Case 2

 How does McCain view her role as human resource manager?

Answer: Brenda McCain view her role as a Human Resource Manager at the Westpark store as
theprimary contact for all human resource related topics and issues, as opposed to the
previousreality of those actions being managed by the operations manager. Has a HR manager
shedeveloped policies and procedures for proper staffing. Brenda describes her process
ofmanaging human resource staff and keep abreast the employees performance has being
veryimportant and time consuming . Brenda’s primary responsibilities consists on interviewing
andhiring applicants, support the trainer with the new employee training classes, and manage
theperformance evaluations and career planning processes. McCain thinks that the high
turnoverin the sales department is a continue struggle. Because she wants a consistent enforce of
therules and procedures, she become the responsible for all disciplinary actions, which
includegathering the initial complaint from the supervisor, conducting the investigation and
inquiringthe employee and administering the appropriate discipline

 What is Harrison Brothers’ business strategy?

Answer: The Harrison Brothers is a multi-line traditional department store that is over 100 years
old. Their success led them to become one of the largest privately owned retail chains in the U.S.
The majority of the twenty Garrison Brothers stores are located in the Northeast and they sale
moderate to higher priced men’s, women’s and children’s clothing to their target audience:
middle-class and fashion-conscious customers. James Harrison, the current CEO, realizes that
the company must reinvent itself in order to better adapt to the industry challenges. He
recognizes that employee quality and performances a key element in the success of the company.
He identified five strategic goals to update the business model that has worked for the past
century:1. Convert non-selling space into revenue-generating selling space2. Build up
underdeveloped merchandise categories3. Invest aggressively in private brands like Polo,
Nautica and Tommy Hilfiger4. Reduce costs through the use of advanced computer systems to
project sales and manage inventory5. Improve productivity of sales associates, buyers and
department heads
 What is the structure and staffing of the human resources department?
Answer: Currently Harrison Brothers is being led by the CEO, James Harrison. He took over the
business after earning MBA at a prestigious business school. Mr. Harrison is thinking about the
future for Harrison Brothers and would like to shift away from the traditional business strategy
which was followed by Harrison brothers as the market is constantly changing and customers are
now looking for both value and specialization. He plans to implement new ideas that will
generate more revenue for the store. With that in mind, the store should have a great human
resource departments employee quality and performance would be one of the keys to the future.
He has hired a consultant to access the company’s strength and weakness. Brenda McCain was
the Human Resource Manager at the Westpark store of Harrison Brothers Corporation. When
Brenda first joined the team there was many responsibilities that were being performed by the
operations manager and one of the department heads. Since then, she has reorganized
responsibilities and spends much of her time managing the department, supervising employees
and selecting new employees for sales and support jobs. Many of the employees at Harrison
Brothers are part time, older or are in between jobs i.e., if a better job came along, they would
snap it immediately. This has led to high turnover for the store. Employees are hired based on
motivation, personality and drive. There also exists a Trainer, Joanne Flynn who assures all
employees are exposed to selling techniques and different ways of interacting with customers.
The training sessions for new sales person are held once in two weeks generally and once a week
during peak season. To take care of compensation there also exists a payroll clerk. Manager,
Jennifer Daft stated that Brenda and the rest of her staff seem to be struggling with keeping up
with day-to-day operations. Operations manager, Pat Hart Lake believes the human resource
department is understaffed and overworked most of the time and hence is slow in filling the
vacant sales position
 Analyze the data in Exhibit 1.4. What are its implications?
Answer: The data shows the mean ratings of the importance of different human resource
responsibilities for HR managers and store managers in terms of store performance.
The highest rated responsibilities for both HR managers and store managers were staffing and
performance management, with mean ratings of 4.5 and 4.0, respectively. This indicates that
both groups recognize the importance of having the right people in the right positions and
managing their performance effectively for store success.
Training and development were also rated highly by both groups, with HR managers giving it a
slightly lower rating than store managers. This suggests that both groups acknowledge the
importance of investing in employee training and development to improve their skills and
performance.
Compensation and safety were rated lower than the other responsibilities, indicating that they
may not be perceived as critical factors for store success. However, it is important to note that
these responsibilities still received above-average ratings, indicating that they are still seen as
somewhat important.
Interestingly, store managers rated knowledge of business and managing change much higher
than HR managers did. This suggests that store managers may see the importance of
understanding the business and being able to adapt to changes in the industry or market more
than HR managers do.
The implications of this data are that there are differences in perception between HR managers
and store managers regarding the importance of certain human resource responsibilities. HR
managers may need to work on understanding the store managers' perspectives better to align
their HR strategies with the store's goals and objectives. Additionally, this data highlights the
need for ongoing communication and collaboration between HR and store management to ensure
that all responsibilities are given appropriate attention and resources.
  Given the organizations size and strategic goals, evaluate the development of the
human resource function at Harrison Brothers. What problems do you see? How
could its major human resource functions be improved?
Answer: Given the size of organization, the HR department seems to be understaffed and
overworked most of the time. With the CEO’s new business strategy there is an enhanced focus
on Human resources. Earlier the human resource was not playing a key role in the organization.
The operations manager also experienced problems with the human resource unit when they
were not able to recommend decisive action on immediate human resource problems. These
problems were attributed to the operations manager having to perform a dual task of handling
operations and human resource functions and the heightened employee disillusionment expressed
in the high turnover rate. The company recognized the need to boost its human resource unit to
support its strategic goals. Hence once Brenda took over, major functions such as staffing,
training and disciplinary actions were being looked after by Human resource department.
However, the changes made in human resources management are not sufficient to fully support
the company’s strategic goals. Brenda herself felt that the employee career development
assessment remains as problem areas. The human resource management unit should enhance the
assumption of its role as a key player in the organization to help achieve the strategic goals of the
company. It starts with identification of human resource issues of the company, the
determination of the best possible solution to these issues through coordination with the other
work units. In achieving the goal of improving the sales performance of personnel, human
resource activities have to improve staffing, training and motivation policies to attract qualified
personnel to remain and contribute their knowledge. It also has to develop good relations with
the managers of the other working units through communication. It also has to organize and
streamline all its activities to include all important functions, particularly employee career
development assessment and policy innovations. Also the human resource department needs to
be adequately staffed so that Brenda and team could off load some of its duties and focus on
other new policies.

Group: 8

Abdullah Al Mamun (23-92834-1)

Ahmed, Fahim (23-92825-1)