Donna Klein And Marriott International

Issues

Immediate issue:

The company has to deal with its lower-wage employeesЎЇ work-life balance issue.

Basic issues:

1.The work-life balance program was ignored by lower-wage workers because they couldnЎЇt afford that program.

2.The lower-wage workers were depending on management for assistance with more serious issues not just child-care or referral programs.

3.Managers spending upwards of 50% of their time to solve employeesЎЇ numerous personal issues.

4.Extremely high turnover among the companyЎЇs lower-wage employees.

Importance

1.Managers spend a lot of time on solving employeesЎЇ personal issues. They could have more time to focus on the companyЎЇs strategy if the issue is solved.

2.The company is in the service industry. High standard service is the companyЎЇs competitive advantages. More than three-quarters of the companyЎЇs employees are hourly employees. They provide the service to customers. Their personal issues will directly affect the quality of the service that they provide. Thus affect the companyЎЇs profit.

Urgency

The companyЎЇs existing program is not working. Lower-wage employeesЎЇ personal issues are still unsolved. The company is wasting money on the program. The managers are wasting time on solving lower-wage employeesЎЇ personal issues. Unsolved employeesЎЇ performance is threatening the companyЎЇs high standards of service. Therefore, in order not to keep losing money and time, the company need to start finding solution for this issue as soon as possible.

Cause

No one in the senior management team was talking about lower-wage employees with respect to work life challenges. Their existing work-life balance programs were more toward to professional employees. They are useless for lower-wage employees.

Effects

Managers spent more than 50% of their time on solving lower-wage employeesЎЇ personal issues because there is no program within the company that can help those employees. Company is losing money because the high turnover and existing useless work-life balance programs. Lower-wage employees are providing lower standards of service because they are struggling on their personal issues. All of these are affecting the companyЎЇs profits.

Constraints

Senior management didnЎЇt care much about the lower-wage employees. Donna has to find a way to persuade them to pay for any new benefit programs. She has to find a cost-effective way to solve to issue.

Opportunities

Donna has already noticed about this issue. She did some research and knows about lower-wage employeesЎЇ needs. She could start dealing with this issue right away. Therefore, the company doesnЎЇt have to hire some one else to solve it. This saves money and time for the company.