Staff Numbers And Hostile Job Conditions: Analysis, Implications & Alternatives

Critical analysis of case study and implications of Bob and Sam’s plan

Discuss about the Staff Numbers And Create Hostile Job Conditions.

Business organisations opt to downsize their operations in order to achieve cost cuts. The human resource departments and the recruitment experts often consider downsizing the staff numbers and create hostile job conditions. The aim is to make highly paid experiences resign and recruit new employees who have be paid low in their positions. The paper opens against a case study where two personnel of Silvertail Airline are considering laying senior employees and replacing them with new employees. The study would analyse the situation presented in the case study. Then it would go on to analyse the impact of downsizing on organisations like Silvertail. Then the researcher would prepare an HR plan which would act as an alternative to downsizing.

The case provided opens against of the background of the Singapore aviation industry which is one of the most modern and innovative aviation industries in the world. The government of Singapore maintained a duopoly in the airline service industry which only had two players, Singapore Airline, which is still largely owned by the Government of Singapore and Silvertail Airline, which was its only competitor (forbes.com 2018). The two airline company took advantage of the limited number of airline service providers in the aviation industry in Singapore and offered service to customers at very high price. The two airline companies provided limited number of flights to the customers. The aviation industry in Singapore experienced change in 1980s when the Government of Singapore liberalised the airline industry in the country. The opening of the aviation market of Singapore attracted entry of several low cost airline companies which offered more innovative services in the country. This entry of the low cost airline companies from other market made the aviation market of Singapore extremely competitive which necessitated Silvertail airlines undergo several dynamic changes (Agnihotri et al. 2017). Fall in the share price of Silvertail Airline and pressure from the institutional investors led to change in its board of directors. The new board of directors comprised of experts from diverse fields like marketing, advertisements and even specialists from the United States of America. The new apex management of Silver was leaner and followed flat structure. The airline company in order to make the decision making mechanism more dynamic, the middle level management was done away with, maintenance was placed under third-party companies and regional branches were closed. Silvertail underwent several innovations as far as technology was concerned but failed to replace its existing staff members of its cabin crew (Yu et al. 2014). The recruitment manager, Sam Milroy and Bobbi Stephens, the director, cabin crew were discussing about the replacing the ageing cabin crew members, but using unethical methods. Sam was analysing thwe changing preferences of customers who demanded younger and more dynamic cabin crew. Boddi quipped the current cabin crew the Silvertail hired was not as young as the crew of its competitors. Sam pointed out that the ageing cabin crew of the airline company could not be rendered redundant because that would cause negative publicity of the airline company, thus tarnishing its brand value as an employer and service provider (Pan 2015). Bobbi instead of dismissing these ageing employees preferred making the working conditions challenging which would automatically cause them to resign. He suggested reducing the number of crew members on board which would require each crew member to attend more number of passengers, thus put stress on them to perform. He then suggested changing the accommodation of the cabin crew from five star hotels to three star hotels, thus making their accommodation less comfortable. Sam further added that the ageing cabin crews should be placed on long haul flights which would force them to stay away from their families for long duration, thus disturbing their work-life-balance. Bobbi in order to put further stress on the senior employees suggested that it should be mandated for every employee to have knowledge about a second language and a degree (Saeidi et al. 2015). The company may provide education assistance on the condition that the employees would have to complete the courses in five years. If they are not able to complete the course within 5 years, they either repay the employer or finance their own studies for the rest of the duration. Sam suggested incorporating these changes in the new job description and internal eligibility job parameters.

Implications of Sam and Bobbi’s plan

An analysis of the case study would reveal several aspects. First, the case study presents a picture of the aviation industry in Singapore which is extremely competitive. It clearly mentions entry of lost cost airline companies into the Singaporean aviation market post liberalisation of the industry by the Government of Singapore. This threat from the low cost flyers necessitated the resident airline companies undergo change in their organisational structures (Rapp and Baker 2017). The high degree of competition necessitated the large companies make their decision making machinery flat to be able to take prompt decisions in response to market opportunities.

The case study presents a second situation when the airline companies are replacing their ageing cabin crew with new staff which have knowledge about a second language and additional degree. An analysis of these two new requirements would reveal that the impact of increasing diversity of the customer base which the aviation industry in Singapore serves. The aviation industry in Singapore serves customers from different countries with different languages. This shows that the air hostesses serving them are also require to know a second language to be able to serve them better and ensure high degree of customer satisfaction. The new staff members of Silvertail had knowledge about second language while the senior employees did not. This prevented them from serving the passengers on board efficiently which required them to be replaced by new staff members.

