Case Study

Judy Anderson was assigned as a recruiter for South Illinois Electric (SIE), a small supplier of natural gas and electricity for Cairo, Illinois, and the surrounding area. The company had been expanding rapidly, and this growth was expected to continue. In January 2009, SIE purchased the utilities system serving neighboring Mitchell County. This expansion concerned Judy. The company workforce had increased by 30 percent the previous year, and Judy had struggled to recruit enough qualified job applicants. She knew that new expansion would intensify the problem.

Judy is particularly concerned about meter readers. The tasks required in meter reading are relatively simple. A person drives to home served by the company, finds the gas or electric meter, and records its current reading. If the meter has been tampered with, it is reported. Otherwise, no decision making of any consequence is associated with the job. The reader performs no calculations. The pay was $8.00 per hour, high for unskilled work in the area. Even so, Judy had been having considerable difficulty keeping the 37 meter reader positions filled.

Judy was thinking about how to attract more job applicants when she received a call from the human resource director, Sam McCord.

"Judy," Sam said, "I am unhappy with the job specification calling for only a high school education for meter readers. In planning for the future, we need better-educated people in the company. I have decided to change the education requirement for the meter reader job from a high school diploma to a college degree."

"But, Mr. McCord," protested Judy, "the company is growing rapidly. If we are to have enough people to fill those jobs we just cannot insist that college graduates get paid to do such basic tasks. I do not see how we can meet our future needs for this job with such an unrealistic job qualification."

Sam terminated the conversation abruptly by saying, "No, I do not agree. We need to upgrade all the people in our organization. This is just part of a general effort to do that. Anyway, I cleared this with the president I decided to do it."

Answer the following Questions

1. Infer the responsibility Judy was assigned from the case?

2. Identify the difficulties Judy was facing in fulfilling her responsibilities from the case?

3. Illustrate the job description for the meter readers' job from the case.

4. Evaluate whether there should be minimum education requirement for the meter reader job.

5. Criticize / appraise Sam's efforts to upgrade the people in the organization.