrafted with the practice of benchmarking to ensure that NOGO stays at par or even ahead of its competitors. Considering that a lot of time is currently underutilized and productivity is low, this move could be aimed at in the medium term if not the short term. Furthermore, considering that employees currently lack cross-functional training, the HR department must assist with a formal training program of these employees so that they are replaceable for each other. Not only will this improve the quality of work but also reduce the high employee costs which Dave attempts to achieve. Most importantly, the HR department will facilitate direct communication between the management and employees by ensuring that the latter do not need to resort to the help of unions to protect their interests. This shall reduce the passing down of ‘rumors’ as formal communication systems would be introduced such as letters, memos and notices. Additionally, the HR can play an active role by engaging in collective bargaining or acting as a bridge between unions and employees to settle down on win-win situations as opposed to the current terms which are not in the organization’s interests. 6. Recommendations Keeping in view Dave’s mission to lower employee costs and enhance employee attitude towards change, it is recommended that an HR department is developed with primary focus on two aspects: revamping the recruitment policy and cross-functional training. This is because hiring individuals based on merit will ensure that there is no internal politics or inefficiency resulting from unproductive labor, thereby eliminating featherbedding. Furthermore, closing off unnecessary positions will lead to efficient utilization of company resources. Next, by training employees to do each others’ jobs, the company is in effect increasing the flexibility of labor by delegating greater tasks than in their job descriptions and, therefore, preparing them for taking up challenging tasks and changes ahead. This shall serve as the building blocks for introducing further change in the organization. Work Cited Brown, Donald R. An Experiential Approach to Organizational Development. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2011. Print. Read More