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The spring of 2002 had been grueling for the owner of Pet Care Veterinary Services, a small-animal veterinary practice with two clinics in Southwestern Ontario. Everything seemed to be going wrong at Pet Care's Avery, Ontario location. Profitability was disappointing, medication had disappeared, and the owner had serious concerns about her associate veterinarian's quality of animal care. The owner wondered what would be her best course of action. She could afford to keep the clinic open for another year and try to either fix the operational issues or leave things as they were and see if the problems resolved themselves. The owner wondered whether it would be best to sell and avoid future problems. What price would she ask for the clinic if she chose to sell? Whatever her choice, she knew she had to make a decision quickly, because the uncertainty and stress of running two clinics were beginning to take their toll.

More women than men at Fortune 1000 firms have reached executive officer positions in their 30s, 40s, and 50s--and they've done it faster. Still, nearly half of those companies lack female executive officers altogether.

Most companies do a thorough job of financial due diligence when they acquire other companies. But all too often, deal makers simply ignore or underestimate the significance of people issues in mergers and acquisitions. The consequences are severe. Most obviously, there's a high degree of talent loss after a deal's announcement. To make matters worse, differences in decision-making styles lead to infighting; integration stalls; and productivity declines. The good news is that human due diligence can help companies avoid these problems. Done early enough, it helps acquirers decide whether to embrace or kill a deal and determine the price they are willing to pay. It also lays the groundwork for smooth integration. When acquirers have done their homework, they can uncover capability gaps, points of friction, and differences in decision making. Even more important, they can make the critical "people" decisions--who stays, who goes, who runs the combined business, what to do with the rank and file--at the time the deal is announced or shortly thereafter. Making such decisions within the first 30 days is critical to the success of a deal. Hostile situations clearly make things more difficult, but companies can and must still do a certain amount of human due diligence to reduce the inevitable fallout from the acquisition process and smooth the integration. This article details the steps involved in conducting human due diligence. The approach is structured around answering five basic questions: Who is the cultural acquirer? What kind of organization do you want? Will the two cultures mesh? Who are the people you most want to retain? And how will rank-and-file employees react to the deal? Unless an acquiring company has answered these questions to its satisfaction, the acquisition it is making will be very likely to end badly.

Describes a series of three vignettes confronted by a fast-growing extended warranty services company, Extended Service Plans of America (ESPA). Doug Tudor had become the company's president after completing its acquisition for Asurion Corporation in June 2006, after a two-year search and negotiation process. Ninety-four days later, three situations occur simultaneously: one of Tudor's two top managers improperly leaks confidential information to the company's former owners; a terminated employee threatens to badmouth the company to its highest-profile customer; and new information regarding a VP's drinking and performance problems seems to call for urgent action. Allows students to understand how to deal with typical issues faced by small companies, including the dynamics of family-owned businesses, barriers faced when trying to professionalize management, and challenges faced by a new manager trying to build credibility in such an environment.

Dr. Jack Perry, a sole practitioner dentist in a small town in Ontario, had a meeting with one of his employees who suggested that there were several problems in the office. These include: low morale, lack of motivation to grow the business, fill cancellations, follow up on collections, and engage in cross-sell procedures. He had noticed these problems previously but felt unsure about his personnel and business management skills. Using his notes from a presentation made by a business consultant at a dental conference, he must decide how to act in order to address these problems.

"Tracey Burns, Director of Nursing at the King Edgar NHS Hospital Trust was assigned to head a project to improve the efficiency of patient flows throughout the hospital's system. The case describes how nurses are empowered to play a more proactive role in the process of discharging patients. In addition the Trust was going through a financial crisis, it had difficulties meeting government's waiting list targets and was receiving adverse media coverage. The case looks at how the nurses finally took responsibility for making the final decision to discharge individuals - traditionally the physician's job. The task was difficult as it meant the balance of power between physicians and nurses would alter, but in order for the process to change, there would have to be close cooperation between the two parties."

Student spreadsheet for case 907C04.

Describes the measurement and evaluation of high performance principles of people management in a retail bank by a consulting company and serves as a platform to deliberate on what is involved in an organization's quest to achieve competitive success through its workforce.

An abstract is not available for this product.

