INDIVIDUAL – TAKE HOME EXAM

Mata Kuliah/ Kode Mata Kuliah : MSDM / MM-5103

Hari dan Tanggal : Senin, 17 Desember 2018
Dosen : Dr. H. Herry Maridjo, M.Si.
Drs.T.Handono Eko Prabowo, MBA, Ph.D
Sifat Ujian : Individual - Take home Exam

Petunjuk:
Soal terdiri dua bagian yaitu Bagian I dan Bagian 2.
Jawablah semua pertanyaan secara berurutan dengan menggunakan: Times New Roman Font 12,
spasi 1,5, dan paper size A4.
Anda bisa menjawab UAS dalam bahasa Inggris atau dalam bahasa Indonesia.
Jawaban UAS dikumpulkan paling lambat Sabtu 22 Desember 2018 jam 13.00 di email dosen:
herrym@usd.ac.id ; ; thep_phd1@yahoo.com

BAGIAN I
Inserting The Team Concept Into Compensation----Or Not

In the new position at Hathaway Manufacturing, one of the first things Sandy Caldwell wanted
to do was improve productivity through teamwork at every level of the firm. As the new
human resource manager for this plant, Sandy set out to change the culture to accomodate
the team based approach he had become so enthusiastic about in his most reent position.

Sandy started by installing the concept of team management at the higest level, to oversee the
operations of the entire plant. The new management team consisted of manufacturing,
distribution, planning, technical, and human resource plant managers. Together they
developed a new vision for the 500-employee facility, which they expressd in the simple phrase
‘excellence together.’

The drafted a new mission statement for the firm that focused on becoming customer driven
and team based, and that called upon employees to raise their level of commitment and begin
acting as “owners” of the firm. The next step was to convey the team message to employees
throughout the company. The communication process went surprisingly well, and Sandy was
happy to see his idea of a “workforce of owners” begin to take shape. Teams trained together,
developed production plans together, and embraced the technique of 360-degrre feedback, in
which an employee’s performance evaluation is obtained from supervisors, subordinates, peers,
and internal or external cutomers. Performance and morale improved, and productivity began
to tick upward. The company even sponsored occasional celebrations to reward team
achievements, and the team structure seemed firmly in place.

Sandy decided to change on more thing. Hathaway’s long standing policy had been to give all
employees the same annual pay increase. But Sandy felt that in the new team environment,
outstanding performance should be the criterion for pay raises. After consulting with CEO
Regina Cioffi, Sandhy sent a memo to all employees announing the change to team-based pay
for performance.

The reaction was immediate and 100% negative. None of the employees was happy with the
change, and among their complaints, two stood out. First, because the 360- degree feedback
system made everyone responsible in part for someone else’s performance evaluation, no one
was comfortable with the idea that pay raises might also be linked to peer input. Second, there
was a widhespread perception that the way the change was decided upon, and the way it was
announced , put he firm’s commitment to team efford in doubt. Simply put, employees felt left
out of the decision process.

Sandy and Regina arranged a meeting for early the next morning. Sitting in her office, they
began a paintful debate. Should the new policy be recinded as quickly as it was adopted, or
should it be allowed to stand?

Questions:
1. Does the pay-for-performance plan seem like a good idea? Why or why not?
2. What advice would you give Regina and Sandy as they consider their decision?
3. What mistakes did they make in adopting and communicating the new salary plan? How
might Sandy have approached this major compensation change a little differently?
4. Assuming the new pay plan is eventually accepted, how would you address the fact that in
the new performance evaluation system, employees’ input affects their peers’

BAGIAN II
HINCHCLIFFE CARDS

Hinchcliffe Cards was started by William Hinchcliffe in 1874. Hinchcliffe had an artistic talent
which he used for drawing individual greetings cards for his family and friends. As demand for
the products he made increased, members of William’s family joined him in creating the more
intricately decorated cards. As the products of the firm grew in popularity, Hinchcliffe cards
began to expand, investing in its first printing press in the early 1900s. The business continued
to grow and moved into the mass production of greetings cards for the family market. William,
who by then was managing director of the firm, was keen that some element of the origins of
the company remained, and despite the focus on mass production, a small sideline in the design
and production of handmade cards remained.