The analysis of the conversation of the Sam Milroy, the recruitment manager at Silvertail airline and Bobbi Stephens would reveal several aspects of human resource management. Sam, at the opening of his speech referred to the competitive target market and customer preferences. This dialogue of his shows that human resource management comes under influence of external environmental factors. Bobbi in his dialogue spoke about the necessity of the employees of a service providing organisation like an airline company to ensure customer satisfaction. The conversation of Sam and Bobbi then went on to shed light on work-life-balance of the employees, which is an important aspect of HRM. While Sam was concerned more about day to day job responsibilities of the cabin crew, Bobbi took it to next level of performance appraisal. He emphasised that the members of the cabin crew would be required to have a degree and knowledge about a second language. Sam then went on to suggest aligning the job descriptions of employees with the appraisal parameters. Their conversation finally shows that organisations are required to manage changes efficiently so as to keep their brand names and market images intact. The entire conversation points out to the need of managing changes within the organisations in an efficient way.

Alternatives to Staff Downsizing

An adoption of the above plans by Silvertail set by Sam and Bobbi would have the following implications:

The conversation between Sam and Bobbi clearly shows that they were emphasising on recruitment more dynamic and younger cabin crew members. They were also emphasising on recruiting cabin crew members having knowledge of a second language and a degree. Adoption of this strategy would ensure that the newly recruited cabin crew members would be able to serve customers on board better, thus ensuring greater degree of customer satisfaction.

The second implication of the change of ageing crew members with newly hired dynamic cabin crew members would ensure higher degree of customer satisfaction. Rodriguez, Peterson and Ajjan (2015) mention that high degree of customer satisfaction result in high degree of profitability. If the management of Silvertail accepts the proposal of Sam and Bobbi, this would lead to induction of dynamic and younger crew members on board which would result in higher degree of customer satisfaction and maximise the revenue generation of the company.

Sam and Bobbi were emphasising on making the job responsibilities of the ageing crew members tougher which would force them to resign. While this would pave ways more opportunities to the new and dynamic crew members gaining promotion, it would also lead to loss of ageing employees. Ageing and experienced employees can contribute towards ensuring high degree of customer satisfaction due to their experience of serving customers. If the management of Silvertail accepts the suggestion of Sam and Bobbi altogether, it would lose experienced employees which would impact its quality of customer services in a negative way. Moreover, these experienced employees may join competing airline companies at higher positions and enable them to form appropriate strategies owing to their knowledge about strengths and weaknesses of Silvertail.

Cascio (2018) defines downsizing as the human resource strategy of the business organisations to reduce their number of employees. Business organisations downsize their human resources to reduce their cost of operations since having a large number of employees also means high salary expenditure which lowers its net profits. The business organisations sometimes take to downsizing their job force to streamline their human resource and align them with the business needs (Brewster et al. 2016). An evaluation of downsizing tactics on business organisations like Silvertail Airline would reveal the following advantages and disadvantages:

The following are the advantages of downsizing of operations of business organisations:

Downsizing enable business organisations reduce their expenditure after employee salaries which can be allocated towards making the business stronger. For example, the case study presents Sam and Bobbi conversing about replacing ageing cabin crew members with new cabin crew members. The new cabin crew members would be accommodated in three star hotels instead of five star hotels where the ageing employees were accommodated. This analysis shows that downsizing enables business organisations to reduce expenditure like employee salary. One can also point out that the airline company is adopting a combined strategy job redesigning and reducing work force to downsize its human resource.

Reduction in work force and hiring of new employees enable organisations to align their human resource with their business requirements, thus enabling lean human resource management. When organisations resort to laying off old employees and replacing them with new employees, they can recruit these new employees more aligned to the business requirements. For example, Silvertail Airlines can employ new cabin crew members knowing two languages and having a degree. This would enable the aviation company to align them to customer demands (Kramar 2014). This analysis shows that downsizing of human resources business organisations make their operations lean and profitable.

As per Thirkell and Ashman (2014), downsizing can enable business organisations to enable high degree of customer satisfaction. The population of Singapore consists of large number of people from other Asian countries like China and India (data.gov.sg 2018). This would mean that these people have their own language like, the Chinese prefer speaking in Chinese. The case study clearly mentions that the new staff members, unlike their ageing counterparts are trained in a second language. This means they can communicate with the customers on board better compared to their senior counterparts. This implies they would be able to ensure higher degree of customer satisfaction (Gachoka 2015). Thus downsizing of human resources enable in achievement of customer satisfaction and revenue generation.

A critical analysis of the effects of downsizing strategies of human resource management would reveal the following disadvantages:

Anuar, Saad and Yusoff (2018), mention that downsizing leads to business organisations lose their experienced staff members. Business organisations often hire less experienced new employees whom they pay less. This may apparently save expenditure in the short run, the enterprises lose senior employees. For example, the case study shows Sam and Bobbi of Silvertail are contemplating on making working conditions hard for senior employees to compel them to resign. This would lead to loss of senior employees having in depth knowledge of the requirements and expectations of the passengers on board. This would affect the productivity of the airline company which would ultimately lead it to lose customers to its competitors. Moreover, these senior employees can also join competitor companies and enable them make more formidable business strategies (Hair Jr et al. 2015).

