Module 4 – Case
STRESS MANAGEMENT
Case Assignment
Case Study
Lisa McDonald is the new VP of HR at Company XYZ. She has
been with this company for 4 years and is nervous of this demanding position.
While working for Company XYZ as an HR Generalist, she went to school in the
evenings and earned a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management at a local
university. As a result of her education, she was the right person for the job
when the VP of HR left the company without notice. Unfortunately, Company XYZ
did not have a succession plan in place and the CEO decided to “throw” Lisa into
this prestigious position of VP of HR. Her first big project was to figure out
why productivity levels have been decreasing over the last three quarters. She
decided to create a survey. She had all of the employees at Company XYZ take
the survey.
After analyzing the results of the “Employee Climate and
Worklife” survey, she learned that many of the employees feel as if they are
overworked and burnt-out. After conducting some personal research and reviewing
the data from the last survey, she learned that many of the employees have over
200 hours of unused sick-time (i.e., 5 weeks) and over 400 hours (i.e., 10
weeks) of unused vacation time. Her employees did not want to take any time-off
from work. She wondered if it was because they simply loved their job or if
they were so overwhelmed with work, they could not afford to take time-off from
work.
After calling her favorite professor from college, she
understands that she has some options. Perhaps it’s time to implement a
condensed work week? Perhaps it’s time to give employees the option of working
10 hour shifts, 4 days per week? Perhaps it’s time to offer the senior
employees the option of working 13 hour shifts, 3 days per week? Perhaps it is
time to let employees telecommute? All of the options have potential and could
increase productivity levels and the other issues that emerged from the survey.
The only problem is that she needs to discuss the situation with the CEO before
she can implement a new policy.
Drawing on the material in the background readings and doing
additional research, please prepare a 2-4 page paper (not including the cover
and reference pages) in which you thoroughly answer the following questions
(your paper should be in essay format where you address these questions in your
essay):
Case Study Questions
How should Lisa McDonald approach the situation? As the new
VP of HR, is it worth implementing a new “controversial” policy (i.e.,
condensed work week) or is time for a routine work flow analysis and job
analysis? Justify your response.
Do you believe Company XYZ has an effective succession plan?
Justify your response. What are the consequences of not having a succession
plan?
Do you think a plausible solution for this situation is job
enlargement, job sharing, job rotation, and/or job enrichment? Justify your
response.
What if the CEO agrees to telecommuting? Create a memo
highlighting the policy in detail so there is no confusion.
As an HR Manager,
what is the best way to gauge how your employees feel about a telecommuting
policy (e.g., large meeting, anonymous survey, or one-on-one meetings)? Justify
your response.
If the CEO opposes telecommuting but is willing to hear some
“options for a condensed work week” (i.e., 3 days a week with 13 hours shifts),
what are the pros and cons of such a unique schedule?
Module 4 – SLP
STRESS MANAGEMENT
Please do some additional research regarding the pros and
cons to having a condensed work week and then create a PowerPoint presentation
where you will use as a training mechanism for your employees. You will be
promoting a 4-day work week with 10 hour shifts. You should have at least 15-20
slides. Once you have completed the PowerPoint presentation, you will use
“Record Narration” to record your presentation using a microphone.
Your presentation should be at least 5 minutes long.
SLP Assignment Expectations
You will be particularly assessed on:
Your completion of all the steps in the exercise.
Your ability to synthesize information and present a concise
and meaningful PowerPoint and audio presentation.
The clarity and quality of your PowerPoint and audio presentations.