After William Hinchcliffe died in 1934 the firm remained in the family and is now managed by
chief executive James Hinchcliffe, William’s great-grandson. The company headquarters,
warehouse and packaging plant are housed in the same Lancashire town in England where
William originally started the business in his own home. Indeed, the firm prides itself on being a
family firm and having a paternalistic culture. James Hinchcliffe is often to heard to say ‘Now
what would great-grandfather do in this situation’, when discussing any key strategic or
problem issues. Despite the paternalistic culture, James is keen that the company moves with
the times. Having recently completed an MBA at a local business school, he is keen to hear
about new ideas and new methods of working that he can introduce in to the company.

The company employs about 250 people. Seventy per cent of the workforce are women who
work mainly on the production line and 10 per cent are from ethnic minority backgrounds. All
the managers and senior management team, except the human resource manager (a white
woman) are white males. Turnover in the company is generally low, though James Hinchcliffe
suspects that there is a growing unease among the workforce about a number of issues.

The cards produced by the company feed in to two main markets. First, there is the mass
production of greetings cards. In particular the firm recently won a couple of key contracts to
produce Christmas cards for two of the larger chain stores which are internationally located.
These contracts meant a considerable expansion of business which has caused some problems
in terms of work scheduling as production needs to be far higher in the spring months to meet
the Christmas demand. In particular, some of the more sophisticated machines that are used
occasionally, for foiling for example, are in 100 per cent use at this particular time. Putting
coloured or silver foil on a card is an expensive process and the two men who work that
machine are highly skilled. Currently there is a shortage of such skills within the printing
industry. To deal with the increase in output required at this time of year, the firm has tended
to employ around 20 casual workers for the spring period when these cards are produced.
There is evidence, however, that the permanent production workers display animosity towards
the temporary workers. As one suggested:
 They’re just here to make a quick buck, they don’t seem bothered about the
quality of what they do, their mistakes affect all of our bonuses.

The production workers have also recently been complaining about some other issues to do
with their opportunities in the workplace. Some of the female workers have been asking why
they haven’t been trained on the more complex machines, which seem to be used exclusively by
the male workers. Indeed, it is the production jobs based on those machines that carry the
highest remuneration. Similarly a gendered division of labour also exists in other areas of the
factory, for example the packing area where the cards are packed into boxes for distribution is
populated exclusively with female workers. Additionally, there are concerns among the female
workers that they are expected to work very long hours at short notice during peak production
periods. This is seen to interfere with their family lives. As one suggested:

They expect us to work into the evening at the drop of a hat but we don’t get that
flexibility in return. Cheryl, who recently left to have a baby, wanted to come back
and work here part time, but they said they couldn’t slot her in. It would be too
difficult to have one person working different hours from everyone else. The men
may want to rake in the overtime payments but some of us can’t just be in the
factory every hour of the day.

Apart from these issues, the production workers are generally happy about their work.
Hinchcliffe’s has a good name in the local area for being a decent employer who pays the going
rate for the job. They are almost an institution in the Lancashire mill town in which they are
based.

The other market that Hinchcliffe’s serves is the demand for handmade products. Orders for
these cards come from all over the world. To tap these markets the firm has recently started an
internet mail order business. In order to meet the increasing demand for handmade products,
production has largely moved out of the factory. The cards are now made by a series of 50
homeworkers who make the cards in their own homes and are then sold to various specialist
gift shops around the UK. These homeworkers are mainly women from ethnic minority groups.
One issue that concerns the firm is the high rate of turnover among the homeworkers.They are
generally perceived as having little loyalty to the firm and are unreliable in meeting agreed
dates for production. There has been some talk within the firm of investing in a team of
designers employed officially by the firm who can be based in the firm’s headquarters. The plan
is that some of the current homeworkers would be employed on this basis. Early evidence
suggests that they may not be particularly interested in this option. Indeed, the majority of
these workers are female who fit in their drawing work with looking after small children.
Additionally, their view is that the company often treats them with little respect. An example of
this is the common complaint that the materials needed to make the cards are often dropped
off at their homes later than promised, sometimes with incorrect specifications. One
homeworker has hinted that there may be some covert racism in the way some of the
homeworkers are treated.

