Question

Case: Making Difficult Decisions in Hard Times

Read and discuss the following scenario:
You are on the top management team of a medium-size company that manufactures cardboard boxes,
containers, and other cardboard packaging materials. Your company is facing increasing levels of
competition for major corporate customer accounts, and profits have declined significantly. You have tried
everything you can to cut costs and remain competitive, with the exception of laying off employees. Your
company has had a no-layoff policy for the past 20 years, and you believe it is an important part of the
organization’s culture. However, you are experiencing mounting pressure to increase your firm’s
performance, and your no-layoff policy has been questioned by shareholders.
Even though you haven’t decided whether to lay off employees and thus break with a 20-year tradition for
your company, rumors are rampant in your organization that something is afoot, and employees are worried.
You are meeting today to address this problem.
Tasks to perform:
1. Develop a list of options and potential courses of action to address the heightened competition and decline
in profitability that your company has been experiencing.
2. Choose your preferred course of action, and justify why you will take this route.
3. Describe how you will communicate your decision to employees.
4. If your preferred option involves a layoff, justify why. If it doesn’t involve a layoff, explain why.
Organizational culture comprises the shared set of beliefs, expectations, values, norms, and work routines
that influence how members of an organization relate to one another and work together to achieve
organizational goals.
In essence, organizational culture reflects the distinctive ways in which organizational members perform
their jobs and relate to others inside and outside the organization. It may, for example, be how customers in a
particular hotel chain are treated from the time they are greeted at check-in until they leave; or it may be the
shared work routines that research teams use to guide new product development. When organizational
members share an intense commitment to cultural values, beliefs, and routines and use them to achieve their
goals, a strong organizational culture exists. When organizational members are not strongly committed to a
shared system of values, beliefs, and routines, organizational culture is weak.
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Tasks to perform:
1. Develop a list of options and potential courses of action to address the heightened competition and decline
in profitability that your company has been experiencing.
2. Choose your preferred course of action, and justify why you will take this route.
3. Describe how you will communicate your decision to employees.
4. If your preferred option involves a layoff, justify why. If it doesn’t involve a layoff, explain why.

Answer 1

The preferred course of action is to improve operational efficiency to address competition without laying off employees, thereby maintaining the strong organizational culture and employee morale. Transparent communication with employees about the decision and its rationale is key to fostering trust and engagement.

Step-by-step explanation:

When dealing with difficult decisions such as increasing competition and declining profitability, several courses of action can be considered to address these challenges while preserving the organizational culture.

• Improve operational efficiency without reducing headcount, such as investing in automation or lean manufacturing techniques.
• Diversify product offerings to reach new markets and reduce dependency on major corporate customer accounts.
• Develop strategic partnerships or alliances to expand market reach.
• Increase marketing efforts to strengthen brand recognition and customer loyalty.
• Explore cost reduction methods that do not involve layoffs, like voluntary unpaid leave programs or reducing non-essential expenses.

The preferred course of action would be the first option, improving operational efficiency. This maintains the no-layoff policy and organizational culture, which can positively impact employee morale and brand image. Furthermore, it has the potential to yield long-term cost savings and productivity gains.

To communicate the decision to employees, transparent and regular communication is essential. An all-hands meeting would be convened where management would explain the current challenges, the decision taken to address them, and how every employee plays a vital role in the company's sustainability and success. Open forums for questions and feedback should also be included to engage employees in the process.

If a layoff is not involved in the preferred option, it is because layoffs can have a negative impact on employee morale and the strong culture the company has developed over the years. Furthermore, non-layoff strategies can set the foundation for a more resilient and adaptable organization in the long term.

Answer 2

c because I did this one an I chose a but it was c