Downsizing may lead to business organisations losing business partners like customers. For example, Silvertail airlines is looking forward to replacing senior employees with new employees. This means the new employees on board would have less experience about the expectations of the customers on board which would lead to reduced customer satisfaction. These customers as a result may switch over to the competitor airline companies having more experienced employees on board.

Eichner (2016) mentions that downsizing and laying off experienced employees would result in lowering of goodwill of business organisations. When airline companies like Silvertail lays off employees, it creates insecurity among the rest of the employees and results in high employee turnover. All these hampers the goodwill of the business organisations which ultimately causes long term loss to its business.

Downsizing and rendering senior employees redundant would have negative effect on the motivation of the employees. The ill-treatment and hostile environment which Sam and Bobbi were looking forward to create to exert mental pressure on senior employees. They would be forced to resign and that would create insecurity among the junior employees. They would harbour negative feelings towards the management and that would eat into their motivation (Gachoka 2015).

Business organisations like Silvertail Airline can adopt the following downsizing strategies as alternatives to laying off senior employees and creating hostile business environments, forcing them to resign:

Thirkell and Ashman (2014) mention that training and development can enable business organisations improve their human resources. Business organisations can train and mentor their ageing employees to take up new responsibilities instead of laying them off. Sam and Bobbi in the case study were considering creating hostile environment to employees so that they resign. This would make them easier to employ new employees whom they can pay less. This might seem profitable but it be effective only in the short run. The business organisation would in fact lose experienced employees by laying senior employees off. The airline company can train these employees to take new responsibilities either in the organisation or in its subsidiaries. This would enable the organisation to take advantage of their talent and experience (Gachoka 2015). It would also motivate the new employees to work harder to gain promotion and appraisal to those high posts.

The business organisations instead of lay off senior employees can consider career and succession planning for them. The human resource department can airline companies like Silvertail can train them for higher posts. This would have several positive results as far as a business productivity of the company is concerned. First, the company would not have to recruit employees for high posts and these employees can fill the gap. They are aware of the business environment in the organisation and are in a better position to take decisions. Moreover, this career succession and retention of senior employees would enable Silvertail Airline to form business strategies in advance, thus ensuring higher business productivity (Nolan and Garavan 2016). Thirdly, this career and succession planning would enable the Silvertail to align its employees with its business requirements. Fourth, this would result in low employee turnover and boost brand value as an employer.

The human resource department of Silvertail Airline should set the following plan to address human resource needs of the future:

The human resource department of the airline company should form human resource strategy for the future. It should consider facts like number of requirements of staff required in each project or department in the coming peak season. The HR department then can then make an estimate whether it requires to recruit external candidates or not considering its present available resources. Thus, instead of rendering its senior employees redundant, it can utilise them to fulfil the business requirements of the peak season.

Bamber et al. (2014) mention that training enable business organisations to increase their capabilities of their employees. Business organisations like Silvertail instead of laying off senior employees can provide them training. This would enable to management to promote them to areas of new responsibilities and derive benefit from their experiences. This would ensure efficient utilisation of existing human resources and save the company from expenditure of hiring new employees.

The human resource departments of business organisations should motivate the employees to achieve higher degree of performances. The case study shows that the two personnel holding strategic positions in Silvertail were more concerned in laying off senior cabin crew members. They wanted productivity from employees in return of reduced employee benefits. This clearly clearly their lack of foresight and planning capability of retaining employees. The human resource departments of organisations should motivate the employees to using various financial and non-financial incentives. The financial incentives can consist of incentives for performances and reward bonus for tenured employees (Mostafa et al. 2015). The non-financial motivation methods can consist of methods like paid leaves and awards. These methods would motivate employees to achieve higher degree of performances.

The human resource department should plan to form, more employee centric organisational culture. The case study of Silvertail clearly shows that Sam and Bobbi were emphasising on creating hostile organisational environment to extort performance out of cabin crew members. This might lead to high employee performance in the short run but high employee turnover in the long run. They should concentrate on forming an employee centric organisational culture in the airline company to ensure retention of employees and perpetual performances (Baum 2015).

The business organisations instead of downsizing should engage their employees in making strategies to deal with tough market challenges. The organisations should train their employees instead of dismissing them. This would enable them to achieve high brand value as employers which would enable them to acquire more talent to deal with the market challenges.

Conclusion:

The above discussion clearly shows that business organisations often resort to downsizing their work forces to reduce costs or achieve any other business aims. The recruitment managers today press on replacing experienced and highly paid employees with low paid inexperienced employees. However, this downsizing is just a temporary resort to improve performance and cut costs. This downsizing method in the long run result in loss of talent and often losing those talented employees to competitors. These employee know the strengths and weaknesses of their ex-employers and help their new employers to form more aggressive and formidable business plans. Thus downsizing hampers business organisations in the long run. The business organisations like Silvertail should concentrate on training and maintaining their human resources instead of rendering them redundant. They should promote them and retain them to take advantage of their talents for longer period of time. This would enable them to attain growth in the long run. The human resource department should train and motivate employees instead of downsizing their work forces.

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