Running Head: Case Study Analysis: The Treadway Tire Company 1

Case Study Analysis: The Treadway Tire Company:

Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant

Dennis Stovall

Kaplan University

GB 520 Strategic Human Resources Management

April 22, 2014

Case Study Analysis: The Treadway Tire Company 2

Abstract

This analysis focuses on the Treadway Tire Company’s efforts to curtail the rising cost of doing

business in the tire manufacturing industry. At a time during 2007 it was deemed essential by the

company’s HR advisor Ashely Wall to initiate procedures which would conceivably reduce costs

by curtailing the growing rate of employee attrition especially in the case of plant foreman

turnover. It was clear to chief advisor Wall that a specific plant, the one in’ Lima Ohio’ had all of

the necessary resources available to leverage a strategy in which to effectively marshal a

recovery. It was also clear to Wall that by all indications the employee turnover problem, which

was highest at the Lima Plant constituted just a percentage of the company’s overall operational

dysfunction at the time. Wall identified one of the dysfunctional causes as being the move from

regular eight hour a day shifts to shifts that operated on a twelve hour basis, twenty four hours a

day, seven days a week. This strategy allowed the company to reduce its labor costs while also
Case Study Analysis: The Treadway Tire Company 2

utilizing total plant capacity, thereby reducing production costs and allowing the spreading out of

fixed overhead.
Case Study Analysis: The Treadway Tire Company 2

Case Study Analysis: The Treadway Tire Company

By analyzing critical workforce disparities, e.g. the division of labor at the Lima Plantit

may be possible to identify some reasons why cost overruns were persistent, even though the

plants operating strategies had been streamlined.There was at the time a total workforce

consisting of 1,220 workers at the plant of which 970 were -blue collar production- union

workers and the other 150 were-white color- salary workers.

At first glance it would seem that the Union/Employee Relations Policies at the plant

were in good order. According to Skinner & Beckham (2008),”The union contract dictated job

classification, pay rates, the schedule for pay increases, overtime rates, benefits, health/safety

standards, and grievance procedures for hourly workers in the plant”(p.2,para.2) .The disparity

here was the fact that the entire majority of line foreman who oversaw all phases of production

were non-union company employees.

The problem of turn-over at the plant focuses directlyon the continuity of ascendance,

which required-‘education and skills’- to these elevated management positions.With regards to

the ranks of this exclusive group of management workers there were four critical areas of control

that required staffing bythem, i.e. the line foremen. These operating areas comprised Production,

Maintenance, Material Control, and Quality Assurance.In order to staff these operating sections

the company predominantly utilized the means of recruiting qualified candidates from within the

ranks of its blue collar labor force; a labor force consisting of mostly non-college graduates.

It was HR specialist Wall’s idea to increase the roster on line foreman with more college

graduates, which meant hiring from sources outside the usual internal ranks. In addition With

respects to the vertical chain of command their existed a staffing inconsistency as noted
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bySkinner & Beckham (2008),” According to Wall”, our most successful general supervisors and

area managers have risen from the foreman ranks. However, currently there do not seem to be

enough people in the foreman position with the potential to move up to the next management”

(p.3.para, 2).

It was strongly indicated that due to the nature of foreman’s duties required on a daily

basis at the plant, in conjunctionwith the increases made to the operational strategy, that these

factorswere causing dysfunctional behaviors to permeate throughout the workforce. The

increased magnitude of duties that the line foreman’s had to adjust their schedules to with

respects to the administration of thehourly workers union related issues was an increasingly

arduous task.

Conflicts arose as a result of the line foremen’s perceived rights under the company’s –

‘Adversarial Employment Relations Policy’- to discipline the hourly workers for

infractions,which were often opposed by the hourly workers mitigation rights enforced under

their respective union contracts. (Armstrong, 2009).

Although recruiting tests,background checks including interviews based on-experience

and job integrity for line foreman positions were articulate and comprehensive and the pay scale

was noticeably higher than average the majority of Lima Plant line foremenstill complained that

they had no actual authority over the workforce in most instances.

Conclusion

HR specialist Wall came to the realization that executive managements concern over the lack of

effectiveness within the line foreman’s ranks was being seriously overlooked in lieu of increased

profit objectives. Although she and upper management were in agreement that
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theproblemcomprised a lack of proper training with regards to the extent to which line foremen’s

were able to effectively understand the policies of and thereby control many issues emanating

from union supportive- hourly employee work ethics. To answer the question’What are the

strategies used by U.S. Companies today to keep themUnion-free and why is it critical to the

success of an organization in attaining its goals.

Objectively, the union-labor policies affecting the Lima Plant is the only reason why the

hourly-wage workforce was able to maintain a workable standard with regards to the intense-

tactical production schedules set by the Treadway Tire Company at the Lima Plant Facility. The

organizations only real objective was to maximize the scheduling of production in order to

increase profits due to the current hike in the prices for raw materials and pressures emanating

from global competition. They went about achieving this equality by applying a narrow schedule

to attain ashort-term strategic result, thus ignoring some very important needs of its workforce in

the process.

References:
Case Study Analysis: The Treadway Tire Company 2

Armstrong, M. (2009). Armstrong’s Handbook of Human Resources Management. 11th ed.120

Pentonville Road 525 South 4th Street, #241London N1 9JN Philadelphia PA

19147United Kingdom USA.www.koganpage.comISBN 978 0 7494 5242 1

Skinner,W. & Beckham, H. (2008) The Treadway Tire Company:

Job Dissatisfaction and High Turnover at the Lima Tire Plant. Source: Harvard Business
School, Brief Cases. 2189