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Brings the history of People Express up to the summer of 1986. Raises the question of whether its innovative human resource policies were successful pr problematic.

Describes People Express business strategy and whether it was successful. Describes changing environment in the airline industry and asks students to make decisions concerning a new business strategy for People Express. Follow-up to the (A) case.

Describes situation facing Don Burr at People Express in May of 1985. Purpose is to get students to make a business policy decision. Follow-up to People Express - March 1984.

Describes the background to the recent agreement between Campbell Soup Co. growers and Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) settling a seven year dispute and boycott. This agreement serves as a possible model for resolving farm labor disputes and may provide a basis for legislation to regulate the two and a half million farmworkers in the United States.

Describes two different approaches to the process of action planning and implementation. Offers specific advice for action planning and for learning how to action plan.

The nonpunitive approach to discipline is gaining acceptance at U.S. companies. Since Tampa Electric adopted a nonpunitive system of discipline companywide in January 1981, it has reported only favorable results. Organizations that have adopted a nonpunitive system have found measurable reductions in absenteeism, dismissals, disciplinary actions, grievances, and arbitration. They have also found a reduction in wrongful termination suits.

People decisions are long lasting in their consequences and difficult to unmake. At most one third of such decisions come out right. Executives who take their people decisions seriously will find the following principles helpful: 1) take responsibility for the decision--if the person the executive places in a position does not perform, the executive has made a mistake; 2) it is the duty of managers to make sure that the responsible persons in their organizations perform; 3) make the decision well; 4) don't give new people major new assignments. There are also some basic steps managers can follow in making effective promotion and staffing decisions.

Many American companies have begun to plan for their professional, managerial, and technical personnel. The most critical element is management's appreciation for the ways in which its human resource decisions affect the company's ability to achieve its business plans--and vice versa. Designing and strengthening work programs, assessing the corporate culture, and modifying or reinforcing it from the top are among the ways human resource planners target performance objectives.

Involves the design and creation of a company with no formally-defined hierarchy. Describes the steps the founder takes to avoid the organizational politics he perceives as crushing the human contributions they were designed to harness.

Fifteen years later, the company has achieved widespread recognition in the industry for its innovative designs, its quality products, and its highly ethical standards for business dealings. This case describes the organization, the plant, and current concerns.

There are two radically different strategies for managing a company's workforce--a strategy based on imposing control and a strategy based on eliciting commitment. At the heart of control strategy is the wish to establish order, exercise control, and achieve efficiency in operations. Underlying the commitment strategy is a management philosophy that acknowledges a company's multiple stakeholders--owners, employees, customers, and the public. At first, most organizations adopt a limited set of changes--that is, a "transitional" approach. Evidence suggests that the rate of such transformations will continue to accelerate and the move toward commitment will extend to a larger number of plants and offices.

Traces the efforts of Patrick Rich, CEO of Alcan Europe, to bring the company into a stable, profitable situation after having lost $120 million in 1982. Focuses on a wide variety of issues, including setting objectives and strategies for the region, creating appropriate coordinating mechanisms, achieving the appropriate degree of independence and coordination among the subsidiaries, maintaining a climate of frugality and capital constraints, and finally, achieving an appropriate organizational structure. Two videotapes are available from the Audio-Visual Department for HBS instructors' use with this case.

Prompted by the success of Japanese products in the United States, American companies are seeking to upgrade quality and productivity by adopting quality circles--programs that allow employees to meet in groups to solve common work problems and to make suggestions to management. Although managers expect quality circles to create a more participative workplace, the groups must first progress through a series of growth stages, each containing key activities as well as threats to the programs' existence. Study of quality circles in different organizations indicates that resistance by middle management and staff, budget cuts, and participants' disillusionment usually precipitate their decline.

Mill manager Carl Adelman learns that a group of senior managers is soon to visit the Tiger Creek mill to learn more about the success of the newly implemented Expense Tracking System. The System had been installed on two paper machines to give workers real time cost data enabling them to optimize the papermaking process. Impressive savings resulted from the operating innovations made by the paper machine operators, and this has engaged corporate attention. However, the savings rate seems to have plateaued. Andelman must discover why before the VIP visit.

A study of first-line supervisors' responses to employee involvement programs shows that although 72% of the supervisors saw the programs as good for the company and 60% saw them as good for employees, only 31% saw them as good for themselves. Managers should pay attention to these findings because the programs need the support of supervisors if they are to succeed. Each of five types of supervisors has its own reasons for opposing employee participation: proponents of Theory X think workers will take advantage of the programs; status seekers do not want to relinquish their authority; skeptics question the ability of the organization to change; equality seekers think they too--not just the workers--should be included in the programs; and deal makers prefer one-on-one interactions with employees through which they can strike deals.

Four managers of Hugh Russel, Inc. had to change their management style when the company was acquired by a corporation that had no plan and no money on the eve of a major recession. To deal with the new, unsettled environment in which creditors were banging on the door and plants had to be closed, the managers had to develop a "soft", intuitive framework that offers a counterpart to every element in their traditional "hard", rational model. The executives found that the key to effective management is knowing whether you are in hard "box" or a soft "bubble" context. The soft model is conducive to trust, which generates a sense of mission or common purpose. Once the mission is established, the managing group can enter the hard box of strategy.

Describes Hay Associates Climate Survey Questionnaire and the eight dimensions of organizational climate. Rewritten by G.W. Baird, company partner.

Provides a glossary of executive compensation terms. Rewritten by G.W. Baird, company partner.

Faced with large losses in Alcan Aluminum (Europe), Patrick Rich takes the position of area general manager and slashes capital budgets, introduces new financial controls, and sets up mechanisms for increasing cooperation among the national subsidiaries. The focus is on the tactics of implementing rapid change in a cyclical industry that is capital intensive. Two videotapes are available from the Audio-Visual Department for HBS instructors' use with this case.

To improve the performance of American corporations, we must improve the effectiveness of corporate boards of directors. Corporate governance is just as important as corporate management. Corporations need personnel who can take the long-term view and make long-term commitments. They also need stockholders who are willing to hold onto their shares for long periods so that they become owners rather than speculators.