You are the Department Head of a very important department in a union-free Chemical Complex located in Puerto Rico. Your employer, a US Corporation, has transferred you there after years of experience in several US locations. You operate your department through a series of supervisors, day and shift, who report directly to you. The Chemical Complex is in its first year of operation so everyone, e.g. employees, managers, suppliers, and customers, are getting to know each other as well as the company you work for. In addition, the Company is very sensitive to what goes on as it does not want to set precedence on actions which are not appropriate on a long-term basis. It is important that you maintain a good line of communications with everyone in your department including supervisors and workers. To this point you have successfully developed a high level of enthusiasm and moral in the department.

Situation

As the middle of November approached the conversations concerning the upcoming Christmas season began to be more common. People are talking about their Holiday plans with their families, family trips, family reunions, parties, etc. It becomes quite clear to you that the Christmas holiday season is very important to employees and their families. Holiday celebrations are abundant in Puerto Rico. In conversations with other department heads, including the Manager of Human Resources, it becomes quite clear that there is a big concern about the number of workers which will be available to man all operations during this upcoming Holiday season. The complex operates on a 24/7/365 basis so this means that operations will continue during the Holidays and every job must be manned every shift.

The reason for the concern by other department heads is that in this part of Puerto Rico traditionally there is a very high absentee rate during the Christmas Holiday season. Furthermore, the “traditional” holiday season extends from December 12th to January 7th every year. This is not only a season for lots of parties but also a period when high volumes of alcoholic beverages are consumed. For this reason many local businesses curtail or shut down operations during this period of time. Curtailing or shutting down operations is not an option for your company.

Among the policies the company has established at this facility are absentee and non-alcohol policies. Both of these policies were explained to all employees at the time of their hiring and training. In addition, these policies are well publicized and available on bulletin boards, employee handbooks, etc. The local department heads indicate that in their past experiences having these policies made little difference to how employees would behave. Invariably employees will follow local traditions resulting in high absentee rate and problems with employees reporting to work under the influence of alcohol during the Holiday season. Their comment is “you just have to learn to live with it; you cannot change the culture!” Remember, you work for a Corporation which has some very clear compensation policies, for example, bonuses are not allowed.

Further details about the work environment are as follows: The department, as well as the total complex, operates on a 24/7/365 schedule. Your department’s workforce is divided into four teams each corresponding to a shift. A rotating shift work schedule is followed where three teams working 8-hour shifts each day and one team off. Each team is scheduled to work forty hours per week. Vacations have been selected for everyone according to vacation policy. A limited number of employees were approved to take vacation during the Holiday period. All vacations are covered by overtime as every position must be filled 100% of the time. Temporary help is not feasible due to the technical training required by all shift positions.

Your department is a key department to the overall Chemical Complex. If your department does not operate, the whole complex will have to cease operations. In addition, you feel that it is an absolute necessity that your employees are in full control of all their senses as you cannot tolerate any mistakes. You decide that you have no choice but to make sure that your department operates well during the total Christmas holiday season which means you cannot tolerate absences. Somehow you have to convince your department’s employees that there is no other alternative and at the same time maintain the high departmental moral. Each employee must come to work as per his/her designated schedule and in total control of all their senses.

QUESTIONS

Analyze the situation from an organizational point-of-view taking all parts of the organization (department and total complex) into consideration.

Describe from a human behavior point-of-view the issues as you see them.

What is your plan of action? How will you achieve your objectives? Explain in detail.