1. A company sells consumer products like soaps and detergents using door-to-door sales. That is, salesmen make calls at homes, demonstrate their products, sell and collect payment on the spot. As the manager of the company, you are wondering the best way to assess the performance of the salesmen. That is, how to assess, what to assess, when to assess, who should be involved in the rating, etc. Discuss how you would implement a performance appraisal system for the outside salespeople in terms of the above challenges?
2. A local oil and gas company in Houston hires the following categories of employees: 1. Petroleum Engineers at all levels (entry level, senior level, middle-management level, etc.). 2. Clerical employees (entry level only). 3. Senior management staff (both internal and external searches are done). The company employs about 3,000 employees in the Houston area. The company is interested in revising its compensation package to be externally competitive. They want to conduct their own market survey of wages and benefits paid by the competitors. Help them identify the relevant labor market, competitors, and the key areas they should focus on in designing the survey. Note that I do not expect an actual survey but the areas they should cover in terms of whom to survey, what to survey, and where to survey.
3. A hospital is interested in conducting ethics training for its employees (doctors, receptionists, medical assistants, etc.,). Discuss how you would go about doing the training in terms of what should be covered, who would conduct the training, where the training would be held, how you would select employees, etc.
4. You are the CEO of a manufacturing plant. You have about 250 employees and you have heard rumors that some of your workers are planning to unionize. You want to instruct your managers to prevent this union formation. Based on your knowledge of union-management relation laws in the US, what advice would you give your managers in terms of preventing unions keeping in mind the Wagner Act and Taft-Hartley Act?