There is a recognition within the senior management team that the company is in a position to
expand considerably through the internet side of the business. This means that there is an
opportunity for the global emergence of the Hinchcliffe brand, something that James is keen to
do. The firm already had some presence in European markets which had emerged from the
entrepreneurial activities of a couple of the sales managers, however the Board are aware that
in order to compete with other internet-based retailers, they need to become more efficient at
producing the handmade cards more quickly and then delivering them on time. The regular
publicly accessible ratings of firms on internet sites mean that just a couple of individual late
deliveries could threaten the business of a firm seeking to expand in this way. Specifically, the
good reputation of Hinchcliffe’s may be at risk.

The prospect of this international expansion raises a number of issues for James Hinchcliffe. He
is desperately keen to investigate the available avenues, but is also keen that the firm retains its
Lancashire roots. He believes that the handmade products are just as good and as popular as
the product his great-grandfather produced years ago. He recently arranged an away day with
his senior management team where they had the opportunity to identify the potential strengths
and opportunities in diversifying their business in this way. The management team identified
that one of the greatest challenges required with such a strategy would be getting the
homeworkers on board. As the production director stated:
 If we moved in that direction we could no longer deal with them dropping the cards
off here at the factory a day late because the baby was sick or whatever. In fact we
may have to abandon them altogether and go for an in-house design team. I know
your great-grandfather was always keen to support the local community but maybe
things have to change at some point. It’s just very hard to get people like them
working to our schedule.

Other members of the senior management team responded to this in a number of ways. One
suggested that the company would lose considerably if the homeworkers were replaced:

They have very different specialist skills. There is no way we could replicate those if
we moved to just a couple of in-house designers.

There was also some debate about how the homemade cards were a unique selling point for
Hinchcliffe’s, and that these would be the key products sold over the internet. Therefore
without these specialist workers, there would be little point in the firm attempting to address
more international markets. The marketing director pointed out that it was this side of the
business that needed some development

Given the two big contracts we have recently got, we are clearly delivering what is
needed internationally in the mass-produced part of the business. I know the staff
moan a bit, especially some of those women, but we seem to be doing ok. It’s those
homeworkers we need to make more reliable.

He outlined how his internet-based research of competitors in the handmade cards business has
indicated that most of the other outlets selling through the internet just had one or two people
working for them. So for him: When you think of all the staff resources we have at Hinchcliffe’s
as a whole, there must be a way we can really take on that market – we just need to get all our
people on board and involved.

At this stage of the discussion the HR director interjected. She said that she thought that some
of the issues that were being faced at the company were managing diversity issues: What we
are talking about here really is issues about how we manage diverse groups of staff in order to
harness the potential of all of our employees, both those who work in the factory and those
who work at home.

Other members of the management team were nodding at this point, agreeing that there may
be something of interest in the idea of managing diversity. However, none of them felt that they
were in a position to advise James about how to progress. At the end of the meeting the team
agreed to approach a diversity consultant to ask them for any advice about resolving some of
their diversity issues in order to progress the strategy of developing the business internationally.

QUESTIONS

1. What are the diversity issues currently faced by Hinchcliffe cards?

2. Imagine you are the consultant that has been approached by James Hinchcliffe to advise the
company about how they can address each of the diversity issues you have outlined in
number one above. What advice would you give them?
3. How do you think the advice you have provided in answer to question two will be received
by:
a. The homeworkers
b. The male factory workers
c. The female factory workers
d. The senior management team.
4. Bearing in mind your answers to the above three questions, what advice would you give the
company about how they can develop their international strategy?
REMINDER:

Assessment Criteria Will Be Based On:

1. Style and structure of presentation
2. Depth and width of knowledge
3. Critical analysis
4. Coherency of presentation and arguments presented
5. Language and grammar
6. Creativity in content and presentation
7. Appropriate use of references

Plagiarism is not acceptable in any form in this course. Plagiarism takes many forms and includes:
 Deliberately copying another student’s work
 Copying directly from textbooks and other sources without using quotation marks
 Not acknowledging the sources you have used in your work( i.e. you must cite the references )
 Re-submitting an assignment used in one course as an original piece of work for another
course.

Work, which shows evidence of plagiarism will be penalised in linewith the seriousness of the case.