Many technology-intensive companies today depend on employees with specialized technical skills, and managers may not fully understand the work these employees do. Moreover, managers and technical employees may have very different worldviews, and their worldviews may conflict during the process of business innovation. After researching the movement of Internet and computing pioneers among various organizations during a period between the early 1960s and the mid-1990s, the authors identified two personality types (stewards and creators) that are vital to successful technological innovation--but whose mindsets often clash. Stewards are usually managers; their goal is the careful allocation of the organization's resources, with an aim of achieving an optimal return on investment. Creators are often skilled, specialized employees whose have a grand vision and mission; they frequently view business concerns as secondary. According to the authors, conflict between stewards and creators is, to some extent, inevitable. However, when such conflict is managed poorly, the organization's capacity to innovate effectively may be impaired. The authors suggest eight guidelines for managing steward-creator conflict. These guidelines include: (1) keep talented creators around, although they can be difficult to manage; (2) balance the influence of stewards and creators in the organization, so neither group always wins; (3) cultivate people who have credibility with both creators and stewards and can help resolve conflicts; (4) use peer review to more accurately evaluate creators' specialized technical work; (5) structure the innovation process so that creators produce tangible results regularly; (6) realize that there will always be some conflict between an organizations' creators and its stewards; (7) avoid overly prescriptive control mechanisms that may alienate creators; and (8) ensure that closure on projects is achieved neither too quickly nor too slowly.

Multinationals often make judgmental errors regarding cross-cultural issues and the business environments prevailing in foreign countries. Honda Motorcycles and Scooters India Ltd. (HMSI), a wholly owned subsidiary of Honda Motor Company Limited, Japan, established its plant in India in 1999 and made mistakes in handling people-management issues. It wanted to pursue a non-union model but failed to devise and implement an appropriate human resource management (HRM) strategy. Management was caught unaware when accumulated grievances led workers to turn hostile and form a union with the help of the trade union wing of a political party that was a partner in the ruling coalition at the federal level. The management failed to break workers' unity either by soliciting help from the state agencies or by using the legal system to their advantage. The subsequent power struggle led to violent clashes between the workers and the police, who had been called in for protection by HMSI management. The extensive media coverage not only tarnished the company's image, but also pressured the federal government to come to the rescue of the workers. This incompetent handling of HR issues by the company led to a long strike by the workers. The strike, besides causing substantial financial losses, also led to the emergence of a very strong union. In addition, production targets that were achieved on a daily basis before the union came into existence were seldom achieved after the conciliation came into effect. Provides insights into building and implementing a commitment model of HRM strategy, shows how employers should safeguard their interest by managing the countervailing power of workers in the Indian context, and discusses the dynamics of state power in Indian industrial relations and who can benefit from it in different contexts.

A study of executive life in one of history's great multinational enterprises--the British Empire--reveals that the leading workaday reality in foreign offices was boredom.

Cincinnati Works, a nonprofit employment agency in Ohio, provides an innovative business model for placing--and sustaining--unskilled entry-level workers.

During the past decade, retaliation as a basis for employment discrimination claims has risen dramatically from 4th to 2nd place (behind race), an increase of 46%. By definition, retaliation is the act of an employer, through a manager, inflicting an adverse action (such as discharge, discipline, or demotion) against an employee who has complained of discrimination. Retaliation claims open the possibility of punitive damages, examples of which are given. Drawing on 1,361 cases from a 21-year database, we report the characteristics of retaliation claims and offer recommendations to prevent and manage such claims.

Aligning employees with a firm's larger strategic goals is critical if organizations hope to manage their human capital effectively and ultimately attain strategic success. An important component of attaining and sustaining this alignment is for employees to have a "line of sight" (LOS) with their organization's strategic objectives. Illustrates how the translation of calculated firm goals into tangible results requires that employees not only understand the organization's strategy, but also accurately appreciate what actions are aligned with realizing that strategy. Using recent empirical evidence, theoretical insights, and tangible examples of exemplary firm practices, provides thought leaders with a comprehensive view of LOS by showing how it can be created, how it can be enhanced or stifled, and how it can be effectively managed. Further, integrates LOS with current thinking on employee alignment to help managers more effectively benefit from understanding human capital potential.

Although many organizations initiate communities of practice to drive performance and innovation, managers typically have little insight into their internal effectiveness and business impact. Offers network analytics, interventions, and metrics (both in terms of network connectivity and business outcomes) to improve and track the success of such community initiatives. Specifically, shows how social network analysis can help move a community from an ad hoc, informal group to a value-producing network by focusing on five critical levers: improving information flow and knowledge reuse; developing an ability to sense and respond to key problems or opportunities; driving planned and emergent innovation; nurturing value-creating interactions; and engaging employees through community efforts.

