preview

Fedex Case Study Essay

Better Essays
Open Document

Abstract Workers understand that companies, at times, need to take drastic actions. The real issue is whether they see the company balancing its immediate business interests against how those decisions will affect employees and the long term business sustainability. Labor relations is a broad field encompassing all the myriad interchanges between employers and employees. While labor relations is most often used to discuss this exchange as it pertains to unionized employees, it may also refer to nonunion employees as well. Labor relations are dictated in a large part by the government of a nation and the various regulations it provides regarding the treatment of employees. The forming of a union can be a precarious situation for …show more content…

The issue is whether layoffs are among the first response to difficulties or an action the company takes only reluctantly as a last resort and with generous and caring treatment of those affected (Kotter, 1996). It is instructive that among the most successful businesses of our time are organizations that have a policy not to lay off their permanent workers. In companies where there have been layoffs, there is a tendency for some managers and executives to assume that the survivors need little or no attention because, after all, they have survived. Indeed, they should be grateful because they are lucky to have a job. That’s not quite the way it works, especially if management acts as if the workers should be grateful. For one, workers worry about whether they are the next one out the door. Second, if the downsizing was one of management’s first actions and was handled insensitively, the remaining workers view of management as unconcerned about them is reinforced. This generates disengagement, not gratitude. Finally, as the remaining workers assume the duties of those who have left, their workload often dramatically increases, sometimes to beyond what they think is reasonable or possible. The problem is that what is commonly termed as “restructuring” is often not a restructuring at all, just the same amount of work for fewer employees to accomplish (Kotter, 1996). The employees who remain may be said to be fortunate to still have a

Get Access
Related
Get Access