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3 pages/β‰ˆ825 words
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APA
Subject:
Management
Type:
Case Study
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English (U.S.)
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A Diamond Assignment: Case Application

Case Study Instructions:

A diamond Assignment
Arianna Goodland, the Human Resources Director at Elite Jewelry Incorporated, was dismayed to see another Workers Compensation case from the factory floor. What is going on, she wondered. The experience rating for the company is going to take a hit with this new workplace injury which will mean paying more money for their Workers Compensation premiums. She knew that with making jewelry there are toxic chemicals and fumes that could lead to kidney disease and cancer as well as cause burns and other injuries.
Arianna would be best off fixing this sooner than later to get things back on track and of course to keep the employees safe as well.
At the last executive meeting the Finance Director informed the executive team that profits were down. They were going to try to find out what was happening. So far it seems that a lot of the problem was jewelry that had been returned to the stores. They had always had an incredible reputation for quality and had enjoyed being a premium brand. Sales were down a bit too and then there was the increase in sick time costs. How could this have gone off the rails? They were paying good wages and also paying for performance. What do these employees want? And now with another workplace injury on top of this mess, things were getting serious.
“I will have to go to the factory floor myself and see if I can figure out what is happening.”, Arianna told her boss.
When Arianna arrived at the factory, she talked with one of the employees in the lounge that was hurriedly putting their lunch bag in the fridge. “How are things going here?”, she asked, being very casual about it. The employee was in a rush and said they had to get to their work station and left without a glance back. There were a few rumors of people not being that happy.
People were not that willing to talk especially when someone from Human Resources came by. Arianna looked around the lounge at the walls and bulletin board but saw things were pretty empty with the exception of a makeup sales brochure tacked to the bulletin board. Mary Kay. Someone else had put up a cookie dough fundraiser sale sign up sheet. Two employees had put their name down to buy cookie dough.
Arianna knew that the employees are getting paid well, based on their production of the jewelry pieces to keep them moving and motivated. The more earrings or necklaces they made the better!
Arianna continued her tour of the facility and noticed that some ear protection was not in the workers ears but around their neck. The plastic eye protection glasses were on some employee’s head instead of shielding their eyes. An employee did admit that it was hard to see through the plastic eye protection glasses while making the jewelry. Another employee was rushing to finish a necklace before the end of their shift.
There are toxic chemicals and soldering involved in making the jewelry and the employee that got injured this time got a burn on their hand. How serious was the injury? Would the person be back to work soon or is the injury such that making jewelry might not be something the person could do in the future? Gloves were provided to all staff as well as lab coats to protect employees from injury.
Arianna looked around for one of the supervisors but could not find the person. She asked where Wendy, the shop supervisor, was and found out that Wendy had called in sick. Another supervisor had quit last month and had not been replaced yet. She remembered that another employee had resigned a few weeks ago. Well, walked out and never came back was more like it, but that was another situation. Arianna had not done any exit interviews in over six months as she was too busy to worry about people that did not like it at Elite Jewelry. What is not to be happy about anyway! They got a jewelry discount too, but of course the prices were pretty high with this being an elite brand.
Why was everyone in such a rush around here? Arianna wondered. And what is happening with the quality of the product if the company is experiencing so many returns? This jewelry is supposed to be top of the line, elite level as their company name said.
Arianna left the facility and decided that she would call Wendy in the morning.

Questions
1. What kind of performance pay is being used?
2. Is this type of performance pay working?
3. What should Arianna do to improve the situation?
4. What is going on with the Occupational Health & Safety in this factory?
5. What steps should Arianna take to fix this situation?
6. What are the employer Occupational Health & Safety obligations?
7. What are the employee Occupational Health & Safety rights and obligations?
8. What should be done to help the company with the profitability and quality of their jewelry?
Keep your response to a maximum of 4 double spaced pages, plus cover page and reference page.

Case Study Sample Content Preview:

A Diamond Assignment
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Case Application
What kind of performance pay is being used?
The type of performance pay explored in this case study is the merit pay increases. According to Arianna, the employees received pay increases based on their overall high performance annually. The company used to evaluate the performance of the employees and then budgeted for the payment in advance. They are the most commonly used type of pay-for-performance because they incorporate the recognition of each employee's performance (Thomas-Holladay, 2003). As noted, the type of pay-performance allows the company to reward the top performers (Long & Singh, 2006). It is why many of the employees were rushing to complete manufacturing their jewelry to meet its targets and consumer demands.
Is this type of performance pay working?
The type of performance pay provided herein was not working. It was not working for many reasons. The company's profits were down as noted from the last executive meeting. As noted from the meeting, the primary problem was that much of the jewelry sold to customers had been returned to the store. It means that the jewelry had faults right from the manufacturing department or did not meet the needs of the consumers, as noted from the company's marketing. It was a turn of events for the worst because it had always maintained an incredible reputation. Many of the employees were unhappy because many had sick leaves and others, like some supervisors, quit their jobs, leaving the employees without a leader.
What should Arianna do to improve the situation?
One major problem notable from the case study is that Arianna had been too busy to do exit interviews with employees. The case study reveals that the Human Resource Manager was not ready to listen to any employees because they were not supposed to make any complaints. They were being remunerated excellent and, thus, they should be better working. Therefore, this is the beginning of the whole problem. Arianna should offer employees the opportunity to air their grievances (Long & Singh, 2006). The employees should suggest the most important changes that the management should implement in the human resource department. Despite paying the employees handsomely, it does not mean that their grievances and workplace issues were solved. Therefore, Arianna should focus on empowering employees and drop the merit-increases pay-for-performance. Empowering the employees m...
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