Treadway Tire Case Study Analysis - Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant

Treadway Tire case study analysis

Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant

Ye Cui

BUSA 305 Organizational Behavior

Nov. 9, 2015

Summary of the Case

The Treadway Tire case study is talk about the job dissatisfaction and high turnover at the Lima Tire Plant. Treadway Tire Company currently manufactures Treadway Primo, Treadway Performance and other private tire brands. The Lima Tire Plant is one of the eight manufacturing units operated by the Treadway Tire Company in Ohio. It is considered one of the company’s top plants for productivity and quality ratings. The Lima Plant produced 25,000 tires per day. And it has a total of 1,120 employees, 970 were hourly employees and 150 were salary employees. At a time during 2007, the plant manager Brandon Bellingham stated, “ we have a serious problem” (Skinner & Beckham, 2008, p.1). The company’s current Director of Human Resources Ashley Wall realized that the company was having issues with high operational cost, high turnover rate among foremen, lack of training, and low morale and employee dissatisfaction within the company.

Main Issues

The major issue for the Lima Tire Plant is the higher turnover rate and the increase of the job dissatisfaction.

Case Analysis

The foremen possess a large responsibility at Lima; they have to deal with a variety of personnel, recourse and administrative procedures. They are often felt pulled in conflicting directions by the employees, the unions and the management. There are two major reasons why the line foremen chose to leave the plant. First, they don’t have a well training to do their job right. Secondly, the foremen have poor communication with the superior.

I think the daily production evaluations of the Lima Tire Plant give the high pressure to line foremen. They have to work as 12 hours shift, not 8 hours shift, and they only have two breaks and half-hour for meals for every shift. And they have to work until the very end shift, even though to solve the very little issues. These problems made the foremen have no clear brain to find a way to move up in the Lima. And according to the hourly workers’ comments, the foremen have no respect to them. They don’t listen any explanations for the late work. However, the foremen felt they are the lowest level in the plant, and no one concerned their requests. It is clear that, the HR department didn’t play well as a leadership role. “HR is on the scene when an employee joins and leaves, and all along the way. HR departments uniquely represent both the employee’s and the company’s perspective as needed.” (Robbins & Judge, p.519) The employees need to know what the company expects from them. The HR department can help them with their requests. The example in the case is a hourly worker was back late to work, he tried to explained to his foremen, but the foremen kept shouting to him. In this situation, the HR department could do something helpful to reduce the conflicts between hourly workers and the foremen. So that, they can communicate with each other better.

Secondly, hiring person is also the problem. “One of the most important HR functions is hiring the right people. How do you figure out who the right people are? Identifying the right people is the objective of the selection process, which matches individual characteristics (ability, experience, and so on) with the requirements of the job.” (Robbins & Judge, p.499) As of December 2006, the HR advisor Ashley Wall joined the company, and at that time, the foremen were come from three resources: 80% from the internal hire, 16% were from the local colleges, and other 4% were transfer from other Treadway plants. Ashley Wall helped to change the percentage of the hiring resources. The internal hire decrease to 60%, the local colleges increase to 30%, and the company transfers increase to 10%. The internal hire, such as the internal promotion might reduce the company’s dynamics. The internal promotion will simplify the process of the hiring. The general hiring process is very long. It has initial selection, substantive selection, and contingent selection. The substantive selection is very important during the hiring process. “These are the heart of the selection process and include written tests, performance, tests, and interviews.” (Robbins & Judge, p.503) The internal promotion might not need to do these general processes. However, the external hiring will improve the company’s dynamics and the competition.

Thirdly, the training program is not perfect. According to a personnel manager, Robert Henry, he said lots of foremen were put on a line before they have enough knowledge. They don’t know how to deal with the problem during the work. “Training can include everything from teaching employees basic reading skills to conducting advanced courses in executive leadership.” (Robbins & Judge, p.507) the training system can provide basic skills, technical skills, problem solving skills, interpersonal skills, and civility training and ethics training. These are the necessary training for employees to get ready into the work. In a Lima employee survey, 96% foremen do not feel prepared to finish their duties of the job. The lack of knowledge made the total organization difficult and enhanced feelings of dissatisfaction.

Recommendations:

First, the company need come up with a training program for the foremen in Lima Plant. And we need to motivate the general supervisors and area supervisors to help company solve the problems together. And the company should set up a 4-week training, and each week set goals for the foremen to complete. And make sure they can finish the goal and catch up the next week’s goals. At the ending of each training session, the employees should be asked for feedback. And continue improve the training system.

Secondly, the company needs to change the schedule of 12 hours shift. It is a long time for employees. The company should reduce the workload, and give the employee more breaks to employees.

Thirdly, for hiring problems, I recommend to hire more experienced employees. By hiring more experienced employees for company, they would have experiences to handle the role of foreman. And hiring more college graduates would be increases the rate of the salary. Because of the colleges have excellent qualifications. So that, hiring the experienced employee is a best way to improve the situation of the company. They can handle the variety of the situation, and they have already trained well. This experienced foremen can lead team members to the right direction, and they are familiar with communicate with supervisors and respect the hourly workers.