Compassionate Hospitals and Clinics (CHC)

After Elizabeth received her bachelor's degree, she received no job offers. So she began working toward a master's degree in Human Resources Management. Two months later, she received a job offer from Compassionate Hospitals and Clinics (CHC). The mission statement for CHC was "We care for our patients and our employees." She accepted the job offer and began working in the Business Office. The pay was low. However, Elizabeth enjoyed her work, thought her boss was fabulous, and liked working on a team with her co-workers. Rachel made A's in all 4 of her college courses while working full time, so she enrolled a second semester.

One day, Elizabeth saw an internal job posting for a recruiter position with CHC. The position would be a promotion for her and more money. Also, she would be working in the Human Resources Department. She had worked in the Business Office for 15 months and had received an excellent rating on her annual performance review. She asked her boss, JoAnne, whether she should apply for the recruiter position. JoAnne said, "Absolutely, Elizabeth, you would make a great recruiter." JoAnne wrote Elizabeth a glowing recommendation.

Elizabeth became a recruiter in the Human Resources (HR) Department at CHC. Elizabeth's position as the fourth recruiter was a new position. Elizabeth was surprised that she was not required to go through an orientation session and she received no training as a recruiter. She just began getting résumés from various agencies and calling the people to set up interviews with various HR people. She was working in a department about which she knew nothing. She wondered what the other people in the department knew.

She began asking the other recruiters and her boss many questions about the department and her job. After about two months, her boss, Marcus, told Elizabeth that she would no longer be a recruiter. She would now be a recruiting coordinator. She would also not report to Marcus. She would now report to Janie, a team leader who was one of the other recruiters. Elizabeth objected. She said, "I applied for a job as a recruiter, not a recruiting coordinator." He replied, "If you don't like being a recruiting coordinator, you can leave." He also told her that he thought JoAnne (Elizabeth's previous boss) had lied about her capabilities.

Elizabeth was devastated, but she was determined to prove Marcus wrong. She got to work early, and she stayed late. Since the recruiters did their own work, she had little work to do. So she went from one recruiter to another, asking for work. It was really embarrassing. Elizabeth now lacked only one course having her Master's Degree. The recruiters had completed several college courses, but they did not have college degrees.

Elizabeth again approached Janie, her team leader and said, "I don't have enough work to do." Janie responded, "Since you are not satisfied with your job, don't come back tomorrow. If fact, if there is not enough work, then there obviously is not a job for you." With this statement, Janie walked Elizabeth out the door and took her badge.

Elizabeth was really frustrated. She had not been given any warning that she was about to be fired. In fact, she had only had one problem. That was when she was asked by Janie to come to work at 7 a.m. (instead of 8) on a Monday morning, and she had failed to put that on her calendar. So she went to work at 7:30. Marcus and Janie were mad, but they did not put anything in writing or take any disciplinary action.

Elizabeth called her grandmother who advised her, "Go to the Texas Workforce Commission tomorrow, tell them what happened and file for unemployment benefits." So that is what Elizabeth did. Although CHC (Elizabeth's boss, Marcus, and team leader, Janie) fought Elizabeth's application for unemployment benefits, the TWC approved benefits for her. Elizabeth told her grandmother that she was applying for jobs in compliance with requirements of the TWC. Elizabeth's grandmother said, "Well, I guess this job has taught you a lot about people as well as work."

Please answer the following questions from the perspective of what you have learned about strategic management from the Parnell text and the Strategic Management Model in Doc Sharing:

A. What were the 5 biggest problems/issues in this case/scenario? Discuss fully and be specific.

B. What types of consistency or alignment issues appear to exist between the Business Office and the Human Resources Department? Discuss fully and be specific.

C. If you were the CEO of Compassionate Hospitals and Clinics (CHC), what are the first three things you would do (or have done) in the Human Resources Department? Discuss fully and be specific.