Simon Pemberton, a materials chemist at Applied Devices, is escorted by security guards to the company parking lot, where an HR manager tells him he's fired. Until that moment, things seemed to be going well. Simon had known, of course, about AD's zero-tolerance program, but it hadn't occurred to him that he'd violated it--particularly since his unauthorized e-mailing and Internet use were meant to serve the goal of scientific inquiry. Don Hardee, the CEO, strongly believes that deviations from a defined standard of behavior shouldn't be tolerated at AD. The dangers they pose to employees' health, safety, and morale, not to mention the company's productivity and reputation, are too great. Shirlee North, the head of HR, agrees. Ever since the jilted husband of an employee burst into AD's lobby waving a pistol, workers have been clamoring for security, and the zero-tolerance policies provide that. Initially, the program covered only weapon and drug possession, but the list of offenses warranting termination has grown considerably. When Shirlee's second in command argues that such policies are unworkable and unjust, Shirlee points out that the company intervenes only when the action is clearly prohibited, the harm actual or imminent, and the evidence unambiguous. Are Don and Shirlee right to stand firm, or should Applied Devices modify its program? Commenting on this fictional case study in R0611A and R0611Z are Janet Parker, the senior vice president of human resources for AmSouth Bank; Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA School of Law; Jean Halloran, the senior vice president of human resources at Agilent Technologies; and Michael G. Cherkasky, the president and CEO of Marsh & McLennan.

Simon Pemberton, a materials chemist at Applied Devices, is escorted by security guards to the company parking lot, where an HR manager tells him he's fired. Until that moment, things seemed to be going well. Simon had known, of course, about AD's zero-tolerance program, but it hadn't occurred to him that he'd violated it--particularly since his unauthorized e-mailing and Internet use were meant to serve the goal of scientific inquiry. Don Hardee, the CEO, strongly believes that deviations from a defined standard of behavior shouldn't be tolerated at AD. The dangers they pose to employees' health, safety, and morale, not to mention the company's productivity and reputation, are too great. Shirlee North, the head of HR, agrees. Ever since the jilted husband of an employee burst into AD's lobby waving a pistol, workers have been clamoring for security, and the zero-tolerance policies provide that. Initially, the program covered only weapon and drug possession, but the list of offenses warranting termination has grown considerably. When Shirlee's second in command argues that such policies are unworkable and unjust, Shirlee points out that the company intervenes only when the action is clearly prohibited, the harm actual or imminent, and the evidence unambiguous. Are Don and Shirlee right to stand firm, or should Applied Devices modify its program? Commenting on this fictional case study in R0611A and R0611Z are Janet Parker, the senior vice president of human resources for AmSouth Bank; Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA School of Law; Jean Halloran, the senior vice president of human resources at Agilent Technologies; and Michael G. Cherkasky, the president and CEO of Marsh & McLennan.

Simon Pemberton, a materials chemist at Applied Devices, is escorted by security guards to the company parking lot, where an HR manager tells him he's fired. Until that moment, things seemed to be going well. Simon had known, of course, about AD's zero-tolerance program, but it hadn't occurred to him that he'd violated it--particularly since his unauthorized e-mailing and Internet use were meant to serve the goal of scientific inquiry. Don Hardee, the CEO, strongly believes that deviations from a defined standard of behavior shouldn't be tolerated at AD. The dangers they pose to employees' health, safety, and morale, not to mention the company's productivity and reputation, are too great. Shirlee North, the head of HR, agrees. Ever since the jilted husband of an employee burst into AD's lobby waving a pistol, workers have been clamoring for security, and the zero-tolerance policies provide that. Initially, the program covered only weapon and drug possession, but the list of offenses warranting termination has grown considerably. When Shirlee's second in command argues that such policies are unworkable and unjust, Shirlee points out that the company intervenes only when the action is clearly prohibited, the harm actual or imminent, and the evidence unambiguous. Are Don and Shirlee right to stand firm, or should Applied Devices modify its program? Commenting on this fictional case study in R0611A and R0611Z are Janet Parker, the senior vice president of human resources for AmSouth Bank; Eugene Volokh, a professor at UCLA School of Law; Jean Halloran, the senior vice president of human resources at Agilent Technologies; and Michael G. Cherkasky, the president and CEO of Marsh & McLennan.

Ivor Tiefenbrun, head of the high-end audio equipment maker Linn Products, explains why the assembly line isn't always the most efficient way to manufacture.