DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. In light of the committee's agreement on the causes of the high employee turnover, v,hy should upper management give attention to the concepts of employee moth ,a- lion and empowerment?
2. What are the costs and genetics Of high turnover and of reducing it?
3. How might Hillcrest develop and implement an employee program that encom¬passes employee motivation and empowerment?
4. How could the committee ensure success of such a program?
5. Should the committee consider other strategies and opportunities to help Hillcrest overcome the issue of high employee turnover?
6. Should you be updating your resume in case the CEO doesn't like your recommen¬dations? Explain your response.
High Employee Turnover at Hillcrest Memorial Hospital Case for Chapter 3
Amy Dore
You are on a newly formed -Service Excellence Committee" at Hillcrest Memorial Hospital. Your area of expertise includes leadership issues such as mentoring„ team build¬ing, motivation, and empowerment. Over the past year, employee turnover has dramati¬cally increased throughout the organization with no obvious reason. The hospital CEO has asked the committee to survey and research reasons for the turnover. Upon careful review of the surveys, you notice that normal reasons for turnover, such as low pay and poor benefits, are not the problem.
However, one trend stands out-dissatisfaction with job autonomy. You surmise the reason this is a problem is because Hillcrest operates with a traditional hierarchy, including traditional manager roles that appear more dictatorial than participative. Employees have limited freedom when it comes to their work and are neither motivated nor empowered by managers. You mention this to the committee and a vote is quickly taken to explore this theory.
Empowerment is a controversial topic to members of the committee, as their initial fear is that once an employee is empowered they will run amok and the organization NVill suffer. Upper management ignores the concept of employee motivation due to the misconception that motivating employees means it will cost the organization money. The committee assigns you the task of writing a draft response to present to the CEO and the committee.