Supplements the (A) case.

The manufacturing manager of Webster's largest division is told to cut his managerial payroll by 15%. Provides company background data and a description of the manufacturing manager's reactions to the proposed reduction. Provides the students with an opportunity to design a strategy for making the reduction decisions and also to discuss some of the difficulties inherent in a large reduction of force. Also contains a detailed description of Webste...

Too many retail managers believe that they must offer bad jobs to keep prices low. As a result, almost one-fifth of American workers suffer low wages, poor benefits, constantly changing schedules, and few opportunities for advancement. The author's research reveals, however, that the presumed trade-off between investment in employees and low prices is false. To meet short-term performance targets, many retailers cut labor. The unmotivated and poo...

Zhang Ruimin's leadership of the renowned Haier Group began before the Chinese company even carried that name. More than 20 years ago, Zhang was appointed director of the Qingdao Refrigerator Factory, which faced enormous debt and didn't seem likely to survive, let alone prosper. The main challenge in those early days was boosting the morale of his workers, who had gone unpaid for months and grown deeply dispirited. Zhang borrowed money so he cou...

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. In developed nations, the workforce is aging rapidly. That trend has serious implications. Companies could face severe labor shortages in a few years as workers retire, taking critical knowledge with them. Businesses may also see productivity decline among older em...

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. Companies have focused so much on downsizing to contain costs that they've largely neglected a looming threat to their competitiveness: a severe shortage of talented workers. The general population is aging and with it, the labor pool. People are living longer, hea...

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. They make up more than half your workforce. They work longer hours than anyone else in your company. From their ranks come most of your top managers. They're your mid-career employees, the solid citizens between the ages of 35 and 55 whom you bank on for their loya...

In June 2007, Nikolaus Bauer, the head of BMW's 2,500-employee power train plant in Dingolfing, Lower Bavaria, asked two of his production line managers, "How are we going to maintain our productivity as the workforce gets older and older?" BMW is not the only company with this concern. Corporate leaders, politicians, and labor economists in most developed nations are worried about the consequences of demographic change in their labor markets, wh...

This article includes a one-page preview that quickly summarizes the key ideas and provides an overview of how the concepts work in practice along with suggestions for further reading. Today's overachieving professionals labor longer, take on more responsibility, and earn more than the workaholics of yore. They hold what Hewlett and Luce call "extreme jobs," which entail workweeks of 60 or more hours and have at least five of ten characteristics-...

The same question posed on the web and in print can yield very different answers, dramatically distorting survey results and misleading management. But, as psychologist Palmer Morrel-Samuels demonstrates, the problems are readily fixed.