Experiential exercise

Purpose

In this exercise you will examine how to weigh a set of facts and make a difficult personal decision about laying off valued employees during a time of financial hardship. You will also examine your own values and criteria used in the decision-making process.

The problem

Walker Space Institute (WSI) is a medium-size firm located in Connecticut. The firm essentially has been a subcontractor on many large space contracts that have been acquired by firms like Alliant Techsystems and others.

With the cutback in many of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration programs, Walker has in excess of employees. The head of one of the sections have been told by his superior that he must reduce this section of engineers from 9 to 6. He is looking at the following summaries of employee information and pondering how we do make that decision.

Roger Allison, age 25, married, two children. He has been with the WSI for a year and a half. He is a very good engineer, with a degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic. He has had two prior jobs and lost both of them because of cutbacks in the space program. He moved to Connecticut from California to take this job. Allison as well (his coworkers.

Steve Jones, age 24, single. Jones is an African-American, and the company looked hard to get him because of affirmative action pressure. He is not very popular with his coworkers. Because he has been employed for less than a year, not too much is known about his work. His one evaluation, which is average, accuses his supervisor of bias against African-Americans. He is a graduate of the Detroit Institute of technology.

William Foster, age 53, married, three children. Foster is a graduate of the school of hard knocks. After serving in the Vietnam War, he started to go to school but dropped out because of my family expenses. Foster has worked at the company for 20 years. His ratings were excellent for 15 years. The last five years they have been average. Foster feels his supervisor grades him down because he does not have sheepskins covering his office walls.

Donald Boyer, age 32, married, no children. Boyer is well liked by his co- workers. He has been at WSI for five years and he has a BS and MS in engineering from Purdue University. Boyer’s ratings have been mixed have been mixed. Some supervisors raised him high and some average. His wife is an M.D.

Ann Schuster, age 29, single. Schuster is a real worker but a loner. She has a BS in engineering from the University of California. She is working on her MS at night always try to improve the technical skills. Her performance ratings have been above average for three years she’s been a WSI.

Sherman Soltis, age 37, divorced, two children. He has a BS in engineering from Ohio State University. Soltis is very active in community affairs: for example Scout’s, Little League, and United Way. He is a friend of the vice president through church work. His ratings have been average although some recent ones indicate he is out of date. He is well-liked and has been employed at WSI for 14 years.

Warren Fortuna, age 44, married with five children. He has a BS in engineering from Georgia Tech. Fortuna headed the section at one time. He worked so hard that he had a heart attack. Under doctor’s orders, he resigned the supervisor position to since then, he has done good work, though because of his health, he is a bit slower than the others. Now and then he must spend extra time on a project because he did get out of date during the years he headed the section. His performance evaluations for the last two years have been above average. He has been employed at the WSI for 14 years.

Robert Treharne 47, Single. He began an engineering degree at MIT but dropped out for financial reasons. He tries hard to stay current by regular reading of engineering journals and taking all the short courses the company in direct colleges offer. His performance evaluations have varied but they tend to be average to slightly above average. He is a loner and thinks this has negatively affected his performance evaluations. Employed at WSI for or 16 years.

Sandra Rose age 22 single. She has a BS in engineering technology the Rochester Institute of Technology. Rosen has been employed less than a year. She is enthusiastic, a good worker, and well-liked by her co-workers. She is well regarded by Tartaro.

Tartaro does not quite know what to do. He sees the good points of each of the section members. Posted and good employees. They all can pretty much do what another’s work. No one has special training.

He is fearful that the section will hear about the downsizing and morale will drop. Workers would fall off. He does not even want to talk to his wife about it in case she would let something slip. Tartara has come to you Edmund Graves, personal manager at WSI course guidelines on this decision – legal, moral, and best personal practice.

Assignment

You are Edmund Graves. Write a report with your recommendations for termination and a careful analysis of the criteria for the decision. You should also carefully explain to Tartaro how you would go about the terminations and what you would consider reasonable termination pay. You should also advise him about the pension implications of this decision. Generally, 15 years service entitles you to at least partial pension

Please discuss the experiential exercise below. Remember to provide details and support from outside sources. References must be cited.