Analyze the main issues are raised in this case?
Changes at OZ Newspapers
The atmosphere is the room was tense. Ted Kimoski, chief financial officer for the OZ Newspapers, had just finished his presentation. The general manager, John Campbell, sat quietly making notes, after pausing he broke the silence “From what you have shown us, Ted, it seems that we face the following problems. Our costs are not competitive. Benchmarked against local best practice, our printing and distribution costs are the highest in the industry, but by rationalizing our operations we can have save $50 million in annual costs. It is clear that our low productivity and high labour costs are killing us. Our newspaper sales and advertising income are both failing-people are simply not reading newspaper anymore. In short we must use technology to make our operations more competitive. We have to change and move into 21st century”. Ted looked directly at John. ”John that’s it in a nutshell. The internet is disruptive technology. We have to get readers to pay for online content. Readers have changed and they are not going to go back to buying newspapers. All our print operations are bleeding badly. Worse the company’s overall financial position is deteriorating rapidly. If we don’t do something soon, we risk either being taken over or going out of business. Our share price has dropped 60 per cent in the past 12 months and it is now widely rumored in the market that we are a takeover target’.
John nodded in acknowledgement, and then turned to face Paul Jaworski, editor in chief. ‘Paul what do you think?’
‘Of course Ted is right- our performance is appalling. Our problems are several. We have to rationalize our printing operations, we have to reduce our headcount and we have to make a massive push to embrace all things digital’.
‘We have terrible productivity because we don’t have labour flexibility’, interjected Mary Wong, HR manager. ‘Union restrictions make it impossible to work efficiently. Absenteeism and labour turnover are ridiculously high. Our workers are not motivated. We constantly face fights with the unions over change issues, outsourcing and the use of contractors. Yet, our pay rates and conditions of employment are in the top quartile for the industry.
‘What’s more’, snapped Ted, our people have a history or resisting change and management authority. We need to consolidate all printing at one site which will mean closing our plants in South Australia and New South Wales (NSW). The unions will resist the loss of 500 jobs. We are at breaking point. The government’s Fair Work Act (2009) legislation is really encouraging the unions to flex their muscles. These Industrial Relation (IR) changes could not have come at a worse time for us.’
‘Well, you can understand’, said May. ‘Their jobs are so specialized they will find it difficult to similar high paying job elsewhere’. ‘Well the world is changing and they have to change too if not they are not going to be road kill like the rest of us,’ snapped Ted. ‘Nevertheless, our employees and especially the unionized ones are not going to accept such decisions without a fight’, added Mary. ‘Well if they haven’t noticed, newspaper publishing is a shrinking industry, our shareholders are demanding action. They have to realize change is unavoidable. Technological and social changes are like a Tsunami washing over this industry’, John concluded
Source: Adapted from Stone,R. (2020). Strategic Human Resource Management. (10th Edition).Milton QLD: John Wiley & Sons. Australia, Ltd, pg.623
Based on the case above, please discuss the following:
- Analyze the main issues are raised in this case? From your point of view, how would you deal with these issues.
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